Printer and Pasta configuration on Oracle Applications

Setting up printer in Linux OS (Remote printer configuration)

- Run printtool as root

Illustration I: Printtool Command in Linux

Click new from the popup

Adding a New Print Queue
Here I gave name as HPLaser2105 and short description as HPLaserJet printer in Abdulla Machine (Just to identify)

Defining a Print Queue
You select queue type from the drop-down combo box (Networked Windows (SMB))

Select Queue Type
You click specify from the window.
Select Windows SMB

Here is the configuration window

Configuration - Printer residing Machine
It is finished with configuring. (It will be like (specified))
Configuration - Note the word (Specified)
Next Select printer model, Here I selected PCL6/PCL XL Printer
Note for PCL from Provider

Next Test Print from the printer (It should be printed!) else review the steps.
Test Page Print

After configuration the printer configuration will be like this.
Finish Printer Configuration

You should share, and make the printer as default by clicking edit.

Now the Applications Configuration:

Login as sysadmin and navigate to system administrator then Install:Printer
Then navigate to Driver. Here I created HPLASER2105 (Printer type)
Selected SRW driver as L
Driver method as command and driver method parameters as Spool File
Arguments as
: lp –c –d$PROFILES$.PRINTER –n$PROFILES$.CONC_COPIES –t"$PROFILES$.TITLE" $PROFILES$.FILENAME
To test the argument, please run this command in os command

$lp –c –d -n1 –t"Print Test"

Here I used (example)
lp –c –dHPlaser2105 –n1 –t"Print Test" sqlnet.log

Command Line : Printer command for Linux (telnet)

The printer should work. This is the command we are going to pass as argument in Oracle Apps

Define Printer Driver from SYSADMIN -> Install Print. Provide SRW Driver as L for Landscape
You next navigate to

Install printer -> style
You query for Landscape with SRW driver as L

Look for SRW Driver L for Landscape

Then move to Printer Types
Here you have to define a new type called Hplaser2105 and description as PCL

Create a new Printer TYPE
You select as HPPD, HPW, LANDSCAPE, LANDWIDE,PORTRAIT, PORTRAITLASERCHECK, RL1PAPER styles and correspondence driver files with HPLJ4.

Now. You register the printer
Install:Printer-> Register

Registering Printer
Here I have defined the printer as HPLASER2105, Selected type as HPLASER2105 and Description as Windows Remote Printer Configuration.

Set Profile option for Printer at site level – Most important.

That’s all, we completed. Now
1. Bounce the concurrent Service. It is most important. Whenever, you are doing modification with printer, you should do bouncing the concurrent service.

2. Now run a concurrent request to print a report

3. Here Selected Active users

Print Test with any report (Here I used Active Users)
Click Options.
There you select copies as 1.

Then submit with OK
Now, the concurrent manager should complete with status completed normal. Review the log file.
If any thing happened in middle, please review the steps. Thats All.. Finished Printer configuration in Oracle Applications.

Installing PASTA (FNDPSTAX)
Pasta is Oracle Application utility to convert text report files to Post Script so that these can be printed by PostScript Printers. Executable name for Pasta is FNDPSTAX. For various printing options via Pasta, you can use pasta configuration file called as pasta.cfg

The pasta.cfg is there in $FND_TOP/resource.

Copy the Pasta.cfg to Pasta_(Your printername).cfg. (Oracle recommends to copy the name to your printer name) PASTA makes it easy to customize your printing configuration very easy. So use the OS Printer name to define the Pasta.
1. Replace printer_name parameter in pasta.cfg as one with your OS printer name. Here my printer name is HPlaser2105
The command lp –c –d{printername} should print with command line.
Please check before you make changes with your pasta.cfg.
Screen Shot.

