Using Load-Balancers With Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2

Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.
2 (Doc ID
1375686.1)
Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2
Last Updated: November 14, 2013
The most current version of this document can be obtained in My Oracle Support
Note Document 1375686.1. There is a change log at the end of this document.
In This Document
Section 1: Introduction
o Terminology
o General Architecture of Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2
o Network Configuration Requirements for Load-Balancers
Section 2 Planning Deployment Options
o 2.1: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Single Web Entry Point
2.1.1: Configuration Details
2.1.2: Configuration Changes on the Application Tier
2.1.3: Update Applications Context File
2.1.4: Configuration Changes on the Load Balancer
o 2.2: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Multiple Web Entry Points
2.2.3: Update Hierarchy Type
o 2.3: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Functional Redirection

2.3.3: Update Hierarchy Type
2.3.5: Set Profile Option Values at Responsibility Level
2.3.5.1: Using the Forms Interface
2.3.5.2: Using the Command Line Interface
o 2.4 Using Domain Name Server (DNS) Load Balancing with Single Web
Entry Point
o Section 3:Configuring WebLogic Clusters
3.1: Deployment Option with Single Web Entry Point
3.1.1:Deployment Option with OHS Configured on Primary

Node and Managed Servers On Different Application Tier
Servers
3.1.2:Deployment Option with OHS Configured on Multiple
Nodes and Managed Servers On Different Application Tier
Servers
Appendices
o A: Related Documentation
Change Log
Section 1: Introduction
This section examines the terminology used in load-balancing, then describes the relevant E-
Business Suite architecture and related network configuration strategies and options.
Tier
A tier is a logical grouping of services, potentially spread across more than one physical
machine.
Client Tier
The client interface is provided through HTML for the HTML-based applications, and via a
Java applet in a Web browser for the traditional Forms-based interface. In Oracle
Applications Release 12.2, each user logs in to Oracle Applications through the E-Business
Suite Home Page on a desktop client web browser. The E-Business Suite Home Page
provides a single point of access to HTML-based applications, Forms-based applications,
and Business Intelligence applications.
Application Tier
The application tier hosts the various services that process the business logic and manage
communication between the desktop tier and the database tier. This tier runs the web server
and the associated processes, concurrent processing server, Interaction and Oracle
fulfillment server.
Database Tier
The database tier contains the Oracle database server which stores all the data maintained by
Oracle Applications. This tier has the Oracle data server files and Oracle Applications
database executables that physically store the tables, indexes, and other database objects in
the system.
OPMN
Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN) is installed and configured on
every tier designated to run the web application. OPMN provides an integrated way to
manage all Oracle Application Server components. OPMN consists of two main pieces: the
Process Manager and the Notification Server. The Process manager (PM) is the centralized
process management mechanism in Oracle Application Server and is used to manage all
Oracle Application Server processes. The PM starts, restarts, stops, and monitors every
process it manages. It also performs death-detection and automatic restart of the processes.
Oracle Notification Server (ONS) is the transport mechanism for failure, recovery, startup,
and other related notifications between components in Oracle Application Server.
OHS
Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) is installed and configured on every tier that is designated to run
the web application . It provides the key infrastructure required for serving the static and
dynamic content generated by Oracle E Business Suite products.
WebLogic Server
Oracle WebLogic Server is a scalable, enterprise-ready Java Platform, Enterprise Edition

(Java EE) application server.
WebLogic Cluster
A WebLogic Server cluster consists of multiple WebLogic Server server instances running
simultaneously and working together to provide increased scalability and reliability. A
cluster appears to clients to be a single WebLogic Server instance. The server instances that
constitute a cluster can run on the same machine, or be located on different machines..
WebLogic Proxy Plugin
The WebLogic proxy plug-in maintains a list of WebLogic Server instances that host a
clustered servlet or JSP, and forwards HTTP requests to those instances on a round-robin
basis
WebLogic Domain
A WebLogic Server domain is a logically related group of WebLogic Server resources.
Administration Server
Every Weblogic domain has a server instance called Administration Server. It is used to
configure all other server instances and resources in the domain.
Managed Server
Managed Servers host the components and associated resources that constitute your
applicationsfor example, JSPs and EJBs. When a Managed Server starts up, it connects to
the domain's Administration Server to obtain configuration and deployment settings.
Node Manager
Node Manager is a Java utility that runs as separate process from WebLogic Server and
allows you to perform common operations tasks for a Managed Server, regardless of its
location with respect to its Administration Server.
Web Entry Point
Web Entry Point refers to the host name which is designated to be used by all users to access
the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 system. By default, the web entry point is set to
the hostname of the application server where Oracle E-Business Suite is installed. In the
case where a load-balancer is used, the Web Entry Point becomes the load-balancer's host
name.
Session Persistence
Session Persistence is the act of keeping a specific user's traffic going to the same server that
was initially hit when the site was contacted for the first HTTP transaction. This is especially
important for E-Business Suite as various modules bundled with the suite need to maintain
session state. Session persistence is sometimes referred to as "server stickiness."
Server Load Balancer
Load balancing can be defined as the technology and associated processes that distribute a
website's traffic among several machines in a cluster using a network-based device called
a server load balancer. Cluster architectures allow all members of a group of machines to
run the same web application, appearing to the outside world as a single machine.
A server load balancer intercepts traffic destined for a site, and redirects it to various
machines in the cluster according to the particular load-balancing method chosen. This
optimizes use of system resources, resulting in higher performance, availability and
scalability. Load balancers are recommended for mission-critical enterprise deployments of
web-based applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite.
A typical load balanced architecture is shown in the diagram below:
To summarize , a server load balancer performs the following functions:
Intercepts network traffic destined for a site.

