Best Oracle Apps DBA Cloning Interview Questions 11i/R12 [ 2023 ]

Oracle Applications DBA EBS (E-Business Suite)
Cloning Interview Questions with Answers Part 1

1. What is cloning and why is it required?
Ans : 
• Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of the Oracle application system.
It is required due to following reasons
• Creating a test copy of your production system before upgrading.
• Moving an existing system to a different machine.
• To test some patches
• Creating a development copy of your environment to be used by the developers.

2. What is rapid clone?
Ans : 
Rapid Clone is the new cloning utility introduced in Release 11.5.8. Rapid Clone leverages the new installation and configuration technology utilized by Rapid Install

3. How do I determine if my system is rapid clone enabled?
Ans : 
First, verify system is AutoConfig enabled. Then, verify that you have applied the latest Rapid Clone patch.

4. Explain the cloning process?
Ans :
1. Run adpreclone as applmgr and oracle user on source Perl adpreclone.pl dbTier as oracle user Perl adpreclone.pl appsTier as applmgr user
2. Take the cold/hotbackup of source database
3. Copy the five directories appl,comn,ora , db,data to target
4. Rename the directories, and change the permisssion
5. Set the inventory in oraInst.loc
6. Run perl adcfgclone.pl dbTier as oracle user,if the backup type is cold
7. If the backup type is hotbackup then Perl adcfgclone.pl dbTechStack. Create the control file on target from the control script trace file from source Recover the database Alter database open resetlogs
8. Run autoconfig with the ports changed as per requirement in xml.
9. Run perl adcfgclone.pl appsTier as applmgr
10. Run autoconfig with the ports changed as per requirement in xml.

5. What are the steps to clone from a single node to a multi-node?
Ans : 
• You must login as the owner of file system once the database cloning is done.
• Run the adcfgclone.pl from the common_top/clone bin.
• Accept for target system having more than one application tier server node.
• Collect the details for processing node, admin node, forms node, and web node.
• Now you get a prompt for the various mount point details and it creates the context file for you.
• Follow the same steps from all the nodes.

6. What are the files you need to copy from APPL_TOP for creating a clone application system?
Ans : 
• APPL_TOP
• OA_HTML
• OA_JAVA
• OA_JRE_TOP
• COMMON_TOP>/util
• COMMON_TOP>/clone
• 806 ORACLE_HOME
• iAS ORACLE_HOME

7. Does clone preserve the patch history?
Ans : 
• Yes, Rapid clone preserves the patch history in following locations
• RDBMS ORACLE_HOME: preserves the OUI oraInventory.
• iAS ORACLE_HOME: preserves the OUI oraInventory
• 806 ORACLE_HOME: preserves the patch level and Oracle inventory
• APPL_TOP and Database: preserves the patch level and history tables.

8. What are the scripts do you use while Apps cloning?
Ans : 
• A type of script that’s made a comeback in hot scripts is clone script.
• adpreclone.pl prepares the source system and adcfgclone.pl configures the target system.
• Both the scripts are located in $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/contextname directory.
• Adpreclone.pl collects information about the database.
• It also creates generic templates of files containing source specified hardcore values.

8a. What are the pre-reqs for cloning complete Application file system?

9. What are the pre-upgrade steps that need to be taken for the up gradation of non_11i instance to 11.5.10?
Ans : 
• First, you need to take a complete backup of the application system.
• Run the TUMS utility
• Review the TUMS report
• Maintain the multilingual tables
• Rename the custom database objects
• Check attachment file upload directory
• You need to save the custom.pll

10. How often do you clone?
Ans: 
Cloning happens biweekly or monthly depending on the organization requirement.

11. How much time does it take to upgrade, clone?
Ans: 
Clone usually takes around 48hrs to copy and configure and upgrade depends on the database size and module involved. upgrade from 11.5.9 to 11.5.10.2 will take around 3-4 days and 11i to R12 upgrade will take around 4-5 days.

12. When do we run FND_CONC_CLONE.SETUP_CLEAN?
Ans:
FND_NODES table contains node information, If you have cloned test instance from production still the node information of production will be present after clone in the test instance.
we use FND_CONC_CLONE.SETUP_CLEAN to cleanup FND_NODES table in the target to clear source node information as part of cloning.
Below syntax to execute:
SQL> sho user
USER is "APPS"
SQL> EXEC FND_CONC_CLONE.SETUP_CLEAN;
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.

This will delete all the entries in the fnd_nodes table, to populate it with target system node information, Run autoconfig on DB node and Applications node.

13. What is the location of adpreclone.pl for oracle user?
Ans : $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/scripts/

14. What is the location of adcfgclone.pl for oracle user?
Ans : $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/clone/bin

15. What is the location of adpreclone.pl for applmgr user?
Ans : $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/

16. What is the location of adcfgclone.pl for applmgr user?
Ans : $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin

17. How do we find adpreclone is run in source or not ?
Ans : 
If clone directory exists under RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME/appsutil for oracle user and $COMMON_TOP for applmgr user.

