NHIA DBA AND APPLICATION MANAGER TRAINING

Oracle Applications File Systems By Emmanuel Adarkwah

Introduction
An Oracle Applications Release 11i 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. Depending on how you chose to install Applications, these product directories may be located on a single machine or on multiple machines. Note: No Applications files are installed on desktop client machines, although JAR files and their supporting utilities are downloaded as required.

Applications Directory Structure

The <dbname>DATA or DATA_TOP directory is located on the database server machine, and contains the system tablespaces, redo log files, data tablespaces, index tablespaces, and database files. The <dbname>DB directory is located on the database server machine, and contains the ORACLE_HOME for the Oracle9i database.

The <dbname>APPL or APPL_TOP directory contains the product directories and files for Oracle Applications.
The <dbname>ORA directory contains the ORACLE_HOMEs for the Applications technology stack components. The <dbname>COMN or COMN_TOP (or COMMON_TOP) directory contains directories and files used across products.

Figure 1-1 Top-Level Applications Directory Structure

ORACLE_HOMEs
Oracle Applications Release 11i utilizes three ORACLE_HOMEs: o The 9.2.0 ORACLE_HOME (Applications database home) is located in the <dbname>DB directory. It contains the files needed for running and maintaining the Oracle Applications database. o The 8.0.6 directory contains the ORACLE_HOME for the Developer 6i products (Forms, Reports, and Graphics). The product libraries in the 8.0.6 ORACLE_HOME are used to relink Oracle Applications executables. o The iAS directory, also under the <dbname>ORA, contains the ORACLE_HOME for Oracle9i Application Server.

Admin Directory
The admin directory, under the COMMON_TOP directory, is the default location for the concurrent manager log and output directories.

Figure 1-2 COMMON_TOP Directory Structure

Figure 1-3 COMMON_TOP admin Directory Structure

APPL Directory
Oracle Applications files are stored in the <dbname>APPL directory, which is known as the APPL_TOP directory.

APPL Directory
The APPL_TOP directory contains: o The core technology files and directories. o The product files and directories (for all products). o The main applications environment file is called <CONTEXT_NAME>.env on UNIX and <CONTEXT_NAME>.cmd on Windows. o The consolidated environment file is called APPS<CONTEXT_NAME>.env on UNIX and APPS<CONTEXT_NAME>.cmd on Windows. Note: CONTEXT_NAME is the Applications context. Its default value is <SID>_<hostname>.

Product Directories/<PROD>_TOP
Each product has its own subdirectory under APPL_TOP. The subdirectories are named in accordance with the products standard abbreviation, such as gl for Oracle General Ledger. Within each product directory is a subdirectory that is named using the base Oracle Applications release number, such as 11.5.0. This directory contains the various subdirectories for the product files.

Product Directories/<PROD>_TOP
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/11.5.0, and the AD_TOP environment variable points to the <APPL_TOP>/ad/11.5.0 directory. For the same APPL_TOP, the value of AU_TOP is /d01/oracle/prodapps/au/11.5.0, and the AU_TOP environment variable points to the <APPL_TOP>/au/11.5.0 directory. The same principle applies to all directories, apart from the admin directory.

Conclusion
An Apps DBA does not need to know the path of all product directories, but to know the environment variables of these products. See APPENDIX I for the environment variables.

Thank You