Batch Level Of Service allows implementations to register a service target on individual batch controls and have the Oracle Utilities Application Framework assess the current performance against that target.

In past releases of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework the concept of Batch Level Of Service was introduced. This is an algorithm point that assess the value of a performance metric against a target and returns the appropriate response to that target. By default, if configured, the return value is returned on the Batch Control maintenance screen or whenever called. For example:

It was possible to build an algorithm to set and check the target and return the appropriate level. This can be called manually, be available via the Health Service API or used in custom Query Portals. For example:

In this release a number of enhancements have been introduced:

• Possible to specify multiple algorithms. If you want to model multiple targets it is now possible to link more than one algorithm to a batch control. The appropriate level will be returned (the worst case) for the multiple algorithms.
• More Out Of The Box algorithms. In past releases a basic generic algorithm was supplied but additional algorithms are now provided to include additional metrics:

For more information about these algorithms refer to the algorithm entries themselves and the online documentation.

One of the most common uses for spreadsheets these days is to Pivot information. It is a way of displaying information using multiple dimensions in a way that make it easier to analyze. In Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.3.0.6.0, introduces a new zone paradigm called the Cube Viewer which allows for pivot style analysis to be configured and made available to authorized users.

The Cube Viewer is a new way of displaying and analyzing information with the following capabilities:

• Dynamic Configuration. End users can dynamically change the look and subset of data available to the Cube within the user interface.
• Save and Load Views. As with other zones, it is possible to save all the dynamic configuration for reuse across sessions. This allows optimizations at the user level.
• Configurable Selection Criteria. Allows for users to supply criteria for sub-setting the data to be displayed. For example:

• Comparison Support. Allowing two sets of criteria data to be available for comparison purposes. For example:

• Different Views. It is possible to view the data in a variety of formats including data views or graphically. This helps users to understand data in the style they prefer. It is possible to even see the raw data that the analysis was based upon. For example:

• Multiple Dimensions Supported. The dimensions for the Cube are available including any dimensions not shown but available. For example:

• Configurable View Columns. List of columns to display for selection. For example:

• Flexible Formatting.  The Cube Viewer allows for custom formula to be dynamically added for on the fly analysis.

• Dynamic Filtering. The Cube Viewers allows for filters to be dynamically imposed at both the global and hierarchical levels to allow for focused analysis.

To use Cube Viewer the following can be configured:

• Query Portal - A query portal is built containing the SQL and any derived columns for use in the analysis. Filters (User and Hidden) are specified for use in the Cube Viewer. Column displayed are used as the basis for the Cube Viewer display.
• Business Service - The query portal is defined as a Business Service using the standard FWLZDEXP application service.
• Cube Type (New Object) - Define the Service and capabilities of the cube in a new object.
• Cube View (New Object) - Define the Portal to display the Cube Viewer/Cube Type

This process is shown as follows:

The Cube Viewer is an exciting new way of allowing users to interact with data and provide value added analysis.

Note: This capability can be used independently of the use of the Oracle Database In-Memory capability. Use with the Oracle Database In-Memory can allow for more advanced analytics to be implemented with increased performance.

For more information about the Cube Viewer, refer to the online documentation supplied with the product.

In Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.3.0.6.0 we introduced an exciting new capability to model and process multi-step long running business processes solely using the ConfigTools functionality. The capability allows implementation to specify a complex step by step process, with associated objects, to perform a business process with the following capabilities:

• Forward and Back. The ability to move forward though a process and also backtrack in the process if the process permits it. For example, you might be interacting with a customer on the phone or via chat and the customer changes their mind about a particular part of the process. The operator can move back to the relevant part of the process to correct the interaction. A train UI element has been added to visually emphasize the location in the process. For example:

• Save At Any Time.  The ability to pause and save a business process in transit at any time. The Process Flow will pick up from the save point to continue the process.
• Model Complex Processing. It is possible to model simple and complex processing with branching, multiple panel support and panel group support. The latter allows groups of panels within a single step to be modeled.
• State Query. A Process Flow State Query has been introduced to allow for users to find processes in progress and deal with them appropriately. For example:

• Flexible Configuration. From a single maintenance dialog the Process Flow can be configured including Flow Attributes, Panel sequences, conditions and buttons visible at each stage. It should be noted that a library of common objects including UI Maps is provided with the capability to reduce the configuration effort. For example:

The Process View is used in the Oracle Utilities Application Framework based applications to deliver key processes out of the box for on-premise and extensively in the Oracle Utilities Cloud Services (SaaS) accelerators. It is also used in the Oracle Utilities Cloud Service Foundation which is a component provided with each Oracle Utilities Cloud Service (SaaS).

