using load-balancers with oracle e-business suite release 12

Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 [ID 380489.1]

Modified: Aug 3, 2012 Type: WHITE PAPER Status: PUBLISHED Priority: 3

Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

Last Updated: July 21, 2009

The most current version of this document can be obtained in Oracle Metalink Note 380489.1. There is a change log at the end of this document.

In This Document

Section 1: Introduction

Terminology

General Architecture of Oracle E-Business Suite R12

Network Configuration Requirements for Load-Balancers

Section 2:

Planning Deployment Options

2.1: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Single Web Entry Point

2.1.1: Configuration Details

2.1.2: Configuration Changes on the Application Tier

2.1.3: Update Applications Context File

2.1.4: Configuration Changes on the Load Balancer

2.2: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Multiple Web Entry Points



2.2.3: Update Hierarchy Type



2.3: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Functional Redirection



2.3.3: Update Hierarchy Type


2.3.5: Set Profile Option Values at Responsibility Level

2.3.5.1: Using the Forms Interface

2.3.5.2: Using the Command Line Interface

2.4 Using Domain Name Server (DNS) Load Balancing with Single Web Entry Point




Section 3:Configuring Oracle Application Server OC4J Clusters

3.1: Deployment Option with Single Web Entry Point

3.1.1: Deployment Option with OC4J Applications running on all application tier servers

3.1.2: Deployment Option with OC4J Applications running on selected application tier servers

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3.2: Deployment Option with Multiple Web Entry Point

Appendices

A:. Adding a New Server

B: Related Documentation

Change Log

Section 1: Introduction

This section examines the terminology used in load-balancing, then describes the relevant E-Business Suite architecture and related network configuration strategies and options.

Tier

A tier is a logical grouping of services, potentially spread across more than one physical machine.

Client Tier

The client interface is provided through HTML for the HTML-based applications, and via a Java applet in a Web browser for the traditional Forms-based interface. In Oracle

Applications Release 12, each user logs in to Oracle Applications through the E-Business Suite Home Page on a desktop client web browser. The E-Business Suite Home Page provides

a single point of access to HTML-based applications, Forms-based applications, and Business Intelligence applications.

Application Tier

The application tier hosts the various services that process the business logic and manage communication between the desktop tier and the database tier. This tier runs the web

server and the associated processes, concurrent processing server, Interaction and Oracle fulfillment server.

Database Tier

The database tier contains the Oracle database server which stores all the data maintained by Oracle Applications. This tier has the Oracle data server files and Oracle Applications

database executables that physically store the tables, indexes, and other database objects in the system.

OPMN

Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN) is installed and configured on every tier designated to run the web application. OPMN provides an integrated way to manage

all Oracle Application Server components. OPMN consists of two main pieces: the Process Manager and the Notification Server. The Process manager (PM) is the centralized process

management mechanism in Oracle Application Server and is used to manage all Oracle Application Server processes. The PM starts, restarts, stops, and monitors every process it

manages. It also performs death-detection and automatic restart of the processes. Oracle Notification Server (ONS) is the transport mechanism for failure, recovery, startup, and

other related notifications between components in Oracle Application Server.

OHS

Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) is installed and configured on every tier that is designated to run the web application . It provides the key infrastructure required for serving the static and

dynamic content generated by Oracle E Business Suite products.


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OC4J

Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) is the core Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) runtime component of Oracle Application Server. It is installed and configured on every tier

that is designated to run the web application. It is a fully J2EE 1.5 compliant container that runs on a standard file based JDK 1.5 Java Virtual Machine and provides complete support

for Java Server Pages (JSP) , Servlets, Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), Web Services and all J2EE services.

Web Entry Point

Web Entry Point refers to the host name which is designated to be used by all users to access the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 system. By default, the web entry point is set to

the hostname of the application server where Oracle E-Business Suite is installed. In the case where a load-balancer is used, the Web Entry Point becomes the load-balancer's host

name.

Session Persistence

Session Persistence is the act of keeping a specific user's traffic going to the same server that was initially hit when the site was contacted for the first HTTP transaction. This is

especially important for E-Business Suite as various modules bundled with the suite need to maintain session state. Session persistence is sometimes referred to as "server

stickiness."