Save and exit.
Login to Oracle Apps as System admin
Navigation Path: Install -> Printer ->Driver -> create a driver, PASTA_PORTRAIT. There will be default PASTA-DRIVERS in built with Oracle Apps, We can use them.
For Portrait -> use SRW driver as P
For LANDSCAPE -> use SRW driver as L
For LANDWIDE -> use SRW driver as LW
You please check the Spool File and program name as FNDPSTAX.
Next:
Install -> Printer -> Type
Here I have created PASTA_POSTSCRIPT_HPLASER2105 with all the drivers.
Then you register.
Install -> Printer -> Register.
Save and Exit.

Restart your concurrent Manager (Important)

Check with Active Reports
You please note, the language I selected As Arabic and PASTA as the printer. Submit the request, It should completed normal. In case any problem in the middle, then review the steps.

Cheers!!!

FNDCPASS Tricks and Methods

In Oracle Application 11i and R12, we have an FND functionality for changing the passwords for either application user, or product schema password or most important the “APPS” password. The FND binary which will help us is doing these things is FNDCPASS.

This is present in $FND_TOP/bin directory.

This post explains the usage of FNDCPASS, best practices that needs to be followed while using FNDCPASS and some tricks when FNDCPASS screws up the instance :))

Using FNDCPASS

Below is the usage for FNDCPASS
$FNDCPASS
Usage: FNDCPASS logon 0 Y system/password mode username new_password

where logon is username/password[@connect]

system/password is password of the system account of that database

mode is SYSTEM/USER/ORACLE

username is the username where you want to change its password

new_password is the new password in unencrypted format

Example:
FNDCPASS apps/apps 0 Y system/manager SYSTEM APPLSYS WELCOME
FNDCPASS apps/apps 0 Y system/manager ORACLE GL GL1
FNDCPASS apps/apps 0 Y system/manager USER VISION WELCOME

You can just type FNDCPASS and press enter, it will give you these details.

The first usage
FNDCPASS apps/apps 0 Y system/manager SYSTEM APPLSYS WELCOME

is for changing the password for apps and applsys. These are the database schema users
(most important for application to work). Password for both these users should be in synch. You can change the password of these users using this command. Note that this is the only way to change the password for apps and applsys. Please do not try any other method for changing apps and applsys password. Oracle recomends using FNDCPASS only to change apps and applsys password. Also note that using this command will change the password for both apps and applsys.

Following activities will take place

(1) applsys validation. (make sure APPLSYS name is correct)
(2) reencrypt all password in FND_USER
(3) reencrypt all password in FND_ORACLE_USERID
(4) update applsys’s password in FND_ORACLE_USERID table.
(5) Update apps password in FND_ORACLE_USERID table. Also changes are made in DBA_USERS table.

The second usage
FNDCPASS apps/apps 0 Y system/manager ORACLE GL GL1

is for changing password for any other product schema like MSC, GL etc.

Following activities will take place
(1) update GL’s password in FND_ORACLE_USERID table. The new password is reencrypted
with the current applsys password. If GL does not exists, step (2) below does not happen. Message for invalid oracle user is written in the log file.

(2) alter user to change GL’s password.


The third usage
FNDCPASS apps/apps 0 Y system/manager USER VISION WELCOME

is for changing the application level passwords like sysadmin etc used for logging into
application.

Following activities will take place
(1) update VISION’s password in FND_USER table. The new password is reencrypted
with the current applsys password.

If VISION does not exist, message for invalid application user is written in the log file.
No products affected by the patch When you run FNDCPASS command it will check the integrity of all schema password in the application. If any of the password is corrupt then this will through and error and will not change the password.

The tables that it uses is FND_USER and FND_ORACLE_USERID. All the application
passwords and schema passwords are stored in these two tables. Ofcourse DBA_USERS
will have the schema users and password stored as well.

When we run FNDCPASS it will update all the above 3 tables.

Best practices for using FNDCPASS
Before using FNDCPASS and changing the passwords from default to some thing else,
always follow the following best practices.
1) Always, Always, Always keep the back of tables FND_USER and FND_ORACLE_USERID. You can take back of these tables using CREATE TABLE —
AS SELECT * FROM —.