Refer to the online documentation for details of the capability as well as sequences of objects to create to use this facility.

The What's New In Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4 has been updated to reflect the latest changes implemented in Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.3.0.6.0. The whitepaper has been updated with the latest information and is in the new whitepaper format to make it easier to read.

This is one of the last updates to this whitepaper as it was designed to help older Oracle Utilities Application Framework V2.x customers to understand the changes to the Oracle Utilities Application Framework since those releases. Given most of the information is already in the release notes and the vast majority of customers are in the process of migration or have migrated successfully, the whitepaper has limited use after the next service pack or major release.

The whitepaper is available for download from What's New In Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4 (Doc Id: 1177265.1) from My Oracle Support.

Over the past few releases, the Oracle Utilities Application Framework introduced Java versions of our installers which were originally shipped as part of the Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle Utilities (for Oracle Enterprise Manager). To use these utilities you need to set the CLASSPATH as outlined in the DBA Guides shipped with the product. Each product ships a Install-Upgrade sub-directory which contains the install files. Change to that directory to perform the install. If you want some custom storage parameters update Storage,xml and StorageOps.xml files.

Use the following command line to install the database components:

java -Xmx1500M com.oracle.ouaf.oem.install.OraDBI -d jdbc:oracle:thin:@<DB_SERVER>:<PORT>/<SID>,<DBUSER>,<DBPASS>,<RW_USER>,<R_USER>,<RW_USER_ROLE>,<R_USER_ROLE>,<DBUSER> -l 1,2 -j $JAVA_HOME

With the release of Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.3.0.6.0 the Technical Best Practices whitepaper has been updated with the latest advice and latest information.

The following changes have been made:

• Overview of the Health Check capability
• Preparing your Implementation for the Oracle Cloud - An overview of the objects that need to be changed to prepare for the migration from on-premise to the Oracle Cloud
• Optimization techniques for minimizing costs.

The latest version is located in Technical Best Practices (Doc Id: 560367.1) available from My Oracle Support.

One of the most common questions I get from partners and customers is the location of the documentation for the product. In line with most Oracle products there are three locations for documentation:

• Online Help. The product ships with online help which has information about the screens and advice on the implementation and extension techniques available. Of course, this assumes you have installed the product first. Help can be accessed using the assigned keyboard shortcut or using the help icon on the product screens.
• Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. Along with the installation media for the products, it is possible to download PDF versions of all the documentation for offline use. This is usually indicated on the download when selecting the version of the product to down though it can downloaded at anytime.
• Oracle Utilities Help Center. As with other Oracle products, all the documentation is available online via the Oracle Help Center (under Industries --> Utilities).

The following documentation is available:

Be familiar with this documentation as well as Oracle Support which has additional Knowledge Base articles.

One of the features of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework is Revision Control. This is an optional facility where you can version manage your ConfigTools objects natively within the browser. Revision Control supports the following capabilities:

• Adding an object for the first time.  The new object is automatically checked out by the system on behalf of the current user.  The revision is finalized when the user checks in the object or reverts all changes.  The latter causes the object to be restored to the version at check-out time.
• Updating an object requires the object to be checked out prior to making any change.  A user can either manually check out an object or the first save confirms an automatic check out with the user.  The revision is finalized when the user checks in the object or reverts all changes.  
• Deletion is captured. Deleting an object results in a new revision record capturing the object at deletion time. This does not remove the object from Object Revision. It also allows for restores in the future if necessary.
• Restoring generated a new revision. Restoring an object also results in a new revision capturing the object after being restored to an older version.
• State is important. An object is considered checked out if it has a revision in a non-final state.
• Algorithms control the revision. A Revision Control Maintenance Object plug-in spot is introduced to enforce revision rules such as preventing from a user to work on an object checked out by another user.  Revision control is an optional feature that can be turned on for each eligible maintenance object.  To turn the feature on for a Maintenance Object, a revision control algorithm has to be plugged in to it.  
• Automatic revision dashboard zones. A new Revision Control context sensitive dashboard zone is provided to manage the above revision events, except the restore, for the current object being maintained.  The zone is visible only if the Maintenance Object has this feature turned on.  A hyperlink from this zone navigates to a new Revision History portal listing the history of revision events for the current object.      
• Tracking objects. A dashboard zone is provided that shows all the objects currently being checked out by the user.  
• Search revision history. In addition, a Revision History Search portal is provided to search and see information about a user's historical work and the historical revisions to an object.