Server Load Balancer

Load balancing can be defined as the technology and associated processes that distribute a website's traffic among several machines in a cluster using a network-based device called

a server load balancer. Cluster architectures allow all members of a group of machines to run the same web application, appearing to the outside world as a single machine.

A server load balancer intercepts traffic destined for a site, and redirects it to various machines in the cluster according to the particular load-balancing method chosen. This

optimizes use of system resources, resulting in higher performance, availability and scalability. Load balancers are recommended for mission-critical enterprise deployments of

web-based applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite.

A typical load balanced architecture is shown in the diagram below:


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To summarize , a server load balancer performs the following functions:

Intercepts network traffic destined for a site.

Splits the traffic into individual requests and decides which machines in the cluster are to receive these requests.

Maintains a watch on the available machines, ensuring that they are responding to the traffic; if they are not, they are taken out from the load-balancing pool so that traffic

can be routed to the machines that are available.

Provides redundancy by employing more than one machine for fail-over scenarios.

Provides context-aware load distribution, so that applications that need to maintain session-persistent connections do not fail. This feature of load balancer is very important for

Oracle E-Business Suite as the various modules require session-persistent connections. To support this feature, the load balancer reads the cookies set on each request made

by the client, and, based on the information in the cookie, it can rewrite the header information, then send the request to the appropriate machine in the cluster, where its

session is maintained.

General Architecture of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

The Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 architecture, as shown in the figure below, is a framework for multi-tiered, distributed computing that supports various Oracle Applications

products. In this model, various servers are distributed among multiple levels, or tiers.


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A server is a process or group of processes that runs on a single machine and provides a particular class of functionality, often referred to as a service. For example, the Oracle HTTP

server is a process that listens for and processes HTTP requests; a Concurrent Processing server is a server that process batch jobs submitted through concurrent requests.

The three-tier architecture that comprises an Oracle E-Business Suite installation is made up of:

The database tier, which supports and manages the Oracle database1.

The application tier, which supports and manages the various Applications components, and is sometimes known as the middle tier2.

The client tier, which provides the user interface via a supported web browser, either natively in HTML or via Forms running in the Sun Java Runtime Engine3.

Network Configuration Requirements for Load-Balancers

In a load-balanced configuration, a load-balancer device serves requests from clients and redirects them to multiple E-Business Suite application tier servers. The load-balancer acts

as a single entry point to the E-Business Suite environment. Two sets of major requirements must be met to ensure successful configuration of hardware-based load-balancers with

the E-Business Suite:

Load-Balancer Hardware Requirements1.

DNS Resolution Requirements2.

1. Load Balancer Hardware Requirements

Virtual Servers and Port Configuration


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For product functionality and to meet high availability requirements, Oracle E-Business Suite code running on the application tier servers may need to establish a

connection to itself, to external servers, or to the database server. This requires the load-balancing device to accept connections from the application tier servers behind

the device, and to route the request to the appropriate server. In certain network configurations, the load balancing device may not be support such connections, and

the request may either hang or be dropped. Such a scenario requires contacting the hardware load balancer vendor, to discuss either the feasibility of either

reconfiguring the load balancer device to accept the connections originating from the servers behind it, or, alternatively and preferably, upgrading to devices that can

support these types of loopback connections.

Depending upon the networking device, it may be feasible to alias load-balancer virtual host names directly to the IP addresses of specific application tier servers. Such

mappings may not be technically feasible in all configurations. Oracle does not certify or recommend such configurations, but will support them on a best-efforts basis,

subject to available resources and expertise. Although machine mappings may be supported, technical limitations inherent in DNS layer devices may prevent port and

protocol mappings.

For example, a load-balancer with SSL acceleration capabilities may be configured to listen for HTTPS traffic on port 443, and forward unencrypted traffic to the pool of

application tier servers listening for HTTP traffic on port 8000. Mapping HTTPS services to the application tier servers instead of the load-balancer/SSL accelerator will

result in failures, as the application tier servers are not configured to handle HTTPS traffic, and will reject traffic for port 443.