Splits the traffic into individual requests and decides which machines in the cluster
are to receive these requests.
Maintains a watch on the available machines, ensuring that they are responding to
the traffic; if they are not, they are taken out from the load-balancing pool so that
traffic can be routed to the machines that are available.
Provides redundancy by employing more than one machine for fail-over scenarios.
Provides context-aware load distribution, so that applications that need to maintain

session-persistent connections do not fail. This feature of load balancer is very
important for Oracle E-Business Suite as the various modules require session-
persistent connections. To support this feature, the load balancer reads the cookies set
on each request made by the client, and, based on the information in the cookie, it
can rewrite the header information, then send the request to the appropriate machine
in the cluster, where its session is maintained.
General Architecture of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2
The Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 architecture, as shown in the figure below, is a
framework for multi-tiered, distributed computing that supports various Oracle Applications
products. In this model, various servers are distributed among multiple levels, or tiers.
A server is a process or group of processes that runs on a single machine and provides a
particular class of functionality, often referred to as a service. For example, the Oracle HTTP
server is a process that listens for and processes HTTP requests; a Concurrent Processing
server is a server that process batch jobs submitted through concurrent requests.
The three-tier architecture that comprises an Oracle E-Business Suite installation is made up
of:
1. The database tier, which supports and manages the Oracle database
2. The application tier, which supports and manages the various Applications
components, and is sometimes known as the middle tier
3. The client tier, which provides the user interface via a supported web browser, either
natively in HTML or via Forms running in the Sun Java Runtime Engine
Network Configuration Requirements for Load-Balancers
In a load-balanced configuration, a load-balancer device serves requests from clients and

redirects them to multiple E-Business Suite application tier servers. The load-balancer acts
as a single entry point to the E-Business Suite environment. Two sets of major requirements
must be met to ensure successful configuration of hardware-based load-balancers with the E-
Business Suite:
1. Load-Balancer Hardware Requirements

2. DNS Resolution Requirements
1. Load Balancer Hardware Requirements
Virtual Servers and Port Configuration
For product functionality and to meet high availability requirements, Oracle E-Business
Suite code running on the application tier servers may need to establish a connection to
itself, to external servers, or to the database server. This requires the load-balancing device
to accept connections from the application tier servers behind the device, and to route the
request to the appropriate server. In certain network configurations, the load balancing
device may not be support such connections, and the request may either hang or be dropped.
Such a scenario requires contacting the hardware load balancer vendor, to discuss either the
feasibility of either reconfiguring the load balancer device to accept the connections
originating from the servers behind it, or, alternatively and preferably, upgrading to devices
that can support these types of loopback connections.
Depending upon the networking device, it may be feasible to alias load-balancer virtual host
names directly to the IP addresses of specific application tier servers. Such mappings may
not be technically feasible in all configurations. Oracle does not certify or recommend such
configurations, but will support them on a best-efforts basis, subject to available resources
and expertise. Although machine mappings may be supported, technical limitations inherent
in DNS layer devices may prevent port and protocol mappings.
For example, a load-balancer with SSL acceleration capabilities may be configured to listen
for HTTPS traffic on port 443, and forward unencrypted traffic to the pool of application tier
servers listening for HTTP traffic on port 8000. Mapping HTTPS services to the application
tier servers instead of the load-balancer/SSL accelerator will result in failures, as the
application tier servers are not configured to handle HTTPS traffic, and will reject traffic for
port 443.
It is also possible to configure a single E-Business Suite environment to be accessed via

multiple domain names, each with its own pool of application tier servers. For example: A
single E-Business Suite environment might have the following two
domains: partners.company.com, and employees.company.com. The partners.company.com domain uses a
pool of application servers (e.g. apptier1 and apptier2) secured and used exclusively for
external access by partners and supplies. The employees.company.com domain uses a different
pool of application servers (e.g. apptier3 and apptier4) that may be used only by company
employees. Both environments use the same E-Business Suite database.
Depending on the load-balancer used, it is technically possible to use a single physical load-
balancer to handle client requests for both domains. To support this configuration, the load-
balancer must:
Allow configuration of multiple virtual server names and multiple ports

