GLOBAL CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT NEWSLETTER – September 2010

India Edition

CONTENTS OF THIS EDITION

 Welcome Message
Welcome Message
 GENERIC NEWS ACROSS ALL Dear Customers,
PRODUCTS
o FOCUS: Upgrading to Oracle Very Warm Greetings from Oracle Customer Management Team.
Database 11g Release 2
o My Oracle Support Search - Tip of We are very happy to release the Sept 2010 edition of Customer
the Month Support Newsletter. This month being Quarter boundary, we urge
o How to – Avoid Known Problems all our ERP customers to proactively run Period Close Exception
and Improve Stability Report immediately and work with Global Product Support teams
for any issues requiring Oracle attention to get timely resolution and avoid last minutes rush
 NEWS ON VARIOUS ORACLE around EOM/EOQ. We recommend visiting Oracle support internet site and review the Life
PRODUCTS
Time support policies as quite a few products versions have entered the extended support
o Database phase. We therefore recommend that customers start planning for upgrades to current
o E-Business Suite supported versions and get benefitted with newer features.
o Exadata
o PeopleSoft Enterprise We have also covered various product updates across product lines for your benefit. Please
o Retail feel free to share the Newsletter with your team. We solicit your valuable feedback &
o Siebel suggestions to improve the contents of the forthcoming editions.

With Best regards – Ashwani Bansal, Director – Oracle Support Services.

GENERIC NEWS ACROSS ALL PRODUCTS

ORACLE SUPPORT INDIA TOLL FREE
NUMBERS
0008001007534 (Accessible from
Landline / Mobile Phones)
000117 (AT&T Toll Free) Enter
8007111005 after voice prompt
Do provide feedback on your Service
Requests:
Your feedback is very important to our
Support teams and is the primary
determinant of how we measure success,
drive decisions, and define our
improvement initiatives.
Once your Service Request (SR) is closed,
you may receive a SR transactional survey.
Satmetrix Systems- a third party vendor
administers our Customer Service Request
(SR) Transactional Survey. If selected to
participate in the SR transactional survey,
you will receive an email from Satmetrix
Systems.
Alternatively you can also request a survey
invitation by sending an email to ops-cust-
sat_ww@oracle.com.
Do spare few minutes of your valuable time
to provide your feedback and help us to
Serve you better
FOCUS: Upgrading to Oracle Database 11g Release 2
The Oracle Database is the database market leader underneath E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft,
Siebel, SAP Applications, and other enterprise business applications. Oracle Database 11g
provides the foundation for IT to successfully deliver more information with higher quality of
service, reduce the risk of change within IT, and make more efficient use of IT budgets. The
Enterprise applications take advantage of Oracle's unique options such as Real Application
Clusters (RAC), Partitioning, Database Vault, Data Guard and others, providing enterprise
applications with inherent scalability, high availability, ease-of-management and security
capabilities of the world's leading relational database.
Premier Support for Database 10.2 ended on July 31, 2010. We request customers to go
through Note ID 1130327.1 for more information. Oracle strongly urges customers to start
planning for upgrades to current supported versions, incase not already done.
Upgrading to Oracle Database 11g R2 provides the efficient, reliable, secure data management
for mission-critical on-line transaction processing applications, query-intensive data
warehouses, content management and Web2.0 applications. The right planning, preparation
and upgrade steps will make the upgrade process simpler, faster and more predictable from
start to finish.
More information can be found at
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/overview/index.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/default-160386.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/security/ds-database-vault-ebusiness-128297.pdf
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/security/ds-database-vault-peoplesoft-130991.pdf
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/security/ds-database-vault-siebel-133249.pdf
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/storage/database-11gr2-managing-
storage-whi-131523.pdf

Mail your Valuable feedback on this Newsletter to gigipaul.cheruvathoor@oracle.com