It is also possible to configure a single E-Business Suite environment to be accessed via multiple domain names, each with its own pool of application tier servers. For

example: A single E-Business Suite environment might have the following two domains: partners.company.com, and employees.company.com. The

partners.company.com domain uses a pool of application servers (e.g. apptier1 and apptier2) secured and used exclusively for external access by partners and

supplies. The employees.company.com domain uses a different pool of application servers (e.g. apptier3 and apptier4) that may be used only by company employees.

Both environments use the same E-Business Suite database.

Depending on the load-balancer used, it is technically possible to use a single physical load-balancer to handle client requests for both domains. To support this

configuration, the load-balancer must:

Allow configuration of multiple virtual server names and multiple ports

Associate each virtual server name with its own IP address, each of which are accessible via your DNS

Allow clients to address the virtual server names, which the load-balancer uses to redirect traffic to the appropriate pool of application tier servers

Resource Monitoring, Port Monitoring & Process Failure Detection

Oracle recommends that the load-balancer be configured to detect service and Server failures, through heartbeat monitors, notification, or some other mechanism. If a

Server in the pool fails, the load-balancer must stop directing traffic to the failed Server.

Fail-Over Capabilities

It is possible to set up offsite fail-over environments that can be switched to if the primary environment fails. For example, a load-balancer may be configured to direct

E-Business Suite traffic to a primary pool of application servers in Austin, Texas. If that primary site fails for some reason, the load-balancer should be able to detect the

failure and redirect all traffic to identically-named application tier servers running in an offsite disaster recovery site.

Oracle recommends that load-balancers be configured to support fail-over configurations.

Returning Traffic on Failures

Oracle recommends configuring load-balancers to return immediately to the calling client when the application server to which it forwards traffic is unavailable. This is

preferred over the client disconnecting on its own after a timeout based on the TCP/IP settings on the client machine.


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2. DNS Resolution Requirements

All clients must be able to resolve the hostname of the load-balancer. In the case where a single load-balancer hosts multiple virtual servers, clients must be able to

resolve the hostname of each of the virtual server names. Note that "clients" also include E-Business Suite application tier server, which perform loopback queries to the

load-balancer's virtual server name.

You can perform the following tests from desktop clients and each application tier server to ensure that DNS resolution is working:

Use ping

>ping <LbrDeviceHostname>.<domain>

For example:

>ping employees.company.com

If successful, this command will return the IP address of the load-balancer, along with information about ping latency and response times.

1.

Use telnet

>telnet <LbrDeviceHostname>.<domain> [http/https port]

For example:

>telnet employees.company.com 443

>GET /OA_HTML/OAInfo.jsp

If successful, this command will connect to the load-balancer using the specified port and will return the HTML output from OAInfo.jsp

2.

Section 2: Planning Deployment Options

2.1: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Single Web Entry Point

The diagram shown below represents a hardware load balancer configuration with a single entry point to load balance the web application running on application servers 1 and 2. In

this configuration, all users access E-Business Suite application via a single URL.


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The steps described in this section assume that you already have a multi-node Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 installation. Application Servers 1 and 2 will be configured to run

the web application behind a hardware-based load-balancer.



Use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set the configuration values in the applications context file on server 1 and 2 . The table below describe how the context value should be

changed when a load balancer is configured in front of application servers. For example:

Load Balancer Entry Point: store.company.com

Application Server 1: appstier1.company.com


Web Entry protocol: https

Application Tier Web Protocol: http

Application Tier Web Port: 8050

Active Web Port:443


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Context Variable

Name

Context Variable

DescriptionOld Context Value New Context Value

s_webentryurlprotocol

Protocol that desktop clients

use to communicate with the

web entry point server

http https

s_webentryhost

Name of the host that receives

the first HTTP request from

the desktop client

appstier1 on Application Server 1


store

s_webentrydomain

Domain name of the host that

receives the first HTTP

request from the desktop

client

company.com company.com

s_active_webport

Port on the web server or load

balancer that listens for HTTP

requests

8050 443

s_login_pageURL used to access the

Applications logon page

http://appstier1.company.com:8050

/OA_HTML/AppsLogin on Application Server 1



https://store.company.com

/OA_HTML/AppsLogin


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Context Variable

Name

Context Variable


s_external_url

URL that third party tools use

to connect to the E-Business

Suite System. This is used

only by the Oracle Web

Services product.

http://appstier1.company.com:8050/ on

Application Server 1



https://store.company.com

The values listed for the context variables in the table above should only be used as a reference to change your applications context file. It is possible that system administrators may

have changed the default values to perform other advanced configurations.