Associate each virtual server name with its own IP address, each of which are
accessible via your DNS
Allow clients to address the virtual server names, which the load-balancer
uses to redirect traffic to the appropriate pool of application tier servers
Resource Monitoring, Port Monitoring & Process Failure Detection
Oracle recommends that the load-balancer be configured to detect service and Server
failures, through heartbeat monitors, notification, or some other mechanism. If a Server in
the pool fails, the load-balancer must stop directing traffic to the failed Server.
Fail-Over Capabilities
It is possible to set up offsite fail-over environments that can be switched to if the primary
environment fails. For example, a load-balancer may be configured to direct E-Business
Suite traffic to a primary pool of application servers in Austin, Texas. If that primary site
fails for some reason, the load-balancer should be able to detect the failure and redirect all
traffic to identically-named application tier servers running in an offsite disaster recovery
site.
Oracle recommends that load-balancers be configured to support fail-over configurations.
Returning Traffic on Failures
Oracle recommends configuring load-balancers to return immediately to the calling client

when the application server to which it forwards traffic is unavailable. This is preferred over
the client disconnecting on its own after a timeout based on the TCP/IP settings on the client
machine.
The WebLogic Server requires a Hardware Load Balancer that must support a compatible
passive or active cookie persistence mechanism, and SSL persistence.
Passive Cookie Persistence
Passive cookie persistence enables WebLogic Server to write a cookie

containing session parameter information through the load balancer to the
client. For information about the session cookie and how a load balancer uses
session parameter data to maintain the relationship between the client and the
primary WebLogic Server hosting a HTTP session state, see Load Balancers
and the WebLogic Session Cookie.
Active Cookie Persistence
Certain active cookie persistence mechanisms can be used with WebLogic

Server clusters, provided the load balancer does not modify the WebLogic
Server cookie. WebLogic Server clusters do not support active cookie
persistence mechanisms that overwrite or modify the WebLogic HTTP
session cookie. If the load balancer's active cookie persistence mechanism
works by adding its own cookie to the client session, no additional
configuration is required to use the load balancer with a WebLogic Server
cluster.
SSL Persistence
When SSL persistence is used, the load balancer performs all encryption and
decryption of data between clients and the WebLogic Server cluster. The load
balancer then uses the plain text cookie that WebLogic Server inserts on the
client to maintain an association between the client and a particular server in
the cluster.
2. DNS Resolution Requirements
All clients must be able to resolve the hostname of the load-balancer. In the case where a
single load-balancer hosts multiple virtual servers, clients must be able to resolve the
hostname of each of the virtual server names. Note that "clients" also include E-Business
Suite application tier server, which perform loopback queries to the load-balancer's virtual
server name.
You can perform the following tests from desktop clients and each application tier server to
ensure that DNS resolution is working:
1. Use ping
>ping <LbrDeviceHostname>.<domain>
For example:
>ping employees.company.com
If successful, this command will return the IP address of the load-balancer,

along with information about ping latency and response times.
2. Use telnet
>telnet <LbrDeviceHostname>.<domain> [http/https port]
For example:
>telnet employees.company.com 443
>GET /OA_HTML/OAInfo.jsp
If successful, this command will connect to the load-balancer using the

specified port and will return the HTML output from OAInfo.jsp
Section 2:Planning Deployment Options
The 12.2 Rapid Installer utility can be used to Install a new, fully configured Oracle E-
Business Suite system, including the latest certified Oracle E-Business Suite technology
stack and all patches, product family release update packs, release update packs, and other
updates available at the time of this Oracle E-Business Suite release. Rapid Install employs a
wizard that guides you through the screens used to carry out the selected task. On the wizard
screens, you enter configuration values for your system.
The Rapid Install utility support different types of installations namely a single node
installation where the database and the application tier are installed and configured on a one
node and also a multitier installation where the database and the application tier nodes are
spread across different nodes. Please refer to the Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2 Installation
guide for more information.
In this document we are going to describe a two node installation scenario where the
Database Tier is installed on node 1 and the application tier is installed on node 2. We will
be addressing these nodes as the primary database tier node and primary application tier
node respectively. Follow the steps given below in sequence to complete the installation.
Note: It is recommended that you stage the installation CDs on a remote file system that can
be mounted and accessed from the different nodes on where we are going to perform the
installation..
Install the Database Tier on Node 1
Start the rapidwiz utility on node 1. The first screen lists the components that are included
in, or supported by, this release of Oracle E-Business Suite. You can see from this list that a
new installation includes a fresh Oracle 11g Release 2 (11gR2) database. Enter the
appropriate values as prompted by the Installler for the Database and the Application Tier
node and complete the Database tier installation.
Note: When entering the location of the install directories for the application tier install, you
can either enter the location of a local drive on that machine or an NFS location that is
accessible from that primary application tier node. The recommendation is to install the
application tier file system on to a remote file system that can be mounted across various
application tier nodes. Please refer to My Support Oracle Support Note http://www-
apps.us.oracle.com/techstack/projects/12.2/shared_fs/shared.html for more details.
Install the Primary Application Tier on Node 2
Start the rapidwiz utility on node 2. The database and the associated processes need to be up
and running on the database tier to successfully complete this installation. The first screen
lists the components that are included in, or supported by, this release of Oracle E-Business
Suite. You can see from this list that a new installation of the application tier includes Oracle
Fusion Middleware Stack that includes the WebLogic Server and the Web Tier. The Oracle
Application Server stack that includes the forms and reports and the Oracle E-Business Suite
Application tier code.
A successful completion of the application tier installation on to node 2 configures the