Revision Control supports the ability to check in, check out and revert versions of objects you develop in ConfigTools from within the browser interface. Additionally the Revision Control supports team based development with supervisor functions to force state of versions allocated to individuals. The diagram below summarizes the facilities:

Note: By default Revision Control is disabled by default and the F1-REVCTL algorithm must be added as a Revision Control algorithm on the ConfigTools Maintenance Objects it applies to. For example:

Once enabled whenever the configured object is edited a Revision Control dashboard zone will be displayed depending on the state of the object within the Revision Control system.

The state of a revision can be queried using the Revision Control Search. For example:

This is has just been a summary of some of the features of Revision Control. Refer to the online documentation for additional advice and a full description of the features.

With the introduction of Oracle Coherence to our batch architecture introduces both power and flexibility to the architecture to support a wide range of batch workloads. But to quote one of the late Stan Lee's iconic characters "With great power comes great responsibility" configuration of this architecture can be challenging for complex scenarios. To address this the product introduced a text based utility called Batch Edit.

The Batch Edit utility is a text based wizard to help implementers build simple and complex batch architectures without the need for complex editing of configuration files. The latter is still supported for more experienced implementers but the main focus is for inexperienced implementers to be able to build and maintain a batch architecture easily using this new wizard.

The use of Batch Edit (bedit.sh command) is totally optional and to use it you must enable it in you must change the Enable Batch Edit Functionality to true using the configureEnv.sh -a command. For example:

This is necessary for backward compatibility.

Now that it is enabled the wizard can be use to build the configuration.  Here are a few tips in using it:

• The bedit.sh command has command options that need to be specified to edit parts of the architecture. The table below lists the command options:

• Use the bedit.sh -h option for a full list of options and combinations.
• Within bedit.sh you can setup different scenarios using predefined templates:

We support the following templates in respect to clusters:

• Single Server (ss) - This is ideal for simple non-production environments to restrict
• Unicast Server (wka) - Well Known Address based clusters with the ability to define nodes in your cluster within the wizard.
• Multi-cast Server (mc) - Using Multi-cast for dynamic node management and configuration.

It is possible to setup a individual or groups of threadpools using the tool with the following templates:

• Standard Threapools - Setting up individual threadpools or groups of threadpools with macro and micro level configuration (including sizing and caching)
• Cache Threadpools - Support for caching threadpools which are popular with complex setups to drastically reduce the network traffic across nodes.
• Admin Threadpools - Support for reserving threadpools for management and monitoring capabilities (this reduces the JMX overhead)

If you not using the DBMS_SCHEDULER interface, which uses Batch Control for parameters, then properties files for the submitters will be required. The bedit.sh utility allows for the following types of submitter files to be generated and maintained:

• Global configuration - Set global defaults for all batch controls. For example, it is possible to specify the product user used for authorization purposes.
• Specific Batch Control configuration - Set the parameters for specific Batch Controls.

For example:

• Within each template there are a list of settings with help on each setting to help decide the values. The bedit.sh utility allows setting each parameter individually using in-line commands. Use the set command to set values. Use help to get context sensitive help on individual parameters. For example:

• One of the most important commands is save which applies the changes you have made.

The Batch Edit utility uses templates provided by product to build configuration files without user interaction. It is highly recommended for customers who do not want to manually manage templates or configurations for batch or do not have in-depth Oracle Coherence knowledge.

For more information about the Batch Edit utility refer to the Server Administration Guide shipped with the product and Batch Best Practices (Doc Id: 836362.1) available from My Oracle Support. Customers wanting to know about the DBMS_SCHEDULER interface should refer to Batch Scheduler Integration (Doc Id: 2196486.1) available from My Oracle Support.

As with other vendors, Oracle provides a web site My Oracle Support for customers to find information as well as register service requests for bugs and enhancements they want us to pursue. Effective use of this facility can both save you time as well as help you find the information you might need to answer your questions.