After completing the changes shown above, do the following:

Run the AutoConfig utility on all the application tier Servers1.

Restart application server processes2.

Test sign on from the load balancer entry point3.

If you are using your load balancer for SSL termination/acceleration, be sure to follow the steps outlined in Oracle MetaLink Note 376700.1 (Enabling SSL in Oracle Applications

Release 12)


The Hardware Load Balancer must be configured for session persistence: various modules shipped with Oracle E-Business Suite need to maintain session state. If this property is not

set, the loss of transaction state may result in users experiencing unpredictable errors.

Oracle supports session persistence technology that is transparent to the Oracle E-Business Suite; that is, session persistence approaches which do not require additional

programmatic changes to the underlying E-Business Suite modules. For successful integration of your load balancer with Oracle E-Business Suite application tiers, refer to your load

balancer's documentation for details on how to configure the load balancing pool, virtual host configuration, and session persistence parameters. Networking hardware vendors offer

products with a range of technical solutions for session persistence, but it is beyond the scope of this document to make comparative assessments of the various approaches.

As an example, the following table summarizes the key parameters that Oracle Development uses for its standardized load balancer configuration tests:

Load Balancer Parameter Value

Load Balancing Method Predictive Node Address

Persistence Type Active HTTP Cookie with Method Insert and Cookie Expiration 12 hrs

2.2: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Multiple Web Entry Points

The diagram shown below represents a hardware load balancer configuration with multiple entry points to load balance the web application running on application server 1, 2, 3 and


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4. In this configuration, users access E-Business Suite application with two different URLs.



2.2.3: Update Ebusiness Suite Profile Options Hierarchy Type

There are a number of user profiles that are used to construct various URLs in an E-Business Suite Release 12 environment. These user profiles are as follows:

User Profile Name Internal Name

1. Applications Web Agent APPS_WEB_AGENT


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User Profile Name Internal Name

2. Applications Servlet Agent APPS_SERVLET_AGENT

3. Applications JSP Agent APPS_JSP_AGENT

4. Applications Framework Agent APPS_FRAMEWORK_AGENT

5. ICX:Forms Launcher ICX_FORMS_LAUNCHER

6. ICX: Oracle Discoverer Launcher ICX_DISCOVERER_LAUNCHER

7. ICX: Oracle Discoverer Viewer Launcher ICX_DISCOVERER_VIEWER_LAUNCHER

8. Applications Help Web Agent HELP_WEB_AGENT

9. Applications Portal APPS_PORTAL

10. BOM:Configurator URL of UI Manager CZ_UIMGR_URL

11. QP: Pricing Engine URL QP_PRICING_ENGINE_URL

12. TCF:HOST TCF:HOST

Table 1

The default hierarchy type value for the above profile options is of Security type as shown in the sample diagram below:


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Configuration of the E-Business Suite environment for access from multiple entry point requires the profile options hierarchy type to be changed to SERVRESP. To change the profile

options hierarchy type values to SERVRESP , execute the following SQL script as shown below:

>sqlplus <apps-schema-name>/<apps-passwd> @<FND_TOP>/patch/115/sql/txkChangeProfH.sql SERVRESP

After running the script, verify that the hierarchy type for the profile options was successfully changed to SERVRESP. For example, see the screenshot below:


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Use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set the configuration values in the applications context file on server 1, 2, 3 and 4. The table below describe how the context value should be