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m the product that is of interest. If the source is limited to only Bug Database additional refinement
to subscribe to various products related
Newsletters published by Oracle. These
newsletters will help you to stay updated on
the happenings in different product areas.
Using this link, you can also ask questions,
suggest changes and let us know what you
think.
Do you know when to Escalate a SR?
You can Escalate a SR using the Support
Toll Free Numbers when you -
 Encounter critical roadblocks
 Want to communicate Business issues
to managers within Oracle Support
 Are dissatisfied with resolution or
response
 Want to escalate issues in a timely
manner
Refer Note 199389.1 on My Oracle Support
for FAQs related to Escalation
Lifetime Support information
Please note that URL links to the Lifetime
Support brochures on oracle.com have
changed. In case you have bookmarked the
brochures or used the links as references in
any notes, please ensure you update your
links accordingly.
Oracle's industry-leading Lifetime Support
covers your entire technology stack, from
database to middleware to applications. It
puts you in control of your upgrade strategy
so you can enjoy continued peace of mind,
knowing that no matter which product
release you're running, we'll be there to
support your business.
http://www.oracle.com/support/lifetime-
support-policy.html
Please find global customer security
practices at
http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/cu
stomer-support-security-practices-
069170.pdf
Mail your Valuable feedback on this Newsletter to gigipaul.cheruvathoor@oracle.com
My Oracle Support Search - Tip of the Month
Change Your Search Source in My Oracle Support (MOS) When in MOS, most customers
start their searches by entering search terms in the search bar in the upper right hand corner.
The default search source is always the Knowledge Base. If you want to search other sources
such as the Bug Database, Community threads, Documentation or all sources at once, simply
select the appropriate icon from the drop down menu to the left of the Search Knowledge Base
box.
To search multiple sources at one time, initiate an Advanced Search by clicking on Advanced.
In the Advanced Search box, by clicking on the Source you can select multiple search sources.
If you have PowerView enabled, the related product will automatically be filled in and your
search limited to only the product(s) listed. To override those products manually simply type in
fields become available. You can select a specific product or product line, status code, and/or
fixed in version.
Review the Searching section of Document 1086216.1 titled "Oracle E-Business Suite My
Oracle Support (MOS) Tips" for more details on changing your source when searching.
30 new health checks added in OCM 10.3.3 to avoid known problems
and improve stability
New Database, Fusion Middleware, E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel and JD Edwards
Health Checks Released. As part of Oracle's ongoing commitment to providing better
proactive support capabilities to its customers, we are pleased to announce the release of 30
new Health Checks on My Oracle Support covering Database, Fusion Middleware, E-Business
Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel and JD Edwards product lines.
Customers installing Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) and uploading their configuration
information, enable Oracle's Proactive Health Check capabilities. This proactive advice, driven
by Oracle's comprehensive knowledge base and configuration management capabilities,
includes product health checks that identify problems and recommend fixes before they start to
impact our customer's business.
OCM uses a secure method of transporting data to Oracle and has the ability to mask sensitive
information as necessary. Please refer to the Collections Guide to see the list of all collected
data, the Installation and Administration Guide, and the Security Overview documents for more
security related information. You will find these documents listed in the Collector tab of My
Oracle Support.
To view the full catalog of Health Checks available today on My Oracle Support, read the My
Oracle Support Health Checks Catalog [ID 868955.1].
Introducing OCheck: OCheck is a new feature of the OCM collector that was first introduced in
OCM 10.3.3. It provides for the ability to evaluate diagnostic information associated with a
customer's Oracle environment, in support of providing a rich set of precise and targeted My
Oracle Support health checks.
OCheck evaluates the bare minimum of diagnostic information required in support of delivering
the required health checks. Important to point out that OCheck does not actually collect or
upload any diagnostic data to Oracle; it merely checks for a condition and uploads a true / false
result as part of the standard OCM data upload process. The My Oracle Support health check
rule logic back at Oracle leverages these results, along with the upload configuration data, in
determining the health of the customer's system. Those health checks that require OCheck to
be configured are clearly identified in the Pre-Req column of the My Oracle Support Health
Checks Catalog [ ID 868955.1].
OCheck capability is not enabled by default within your OCM environment; it requires a simple
one-time setup that is clearly explained in the OCheck User Guide [ID 1179138.1]. Please refer
to this guide for detailed information.
