Oracle Apps DBA Interview Questions part 11

101.            Which package will be used for the user validation by plsql agent?
oraclemypage
102.            What are the location of JAVA Files?
JAVA_TOP and all PRODUCT_TOP/Java/Jar
103.            What is the name of the xml file of Apps and its location?
Context Name.xml and $APPL_TOP/admin
104.            What are adadmin utilities and their location?
$AD_TOP/bin
adadmin
adpatch
adsplice
adident
adrelink
adlicmgr
105.            What is the location of Apps environment file and its name?
contextname.env and $APPL_TOP

106.            In how many ways Jar files are generated?
Normal and Force
107.            Once Jar files are generated what files get affected?
All Product_top/java/jar files and Two files in JAVA_TOP they are appsborg.zip appsborg2.zip
108.            How do you see the files in zip file?
unzip -v
109.            How do you generate jar files?
Using adadmin and option 5
110.            How do you start the apps services?
$COMMON_TOP\admin\scripts\Contextname\adstrtal.sh apps/apps
111.            What is the executable to generate jar files?
adjava
112.            How do you relink an executable of a product?
By relinking option in adadmin or adrelink
113.            How do you relink AD product executable and usage?
adrelink.sh and adrelink.sh force=y "ad adsplice"
114.            When do you relinking?
When you miss an executable file
When there is a problem with any executable file
When any product executable gets corrupted
115.            What is DAD?
It is a file which stores apps passwords in hard coded format i.e. wdbsvr
116.            How do you relink OS files and libraries?
Using make command
117.            How do you know the package version?
select text from dba_source where name='package name' and type='PACKAGE BODY' and rownum<10>/rdbms/admin)
118.            How do you load java class to database?
loadjava
119.            What are restart files and its location?
These files contain the previous session info about adadmin. Location is $APPL_TOP\admin\sid\restart\*.rf9
120.            How do you validate apps schema?
To validate synonyms, missing synonyms and all grants use adadmin. After validating it will produce a report in the location $APPL_TOP\admin\sid\out\*.out
121.            How do you enable maintenance mode?
Using adadmin or running a script called "adsetmmd.sql ENABLE/DISABLE" (AD_TOP/patch/115/sql)
122.            How to see the version of a script or form or report or etc?
adident Header GLXSTEA.fmx
123.            What is the location of adadmin log?
$APPL_TOP\admin\sid\log
124.            What are the oracle homes in Apps?
8.0.6 ORACLE_HOME(Dev 6i products) and IAS_ORACLE_HOME (Apache)
125.            How do you configure your IP address at client side and server side?
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and \etc\host
126.            What is the location of Database server related scripts?
$ORACLE_HOME\appsutil\scripts\contextname
127.            What is the utility to clean the concurrent manager?
@cmclean.sql (You have to download it from metalink)
128.            How do you stage the 11.5.10 Apps software?
Using adautostg.pl
129.            What is the location of the source files of forms?
AU_TOP/forms/US/
130.            What is the executable to generate forms?
f60gen
131.            What are the profile options, what are various types of profile options?
You set profile options at the following levels
Site level
Application level
Responsibility level
User level
132.            What is APPS listener? Why is it used?
Apps Listener usually run on all Oracle Applications 11i Nodes with listener alias as APPS_$SID and is mainly used for listening requests for services like FNDFS & FNDSM.
133.            How do you start/stop apps listener?
lsnrctl start APPS_$SID
134.            If users are complaining Oracle Applications 11i system is running slow, following are the things to check?