Load Balancer Entry Point 1: store.company.com






Active Web Port:443

Load Balancer Entry Point 2: recruitment.company.com


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Web Entry protocol: http



Active Web Port:80

Context Variable

Name

Context Variable



Protocol that desktop

clients use to

communicate with thehttp

https for store.company.com

http for recruitment.company.com


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Context Variable

Name

Context Variable


entry point server

s_webentryhost

Name of the host that


request from the

desktop client





store as the entry web entry host for

appstier1 and appstier2

recruitment as the web entry host for


s_webentrydomain

Domain name of the

host that receives the

first HTTP request from

the desktop client


s_active_webport

Port on the web server

or load balancer that

listens for HTTP

requests

8050 on appstier1 and appstier2

8060 on appstier3 and appstier4

443 for store.company.com

80 for recruitment.company.com




/OA_HTML/AppsLogin on appstier1







https://store.company.com/OA_HTML

/AppsLogin as the login page for


http://recruitment.company.com

/OA_HTML/AppsLogin as the login page for


s_external_url

URL that third party

tools use to connect to

the E-Business Suite

System. This is used

only by the Oracle Web

Services product.

http://appstier1.company.com:8050/ onappstier1




https://store.company.com forstore.company.com

http://recruitment.company.com forrecruitment.company.com



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Test sign on from different entry points.3.


Release 12)












2.3: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Functional Redirection

In this configuration there is a primary web entry point URL. Users are directed to different servers based on the functional responsibilities that they choose after signing on.


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In this configuration, users access the Oracle E-Business Suite using the primary entry point URL https://ebiz.company.com and depending on the responsibility they choose --

either manufacturing vs hrms -- they are redirected to the https://mfg.company.com or https://hrms.company.com pool of servers.



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2.3.3: Update E-Business Suite Profile Options Hierarchy Type

Please follow the instructions provided in Table 1 to set the profile hierarchy type to SERVRESP.


Use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set the configuration values in the applications context file on server ebiz1, ebiz2 , mfg1, mfg2 and hrms. The table below describe how the

context value should be changed when a load balancer is configured in front of application servers. For example:

Load Balancer Entry Point 1: ebiz.company.com






Active Web Port:443

Load Balancer Entry Point 2: mfg.company.com






Active Web Port:443

Load Balancer Entry Point 3: hrms.company.com



Application Tier Web Protocol: https


Active Web Port:443

Context Variable

Name

Context Variable



Protocol that desktop

clients use to

communicate with the


http https

s_webentryhost




client





ebiz as the web entry host for

appstier1.company.com and andappstier2.company.com

mfg as the web entry host for


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Context Variable

Name

Context Variable



appstier3.company.com andappstier4.company.com

hrms as the web entry hostappstier5.company.com

s_webentrydomain

Domain name of the host

that receives the first

HTTP request from the

desktop client


s_active_webport

Port on the web server or

load balancer that listens

for HTTP requests

8050 on appstier1.company.com andappstier2.company.com

8060 on appstier3.company.com andappstier4.company.com

8070 on appstier5.company.com

443 for all web entry points




/OA_HTML/AppsLogin onappstier1.company.com









https://ebiz.company.com/OA_HTML



https://mfg.company.com/OA_HTML



https://hrms.company.com/OA_HTML

/AppsLogin as the login page forappstier5.company.com

s_external_url

URL that third party tools

use to connect to the

E-Business Suite System.

This is used only by the

Oracle Web Services

product.

http://appstier1.company.com:8050/ onappstier1.company.com


https://ebiz.company.com forebiz.company.com

https://mfg.company.com formfg.company.com


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Context Variable

Name

Context Variable





https://hrms.company.com forhrms.company.com








Release 12)

2.3.4.1: Configuration Changes on the Load Balancer











2.3.5: Set Profile Option Values at Responsibility Level

Follow the instructions given below to set profile option values for the required responsibilities at the responsibility level. These values have to be set for all the profile options

mentioned in Table 1


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2.3.5.1: Using the Forms Interface

For example, to change the value for responsibility Manufacturing and Distribution Manager, perform the following steps:

Login to Oracle E-Business Suite as sysadmin user using the main web entry point URL1.

Select the System Administrator Responsibility2.

Select Profile > System3.

From the 'Find system profile option Values' window, select the responsibility4.