 NEWS ON VARIOUS ORACLE PRODUCTS
EBS Customers: Do you want to
Upgrade to RELEASE 12?
Please contact us for an “R12 Upgrade
assessment program”
Maximize the Performance & Value of Your
Oracle Environment using “Advanced
Customer Services”(ACS)
- Proven best practices in systems
management for ITIL v3 conformance
- "Virtual Center of Excellence" delivers
highest levels of system performance
and availability
- Unique configuration, performance
and systems support streamline and
simplify change management
- Expertise in supporting the complete
Oracle software stack offering superior
ownership experience through a
strategic relationship with Oracle
Contact us to know more on how you
can derive significant benefits
Oracle Financials for India Newsletter
We have released Volume 3 of Oracle
Financials for India Newsletter. Same can
be viewed via Note 1130573.1 on My
Oracle Support. This IL News is designed
to keep you informed about Oracle
Financial for India features, new releases,
new functionalities introduced, known
issues and a lot more.
Customer Knowledge Exchange
The Customer Knowledge Exchange in My
Oracle Support / My Oracle Support
provides a channel for customers to
showcase their expertise and to share their
knowledge about Oracle products. Your
contributions to the Customer Knowledge
Exchange are highly valued by customers,
partners, and employees and are viewed by
over 300,000+ total users worldwide. Are
you ready to submit an article? The
Customer Knowledge Exchange can be
accessed by going to the Knowledge Tab in
“My Oracle Support”
Mail your Valuable feedback on this Newsletter to gigipaul.cheruvathoor@oracle.com
Attention EBS Customers:
EBS 11.5.10 Extended Support Information - Minimum Patch Requirements
All customers on E-Business Suite versions 11.5.10.x note the important baseline patch
requirements in order to secure Extended Support from December 2010, as published in the
Note ID883202.1
Upcoming EBS webcasts
E-Business Suite and RAC (Real Application Cluster) implementation for the DB-Tier
E-Business Suite - Workflow Purging - Best Practices
Please refer the Doc ID 1186338.1 for more information
What is RPL? RPL stands for Recommended Patch List. This list contains critical patches from
various product families for the last three point-releases of 11i E-business suite (currently
11.5.10, 11.5.9 and 11.5.8). Please refer Note: 123456.1 for more information.
How To Check the Difference in Oracle General Ledger Balances between two periods in
different Years, please refer to Note ID 269151.1. Also refer to the Note ID for latest Patch set
Information for Oracle General Ledger - Version 11i and earlier.
Database
DB 11gR2
There will be some important changes to Oracle Database Patch Sets starting with 11.2.0.2
Packaging. Starting with the first patch set for Oracle Database 11gR2, Oracle Database patch
sets are full installations of the Oracle Database software. Therefore Oracle patch sets are now
released as several installation bundles, just as the base releases.
DB 10gR2
DB 10.2.0.5 patch set is now also available on Windows 64-bit. Planned release schedule for
other platforms is available internally and for customers via Note 742060.1.
Alert Note 1156958.1 highlights the re-release of DB 10.2.0.5 patch set on Linux x86 32-bit.
Support Status for Oracle Database on Linux Itanium (Note 1130325.1) has been published.
As per Software Error Correction Policy Note:209768.1, the patching end date for DB 10.2.0.4
ends April 30, 2011.(refer to Note 742060.1)
DB 9i
As a reminder, Extended Support for DB 9.2 ended in July 31, 2010. All patches generated
during that Extended Support period are unlocked and are available to all customers. The
extension to Extended Support (Limited Extended Support) for Oracle Database 9.2 is now
published in the Lifetime Support Brochure and Technical Support Polices (section 6b). Any
patches created on or after August 11, 2010 will be access controlled and only available to
those customers who have bought Extended Support contract via support sales.
Attention Oracle Exadata Customers:
Oracle released the Exadata software version 11.2.1.3.1. Here are some key features that are
now available as part of this release.
 Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) 5.5 the operating system in the Exadata Storage
Servers has been upgraded to OEL 5.5.
 Operating System Security Enhancements has made the system more secure by
eliminating the installation of unnecessary Linux packages. Also, unnecessary
services like nfs, ftp and telnet are turned off to minimize security vulnerabilities.
 With Exadata 11.2.1.3.1, if the cell server detects a failed disk or a disk predicted to
fail soon, it will proactively drop the disk from the ASM disk group rather than waiting
for ASMs default timeout of 3.6 hours. This ensures that ASM can immediately start
recreating the data stored on the failed disk using the mirrored extents on other disks
to restore data redundancy in the ASM disk group.
 With Exadata 11.2.1.3.1, the InfiniBand switch software upgraded to version 1.1.3.2,
which includes software ILOM functionality. This new functionality sends SNMP traps,
about the overall health of the InfiniBand switch, which can be used to better monitor
the InfiniBand switches
 Auto service request functionality is also included in the release.
Database Machine and Exadata Storage Server 11.2 - refer to Note 888828.1
Database Machine and Exadata Storage Server 11.1 - refer to Note 835032.1
For more information, please contact us