First as an Overview of Oracle Applications 11i check following things
Broad Level Steps to Check
1. Is Gather stats scheduled? (At least weekly)
2. Is Purge Obsolete Workflow request & concurrent request purging scheduled?
3. Is there any runaway process on database tier or application tier? (Runaway process is process taking unexceptionally long time with high CPU or Memory usages)
4. Any Discoverer process taking long time or High CPU? (Usually on Middle tier)
5. Any Custom report taking long time?
In order to understand problem better
1. Is whole application slow or only component of application is slow (like only Concurrent manager running slow)?
2. If this is with particular component like reports server slow then is a particular report or all reports are slow?
3. Is performance issue during all time or at specific time let’s say from 11AM to 4PM?
4. Was performance issue popped up recently or performance degradation is for long time?
5. What has changed recently?
Depending on answers you can start looking into application. If issue is specific to whole applications then check
1. If database initialization parameter is set correctly?
2. If application sizing is proper, server configuration is enough to accommodate all users?
135.            What is Autoconfig?
Autoconfig is method of configuring Oracle Applications. All the information required to configure Oracle Apps 11i is stored in file called Context file. So there are two context files, one for Database Tier and Second for Application Tier. Context file is repository for configuration information stored in xml format. Its xml file and file name format is <SID>_<HOSTNAME>.xml so if your machine name is MACHINE1 and SID is VISION then context file name will be VISION_MACHINE1.xml
136.            What is context file?
Oracle stores all the environment specific values in an xml file stored in $APPL_TOP/admin directory, which they call an application context file. This file is created by running adbldxml.sh/adbldxml.pl (Located in $AD_TOP/bin). Adbldxml.sh in turn runs oracle.apps.ad.context.GenerateContext java class.
Context file is generated by plugging in environment specific values in the context file template (don’t confuse this template with the configuration file templates) $AD_TOP/admin/template/adxmlctx.tmp. In older versions of 11i these replacement values were gotten from config.txt file (created by rapidwiz during installation), but in later versions, these values are gotten from the information, in existing configuration files and the database. adbldxml.sh/adbldxml.pl (in newer versions of autoconfig) creates a detailed log file, detailing the source for each context variable.
137.            How to create User in Oracle Applications 11i? Can you delete a User?
Choose Users from the Manage menu to create a new user. This opens the Manage Users dialog box, where you choose New to enter information for a new user.
You provide the following user information:
User -- Enter a name that identifies the user.
User Type -- Select the type of the user.
Usernames -- Choose Edit to access the Edit User dialog box where you can associate one or more user names with the user and specify whether the user is authorized to create shareable documents.
Other -- Provide information that is specific to the client type. For example, for a thin-client workstation, you enter the SHELLS directory of the component where you are creating the user and the Express Server instance to which the user's personal database will be connected.
Adding a new user creates a user task and sends it to the Task Processor. If you are not running the Task Processor in the background, you must run it in the foreground to process the user task.
138.            What is Single Sign On? (If you are using portal 3.0.9 or 10G)?
Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite provides users with unified sign-on and authentication across all their enterprise resources, including desktops, client-server, custom and host-based mainframe applications. Even if users travel or share workstations, they can enjoy the flexibility of a single log-on that eliminates the need for multiple usernames and passwords and helps enforce strong password and authentication policies.
139.            How to find OUI version?
OUI stands for Oracle Universal Installer.
140.            What happens if the ICM goes down?
Since ICM is down so it can't reach other managers & can't shutdown them but yes if because of some reason Standard Manager dies & ICM is already dead Standard managers will not start. The ICM does the work of distributing the concurrent request to standard managers. If ICM goes down the concurrent requests in standard managers will be running fine. But no new request will be assigned to the standard managers. So wait until all your concurrent requests gets completed and then bounce the concurrent managers to start your ICM.