18. How many clonings you have done?

19. What are the clone errors, you have encountered?

20. What does pre clone script do on source system?

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Oracle Apps DBA adutilities Interview Questions with answers Part1 [ 2023 ]

25 Top Oracle Apps DBA EBS (E-Business Suite)
AD utilities Interview Questions/FAQs Part1

1.  What are AD Utilities?
Ans: AD Utilities are a group of tools designed to install, upgrade, maintain, and patch a specific set of products contained in a given release of Oracle Applications.

2. What is adctrl?
Ans: Adctrl is one of the adutilities, which is used to check the status of workers and to manage the workers.

3. What is adrelink?
Ans : adrelink will relink the executables with the libraries. Generally we will go for adrelink when some patch delivers some library files, or when executables were corrupted.

4. What is autoconfig?
Ans : Autoconfig is an adutility which is used to main application environment and configuration files.

5. What is adodfcmp utility?
Ans : This utility is used to recreate/repair corrupted database objects from odf (object definition files) files.

6.  What is AutoPatch (or adpatch)?

AutoPatch (adpatch) is a utility that is used to apply individual patches, mini-packs, or maintenance packs to an existing Oracle Applications instance.

7. What is adsplicer?
Ans : Adsplicer is a uitility used to register off cycle products. Adsplice in Oracle Apps is utility to add a new product to EBS.

8. What is adjkey? What files it will create?
Ans : adjkey is an adutility which will create digital signature, which will be used to sign all t" admin? mailto:adsign.txt@APPL_TOP>adsign.txt@APPL_TOP/adminappltop.cer@APPL_TOP/adminidentitydb.obj@applmgr home

9. What are the important AD tables and define their importance?
• AD_APPL_TOPS: It contains information about all APPL_TOP’s using the instance.
• AD_BUGS: It stores information about all different bug fixes applied.
• AD_PATCH_DRIVER_MINIPACKS: Mini_packs information will be stored here.
• AD_PATCH_RUN_BUGS: It stores information about all applied and updated bug fixes.
• AD_FILES: It stores information about files.

10. Difference between ad_bugs table and ad_applied_patches?
• When you apply the patch from adpatch utility ad_applied_patches table will get updated.
• ad_applied_patch doesn’t store the information which was not applied using adpatch.
• Such type of information will be stored in ad_bugs table.
• Also, if all the patches are applied using the adpatch utility, that information is also stored in the ad_bugs_table.

11. What is context file?
Ans : Context file is a central repositary, which stores all application configuration information. The name is like _ .xml

12. What are the menu options in adctrl?
Ans: Check the status of workers, tell manager that worker has quitted, restart a failed worker etc….

13. How to skip a worker and why?
Ans: We can skip a worker using option 8 in adctrl which is hidden. We will go for skipping a worker when we have executed the job which the worker is supposed to do.

14. What are the worker log file names and its location?
Ans : adwork01,adwork02…… and location is $APPL_TOP/admin/SID/log

15. What is the configuration file for adutilities (like adadmin, adconfig etc)?
Ans: adconfig.txt @APPL_TOP/admin

16. How to find the version of a file?
Ans :   1. adident Header 
2. strings -a filename grep Header

17. What are the parameter autoconfig will ask for?
Ans : Context file name and apps password

18. How you will find autoconfig is enabled/not for u r applications?
Ans: 1. Open any env / configuration files, the first few lines will tell u that this files are maintained by autoconfig.2. If contextname.xml file is there in $APPL_TOP/admin

19. How autoconfig will create env and configuration files?
Ans: Autoconfig will go to each and every top template directory take the templates from there and fill the values from xml file and create the required files.

20. In how many phases autoconfig will run?
Ans : Autoconfig will run in 3 phases.
1.INIT – Instantiate the drivers and templates
2.SETUP – Fill the templated with values from xml and create files
3.PROFILE – Update the profile values in database.

21. What is the location of adconfig log file?
Ans : APPL_TOP/admin//log/

22. Is it possible to restore a autoconfig run?
Ans :
Partially. Adconfig will create a restore.sh script at $APPL_TOP/admin//out/. This restore.sh will copy the backed up files before autoconfig run to its original locations. But the profile values updated in the database can’t be restored back.

23. Which adutility do you use regularly and why?


24. What is the pre-requisite to run any ad-utility?

25. What is the script that runs when Compile Apps Schema in adadmin is started?

AD utilities Interview Questions/FAQs Part2

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Top 30 Oracle Apps 11i/R12 DBA Cloning Interview Questions

Oracle Applications DBA EBS (E-Business Suite)

Cloning Interview Questions Part 2

21. Can we run pre clone script on Apps tier when services are up? Why?

22. Where is the adpreclone.pl script located in DB and APPS? How do you start it in both ?

23. What is the precaution you need to take before copying the file system to Target ?

24. Where is adcfgclone.pl located ? Where is its log file created?

25. What are the prompts adcfgclone.pl asks for on target system?

26. What are the errors you faced while cloning? How did you resolve?

27. Can we clone a cloned system? How?

28. How do we clone a single-node to multi-node system?

29. Can we clone a multi-node to single-node ? How?

30. Do profile options get updated as in source when cloning ?

31. Which post clone steps you need to do manually?



Related Oracle Apps Articles: Oracle Applications DBA EBS (E-Business Suite) Cloning Interview Questions with Answers Part 1