It's been a busy couple of weeks. We are moving from Windows to LINUX for our Oracle Applications Server and 10g Database. We are also upgrading the database to 11g. Since this is a one-time process, we have contracted a DBA to perform the conversion. There are several reasons for this migration and I discussed a few of them on an earlier post from October, 2010 which provides some light on the subject.
During the conversion planning phase, we identified three main areas of concern. The first area is interfaces. We know that the directory locations will change. The juxtaposition of the forward and backward slashes between Windows and LINUX is also problematic. If an interface was written to use a database directory or the path was parameterized, then the interface should not have any issues. The primary area of concern is when a developer hard codes a directory path, such as E:\Data. We were also looking to standardize the location of the interface code. Most of the code is location on the database but some SQL code exists on the application server as well. The reason for this is that we outsourced most of the interface development during the implementation. We did not have standards during the first year of implementation. We will move any SQL on the application server to the database.
The second area of concern is our auxiliary third party applications. We use RightFax for Purchas Orders and Secure Check. Vertex is used to calculate taxes. We are concerned that some of these applications may not perform correctly. We also use Discoverer and EIS for BI.
The final area of concentration is regarding reports. Since we have been on Windows, we have had the benefit of a rich user interface. It's been a while since I have worked in a UNIX environment but I have memories (and nightmares) of managing fonts on UNIX. Approximately, half of our custom reports have been converted to BI Publisher. I anticipate fewer issues with these reports as opposed to the Reports 6i objects.
Last week, our DBA consultant released the environment for us to start testing and development. Here is a brief analysis of what is broken and what survived the conversion process:
Discoverer 4i: The Desktop version is fine, but the Viewer and Plus versions do not work.
Vertex: The conversion process did not change the dlls and exe files.
EIS: No issues.
Interfaces: We have a total of 59 interfaces. 7 appear to have a hard coded directory path that will need to be changed.
Procurement Punch Outs: We are having issues with the certificate and path locations.
Reports: We initially had an issue with the Oracle Report Toolkit. This was quickly repaired and all reports seem to be operating correctly.
Printers: All of the network printers had to be re-installed and the network path changed.
We discovered that our bank's cash reconciliation program only works on Windows.
We have more work to do next week to create server directories in preparation for interface testing. From a management/development standpoint, the most significant LOE has been in the interface area. I will save that for another post.
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