following services:
Root Service comprising of the Node Manager

Web Administration Service comprising of the WebLogic Administration Server and
the TNS Listener for FNDFS
Web Entry Point Services comprising of the Oracle Process Notification Server
(OPMN) and the Oracle HTTP Server ( OHS)
Web Application Services comprising of the Managed Servers names oacore, forms,
oafm and form-c4ws
Batch Processing Services comprising of the concurrent processing services, ICSM
and JTF fullfillment server
Other Services comprising of the forms server and the mobile web application server
Execute adpreclone Utility on the Run and Patch File System
The adpreclone utility shipped with Oracle E-Business Suite packages the required
application tier components to a staging directory for subsequent clone and add node
operations. You must run this utility before proceeding to Section 4 of this document.
The adpreclone utility requires the application tier processes to be running from the file
system where the utility is run. This is required to package the Oracle Fusion Middleware
components and its configuration. Perform the commands shown below on both the run and
patch file systems:
On the run file system:

$ cd <inst-top-run-fs>/admin/scripts
$ ./adstrtal.sh <apps-user-name>/<apps-password>
$ ./adpreclone.pl appsTier
Once the utility completes, shut down the application tier processes:
$ ./adstpall.sh <apps-user-name>/<apps-password>
On the patch file system:

$ cd <inst-top-patch-fs>/admin/scripts
$ ./adstrtal.sh <apps-user-name>/<apps-password>
$ ./adpreclone.pl appsTier
Once the utility completes, shut down the application tier processes.
$ ./adstpall.sh <apps-user-name>/<apps-password>
To add additional nodes, follow the instructions given in the following guide:
If planning to use shared file system, follow Section 4: Adding a Node to the Shared
Application Tier File System
If planning to use non-shared file system, follow the instructions in the Rapid Clone
Guide.
2.1: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Single Web Entry Point
The diagram shown below represents a hardware load balancer configuration with a single
entry point to load balance the web application running on application servers 1 and 2. In
this configuration, all users access E-Business Suite application via a single URL.
The steps described in this section assume that you already have a multi-node Oracle E-
Business Suite Release 12.2 installation. Application Servers 1 and 2 must be configured to
run the web application behind a hardware-based load-balancer. This configuration assume
there are multiple instances of Oracle HTTP Server and Managed Servers configured on
each node.
Use the AutoConfig Context Editor to set the configuration values in the applications
context file on server 1 and 2 . The table below describe how the context value should be
changed when a load balancer is configured in front of application servers. For example:
Load Balancer Entry Point: store.company.com

Application Server 1: appstier1.company.com
Web Entry protocol: https
Application Tier Web Protocol: http
Application Tier Web Port: 8050
Active Web Port:443

Context Variable Context Variable
Old Context Value
Name Description
Protocol that desktop
s_webentryurlprotocol
clients use to http
communicate with the
web entry point server
Name of the host that
s_webentryhost
receives the first HTTP appstier1 on Application Server 1
request from the appstier2 on Application Server 2
desktop client
Domain name of the
s_webentrydomain
host that receives the company.com
first HTTP request
from the desktop client
Port on the web server
s_active_webport
or load balancer that 8050
listens for HTTP
requests
http://appstier1.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/AppsLogin
URL used to access Application Server 1
s_login_page the Applications logon
http://appstier2.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/AppsLogin
page Application Server 2
URL that third party

tools use to connect to
http://appstier1.company.com:8050/ on Application Server 1
s_external_url
the E-Business Suite
System. This is used http://appstier2.company.com:8050/ on Application Server 2
only by the Oracle
Web Services product.
The values listed for the context variables in the table above should only be used as a
reference to change your applications context file. It is possible that system administrators
may have changed the default values to perform other advanced configurations.
After completing the changes shown above, do the following:
1. Run the AutoConfig utility on all the application tier Servers