You must have backup of these tables before running FNDCPASS. In case if FNDCPASS fails then it might corrupt the passwords of your application and worst can happen that the application wont come up. So always be cautions about this command.

2) If possible also keep an export dump of these two tables.

3) Verify each arguement you are providing to FNDCPASS. Like verify that apps and system passwords you are providing is correct.

4) Never update apps, applsys or any schema password directly from database using the alter command. Always use FNDCPASS. System password can be set directly using ALTER command in database.

Issue with APPLSYS and APPS password

Scenario 1:
As you know that apps and applsys password should be in synch and should be changed
using FNDCPASS.
There can be situation where a novice user changes applsys password from the backend
database. In that case when you try to start the services it will show following error
APPFND01496:

Cannot access application ORACLE password

Cause: Application Object Library was unable access your ORACLE password.
You can even reproduce this issue (ofcourse after taking the backup of FND_USER and
FND_ORACLE_USERID table) using the following steps:

1. Use the ALTER USER command to change the APPLSYS password
2. Try to run the adstrall.sh script to start Apps services.
3. You will get an error “Cannot complete applications logon. You may have entered an invalid applications password, or there may have been a database connect error.”
4. Then try FNDCPASS to fix password and you will get the error the APPFND01496
error.

If this situation happens then you cannot access the application. In fact the services even wont start.
Resolution to such problem is to rollback the 2 tables FND_USER and FND_ORACLE_USERID. Once you rollback the tables, apps and applsys passwords will be in synch and password will be older one. You can then run FNDCPASS and change the password.

Scenario 2:
Some times when you run FNDCPASS, you get following error
APPFND01502: Cannot encrypt application ORACLE password

Cause: Application Object Library was unable encrypt your ORACLE password.

Action: Contact your support representative. (ORACLEUSER=APPS_SERV)
The error comes because the table fnd_oracle_userid contain rows for schemas that does
not exist. Those rows must be deleted from the table.

Use the following query to get the details of the schema that doest not exists
select * from fnd_oracle_userid
where oracle_username not in
(select username from all_users);

The rows returned by this query can be deleted from FND_ORACLE_USERID table.
This will resolve this issue.

Scenario 3:
There can be situation where users has update APPLSYS password using ALTER command in database directly and also you dont have backup of those tables. Under such situation, it is very difficult to recover the application and make it working. Still following methodology is proposed which might help you to restore the password back and make your application work fine.

For this to work you should have some other application (may be debug or UAT) which is having the same passwords or default passwords for schemas. If you have such application the following the below steps in the application which is affected by password mismatch.

This method is for resetting apps and applsys passwords. Below are the SQL statements that will help you reset the APPS and APPLSYS passwords to APPS, the APPLSYSPUB password to PUB, and the SYSADMIN password to SYSADMIN.

WARNING: This procedure will cause all user passwords to become invalid. ALL users
passwords will need to be reset through the sysadmin responsibility.

Step 1) Reset the Oracle User IDs
Open a SQL*Plus as SYSTEM and reset the passwords for the APPS, APPLSYS, and the
APPLSYSPUB Oracle user ID:

ALTER USER apps IDENTIFIED BY apps;
ALTER USER applsys IDENTIFIED BY apps;
ALTER USER applsyspub IDENTIFIED BY pub;

Step 2) Backup the FND_ORACLE_USERID and FND_USER tables (even though these tables are right now corrupted, do take a backup. You can restore the same when ever you want).

Open a SQL*Plus session as APPLSYS and backup the tables:
create table FND_ORACLE_USERID_BAK as (select * from FND_ORACLE_USERID);
create table FND_USER_BAK as (select * from FND_USER);

Step 3) Reset the APPS and APPLSYS application encrypted passwords
Open a SQL*Plus session as APPLSYS and update the FND_ORACLE_USERID table.
update FND_ORACLE_USERID
set ENCRYPTED_ORACLE_PASSWORD =
‘ZGA34EA20B5C4C9726CC95AA9D49EA4DBA8EDB705CB7673E645EED570D54
47161491D78D444554655B87486EF537ED9843C8′
where ORACLE_USERNAME in (’APPS’, ‘APPLSYS’);
commit;

This encrypted string we are updating is the default encrypted string for apps. So if your
application is having apps password the encrypted string will look like this. We are
updating this encrypted string here directly.