Most customers think My Oracle Support is the place to get patches but it is far more of a resource than that. Apart from patches for all its products it provides some important resources for customers and partners including:

• Knowledge Base - A set of articles that cover all the Oracle products with announcements and advice. For example all the whitepapers you see available from this blog end up as Knowledge Base articles. Product Support and Product Development regularly publish to that part of MOS to provide customers and partner up to date information.
• Communities - For most Oracle products, there are communities of people who can answer questions. Some partners actually share implementation tips in these communities and they can become self sustaining with advice about features that have been actually implemented and tips on how to best implement them from partners and customers. Oracle Product Support and Development monitor those communities to see trends as well as determine possible optimizations to our products. They are yet another way you can contribute to the product.

Now to help you navigate the site, I have compiled a list of the most common articles that you might find useful. This list is not comprehensive and I would recommend that you look at the site to find more than what is listed here:

• My Oracle Support Resource Center (Doc ID 873313.1)
• How to use My Oracle Support - How-to Training Video Series (Doc ID 603505.1)
• My Oracle Support (MOS) or Cloud Support Portal for New Users - A Getting Started Resource Center (Doc ID 1959163.1)
• How to create Service Request Reports (SR Reports), Asset Reports, Inventory Reports in My Oracle Support (Doc ID 1496117.1)
• Collecting Diagnostic Data to Troubleshoot Oracle Utilities Framework Based Functional Issues (Doc ID 2057204.1)
• Collecting Diagnostic Data to Troubleshoot Oracle Utilities Framework Based Products (Doc ID 2064324.1)
• Details Required when Logging an Oracle Utilities Framework Based Product Service Request (Doc ID 1905747.1)
• Collecting Diagnostic Data to Troubleshoot Oracle Utilities Framework Based Products - Batch Issues (Doc ID 2064310.1)
• Collecting Diagnostic Data to Troubleshoot Oracle Utilities Framework Based Patch Installation Issues (Doc ID 2064389.1)
• Collecting Diagnostic Data to Troubleshoot Oracle Utilities Framework Based Installation Issues (Doc ID 2058433.1)
• Oracle Utilities Framework Support Utility (Doc ID 1079640.1)
• Certification Matrix for Oracle Utilities Products (Doc ID 1454143.1)
• Optimizing Log levels In OUAF Based Applications (Doc ID 2090031.1)
• Supporting OUAF date time format in IWS without XAI compatibility enabled (Doc ID 2229893.1)
• OUAF Batch Commit Strategy (Doc ID 1482116.1)
• Usage Of G1GC In OUAF Product (Doc ID 2444942.1)
• Details around Storage.xml file for OUAF based products (Doc ID 1482635.1)
• Required Troubleshooting Information for OUAF Performance Problems [Video] (Doc ID 1233173.1)
• How to Capture Fiddler Logs in Oracle Utilities Application Framework Based Products (Doc ID 1293483.1)
• How to apply a custom stylesheet to the Oracle Utilities Application Framework? (Doc ID 1557818.1)
• Configuration And Log Files Checklist For Oracle Utilities Application Framework Based Products (Doc ID 797594.1)
• How To Install Patches On Oracle Utilities Application Framework Based Products (Doc ID 974985.1)

For more articles I suggest you use the terms OUAF or Oracle Utilities Application Framework in the search. For specific product advice, use the product acronym or product name in the search to find articles.

Welcome to 2019 for all my blog readers. 2019 is looking like a stellar year for the Oracle Utilities products with exciting new features and new versions being introduced across the year. I look forward to writing articles about new features as well as articles outlining advanced techniques for existing features. I will endeavor to write an article every week or so which is a challenge as we get very busy over certain periods but I will try and keep up as much as practical.

It is going to be an exciting year for the Oracle Utilities Application Framework and Utilities Testing Accelerator with exciting new and updated features. Also remember this year we have Edge conferences in the USA, Australia and England which I will be attending, so feel free to come and chat to me there as well.

All the whitepapers are going through a major overhaul and the first ones of these is the ILM Planning Guide. In past releases the ILM solution used a feature called ILM Assistant which was an addon to the database that generated some partitioning capabilities and had some additional planning capabilities. The ILM Assistant is largely been replaced with the base functionality in Oracle Enterprise Manager with superior functionality and capability in a comprehensive interface. Given that Oracle Enterprise Manager (with or without ANY packs) is becoming the defacto standard for DBA's to manage their on-premise and cloud databases, the ILM whitepaper has been updated to reflect this.