2. Restart application server processes
3. Test sign on from the load balancer entry point
If you are using your load balancer for SSL termination/acceleration, be sure to follow the
steps outlined in My Oracle Support Note 1352581.1 (Enabling SSL in Oracle Applications
Release 12.2)
The Hardware Load Balancer must be configured for session persistence: various modules
shipped with Oracle E-Business Suite need to maintain session state. If this property is not
set, the loss of transaction state may result in users experiencing unpredictable errors.
Oracle supports session persistence technology that is transparent to the Oracle E-Business
Suite; that is, session persistence approaches which do not require additional programmatic
changes to the underlying E-Business Suite modules. For successful integration of your load
balancer with Oracle E-Business Suite application tiers, refer to your load balancer's
documentation for details on how to configure the load balancing pool, virtual host
configuration, and session persistence parameters. Networking hardware vendors offer
products with a range of technical solutions for session persistence, but it is beyond the
scope of this document to make comparative assessments of the various approaches.
As an example, the following table summarizes the key parameters that Oracle Development
uses for its standardized load balancer configuration tests:
Load Balancer
Value
Parameter
Load Balancing Method Predictive Node Address
Active HTTP Cookie with Method Insert and Cookie
Persistence Type
Expiration 12 hrs
2.2: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Multiple Web Entry Points
The diagram shown below represents a hardware load balancer configuration with multiple
entry points to load balance the web application running on application server 1, 2, 3 and 4.
In this configuration, users access E-Business Suite application with two different URLs.
This configuration assume there are multiple instances of Oracle HTTP Server and Managed
Servers configured on each node.
2.2.3: Update Ebusiness Suite Profile Options Hierarchy Type
There are a number of user profiles that are used to construct various URLs in an E-Business
Suite Release 12 environment. These user profiles are as follows:
User Profile Name Internal Name

APPS_WEB_AGENT
1. Applications Web Agent
APPS_SERVLET_AGENT
2. Applications Servlet Agent
APPS_JSP_AGENT
3. Applications JSP Agent
APPS_FRAMEWORK_AGENT
4. Applications Framework Agent
User Profile Name Internal Name
ICX_FORMS_LAUNCHER
5. ICX:Forms Launcher
ICX_DISCOVERER_LAUNCHER
6. ICX: Oracle Discoverer Launcher
ICX_DISCOVERER_VIEWER_LAUNCHER
7. ICX: Oracle Discoverer Viewer Launcher
HELP_WEB_AGENT
8. Applications Help Web Agent
APPS_PORTAL
9. Applications Portal
CZ_UIMGR_URL
10. BOM:Configurator URL of UI Manager
QP_PRICING_ENGINE_URL
11. QP: Pricing Engine URL
TCF:HOST
12. TCF:HOST
Table 1
The default hierarchy type value for the above profile options is of Security type as shown
in the sample diagram below:
Configuration of the E-Business Suite environment for access from multiple entry point
requires the profile options hierarchy type to be changed to SERVRESP. To change the
profile options hierarchy type values to SERVRESP , execute the following SQL script as
shown below:
sqlplus <apps-schema-name>/<apps-passwd> @<FND_TOP>/patch/115/sql/txkChangeProfH.sql SERVRESP
After running the script, verify that the hierarchy type for the profile options was
successfully changed to SERVRESP. For example, see the screenshot below:
context file on server 1, 2, 3 and 4. The table below describe how the context value should
be changed when a load balancer is configured in front of application servers. For example:
Load Balancer Entry Point 1: store.company.com


Active Web Port:443
Load Balancer Entry Point 2: recruitment.company.com
Web Entry protocol: http
Active Web Port:80

Context
Context
Variable
Variable Old Context Value New Context Value
Descript
Name
ion
Protocol
that
desktop
clients
use to https for store.company.com
s_webentryurl
protocol commun http
icate http for recruitment.company.com
with the
entry
point
server
s_webentryhos
t Name of appstier1 on Application Server 1 store as the entry web entry host
the host for
Context
Context
Variable
Descript
Name
ion
that
receives
the first appstier1 and appstier2
appstier2 on Application Server 2
HTTP recruitment as the web entry host
request appstier3 on Application Server 3
for
from the appstier4 on Application Server 4
appstier3 and appstier4
desktop
client
Domain
name of
the host
that
receives
s_webentrydom
ain the first company.com company.com
HTTP
request
from the
desktop
client
Port on
the web
server or
load
s_active_webp balancer 8050 on appstier1 and appstier2 443 for store.company.com
ort
that 8060 on appstier3 and appstier4 80 for recruitment.company.com
listens
for
HTTP
requests
http://appstier1.company.com:8050/OA_HT
URL ML/AppsLogin on appstier1

https://store.company.com/OA_HTML/A
used to
access
http://appstier2.company.com:8050/OA_HT ppsLogin as the login page
ML/AppsLogin on appstier2 for appstier1 and appstier2
s_login_page
the
Applicat http://appstier3.company.com:8060/OA_HT http://recruitment.company.com/OA_H
ions ML/AppsLogin on appstier3 TML/AppsLoginas the login page
logon for appstier3 and appstier4
page http://appstier4.company.com:8060/OA_HT
ML/AppsLogin on appstier4
s_external_ur
l URL http://appstier1.company.com:8050/ on https://store.company.com for store
that third appstier1 .company.com
party forr
tools use http://appstier2.company.com:8050/ on http://recruitment.company.com
ecruitment.company.com
appstier2
to
Context
Context
Variable
Descript
Name
ion
connect
to the E-
Business
Suite
System.
This is http://appstier3.company.com:8060/ on
appstier3
used
only by
http://appstier4.company.com:8060/ on
the appstier4
Oracle
Web
Services
product.

