Free OEBS SQL – Think Quality! Think Global!

I am amazed how often I see the very same piece of code used by many different bloggers, often with very little thought as to the quality of the code or the audience it’s going to. We all want to get the most out of free code and avoid the pitfalls, so here’s some things to consider for bloggers and users alike. Full article http://www.piper-rx.com/pages/tips/think_global.pdf

 

 

 

Health tip #3 – Avoid having too many concurrent managers

Here we go again! After having written and blogged about this topic a fair bit in the past, having too many managers is a problem I still continue to see all too often. A good example is a site I worked with recently; it had 20+ managers just to run the workflow background processes.

Putting aside the need to address the excessive workflow background processes (which is another problem in its own right) there are major issues with the concurrent managers:

Problem #1 – Allowing 20 workflow background processes to run at once competes for the same resources on the same tables.

Problem #2 – Is one of basic queuing theory –i.e. 20 processes all competing for the same CPU and data resources.

In theory, 1 CPU handles 2 concurrent processes so in this case unless the site has 10 CPUs it runs the risk of CPU bottlenecking problems. The sting in the tail is these problems become most evident when you least need them to, like at high processing times such as month end.

What to do? It’s a simple choice. In this case identify why you think you need so many concurrent managers. You need to fix the cause and cut down on the number of managers, not just focus on the symptoms.

Want to know more? Take a look at the paper Concurrent Manager 101 & 202 on the www.piper-rx.com website.  In fact there is heaps of FREE information and tips on all aspects of OEBS Applications Administration at PIPER-Rx.com so why not check it out!

Concurrent Managers Health Tip #2 – Scheduled Request Issues.

Scheduled requests are one of the mainstays of OEBS concurrent processing.

One of the benefits of recurring scheduled requests is they are “set and forget” they just happily run and resubmit without you having to do a thing.

The biggest issue I’ve found, and this applies to almost all sites, is the “forget” component. I regularly find scheduled requests that have been running for years that are no longer required, and also duplicate scheduled requests which have come about because someone doesn’t know the original request exists. Both these issues are a waste of processing resources.

Another issue with scheduled requests is that I often find resource intensive requests originally set to run overnight now creeping into the working day because the request is resubmitting from the END of the prior run.

You should periodically review your scheduled requests to help avoid these issues.

Want to know more?

Download the simple OEBS scheduled requests report ordered by program - TOAD Reports format report.

http://www.piper-rx.com/pages/reports_free.html#_concurrent_requests

Report ID - PRXCMS-002

Using this report you should be able to identify both your duplicates and those requests with a resubmit of END. By multiplying the “Re-submit” value by the “Resub Count” you can get some idea how long the request has been resubmitting.

Refer to PAM tutorial 19 “When Scheduled Requests Go Wrong”

http://www.piper-rx.com/pages/papers.html

Concurrent Managers Health Tip #1 – Rebuild your indexes!

This is really a simple one and you would be surprised how many companies large and small overlook this.

I have seen examples of sites with over 50 million rows in the fnd_concurrent_requests_u1 indexes; a huge waste of space! More importantly however is the problem of poor performance in such a core OEBS activity e.g. 10 concurrent manager processes running with a 30 second sleep time equates to 28,800 hits on your fnd_concurrent_requests table and its indexes (this does not include your users submitting requests and checking if their requests have completed). Get the picture why this is so important.

As part of regular maintenance practices you should rebuild your indexes on routinely purged objects on a regular basis, especially the indexes on fnd_concurrent_requests.

Want to know if you need to rebuild your indexes? The following article includes everything you need to know together with code and there is also a TOAD report. These can be found on the PIPER-Rx “tips” page: http://www.piper-rx.com/pages/tips.html

Rebuilding indexes in an OEBS environment - A guide to rebuilding indexes in an OEBS environment

View and Download associated TOAD report (TRD format) - Report id - FDBA002-10

Also remember some OEBS application monitors provide alerting to remind you when your indexes may need maintenance.

Happy Rebuilding J

Improving the business efficiency of OEBS workflow. Part 2: Validating e-mail addresses

This paper is the second of a two (2) part series. Part 2 covers e-mail address validation using a 12 point PLSQL e-mail addresses validation function.

Using the PLSQL function we cover e-mail validation of addresses in both the wf_local_roles and wf_local_users objects and in a number of base application objects that populate the workflow roles and users objects.

The paper and the PLSQL function can be viewed or downloaded at the following addresses

PDF document, 500 Kb
http://www.piper-rx.com/pages/papers/email_validation_part_two.pdf

PLSQL, 8 Kb
http://www.piper-rx.com/pages/papers/piper_rx_email_validation.sql

-Gary

Improving the business efficiency of OEBS workflow. Part 1: Missing e-mail addresses

This paper is part one (1) of a two (2) part series. Part 1 covers null e-mail addresses in your workflow roles objects and in part 2 we covers e-mail address validation including a free 12 point PLSQL function for validating e-mail addresses.

 In this paper we cover the issue of missing (null) workflow e-mail addresses:

     v  The importance of a SYSADMIN e-mail address

v  What happens when an invalid e-mail address is encountered?

v  Assessing the damage in your instance ( Free SQL )

v  And how to rectify the issue

The paper can be viewed or downloaded at the following address:
Part 1: Missing e-mail addresses
PDF document, 300 Kb

In part 2 of the “Improving the business efficiency of OEBS workflow” series we will cover email address validation. Part 2 also includes an 12 point email address validation function.

-Gary

Did you know you can change an apps user’s account name?

First and foremost this is done via the normal apps Security > User > Define screen.

Whilst the account name (user_name) has to be unique which is enforced by the fnd_user_u2 index, the internal application key is based on the account ID (user_id) not the name

So why would you change an account name?

• A name change by deed poll or marriage
• A new employee has the same name as an ex-employee
• The user name was entered incorrectly
• You want to implement a user naming standard

Scenario: Once a user is no longer with the company, end date the account and change the account name adding an Z_ to the beginning of the user name e.g. The account GPIPER becomes Z_GPIPER. Now the account name GPIPER can be used by a new employee. This has the added benefit of allowing you to filter reports excluding ex-employees, or getting them to sort last in your reports.

Of course you will need to get this approach signed off by Oracle support and internal audit first. Usually, as long as there is consistent documented evidence of the change audit are generally ok

You are not doing anything dodgy here, this is all done via the standard Oracle application screens (Security > User > Define) just select the user, change the users name and commit.

Note: If you change the name of an active account, you will need to reset that user's password and let them know the password you have set and that they will be required to change their password on first connecting with the new name.

Of course you wouldn’t even attempt to do this without checking with Oracle support and you’re your audit team before changing application user names and then testing, testing etc…..