The new whitepaper covers the above as well as new advice and a simpler set of scenarios that illustrate the implementation of the Oracle Utilities ILM solution.

The whitepaper is available at ILM Planning Guide (Doc Id: 1682436.1) available from My Oracle Support.

The latest release of Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.4.0.0.0 is now available with the first products becoming available on-premise and Oracle Utilities Cloud. This release is significant as it is forms the micro-services based foundation of the next generation of Oracle Utilities Cloud offering and whilst the bulk of the changes are cloud based there are some significant changes for on-premise customers as well:

• New Utilities User Experience. Last year we previewed our directions in terms of the user experience across the Oracle Utilities product portfolio.  Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.4.0.0.0 delivers the initial set of this experience with a new look and feel which form the basis of the new user experience. The new user experience is based upon feedback from various user experience teams, customers and partners to deliver a better user experience including reducing eye strain and supporting a wider range of platforms/devices now and in the future. For example (edited for publishing purposes):

• New To Do Portals. Based upon customer feedback, the first of the new management portals for To Do Management is now included with Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.4.0.0.0. These portals can used alongside the legacy To Do functionality and can be migrated to over time. The idea is these portals is to focus on finding, managing and resolving To Do's with  the minimum amount of effort from the portals as much as possible. The new portals support dynamic criteria based upon data and To Do Type, date ranges, saved views, search on text and multi-query. For example:

• Improved User Error Field Marking. In line with the New Utilities User Experience, the indication of fields in error has been improved both visually and programmatically. This allows implementations to be flexible on how fields in error are indicated in error routines and how they are indicated on the user experience.
• To Do Pre-creation Algorithm. In past releases, it was possible to use a To Do Pre-creation algorithm resided exclusively on the Installation records to implement logic to target when, in a lifecycle, a To Do can be created. This was seen as inefficient if implementations had a large number of To Do Types. It is now possible to introduce this logic at the To Do Type level to override the global algorithm.
• Cloud Enhancements. This release contains a set of enhancements for the Oracle Utilities Cloud SaaS versions which are not typically applicable to non-cloud implementations. These enhancements are shipped with the product in an appropriate format (some features are not available to non-cloud implementations).
• More Granular To Do Security. Complete All functionality in To Do now has separate security applications service to provide a more focused capability. This allows more granular security to be implemented, if desired.
• External Message Enhancements. The External Messages capability has been extended to now support URI substitutions to support Cloud/Hybrid implementations and isolate developers from configuration changes to reduce costs.

Products using this new version of the framework are now available including Oracle Utilities Customer Care And Billing 2.7.0.1.0 are now available from Oracle Delivery Cloud. Refer to the release notes shipped with those products for details of these enhancements and other enhancements available in this release.

Oracle Utilities Customer To Meter V2.7.0.1.0 is now available for download from Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. This release is based upon Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.4.0.0.0 and contains the following software:

• Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.4.0.0.0
• Oracle Customer Care and Billing V2.7.0.1.0
• Oracle Meter Data Management V2.3.0.0.0 including SGG, SOM and Settlements
• Oracle Work and Asset Management V2.2.0.3.0 (also known as Operational Device Management)

Refer to the release notes provided with this product and related products for a full list of changes and new functionality in this release.

An updated series of whitepapers are now available for managing configuration and code in Oracle Utilities products whether the implementation is on-premise, hybrid or using Oracle Utilities SaaS Utilities. It has been updated for the latest Oracle Utilities Application Framework release. The series highlights the generic tools, techniques and practices available for use in Oracle Utilities products. The series is split into a number of documents:

• Concepts. Overview of the series and the concept of Configuration Management for Oracle Utilities products.
• Environment Management. Establishing and managing environments for use on-premise, hybrid and on the Oracle Utilities SaaS Cloud. There are some practices and techniques discussed to reduce implementation costs.
• Version Management. Understanding the inbuilt and third party integration for managing individual versions of individual extension assets. There is a discussion of managing code on the Oracle Utilities SaaS Cloud.
• Release Management. Understanding the inbuilt release management capabilities for creating extension releases and accelerators.
• Distribution. Installation advice for releasing extensions across the environments on-premise, hybrid and Oracle Utilities SaaS Cloud.
• Change Management. A generic change management process to approve extension releases including assessment criteria.
• Configuration Status. The information available for reporting state of extension assets.
• Defect Management. A generic defect management process to handle defects in the product and extensions.
• Implementing Fixes. A process and advice on implementing single fixes individually or in groups.
• Implementing Upgrades. The common techniques and processes for implementing upgrades.
• Preparing for the Cloud. Common techniques and assets that need to be migrated prior to moving to the Oracle Utilities SaaS Cloud.