3. Test sign on from different entry points.
Release 12.2)
Load Balancer
Value
Parameter
Persistence Type
Expiration 12 hrs
2.3: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Functional Redirection
In this configuration there is a primary web entry point URL. Users are directed to different
servers based on the functional responsibilities that they choose after signing on.
In this configuration, users access the Oracle E-Business Suite using the primary entry point
URL https://ebiz.company.com and depending on the responsibility they choose --
either manufacturing vs hrms -- they are redirected to
the https://mfg.company.com or https://hrms.company.com pool of servers.

2.3.3: Update E-Business Suite Profile Options Hierarchy Type
Please follow the instructions provided in Table 1 to set the profile hierarchy type
to SERVRESP.
context file on server ebiz1, ebiz2 , mfg1, mfg2 and hrms. The table below describe how
the context value should be changed when a load balancer is configured in front of
application servers. For example:
Load Balancer Entry Point 1: ebiz.company.com

Active Web Port:443
Load Balancer Entry Point 2: mfg.company.com
Active Web Port:443
Load Balancer Entry Point 3: hrms.company.com
Application Tier Web Protocol: https
Active Web Port:443

Context
Context Variabl
Variable e Old Context Value New Context Value
Name Descrip
tion
Protocol
that
desktop
clients
use to
s_webentryur commun http https
lprotocol
icate
with the
web
entry
point
server
Name of ebiz as the web entry host
the host forappstier1.company.com
that and andappstier2.company.com
receives
s_webentryho the first as the web entry host
mfg
st
HTTP forappstier3.company.com anda
request ppstier4.company.com
from the
desktop hrms as the web entry
client hostappstier5.company.com
Domain
name of
the host
that
receives
s_webentrydo
main the first company.com company.com
HTTP
request
from the
desktop
client
Port on
the web
server or 8050 on appstier1.company.com andappstier2.
company.com
load
s_active_web balancer
port 8060 on appstier3.company.com and 443 for all web entry points
that appstier4.company.com
listens
for 8070 on appstier5.company.com
HTTP
requests
Context
Context Variabl
Variable e Old Context Value New Context Value
Name Descrip
tion
http://appstier1.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/Ap
https://ebiz.company.com/OA_HT
psLoginon appstier1.company.com
ML/AppsLoginas the login page
URL http://appstier2.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/Ap for appstier1.company.com anda
used to psLoginon appstier2.company.com ppstier2.company.com
access https://mfg.company.com/OA_HTM
s_login_page
the http://appstier3.company.com:8060/OA_HTML/Ap
L/AppsLoginas the login page
Applicat psLoginon appstier3.company.com for appstier3.company.com anda
ions ppstier4.company.com
logon psLoginon appstier4.company.com
https://hrms.company.com/OA_HT
page
ML/AppsLoginas the login page
for appstier5.company.com
psLoginon appstier5.company.com
URL
that
third
party http://appstier1.company.com:8050/ onappstie
tools use r1.company.com
to
connect http://appstier2.company.com:8050/ onappstie https://ebiz.company.com foreb
to the E- r2.company.com iz.company.com
Busines
s_external_u
s Suite http://appstier3.company.com:8060/ onappstie https://mfg.company.com for mf
rl r3.company.com g.company.com
System.
This is http://appstier4.company.com:8060/ onappstie https://hrms.company.com forhr
used r4.company.com ms.company.com
only by
the http://appstier5.company.com:8070/ onappstie
Oracle r5.company.com
Web
Services
product.

Release 12.2)
2.3.4.1: Configuration Changes on the Load Balancer
Load Balancer
Value
Parameter
Persistence Type
Expiration 12 hrs
2.3.5: Set Profile Option Values at Responsibility Level
Follow the instructions given below to set profile option values for the required
responsibilities at the responsibility level. These values have to be set for all the profile
options mentioned in Table 1
2.3.5.1: Using the Forms Interface
For example, to change the value for responsibility Manufacturing and Distribution
Manager, perform the following steps:
1. Login to Oracle E-Business Suite as sysadmin user using the main web entry point
URL
2. Select the System Administrator Responsibility
3. Select Profile > System
4. From the 'Find system profile option Values' window, select the responsibility
5. To change values for all agent profile options, Query for %AGENT% and set the
appropriate value to redirect the user to the manufacturing pool of servers. Refer to
the example shown below:
2.3.5.2: Using the Command Line Interface
To change the value for a responsibility , perform the following steps:

1. Execute the SQL script afservrespval.sql
sqlplus <apps-schema-name>/<apps-passwd> @<FND_TOP>/patch/115/sql/afservrespval.sql
2. The script will prompt for the following values:

o prof_name: profile option name (the value of PROFILE_OPTION_NAME column in
the fnd_profile_options table)
o resp_key: responsibility key (value of RESPONSIBILITY_KEY column
in fnd_responsibility table)
o appl_short_name: application short name (value of APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME column
in fnd_application table)
o node_name : node name (value of NODE_NAME column in fnd_nodes table)
o prof_level_value : profile option value to be set