To change values for all agent profile options, Query for %AGENT% and set the appropriate value to redirect the user to the manufacturing pool of servers. Refer to the example

shown below:

5.


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2.3.5.2: Using the Command Line Interface

To change the value for a responsibility , perform the following steps:

Execute the SQL script afservrespval.sql

sqlplus <apps-schema-name>/<apps-passwd> @<FND_TOP>/patch/115/sql/afservrespval.sql

1.

The script will prompt for the following values:2.

prof_name: profile option name (the value of PROFILE_OPTION_NAME column in the fnd_profile_options table)

resp_key: responsibility key (value of RESPONSIBILITY_KEY column in fnd_responsibility table)

appl_short_name: application short name (value of APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME column in fnd_application table)

node_name: node name (value of NODE_NAME column in fnd_nodes table)

prof_level_value: profile option value to be set





2.4: Using Domain Name Server (DNS) Load Balancing with Single Web Entry Point


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The diagram shown below represents a DNS load balancing configuration with a single entry point to load balance the web application running on application tier servers

appstier1.company.com and appstier2.company.com. In this configuration, all users access E-Business Suite application via a single URL.

This configuration employ a load balancing process known as DNS round robin and it utilize a function of DNS that allows more than one Internet Protocol (IP) address to be

associated with a hostname. With DNS round robin, it is possible to assign multiple IP addresses to a hostname and it will distribute the traffic to the list of IP addresses associated

with that hostname. For instance, let's say you had two application tier servers with IP addresses of 190.35.4.170 and 190.35.4.154 that you wanted to share the load for the site

dnslbr.company.com .The configuration in the DNS server for the two IP addresses would look like the following:

$ dig dnslbr.company.com

;; QUESTION SECTION:

;dnslbr.company.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:

dnslbr.company.com. 10800 IN A 190.35.4.154

dnslbr.company.com. 10800 IN A 190.35.4.170

$ nslookup dnslbr.company.com

Name: dnslbr.company.com

Address: 190.35.4.170

Name: dnslbr.company.com

Address: 190.35.4.154

To verify whether DNS is routing the requests correctly, type the following commands in sequence


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$ telnet dnslbr.company.com

Trying 190.35.4.170...

Connected to dnslbr.company.com.

$ telnet dnslbr.company.com

Trying 190.35.4.154...

Connected to dnslbr.company.com

From the above output, you can see that the first request was routed to machine with IP address

190.35.4.170 and the next went to the server with IP address 190.35.4.154

Although DNS round robin load balancing is a simple way to distribute traffic among several servers, it has several limitations which includes unpredictable load distribution, DNS

caching issues by the browser, lack of fault tolerance, Local DNS servers not conforming to the standards and ignore Time to Live values specified by the authoritative DNS servers

etc.


The steps described in this section assume that you already have a multi-node Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 installation. Application Servers 1 and 2 will be configured to run

the web application behind a DNS based load-balancer.



Use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set the configuration values in the applications context file on server 1 and 2 . The table below describe how the context value should be


Load Balancer Entry Point: dnslbr.company.com




Application Tier Web Protocol: https


Active Web Port:443

Context Variable

Name

Context Variable



Protocol that desktop clients

use to communicate with the


http https


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Context Variable

Name

Context Variable


s_webentryhost




client



dnslbr

s_webentrydomain

Domain name of the host

that receives the first HTTP


client


s_active_webport

Port on the web server or

load balancer that listens for

HTTP requests

443 443







https://dnslbr.company.com

/OA_HTML/AppsLogin

s_external_url

URL that third party tools

use to connect to the

E-Business Suite System.

This is used only by the

Oracle Web Services

product.





https://dnslbr.company.com/



DNS Load Balancing configuration requires OC4J clustering feature to be enabled to avoid transaction state

context loss ( session loss) errors. Please follow instructions from the appropriate section under Section

3:Configuring Oracle Application Server OC4J Clusters to enable OC4J clustering.





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Test sign on from the web entry point3.