For more information and for the whitepaper associated with these topics refer to the Configuration Management Series (Doc Id: 560401.1) available from My Oracle Support.

One of the most common questions I get from partners is around batch scheduling and execution. Oracle Utilities Application Framework has a flexible set of methods of managing, executing and monitoring batch processes. The alternatives available are as follows:

• Third Party Scheduler Integration. If the site has an investment in a third party batch scheduler to define the schedules and execute product batch processes with non-product processes, at an enterprise level, then the Oracle Utilities Application Framework includes a set of command line utilities, via scripts, that can be invoked by a wide range of third party schedulers to execute the process. This allows scheduling to be managed by the third party scheduler and the scripts to be used to execute and manage product batch processes. The scripts return standard return codes that the scheduler to use to determine next actions if necessary. For details of the command line utilities refer to the Server Administration Guide supplied with your version of the product.
• Oracle Scheduler Integration. The Oracle Utilities Application Framework provides a dedicated API to allow implementations to use the Oracle DBMS Scheduler included in all editions of the database to be used as local or enterprise wide scheduler. The advantage of this is that the scheduler is already included in your existing database license and has inbuilt management capabilities provided via the base functionality of Oracle Enterprise Manager (12+) (via Scheduler Central) and also via Oracle SQL Developer. Oracle uses this scheduler in the Oracle Utilities SaaS Cloud solutions. Customers of those cloud services can use the interface provided by the included Oracle Utilities Cloud Service Foundation to manage their schedules or use the provided REST based scheduler API to execute schedules and/or processes from a third party scheduler. For more details of the scheduler interface refer to the Batch Scheduler Integration (Doc Id: 2138193.1) whitepaper available from My Oracle Support.
• Online Submission. The Oracle Utilities Application Framework provides a development and testing tool to execute individual batch processes from the online system. It is basic and only supports execution of individual processes (not groups of jobs like the alternatives do). This online submission capability is designed for cost effective developer and non-production testing, if desired, and is not supported for production use. For more details, refer to the online documentation provided with the version of the product you are using.

Note: For customers of legacy versions of Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, a basic workflow based scheduler was provided for development and testing purposes. This interface is not supported for production use and one of the alternatives outlined above should be used instead.

All the above methods all use the same architecture for execution of running batch processes (though some have some additional features that need to be enabled).  For details of the each of the configurations, refer to the Server Administration Guide supplied with your version of the product. 

When asked about which technology should be used I tend to recommend the following:

• If you have an existing investment, that you want to retain, in a third party scheduler then use the command line interface. This will retain your existing investment and you can integrate across products or even integrate non-product batch such as backups from the same scheduler.
• If you do not have an existing scheduler, then consider using the DBMS Scheduler provided with the database. It is more likely your DBA's are already using it for their tasks and it is used by a lot of Oracle products already. The advantage of this scheduler is that you already have the license somewhere in your organization already. It can be deployed locally within the product database or remotely as an enterprise wide solution. It has a lot of good features and Oracle Utilities will use this scheduler as a foundation of our cloud implementations. If you are on the cloud then use the provided interface in Oracle Utilities Cloud Service Foundation and if you have an external scheduler via the REST based Scheduler API. If you are on-premise, then use the Oracle Enterprise Manager (12+) interface (Scheduler Central) in preference to the SQL Developer interface (though the latter is handy for developers). Oracle also ships a command line interface to the scheduler objects if you like pl/sql type administration.

Note: Scheduler Central in Oracle Enterprise Manager is included in the base functionality for Oracle Enterprise Manager and does not require any additional packs.

• I would only recommend to use the online submission for demonstrations, development and perhaps in testing (where you are not using Oracle Utilities Testing Accelerator or have the scheduler not implemented).  It has very limited support and will only execute individual processes.