2.4: Using Domain Name Server (DNS) Load Balancing with Single Web Entry Point
The diagram shown below represents a DNS load balancing configuration with a single
entry point to load balance the web application running on application tier
servers appstier1.company.com and appstier2.company.com. In this configuration, all
users access E-Business Suite application via a single URL.
This configuration employ a load balancing process known as DNS round robin and it utilize
a function of DNS that allows more than one Internet Protocol (IP) address to be associated
with a hostname. With DNS round robin, it is possible to assign multiple IP addresses to a
hostname and it will distribute the traffic to the list of IP addresses associated with that
hostname. For instance, let's say you had two application tier servers with IP addresses
of190.35.4.170 and 190.35.4.154 that you wanted to share the load for the
site dnslbr.company.com .The configuration in the DNS server for the two IP addresses
would look like the following:
$ dig dnslbr.company.com
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dnslbr.company.com. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
dnslbr.company.com. 10800 IN A 190.35.4.154
dnslbr.company.com. 10800 IN A 190.35.4.170
$ nslookup dnslbr.company.com
Name: dnslbr.company.com
Address: 190.35.4.170
Name: dnslbr.company.com
Address: 190.35.4.154
To verify whether DNS is routing the requests correctly, type the following commands in
sequence
$ telnet dnslbr.company.com
Trying 190.35.4.170...
Connected to dnslbr.company.com.
$ telnet dnslbr.company.com
Trying 190.35.4.154...
Connected to dnslbr.company.com
From the above output, you can see that the first request was routed to machine with IP
address190.35.4.170 and the next went to the server with IP address 190.35.4.154
Although DNS round robin load balancing is a simple way to distribute traffic among
several servers, it has several limitations which includes unpredictable load distribution,
DNS caching issues by the browser, lack of fault tolerance, Local DNS servers not
conforming to the standards and ignore Time to Live values specified by the authoritative
DNS servers etc.

The steps described in this section assume that you already have a multi-node Oracle E-
Business Suite Release 12 installation. Application Servers 1 and 2 will be configured to run
the web application behind a DNS based load-balancer.
context file on server 1 and 2 . The table below describe how the context value should be
changed when a load balancer is configured in front of application servers. For example:
Load Balancer Entry Point: dnslbr.company.com

Application Tier Web Protocol: https
Active Web Port:443

Old Context Value
Name Description
Protocol that desktop
clients use to
s_webentryurlprotocol communicate with http
the web entry point
server
Name of the host that
s_webentryhost
receives the first
HTTP request from
the desktop client
Domain name of the
host that receives the
s_webentrydomain first HTTP request company.com
from the desktop

client
Port on the web
s_active_webport
server or load 443
balancer that listens
for HTTP requests
s_login_page
URL used to access http://appstier1.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/AppsLoginon
Application Server 1
the Applications
logon page http://appstier2.company.com:8050/OA_HTML/AppsLoginon
Old Context Value
Name Description
Application Server 2
URL that third party
tools use to connect
http://appstier1.company.com:8050/ on Application Server 1
to the E-Business
s_external_url Suite System. This is http://appstier2.company.com:8050/ on Application
used only by the Server 2
Oracle Web Services
product.
DNS Load Balancing configuration requires Oracle HTTP Server to be configured on all
the nodes to avoid transaction state context loss ( session loss) errors

3. Test sign on from the web entry point
3: Configuring WebLogic Clusters
A WebLogic Server cluster consists of multiple WebLogic Server server instances running
simultaneously and working together to provide increased scalability and reliability. A
cluster appears to clients to be a single WebLogic Server instance. The server instances that
constitute a cluster can run on the same machine, or be located on different machines. You
can increase a clusters capacity by adding additional server instances to the cluster on an
existing machine, or you can add machines to the cluster to host the incremental server
instances. Each server instance in a cluster must run the same version of WebLogic Server.
A WebLogic Server cluster provides these benefits:
Scalability
The capacity of an application deployed on a WebLogic Server cluster can be

increased dynamically to meet demand. You can add server instances to a cluster
without interruption of servicethe application continues to run without impact to
clients and end users.
High-Availability
In a WebLogic Server cluster, application processing can continue when a server

instance fails. You cluster application components by deploying them on multiple
server instances in the clusterso, if a server instance on which a component is
running fails, another server instance on which that component is deployed can
continue application processing.
Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 requires WebLogic Server Basic. This is a license-
constrained version of WebLogic Server that is available in licenses for certain Oracle
products.
WebLogic Server Basic is used in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 to support the
following features:
WLS Clusters. Specifically, one WLS cluster per EBS domain.

