Architecture Of Oracle E-Business Suite

The Oracle E-Business Suite Architecture is a framework for multi-tiered, distributed

computing that supports Oracle E-Business Suite products. In this model,
various servers or services are distributed among three levels, or tiers. This
architecture is also known as Internet Computing architecture.

A server (or services) is a process or group of processes that runs on a single

machine and provides a particular functionality.

3-Tier architecture is followed in oracle applications

Note:

Server - Server is a process or group of processes that run on a single machine and
provide a particular functionality. For example, Web services process HTTP
requests, and Forms services process requests for activities related to Oracle
Forms.
Tier- A tier is a logical group of services, which are spread across more than one
physical machine.

Advantages of 3-tier architecture

Centralizing the Oracle E-Business Suite software on the application tier eliminates
the need to install and maintain application software on each desktop client PC, and
also enables Oracle E-Business Suite to scale well with an increasing load.

On the database tier, there is increasing use of Oracle Real Application

Clusters (Oracle RAC), where multiple nodes support a single database instance to
give greater availability and scalability.

DESKTOP TIER

Desktop Tier manages the end user interaction. The client interface is provided
through HTML for HTML-based applications, and via a Java applet in a Web browser
for the traditional Forms-based applications.

Users log in via the Oracle E-Business Suite Home Page on a desktop client web
browser. The Home Page provides a single point of access to HTML-based
applications, Forms-based applications, and Business Intelligence applications.

Once successfully logged in via the E-Business Suite Home Page, users are not
prompted for your user name and password again until the session expiry.

Oracle E-Business Suite also retains preferences as you navigate through the
system. For example, if you registered in the Home Page that German is your
preferred language, this preference carries over whether you access Forms-based or
HTML-based applications.

For accessing the Forms, the Forms client applet must be run within a Java Virtual
Machine (JVM) on the desktop client. The Sun J2SE Plug-in component allows use
of the Oracle JVM on web clients, instead of the browsers own JVM. This is
implemented as a browser plug-in via JRE (Java Runtime Environment) in R12.
Please Note in 11i , we use Jinitiator for the for the JVM.
Oracle E-Business Suite Home Page

Forms-based Oracle E-Business Suite interface

APPLICATION TIER

The application tier has a dual role: hosting the various servers and service groups
that process the business logic, and managing communication between the desktop
tier and the database tier. This tier is sometimes referred to as the middle tier.

The application tier comprise of different Servers:

At the core -
Web Server / Services
Forms Server / Services
Concurrent Processing Server

NOTE:In Release 12, Web and Forms services are provided by Oracle Application
Server (OracleAS) 10g.

Administration Server has been made redundant in R12, patching activity can now
be done from any Apps Tier node.

Web services: The Web services component of Oracle Application Server

processes requests received over the network from the desktop clients, it includes
below components.

Web Listener (Oracle HTTP Server powered by Apache)

Java Servlet Engine (OC4J)
Oracle Process Manager (OPMN)

Web listener component of the Oracle HTTP server accepts incoming HTTP
requests (for particular URLs) from client browsers, and routes the requests to the
appropriate OC4J container.

If the page referenced by the URL needs advanced processing, the listener passes
the request on to theservlet engine, which contacts the database server as needed,
which is managed by OPMN.

Forms server: Forms services in Oracle Applications Release 12 are provided by

Forms listener servlet. It facilitates the use of firewalls, load balancing, proxies, and
other networking options.

Concurrent Processing server: Processes that run on the Concurrent Processing

server are called concurrent requests. When you submit such a request, either
through HTML-based or Forms-based Applications, a row is inserted into a database
table specifying the program to be run. A concurrent manager then reads the
applicable requests in the table, and starts the associated concurrent program.
ORACLE EBS R12 ORACLE_HOMES

There are two versions of Oracle Application server 10g (OAS10g) used in R12

The Oracle Application Server 10.1.2 ORACLE_HOME (sometimes referred to as

the Tools, C, or Developer ORACLE_HOME)
The Oracle Application Server 10.1.3 ORACLE_HOME (sometimes referred to as
the Web or Java ORACLE_HOME)

DATABASE TIER

The database tier holds all the data stored and maintained b y the Oracle Applications.
By definition the data base server does not communicate directly with the desktop
clients, but rather with the servers on the application tier that mediate these
communications.

It contains some processing code that is stored in the database to optimize

performance.
It also includes the Oracle Applications help files.
It contains Oracle Data base Server files and an Oracle Applications database
instance that physically stores the tables, indexes, and other database objects
for your installation.
Oracle EBS R12 File System

An Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 system utilizes components from many Oracle
products. These product files are stored below a number of key top-level directories
on the database and application server machines. Code, Data, Configurations are
segregated for easy maintenance.

Top-Level Oracle E-Business Suite Directory Structure

The db/apps_st/data directory is located on the database node machine, and

contains the system tablespaces, redo log files, data tablespaces, index
tablespaces, and database files
The db/tech_st/11.1.0 directory is located on the database node machine,
and contains the ORACLE_HOME for the Oracle 11g database
The apps/apps_st/appl (APPL_TOP) directory contains the product
directories and files for Oracle E-Business Suite
The apps/apps_st/comn (COMMON_TOP) directory contains Java classes,
HTML pages, and other files and directories used by multiple products
The apps/tech_st/10.1.2 directory contains the ORACLE_HOME used for the
Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack tools components
The apps/tech_st/10.1.3 directory contains the ORACLE_HOME used for the
Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack Java components
The appl Directory
Oracle E-Business Suite files are stored in the <dbname>APPL directory, which is
generally known as the APPL_TOP directory.

APPL_TOP Directory Structure

The APPL_TOP directory contains:

The core technology files and directories.

The product files and directories (for all products).
The main Oracle E-Business Suite environment file.

Product Directories
Each product has its own subdirectory under APPL_TOP. The subdirectories are
named in accordance with the product's standard abbreviation, such as gl for Oracle
General Ledger. Within each product directory is a subdirectory that is named using
the base Oracle E-Business Suite release number, such as 12.0.0 for the initial
Release 12. This directory contains the various subdirectories for the product files.

<PROD>_TOP Directory

The <APPL_TOP>/<prod>/<version> path is known as the product top

directory (<PROD>_TOP), and its value is stored in the <PROD>_TOP environment
variable.

For example, if APPL_TOP=/d01/oracle/prodapps, then the value contained in the

AD_TOP environment variable is /d01/oracle/prodapps/ad/12.0.0, and the AD_TOP
environment variable points to the <APPL_TOP>/ad/12.0.0 directory.

For the same APPL_TOP, the value of AU_TOP is /d01/oracle/prodapps/au/12.0.0,

and the AU_TOP environment variable points to the <APPL_TOP>/au/12.0.0
directory. The same principle applies to all directories, apart for the admin directory.
Product Files

Each <PROD>_TOP directory, such as <APPL_TOP>/gl/12.0.0, contains

subdirectories for product files. Product files include forms files, reports files, and
files used to upgrade the database. To display data entry forms for Oracle General
Ledger, for example, Oracle E-Business Suite accesses files in the forms subdirectory
under the 12.0.0 directory.

APPL_TOP Directory Structure

Within each <PROD>_TOP directory, the product's files are grouped into
subdirectories according to file type and function.

Detail of gl Directory Structure