Long time users of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework might recognize two common table types, recognized by their name suffixes, that are attached to most Maintenance Objects within the product:

• Language Tables (Suffix _L).  The Oracle Utilities Application Framework is multi-lingual and can support multiple languages at a particular site (for example customers who have multi-lingual call centers or operate across jurisdictions where multiple languages are required). The Language table holds the tags for each language for any fields that need to display text on a screen. The Oracle Utilities Application Framework matches the right language records based upon the users language profile (and active language code).
• Key Tables (Suffix _K). These tables hold the key values (and the now less used environment code) that are used in the main object tables. The original use for these tables was for key tracking in the original Archiving solution (which has now been replaced by ILM). Now that the original Archiving is not available, the role of these tables changed to be used in a number of areas:
  • Conversion. The conversion toolkit in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing and now in the Cloud Service Foundation, uses the key table for efficient key generation and black listing of identifiers.
  • Key Generation. The Key generation utilities now use the key tables to quickly ascertain the uniqueness of a key. This is far more efficient than using the main table for this, especially with caching support in the database.
  • Information Life-cycle Management. The ILM capability uses the key tables to drive some of its processes including recognizing when something is archived and when it has been restored.

These tables are important for the operation of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework for all types of parts of the product. When you see them now you understand why they are there.

In the batch architecture for the Oracle Utilities Application Framework, a Restricted Use License of Oracle Coherence is included in the product. The Distributed and Named Cache functionality of Oracle Coherence are used by the batch runtime to implement clustering of threadpools and submitters to help support the simple and complex architectures necessary for batch.

Partners ask about the libraries and their potential use in their implementations. There are a few things to understand:

• Restricted Use License conditions. The license is for exclusive use in the managing of executing executing members (i.e. submitters and threadpools) across hardware licensed for use with the Oracle Utilities Application Framework based products. It cannot be used in any code outside of that restriction. Partners cannot use the libraries directly in their extensions. It is all embedded in the Oracle Utilities Application Framework.
• Limited Libraries. The Oracle Coherence libraries are restricted to a subset needed by the license. It is not a full implementation of Oracle Coherence. As it is a subset, Oracle does not recommend using the Oracle Coherence Plug-In available for Oracle Enterprise Manager to be used with the Oracle Utilities Application Framework implementation of the Oracle Coherence cluster. Use of this plugin against the batch cluster will result in missing and incomplete information presented to the plug-in causing inconsistent results in that plug-in.
• Patching. The Oracle Coherence libraries are shipped with the Oracle Utilities Application Framework and therefore are managed by patches for the Oracle Utilities Application Framework not Coherence directly. Unless otherwise directed by Oracle Support, do not manually manipulate the Oracle Coherence libraries.

The Oracle Coherence implementation with the Oracle Utilities Application Framework has been optimized for use with the batch architecture with a combination of prebuilt Oracle Coherence and Oracle Utilities Application Framework based configuration files.

Note: If you need to find out the version of the Oracle Coherence Libraries used in the product at any time then the libraries are listed in the file $SPLEBASE/etc/ouaf_jar_versions.txt

The following command can be used to see the version:

cat $SPLEBASE/etc/ouaf_jar_versions.txt | grep coh

For example in the latest version of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework (4.4.0.0.0):

cat /u01/umbk/etc/ouaf_jar_versions.txt | grep coh

coherence-ouaf                   12.2.1.3.0
coherence-work                   12.2.1.3.0

The Batch Architecture for the Oracle Utilities Application Framework is both flexible and powerful. To simplify the configuration and prevent common mistakes the Oracle Utilities Application Framework includes a capability called Batch Edit. This is a command line utility, named bedit.sh, that provides a wizard style capability to build and maintain your configuration. By default the capability is disabled and can be enabled by setting the Enable Batch Edit Functionality to true in the Advanced Configuration settings using the configureEnv.sh script:

Once enabled the capability can be used to build and maintain your batch architecture.

The Batch Edit capability is an interactive utility to build the environment. The capability is easy to use with the following recommendations:

• Flexible Options. When invoking the command you specify the object type you want to configure (cluster, threadpool or submitter) and any template you want to use. The command options will vary. Use the -h option for a full list.
• In Built Help. If you do not know what a parameter is about or even the object type. You can use the help <topic> command. For example, using when configuring help threadpoolworker gives you advice about the approaches you can take for threadpools. If you want a list of topics, type help with no topic.
• Simple Commands. The utility has a simple set of commands within the utility to interact with the settings. For example if you want to set the role within the cluster to say fred you would use the set role fred command within the utility.
• Save the Configuration. There is a save command to make all changes in the session reflect in the relevant file and conversely if you make a mistake you can exit without saving the session.
• Informative. It will tell you which file you are editing at the start of the session so you can be sure you are in the right location.

