How to get details about patch applied in Oracle Applications by OAM & SQL?

There are some tables in oracle apps (AD tables especially) involved when applying patches.
Some of them are very useful when we need specific information about patch already applied.

I will show the main tables and afterwards some handy related SQL’s to retrieve patch applied details and how we can also get all this information via OAM.

AD_APPLIED_PATCHES – The main table when we are talking about patches that applied in Oracle Apps.
This table 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 (eTRM).
I also found that if the applications tier node is separate from the concurrent manager node, and the patch applied on both nodes, this table will hold 2 records, one for each node.

AD_PATCH_DRIVERS – This table holds information about all patch drivers included in specific patch.
For example if patch contain only one unified driver like u[patch_name].drv then ad_patch_drivers will hold 1 record.
On the other hand, if patch contain more than 1 driver, for example d[patch_name].drv and c[patch_name].drv, this table will hold 2 records.

AD_PATCH_RUNS – holds information about each execution of adpatch for a specific patch driver.
In case a patch contains more than one driver, this table will hold a record for each driver.
This table also holds one record for each node the patch driver has been applied on (column APPL_TOP_ID).

AD_PATCH_RUN_BUGS – holds information about all the bugs fixed as a part of specific run of adpatch.

AD_BUGS – this table holds information about all bug fixes that have been applied.


We have 2 options to view applied patch information:
1) via OAM – Oracle Applications Manager
2) Via SQL queries


With OAM it’s easy and very intuitive, from OAM site map -> “Maintenance” tab -> “Applied Patches” under Patching and Utilities.

Search by Patch ID will get all information about this patch; In addition, drill down by clicking on details will show the driver details.


For each driver we can use the buttons (Timing Details, Files Copied, etc.) to get more detailed information.

With SQL we can retrieve all the above information, sometimes more easily.

For example: How to know which modules affected by specific patch?

With OAM:
1) search patch by Patch ID
2) click on Details
3) For each driver click on “Bug Fixes” and look on product column.

With SQL:
Run the following query, it will show you all modules affected by specific patch in one click…

select distinct aprb.application_short_name as "Affected Modules"
from ad_applied_patches aap,
ad_patch_drivers apd,
ad_patch_runs apr,
ad_patch_run_bugs aprb
where aap.applied_patch_id = apd.applied_patch_id
and apd.patch_driver_id = apr.patch_driver_id
and apr.patch_run_id = aprb.patch_run_id
and aprb.applied_flag = 'Y'
and aap.patch_name = '&PatchName';

Another SQL will retrieve basic information regarding patch applied, useful when you need to know when and where (node) you applied specific patch:

select aap.patch_name, aat.name, apr.end_date
from ad_applied_patches aap,
ad_patch_drivers apd,
ad_patch_runs apr,
ad_appl_tops aat
where aap.applied_patch_id = apd.applied_patch_id
and apd.patch_driver_id = apr.patch_driver_id
and aat.appl_top_id = apr.appl_top_id
and aap.patch_name = '&PatchName';

To check if specific bug fix is applied, you need to query the AD_BUGS table only.
This table contains all patches and all superseded patches ever applied:

select ab.bug_number, ab.creation_date
from ad_bugs ab
where ab.bug_number = '&BugNumber';

Forgot your Password?

Almost every website that uses username & password have a "forget password" functionality to retrieve users passwords, and so also the Oracle E-Business Suite.

This is a very useful functionality since it reduces the number of SR's opened to the helpdesk team regarding login problems and moreover satisfying the customers which can get a new password in a very short time with no helpdesk intervention.

The implementation of this functionality is very simple and easy.
To enable it you should:

set the profile "Local Login Mask" to the current value plus 8 (e.g. current value is 32 -> set value to 40)
Bounce Apache
The "Local Login Mask" profile used to customize some attributes of the login page (AppsLocalLogin.jsp), one of them is the "forgot your password" link.
You should set the value of this profile to the sum of all attribute's mask values you are interested in.

The full attributes list is:

Attribute
Mask Value Binary value
Hint for Username 01 00000001
Hint for Password 02 00000010
Cancel button 04 00000100
Forgot Password link 08 00001000
Registration link 16 00010000
Language Images 32 00100000
Corporate Policy Message 64 01000000



Setting the Forgot Password link mask value will add the following TIP to the login page:


The reset password process:

- Click on "Forgot your password?" link will ask for a username to which reset the password.


- After typing the username and click OK, a new workflow process is started (Item type UMXUPWD) and you'll get this confirmation message:


- Shortly you'll get this email - "Password reset required approval" (expired after 4 hours).


- Click on "Approve" to confirm you are interested in a new password.


- Shortly you'll get an email with a temporary password which you have to change on first login.


Very nice and easy to implement functionality, which could be very beneficial.

Apps User Connection Details

This is going to be my first post... so I decided to bring a very useful SQL for apps DBA's.

This SQL shows details about users connected to the system (sid, responsibilty, form name, Oracle pid, Application pid and more..)