141.            Provide a high-level overview of the cloning process and post-clone manual steps?
Rapid Cloning Steps for Windows R12Source System:
1.Run adpreclone.pl in Database Node
2.Perl $ORACLE_HOME\appsutil\scripts\$CONTEX_NAME\adpreclone.pl dbTier
3.Run adpreclone.pl in Apps Node
4.Perl $ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME\adpreclone.pl appsTier
5.Shut down the Applications and database
6.Change all services type into manual (option)
7.Restart the system (option)
8.Check if any FNDLIBR programs are running or not
9.Take a cold backup of database and applicationsTarget System:Prepare your target system as per the source system configuration
1.Install Windows Server 2003 service pack 2 Enterprise Edition
2.Install Visual Studio 2005
3.Install Active perl
4.Install Cygwin Change make version from 3.81 into 3.80
5.Copy the Source system backup into target system
6.Set perl locations by using existing env file(It varies between DB node and Apps Node, We will set this two times)
7.Goto the $ORACLE_HOME\appsutil\clone\bin folder and the post clone scripts
8.Run Postclone scripts in db Tier
9.Perl $ORACLE_HOME\appsutil\clone\Bin\adcfgclone.pl dbTier
10.Run Postclone in Apps Tier
11.Perl $COMMON_TOP\clone\bin\adcfgclone.pl appsTierFinishing Tasks:1.Update the profile options
Rapid clone will update the site level profile options only, we need to update instance level profile options manually
2.Update the printer settings
3.Update the workflow configuration settings
Cloning an Oracle Applications instance will not update the host and instance specific information used by Oracle Workflow. Review the following tables and columns to verify there is no instance specific data in the Workflow configuration on the target system.
Important Notes:a)While running Postclone in appsTier it prompts hostname, we should give like hostname.domainname for example sys10.sample.com
b)While running post clone in appsTier it prompts visual studio directory don’t include bin folder. For example give like c:\vc\VC, don’t give like c:\vc\VC\bin
142.            Provide an introduction to AutoConfig. How does AutoConfig know which value from the XML file needs to be put in which file?
AutoConfig uses a context file to maintain key configuration files. A context file is an XML file in the $APPL_TOP/admin directory and is the centralized repository. When you run AutoConfig it reads the XML files and creates all the AutoConfig managed configuration files. For each configuration file maintained by AutoConfig, there exists a template file which determines which values to pick from the XML file.
143.            Can you tell me a few tests you will do to troubleshoot self-service login problems? Which profile options and files will you check?
Check guest user/password in the DBC file, profile option guest user/password, the DB.
Check whether apache jserv is up.
Run IsItWorking, FND_WEB.PING, aoljtest, etc.
144.            What could be wrong if you are unable to view concurrent manager log and output files?
Most likely the FNDFS listener is down. Look at the value of OUTFILE_NODE_NAME and LOGFILE_NODE_NAME in the FND_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS table. Look at the FND_NODES table. Look at the FNDFS_ entry in tnsnames.ora.
145.            How will you change the location of concurrent manager log and output files?
The location of log files is determined by parameter $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG and that of output files by $APPLCSF/$APPLOUT.
146.            If the user is experiencing performance issues, how will you go about finding the cause?
Trace his session (with waits) and use tkprof to analyze the trace file.
Take a statspack report and analyze it.
o/s monitoring using top/iostat/sar/vmstat.
Check for any network bottleneck by using basic tests like ping results.
147.            How will you change the apps password?
Use FNDCPASS to change APPS password.
Manually modify wdbsvr.app/cgiCMD.dat files.
Change any DB links pointing from other instances.
148.            Explain the steps for applying apps patch and database patch?
a) Login as applmgr and set the environment. For the Windows environment also, you have to test that CLASSPATH contains %JAVA_TOP%, %JAVA_TOP%\loadjava.zip
b) Create a PATCH_TOP directory in the Base Directory (at the same level as APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP, etc: this is just a recommendation) for the patches which will be downloaded. If this directory exists, this step can be skipped. An OS environment variable could be created for this directory. This will be done only one time, when the first patch will be applied.
c) Download the patch you want to apply in PATCH_TOP directory and unzip the patch.
d) Understand the README.txt file and complete the prerequisite or manual steps. Here, if there are any patched to apply as pre-requisite, in general, is created a document with all the steps involving in the patching process and the pre-requisite patches will be applied before the initial patch.