Here is an example of an edit session:

$ bedit.sh -w

Editing file /u01/ugtbk/splapp/standalone/config/threadpoolworker.properties using template /u01/ugtbk/etc/threadpoolworker.be
Includes the following push destinations:
  dir:/u01/ugtbk/etc/conf/tpw

Batch Configuration Editor 4.4.0.0.0_1 [threadpoolworker.properties]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Current Settings

  minheap (1024m)
  maxheap (1024m)
  daemon (true)
  rmiport (7540)
  dkidisabled (false)
  storage (true)
  distthds (4)
  invocthds (4)
  role (OUAF_Base_TPW)
  jmxstartport (7540)
  l2 (READ_ONLY)
  devmode (false)
  ollogdir (/u02/sploutput/ugtbk)
  ollogretain ()
  thdlogretain ()
  timed_thdlog_dis (false)
  pool.1
      poolname (DEFAULT)
      threads (5)
  pool.2
      poolname (LOCAL)
      threads (0)
> save
Changes saved
Pushing file threadpoolworker.properties to /u01/ugtbk/etc/conf/tpw ...
> exit

The first step in the process is to design your batch cluster. This is the group of servers that will execute batch processes. The Oracle Utilities Application Framework uses a Restricted Use License of Oracle Coherence to cluster batch processes and resources. The use of Oracle Coherence allows you to implement different architectures from simple to complex. Using Batch Edit there are three cluster types supported (you must choose one type per environment).

This is the simplest configuration with the cluster restricted to a single host. The cluster configuration is restricted networking wise within the configuration. To use this cluster type simply use the following command and follow the configuration generated for you from the template.

This is a multi-host cluster where the hosts in the configuration are defined explicitly in host and port number combinations. The port number is used for communication to that host in the cluster. This style is useful where the site does not want to use the multi-cast protocol or wants to micro-manage their configuration. To use this cluster type simply use the following command and follow the configuration generated for you from the template.

bedit.sh -c -t wka

You then add each host as a socket using the command:

This will add a new socket collection in the format socket.<socketnumber>. To set the values use the command:

where:

To use this cluster style ensure the following:

• Use the same port number per host. Try and use the same broadcast port on each host in the cluster. If they are different then the port number in the main file for the machines that are on the cluster has to be changed to define that port.
• Ensure each host has a copy of the configuration file. When you build the configuration file, ensure the same file is on each of the servers in the cluster (each host will require a copy of the product).

This is the most common multi-host configuration. The idea with this cluster type is that a multi-cast port and IP Address are broadcast across your network per cluster. It requires very little configuration and the threadpools can dynamically connect to that cluster with little configuration. It uses the multi-cast protocol which network administrators either love or hate. The configuration is similar to the Single Server but the cluster settings are actually managed in the installation configuration (ENVIRON.INI) using the COHERENCE_CLUSTER_ADDRESS and COHERENCE_CLUSTER_PORT settings. Refer to the Server Administrator Guide for additional configuration advice.

When setting up the cluster there are a few guidelines to follow:

• Use Single Server for Non-Production. Unless you need multi-host clusters, use the Single Server cluster to save configuration effort.
• Name Your Cluster Uniquely. Ensure your cluster is named appropriately and uniquely per environment to prevent cross environment unintentional clustering.
• Set a Cluster Type and Stick with it. It is possible to migrate from one cluster type to another (without changing other objects) but to save time it is better to lock in one type and stick with it for the environment.
• Avoid using Prod Mode. There is a mode in the configuration which is set to dev by default. It is recommended to leave the default for ALL non-production environment to avoid cross cluster issues. The Prod mode is recommended for Production systems only. Note: There are further safeguards built into the Oracle Utilities Application Framework to prevent cross cluster connectivity.

The cluster configuration generates a tangosol-coherence-override.xml configuration file used by Oracle Coherence to manage the cluster.

Now we have the cluster configured, the next step is to design your threadpools to be housed in the cluster. That will be discussed in Part 2 (coming soon).