Verify the table update:
select ENCRYPTED_ORACLE_PASSWORD from FND_ORACLE_USERID
where ORACLE_USERNAME IN (’APPS’, ‘APPLSYS’);

Step 4) Reset the APPLSYSPUB application encrypted password
Open a SQL*Plus session as APPLSYS and update the FND_ORACLE_USERID table.

update FND_ORACLE_USERID
set ENCRYPTED_ORACLE_PASSWORD =
‘ZG31EC3DD2BD7FB8AD2628CE87DDDF148C1D2F248BE88BE987FDF8283022
8A88EF44BC78BC7A9FAD4BFB8F09DAD49DF7280E’
where ORACLE_USERNAME = (’APPLSYSPUB’);
commit;

The above encrypted string is the encrypted string for password pub. If your applsyspub
password is pub then the encrypted string in FND_ORACLE_USERID will look like
this.
Verify the table update:
select ENCRYPTED_ORACLE_PASSWORD
from FND_ORACLE_USERID
where ORACLE_USERNAME = ‘APPLSYSPUB’;

Once these updates are done, try your luck by running FNDCPASS and it should work
fine.

Rapidwiz Actions while Installation of Oracle Applications (R12)

Installation Steps (Rapid Install R12)
$ ./rapidwiz
Rapid Install Wizard is validating your file system......

4 dvd labels found
Rapid Install Wizard will now launch the Java Interface.....
$

Configuration file written to:
oracle/R12/db/tech_st/10.2.0/appsutil/conf_r12test.txt
Configuration file written to:
/oracle/R12/apps/apps_st/appl/admin/ap6155rt/conf_r12test.txt
Configuration file written to:
/oracle/R12/inst/apps/r12test_ap6155rt/conf_r12test.txt
Database logfile
/oracle/R12/db/tech_st/10.2.0/appsutil/log/r12test_ap6155rt/01050832.log
Appltop logfile
oracle/R12/inst/apps/r12test_ap6155rt/logs/01050832.log
$

In the session, I have been given two logs.
1) DB log file
2) Application Side Log file

If you read the DB log file and application log file you will come to know installation
uses Rapid Cloning method. Hence the installation takes less than 100 minutes. Its really Rapid Install...!!!

25 Steps that Happens during rapidwiz

1) It prompts you the details of the installation
2) It dumps all the values you have fed in log files for reference
3) Instantiates context template files
4) It builds the DB side context xml
5) It checks the ports availability
6) It performs OS User and Group Checks
7) It does Port Uniqueness Check
8) File System Check whether file system is writable
9) File Space check
10) Host Domain check It uses ping utility to check the reachability of the host
11) It copies DB techstack and configures (oracle.apps.ad.clone.ApplyDBTechStack)
12) It installs the DB either vision or prod depending on the selection and does apply portion of DB(oracle.apps.ad.clone.ApplyDatabase)
13) Performs character set conversion. In our case I have selected UTF8, default was US7ASCII
14) Bounces DB
15) Runs DB side Autoconfig
16) Brings up the DB listener ( End of DB portion of install)
17) MidTier iAS stack installation(adrunias.sh)
18) registration(oracle.apps.ad.clone.ApplyAppsTechStack phase reg),configuration (phase cfg) of Mid Tier
19) Installing Appltop
20) copying appltop context file
21) registering appltop( oracle.apps.ad.clone.ApplyApplTop phase reg)
22) Autoconfig MidTiernode
23) starts the MT services
24) Test of installation ( DBC File, env file tests, HTTP test, Help page test, Virtual Directory test), JSP ping test, Login page test
25) Summarizes the installation in screen
Review the installation logs for errors........