3: Configuring Oracle Application Server OC4J Clusters

An Oracle Application Server Cluster is a software concept, wherein a set of application tier servers are configured to deliver greater scalability and availability that can not be

potentially obtained using a single server. This model offers a highly available infrastructure, with no single point of failure.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 uses the static node-to-node clustering model. In this configuration, all servers in an Oracle Application Server cluster have identical

configurations and applications deployed. Refer to Oracle Containers for J2EE Configuration and Administration Guide 10g Release 3 (10.1.3) Administrator's Guide to learn more

about OC4J Clustering.

In this configuration, SSL is turned on by default to secure the cluster so that only trusted Oracle Application Server instances can join the cluster. This happens during the

install/clone and OPMN use a default wallet containing a default SSL certificate that is shipped with oracle Application Server. Refer to A.3.2.2 Securing OPMN Communication in an

Oracle Application Server Cluster for more information.

There are various deployment options, the main difference being the number of OC4J applications running on the application tier servers and the use of either single or multiple web

entry points. This configuration requires the following patches to be applied to your system:

Patch Number Patch Description Comments

5917601 R12.TXK.A.DELTA.2 This patch is included in R12.ATG_PF.A.DELTA.2 5917344

3.1: Deployment Option with Single Web Entry Point

3.1.1: Deployment Option with OC4J Applications running on all application tier servers

The diagram shown below represents a deployment model with a single web entry point for all OC4J applications, namely oacore, forms and oafm configured to run on all

application tier servers.


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3.1.1.1: Configuration Details

Configuration details discussed in this section assume that you have already configured the webentry point by following the instructions provided in Section 2.1: Using Hardware Load

Balancers with Single Web Entry Point. If those instructions were successfully completed, use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set additional configuration parameters in the

applications context file on server 1 and 2 to enable OC4J clustering. In this configuration, all the application tier Servers, along with their ONS remote server ports, have to be listed

in each of the applications context files. The following example will illustrate this.

Load Balancer Entry Point: ebiz.company.com




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The table below describes how the context values should be changed for the above configuration.

Context Variable

Name

Context

Variable

Description

Old Context Value New Context Value

s_oc4j_cluster_nodes

List of

Servers that

are

participating

in the cluster

configuration

appstier1.company.com:6000

on appstier1.company.com



appstier1.company.com:6000,appstier2.company.com:6000

on both the application tier servers

In the example given above, appstier1.company.com and appstier2.company.com are the application tier servers running OPMN/OHS/OC4J services, and port 6000 is the

Oracle Notification Server Remote port .You can determine the value of Oracle Notification Server Remote port in each of the context files by looking up the value for the

AutoConfig variable s_ons_remoteport . You must ensure that values entered for the AutoConfig variable s_oc4j_cluster_nodes are separated by a comma.






Test sign on from the web entry point.3.

Test the status of various processes in the instance cluster by running the command $INST_TOP/admin/scripts/adopmnctl.sh @cluster status4.

3.1.2: Deployment Option with OC4J Applications running on selected application tier servers

The diagram shown below represents a deployment model with a single web entry point with some OC4J applications running on selected application tier servers.


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3.1.2.1: Configuration Details

Configuration details discussed in this section assume that you have already configured the webentry point by following the instructions provided in Section 2.1: Using Hardware Load

Balancers with Single Web Entry Point. If those instructions were successfully completed, use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set additional configuration parameters in the

applications context file on server 1 and 2 to enable OC4J clustering . In this configuration, all the application tier Servers, along with their ONS remote server ports, have to be listed

in each of the applications context files. The following example will illustrate this.

Load Balancer Entry Point: ebiz.company.com




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The table below describes how the context values should be changed for the above configuration.

Context Variable

Name

Context

Variable

Description



List of

Servers that

are

participating

in the cluster

configuration





appstier1.company.com:6000,appstier2.company.com:6000

on both the application tier servers

s_oacorestatusOacore OC4J

status

enabled on

appstier1.company.com

enabled on

appstier2.company .com

enabled on appstier1.company.com

disabled on appstier2.company.com

s_formsstatusForms OC4J

Status

enabled on


enabled on




s_oafmstatusOafm OC4J

Status

enabled on


enabled on




In the example given above appstier1.company.com and appstier2.company.com are the application tier servers running OPMN/OHS/OC4J services and port 6000 is the Oracle

Notification Server Remote port . You can find the value of Oracle Notification Server Remote port in each of the context file by looking up the value for the AutoConfig variable

s_ons_remoteport . You must ensure that values entered for the AutoConfig variable s_oc4j_cluster_nodes are separated by a comma.