e) Ensure that the PLATFORM variable environment (under UNIX, Linux, Solaris) is set
f) Shut down APPS services. The database services and the listener must be up and running.
g) Enable Maintenance Mode.
h) Start AutoPatch in interactive mode. This task must be done from the directory where the patch driver is/was unzipped. Also, respond to the adpatch prompts. If there are more drivers to apply (there is no unified drive: there could be a database (d), copy (c) or generate (g) driver) restart the adpatch and apply the other patches.
i) Review the log files. By default, the location is $APPL_TOP/admin//log and the file is adpatch.log.
j) Review the customizations (if any). If a customization was modified by this patch, the customization must be applied again.
149.            What is autoconfig?
AutoConfig is the tool, which is used to configure oracle application systems. It’s basically a perl script. At present there are more than 300 configuration files and environment files in application system. Whenever a change is made to any of the configuration parameter, the change needs to be propagated correctly to correct configuration and environment files. Managing such changes in such large number of files is really difficult.
AutoConfig uses a file called context file, which is used to configure changes. Context file is an XML file having all the parameters of application system. These parameters are part of some configuration file for some services or it may be part of some environment file. When we create an application system (using Rapid install), context file gets created automatically with all the parameters and there values. Most of the parameters take default value, where as some parameters takes the value that is supplied at the time of installation.
150.            How to enable diagnostics for oracle applications?
FND: Enable Diagnostics.
151.            What is .lgi file?
lgi files are created with patching along with .log files . .lgi files are informative log files containing information related to patch. You can check .lgi files to see what activities patch has done.
152.            How will you skip worker during patch?
If in your adctrl there are six options shown then seventh is hidden option. (If there are seven options visible then 8th option is to Skip worker depending on ad version).
153.            Which two tables are created at start of Apps Patch and drops at end of Patch?
FND_INSTALLED_PROCESS and AD_DEFFERED_JOBS are the tables that get updated while applying a patch mainly d or unified driver.
154.            How to compile an Oracle Reports file?
Utility adrepgen is used to compile Reports. Syntax is given below adrepgen userid=apps\<psswd> source = $PRODUCT_TOP\srw\filename.rdf dest=$PRODUCT_TOP\srw\filename.rdf stype=rdffile dtype=rdffile logfile=x.log overwrite=yes batch=yes dunit=character
155.            What is difference between AD_BUGS and AD_APPLID_PATCHES?
AD_BUGS holds information about the various Oracle Applications bugs whose fixes have been applied (i.e. patched) in the Oracle Applications installation.
AD_APPLIED_PATCHES holds information about the "distinct" Oracle Applications patches that have been applied. If 2 patches happen to have the same name but are different in content (e.g. "merged" patches), then they are considered distinct and this table will therefore hold 2 records.
156.            How you will troubleshoot if concurrent request is taking long time?
First you will try to check how far the query has gone (if in v$session_longops for example, or reading some session statistics) and if there is contention with another session (such as a lock for example) because it talks about a 'concurrent request'.
Method 1: Trace the session using dbms_system.set_sql_trace_in_session (or) if u r using 10g, using dbms_monitor and look at the trace file to identify where the issue is. You can get the explain plan and tune the query.
Method 2:
1. Is this a new query (or) an existing query
2. Look for the wait event associated to this query.
3. What is the elapsed time for this query?
4. Are there are any db deadlocks?
5. Are there any long operations?
6. Are there any long transactions?
7. Based on the sql hash value, look at the sql_text from v$sql
8. Run an explain plan (or) use oradebug and trace the query if what bind variables are using and how the
data distribution is.
9. Based on the above information, look for when statistics was collected
10. If it is an old query, check if the plan has changed and if so, why?
Once u understand where the problem is, then solutions can be defined ranging from creating sql profiles / stored outlines (or) adding hints to the query and thoroughly test your changes.