Hardware-based load-balancers in front of a WLS cluster in an EBS domain.
Use of the WLS proxy on an OHS server, directing load to one or more WLS
instances on one or more managed servers in a WLS Cluster. The cluster is defined
by AutoConfig via the configuration file deployed on the OHS server.
Session re-instantiation from one managed server to another managed server within
the same cluster. Although transactions in progress during failure of one managed
server will be lost, the user's session will be re-established and migrated to another
managed server in the cluster.
3.1: Deployment Option with Single Web Entry Point and Multiple Managed Servers
3.1.1: Deployment Option with OHS Configured on Primary Node and Managed Servers On Different
Application Tier Servers
The diagram shown below represents a deployment model with a single web entry point for
all applications. The OPMN and OHS are configured on the Web Entry Point Server and the
Managed Server and the associated processes are configured to run on the other application
tier servers.The request from the client is received first by the Oracle HTTP Server and the
weblogic proxy plugin module that runs inside the HTTP server routes the request to the
available managed servers in a round robin fashion.
Note:
When adding a node for this configuration, the pairs file used must contain the
following
s_web_applications_status=enabled
s_web_entry_status=enabled
s_apcstatus=disabled
s_root_status=enabled
s_batch_status=disabled
s_other_service_group_status=disabled
s_adminserverstatus=disabled
3.1.2: Deployment Option with OHS Configured on Multiple Nodes and Managed Servers On Different
Application Tier Servers
The diagram shown below represents a deployment model with a single web entry point for
all applications. The OPMN, OHS and WebLogic servers are configured to run on all the
application tier servers.The request from the client is received first by a Load Balancing
Router and the requests are then routed to the Oracle HTTP Server based on the load
balancing algorithm used by the load balancing router.
Note:
When adding a node for this configuration, the pairs file used must contain the
following
s_web_applications_status=enabled
s_web_entry_status=enabled
s_apcstatus=enabled
s_root_status=enabled
s_batch_status=disabled
s_other_service_group_status=disabled
s_adminserverstatus=disabled
You can also choose to split the Managed Servers namely oacore, forms, oafm and forms-
c4ws onto different application tier nodes as shown below:
Appendices
Appendix A: Related Documentation
List of Oracle Application Server 10g Certified Load Balancers, Firewalls and Stand-
Alone SSL Accelerators (Oracle Technology Network)
Understanding WebLogic Server Clustering
Using Load Balancers and Web Proxy Servers

Change Log
Date Description
April 10 , 2012 Document creation date
November 14, 2013 Updated section 3.
Note 1375686.1 by Oracle E-Business Suite Development
Copyright 2011, 2013 Oracle Corporation
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Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.

Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2

Last Updated: November 14, 2013

o General Architecture of Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2

o Network Configuration Requirements for Load-Balancers

Section 2 Planning Deployment Options

2.1.1: Configuration Details

2.1.2: Configuration Changes on the Application Tier

2.1.3: Update Applications Context File

2.1.4: Configuration Changes on the Load Balancer

2.2.1: Configuration Details

2.2.2: Configuration Changes on the Application Tier

2.2.3: Update Hierarchy Type

2.2.4: Update Applications Context File

2.2.5: Configuration Changes on the Load Balancer

o 2.3: Using Hardware Load Balancers with Functional Redirection

2.3.1: Configuration Details

2.3.2: Configuration Changes on the Application Tier

2.3.4: Update Applications Context File

2.3.5: Set Profile Option Values at Responsibility Level

2.3.5.1: Using the Forms Interface

2.3.5.2: Using the Command Line Interface

2.4.2: Configuration Changes on the Application Tier

2.4.3: Update Applications Context File

o Section 3:Configuring WebLogic Clusters

3.1: Deployment Option with Single Web Entry Point

3.1.1:Deployment Option with OHS Configured on Primary

Oracle WebLogic Server is a scalable, enterprise-ready Java Platform, Enterprise Edition

WebLogic Proxy Plugin

A WebLogic Server domain is a logically related group of WebLogic Server resources.

Web Entry Point

Server Load Balancer

To summarize , a server load balancer performs the following functions:

Intercepts network traffic destined for a site.

Provides context-aware load distribution, so that applications that need to maintain

General Architecture of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2

Network Configuration Requirements for Load-Balancers

In a load-balanced configuration, a load-balancer device serves requests from clients and

1. Load-Balancer Hardware Requirements

1. Load Balancer Hardware Requirements

Virtual Servers and Port Configuration

It is also possible to configure a single E-Business Suite environment to be accessed via

Allow configuration of multiple virtual server names and multiple ports

Resource Monitoring, Port Monitoring & Process Failure Detection

Oracle recommends that load-balancers be configured to support fail-over configurations.

Returning Traffic on Failures

Oracle recommends configuring load-balancers to return immediately to the calling client

Passive Cookie Persistence

Passive cookie persistence enables WebLogic Server to write a cookie

Certain active cookie persistence mechanisms can be used with WebLogic

2. DNS Resolution Requirements

If successful, this command will return the IP address of the load-balancer,

If successful, this command will connect to the load-balancer using the

Section 2:Planning Deployment Options

Install the Database Tier on Node 1

Install the Primary Application Tier on Node 2

A successful completion of the application tier installation on to node 2 configures the

Root Service comprising of the Node Manager

Execute adpreclone Utility on the Run and Patch File System

On the run file system:

On the patch file system:

2.1.2: Configuration Changes on the Application Tier

2.1.3: Update Applications Context File

Load Balancer Entry Point: store.company.com