People Soft Customers: Do you
plan to Upgrade to PSFT
Release 9.1?
Please contact us for more information
Please contact us for an “Rel 9.1
Upgrade assessment program”
Configuration Manager Assistance
In case you need any assistance on
Software Configuration Manager, please
contact us.
Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) 4.20
Release for Unix/Linux/Windows/MacOS
X/VMS is now available for Oracle internal
and external use. RDA is used to gather
detailed information about an Oracle and
Operating system environments. The data
gathered is used to aid in problem
diagnosis. The output is also used to
monitor the overall system configuration.
Oracle Global Product Support encourages
the use of RDA because it provides a
comprehensive picture of the Oracle
Product and Operating System
environments. This can greatly reduce
service request resolution time by
minimizing the number of requests from
Oracle Support Services for more
information. RDA is designed to be as
unobtrusive as possible; it does not modify
systems and / or databases in any way, it
only collects useful data for Oracle
Customer Support. Please refer Oracle
Support Announces RDA 4.21 - Production
Release! [ID 392719.1]
Customer Management team
Ashwani Bansal – Team Lead
North & East : Lokesh Baghla , Sathish
Kumar & Gagandeep Singh
West : Geet Trivedi, Janardhan Kamath
Krishnakumar Nair Jai Thakkar & Rohan
Khanna
South: Mohan Rupanagudi Sharfaas Jani,
Raja Kommi, Ravish Jangamkota & Gigi
Paul
DISCLAIMER: This Newsletter is for informational purposes. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in
making purchasing decisions. This document is not part of your license agreement nor can it be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its
subsidiaries or affiliates. For any patch application and/or for any changes to the system log a Service Request and get it confirmed from Oracle Support.
Mail your Valuable feedback on this Newsletter to gigipaul.cheruvathoor@oracle.com
Attention PeopleSoft Customers:
Issue with PeopleSoft Menu Items starting January, 2011. Please refer the following Note ID
E-PORTAL: How To Reset CRef Expire Dates From 2010-12-31 [ID 882763.1]
Useful Published documents
 My Oracle Support Help: Table of Contents – Doc ID 733241.5
 PeopleSoft Enterprise Supply Chain Management 9.1 Bundle #5 – Doc ID 1163274.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise SCM Maintenance Schedule for 2010-All – Doc ID 949844.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Maintenance Schedule for 2010-All – Doc ID 970512.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools Maintenance Schedule for 2010-All – Doc ID
1052218.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise FMS Maintenance Schedule for 2010
o Q1 – Doc ID 951098.1
o Q2 – Doc ID 1066539.1
o Q3 – Doc ID 1117283.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions Maintenance Schedule for 2010-All – Doc
ID 957132.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise ELM Maintenance Schedule for 2010 – Doc ID 970984.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise EPM Maintenance Schedule for 2010-All – Doc ID 989242.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM Maintenance Schedule for 2010-All – Doc ID 962082.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Solutions Maintenance Schedule for 2010-All – Doc ID
978646.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions 9.0 Information Center - Financial Aid – Doc
ID 1112594.1
 PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions 9.0 Information Center – Student Financials
– Doc ID 1161624.1
 PeopleSoft FSCM Release 9.1 XML Publisher Reports Availability – July 2010 – Doc
ID 1164863.1
 PeopleSoft Talent Management 9.1 to PeopleSoft HCM Integration – Recruiting
Solutions Integration Guide – Doc ID 1167724.1
 PeopleSoft Talent Management 9.1 to HCM Integrations Overview and FAQ August
2010 – Doc ID 1086632.1
 Operating System, RDBMS & Additional Component Patches Required for Installation
PeopleTools 8.49 – Doc ID 749100.1
 Operating System, RDBMS & Additional Component Patches Required for Installation
PeopleTools 8.50 – Doc ID 943232.1
Attention Oracle Retail Customers:
Working Effectively With Support On Oracle Retail Performance Issues (Doc ID 444822.1)
This document outlines and explains how to work effectively with Oracle Retail Global Customer
Support (GCS) on Performance issues. This also provides a comprehensive overview of the
necessary information that needs to be provided before Oracle Retail GCS will be able to move
forward in resolving the issue.
Attention Siebel Customers:
Using Internet Explorer 8 with Siebel Applications - Siebel supports IE8 on specific code lines
and versions. Please refer ID 796015.1 for more information
Actuate has de-supported Actuate 6 and 7. Oracle will be able to support customers on Actuate
6 and 7 only where an issue is applicable to Oracle code for Siebel products. There will be no
support from Actuate for these releases. As part of ACR 442, Actuate 8 is being provided to
customers on selected Siebel 7.x releases as a replacement. Steps to a Successful Upgrade to
Actuate 8 for Siebel 7.5, 7.7, and 7.8 Customers. Please refer doc ID 579768.1 for more
information.
Siebel 8.0 Upgrade - Important Steps to a Successful 8.0 Upgrade [ID 475427.1]. This
document provides references to a list of critical information and steps described in Alerts,
Technical Notes, and other knowledge documents.
Please refer Siebel CRM Statement of Direction / Planned Features [ID 1063002.1]