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Test sign on from the web entry point3.


3.2: Deployment Option with Multiple Web Entry Point

The diagram shown below represents a deployment model with multiple web entry points, and OC4J applications running on selected application tier servers.


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In this configuration, application tier Servers appstier1.company.com and appstier2.company.com serve store.company.com, and run the Oacore OC4J service. Application

tier Servers appstier3.company.com and appstier4.company.com serve mfg.company.com, and run the Forms and Oafm OC4J service.


Configuration details discussed in this section assume that you have already configured the web entry point by following the instructions provided in 2.2: Using Hardware Load

Balancers with Multiple Web Entry Points. If those instructions were successfully completed, use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set additional configuration parameters in the

applications context file on server 1 through 4 to enable OC4J clustering .

The following example will illustrate this.

Load Balancer Entry Point 1: store.company.com



Load Balancer Entry Point 2: mfg.company.com



The table below describes how the context values should be changed for the following configuration.

Context Variable

Name

Context

Variable

Description



List of

Servers that

are

participating

in the cluster

configuration









appstier1.company.com:6000,appstier2.company.com:6000,

appstier3.company.com:6000,


on all the application tier servers

s_oacorestatusOacore OC4J

status

enabled on


enabled on

appstier2.company .com

enabled on






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Context Variable

Name

Context

Variable

Description



enabled on


s_formsstatusForms OC4J

Status

enabled on


enabled on


enabled on


enabled on






s_oafmstatusOafm OC4J

Status

enabled on


enabled on


enabled on


enabled on






In the example given above, appstier1.company.com, appstier2.company.com, appstier3.company.com and appstier4.company.com are the application tier servers

running the OPMN/OHS/ OC4J services, and port 6000 is the Oracle Notification Server Remote port . You can find the value of Oracle Notification Server Remote port in

each of the context files by looking up the value for the AutoConfig variable s_ons_remoteport . You must ensure that values entered for the AutoConfig variable

s_oc4j_cluster_nodes are separated by a comma.






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Test sign on from different web entry points.3.


Appendices

Appendix A: Adding a New Server

You can add new Servers to your system to increase scalability and performance. Adding a new Server involves creating a new context file and making configuration changes to

point the server configuration to the load balancer entry point. Refer to Oracle Metalink Note 384248.1: Sharing The Application Tier File System in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

for complete instructions on how to add Servers and use a shared file system.

Appendix B: Related Documentation

List of Oracle Application Server 10g Certified Load Balancers, Firewalls and Stand-Alone SSL Accelerators (Oracle Technology Network)

Load Balancing in Oracle Application Server 10g (Oracle Technology Network)

Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Configuration in a DMZ (Note 380490.1)

Sharing The Application Tier File System in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 ( Note 384248.1 )

Change Log

Date Description

July 21, 2009 Include SSL Note number

January 21, 2009 SSL certificate requirements for OC4J cluster configuration

Novemeber 24, 2008 DNS Load Balancing requirements update

April 23, 2008 Minor edits

May 30, 2007 Added Cluster configuration and DNS Load Balancing

March 7, 2007 Added "Network Configuration Requirements for Load-Balancers" section

March 2, 2007 Added reference to Shared Application File System and modified Appendix A accordingly.

January 22, 2007 Document creation date

Note 380489.1 by Oracle E-Business Suite Development

Copyright 2008 Oracle Corporation

Last updated: July 21, 2009

References

NOTE:380490.1 - Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Configuration in a DMZ

NOTE:384248.1 - Sharing The Application Tier File System in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12


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using load-balancers with oracle e-business suite release 12

Documents

require additional programmatic

make comparative assessments

enable oc4j clustering

dns round robin

business suite environment

applications logon page

web entry protocol

autoconfig variable s ons remoteport