Always remember to make one change and test for performance change. If you make a series of changes, it will be very difficult to isolate which has caused the performance improvement.
157.            Why I need shared APPL_TOP?
If you have two/three Middle Tier for Large User base then you have to install APPL_TOP, COMMON_TOP & ORA_TOP equal to number of Nodes in your configuration. So if you have three middle tiers, then you need these three top three times & if there are N nodes you need N time these three tops. This result in lots of Space Requirement & bigger problem is patching so if you have 5 nodes you need to apply apps patch 5 times.
So Oracle came up with solution to have single APPL_TOP which is shared across all nodes in apps. This will save space as well as patch timing. This concept of sharing APPL_TOP file system across all Middle Tier Nodes is called APPL_TOP.
You will say if I can share APPL_TOP why can't I share COMMON_TOP & ORA_TOP as well which are also part of Application Tier, Yes you can & this concept is called as Shared Application Tier.
158.            What is Shared Application Tier?
Sharing Application Tier (including APPL_TOP, COMN_TOP, ORA_TOP) across all Middle Tier Nodes in configuration is called as Shared Application Tier.  So I can say shared APPL_TOP is subset of shared Application Tier, initially shared APPL_TOP came out & based on its advantages & popularity later COMMON_TOP & ORA_TOP files were also included & entire concept is called as Shared Application Tier.
159.            Limitation with Shared APPL_TOP and Application Tier?
If you are running Apps on Windows you'll be sad to hear that it’s not certified with Windows Operation System. More over you can share across same operation system like Linux to Linux & Solaris to Solaris.
160.            What are the request incompatibilities? How conflict resolution concurrent manager solve them?
Checks if a request in queue can be run in parallel with the running request.
161.            Where and how you update workflow notification mailer configuration setting?
This depends on which workflow mailer you are running C Mailer or Java Mailer
162.            If you want to change Concurrent Manager log and out file location, is it possible, If Yes, How? If No, why not?
By default standard location is $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG, in some cases it can go to $FND_TOP/log as well.
163.            How frequent you run Gather Schema Statistics program & with what option? Why you need to run it? What is cost based optimizer?
In Oracle Database there is something called Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) which other than doing many things also does query optimization. That is it determines the best or optimum method to run a query. Now when large changes to the data or database take place, the system performance may get slow. DBMS_STATS is the package which collects statistics for Cost Based Optimizer. Collecting Statistics lets the CBO know about the best methods for query optimization. The statistics include the Table statistics, Column statistics, Index statistics and System statistics. The DBMS_STATS package includes the following procedures
1.GATHER_INDEX_STATS, Index statistics
2.GATHER_TABLE_STATS, Table, column, and index statistics
3.GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS,Statistics for all objects in a schema
4.GATHER_DICTIONARY_STATS,Statistics for all dictionary objects
5.GATHER_DATABASE_STATS,Statistics for all objects in a database
Of all of the above usually the most used is GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS to gather statistics of all objects within a particular Schema. The Gather Schema Statistics process should be run on a regular basis (weekly at a minimum) and anytime large changes to the data or database take place.
164.            If we run autoconfig which files will get effected?
In order to check list of files changes during autoconfig , you can run adchkcfg utility which will generate HTML report. This report will list all files and profile options going to change when you run AutoConfig.
165.            What is difference between .xml file and AutoConfig?
Autoconfig is Utility to configure your Oracle Application environment. xml file is repository of all configuration from which AutoConfig picks configuration and populates related files.
166.            What are few profile options which you update after cloning?
Rapid clone updates profile options specific to site level. If you have any profile option set at other levels like server, responsibility, user level then reset them.
167.            How you will avoid your query from using indexes?
By changing the order of the columns that are used in the index, in the Where condition, or by concatenating the columns with some constant values.
168.            What is an OUTER JOIN?
An OUTER JOIN returns all rows that satisfy the join condition and also returns some or all of those rows from one table for which no rows from the other satisfy the join condition.