The parameters are Apps Username or Oracle Session Id (put % where you don't pass a parameter).

Very useful when you have a heavy session or when you have a DB lock and you want to know who is standing from behind (the applicative user)...

It contains 3 SQL's with unions:
1) 1st sql - OA Framework screens (login screen, iSupport etc...)
2) 2nd sql - Responsibility connection details (for Java Applet)
3) 3rd sql - Forms connection details


select usr.user_name "Apps Username"
,i.first_connect "First Connect Date"
,ses.sid
,ses.serial#
,ses.module
,v.spid "Oracle Server Process"
,ses.process "Application Server Process"
,rsp.responsibility_name "Responsibility Name"
,null "Responsibility Start Time"
,fuc.function_name "Function Name"
,i.function_type "Function Type"
,i.last_connect "Function Start Time"
from icx_sessions i
,fnd_logins l
,fnd_appl_sessions a
,fnd_user usr
,fnd_responsibility_tl rsp
,fnd_form_functions fuc
,gv$process v
,gv$session ses
where i.disabled_flag = 'N'
and i.login_id = l.login_id
and l.end_time is null
and i.user_id = usr.user_id
and l.login_id = a.login_id
and a.audsid = ses.audsid
and l.pid = v.pid
and l.serial# = v.serial#
and i.responsibility_application_id = rsp.application_id(+)
and i.responsibility_id = rsp.responsibility_id(+)
and i.function_id = fuc.function_id(+)
and i.responsibility_id not in (select t1.responsibility_id
from fnd_login_responsibilities t1
where t1.login_id = l.login_id)
and rsp.language(+) = 'US'
and usr.user_name like '&APPS_USER_NAME'
and ses.sid like '&SID'
union
select usr.user_name
,l.start_time
,ses.sid
,ses.serial#
,ses.module
,v.spid
,ses.process
,rsp.responsibility_name
,r.start_time
,null
,null
,null form_start_time
from fnd_logins l
,fnd_login_responsibilities r
,fnd_user usr
,fnd_responsibility_tl rsp
,gv$process v
,gv$session ses
where l.end_time is null
and l.user_id = usr.user_id
and l.pid = v.pid
and l.serial# = v.serial#
and v.addr = ses.paddr
and l.login_id = r.login_id(+)
and r.end_time is null
and r.responsibility_id = rsp.responsibility_id(+)
and r.resp_appl_id = rsp.application_id(+)
and rsp.language(+) = 'US'
and r.audsid = ses.audsid
and usr.user_name like '&APPS_USER_NAME'
and ses.sid like '&SID'
union
select usr.user_name
,l.start_time
,ses.sid
,ses.serial#
,ses.module
,v.spid
,ses.process
,null
,null
,frm.user_form_name
,ff.type
,f.start_time
from fnd_logins l
,fnd_login_resp_forms f
,fnd_user usr
,fnd_form_tl frm
,fnd_form_functions ff
,gv$process v
,gv$session ses
where l.end_time is null
and l.user_id = usr.user_id
and l.pid = v.pid
and l.serial# = v.serial#
and v.addr = ses.paddr
and l.login_id = f.login_id(+)
and f.end_time is null
and f.form_id = frm.form_id(+)
and f.form_appl_id = frm.application_id(+)
and frm.language(+) = 'US'
and f.audsid = ses.audsid
and ff.form_id = frm.form_id
and usr.user_name like '&APPS_USER_NAME'
and ses.sid like '&SID';

Purge old files on Linux/Unix using “find” command

I've noticed that one of our interface directories has a lot of old files, some of them were more than a year old. I checked it with our implementers and it turns out that we can delete all files that are older than 60 days.

I decided to write a (tiny) shell script to purge all files older than 60 days and schedule it with crontab, this way I won't deal with it manually. I wrote a find command to identify and delete those files. I started with the following command:

find /interfaces/inbound -mtime +60 -type f -maxdepth 1 -exec rm {} \;


It finds and deletes all files in directory /interface/inbound that are older than 60 days.
"-maxdepth 1" -> find files in current directory only. Don't look for files in sub directories.

After packing it in a shell script I got a request to delete "csv" files only. No problem... I added the "-name" to the find command:

find /interfaces/inbound -name "*.csv" -mtime +60 -type f -maxdepth 1 -exec rm {} \;


All csv files in /interface/inbound that are older than 60 days will be deleted.

But then, the request had changed, and I was asked to delete "*.xls" files further to "*.csv" files. At this point things went complicated for me since I'm not a shell script expert...

I tried several things, like add another "-name" to the find command:

find /interfaces/inbound -name "*.csv" -name "*.xls" -mtime +60 -type f -maxdepth 1 -exec rm {} \;


But no file was deleted. Couple of moments later I understood that I'm trying to find csv files which is also xls files... (logically incorrect of course).

After struggling a liitle with the find command, I managed to make it works:

find /interfaces/inbound \( -name "*.csv" -o -name "*.xls" \) -mtime +60 -type f -maxdepth 1 -exec rm {} \;