EBS -- Oracle Database 19C - "Curious and Frequently Asked Questions" - Supported Features & Products

We all know the cool features of Oracle Database 19C and we can't wait to implement them in our EBS environments.

Thing like Automatic indexing, Active Dataguard DML Redirection and so on.

We also want to know things like ISG (Integrated SOA Gateway), Active Dataguad itself and Goldengate whether they are supported to be used with EBS ( EBS on Oracle Database 19C) or not.

In this post, I want to share my findings with you.

We will take a look and see whether the key new features of 19C and old but gold features of EBS are supported with EBS 19C Databases or not.

This blog post will be a little different than other, because we will proceed in the form of questions and answers. It will be in the form of Curious questions and answers :)

The following Q/A reveals the current situation, but I may revisit this blog post, if I learn something new about these subjects. 

Let 's start.

Q1 : Can we use the key new features of Oracle Database 19C with EBS? (automatic indexing, Active Dataguard DML Replication, Sql Quarantine, Real time statistics and so on)

Answer:  Automatic Indexing feature of Database 19c is NOT certified for use with E-Business suite applications 12.1.3 and or 12.2 at this time.
The certification of other new features such as Active Dataguard DML Replication and real time statistics is still not clear either. However; Oracle development is probably working on it. At this moment, there is no documentation or info about the certification and implementation of those new features in EBS environments.

Q2 : What if we are using  or planning to use any of the unsupported products?

EBS with 19 C ınsupported product list: Oracle Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting (EPB), Demand Signal Repository (DSR)

Answer : Just don't upgrade the EBS database to Oracle Database 19c until those products are supported for use with Oracle Database 19c.

Q3 : What about ISG? Is there anything we need to pay attention to?

Answer : ISG is not fully certified, but it is documented to use it with 19C. There are stability issues which are not fixed yet..
If you are using or planning to use ISG, you should rethink whether or not to perform an upgrade to Database 19c.. It may be better to wait until the certification of Oracle E-Business Suite with Database 19c for ISG is announced.

Issues like;
Performance of design-time operations may be slow when Oracle E-Business Suite is on Oracle Database 19c Design-time operations may fail for certain public APIs when Oracle E-Business Suite is on Oracle Database 19c

If you are planning to upgrade EBS database to 19C, we also strongly recommend applying Patch 30721310: ISG Consolidated Patch for EBS 12.1 customers.

MOS notes for implementation: 

Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Release Notes for Release 12.2.9 (Doc ID 2563289.1)

Interoperability Notes: Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 with Oracle Database 19c(Doc ID 2580629.1)

Q4: Are Dataguard and Active Dataguard supported with EBS 19C Database?

Answer: Yes. However; there is no info about the support status of using Active Dataguard DML redirection yet. I mean, the one which is enabled with alter session enable adg_redirect_dml ...
We may use Oracle Active Data Guard to offload some production reporting to run against the Oracle Active Data Guard database instance.

MOS notes for implementation: 

Using Active Data Guard with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and Oracle Database 19c(Doc ID 2608027.1)

sing Active Data Guard Reporting with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 and Oracle Database 19c(Doc ID 2608030.1)

Q5: What about the Business Continuity? 19C EBS Database and Dataguard implementation?

Answer: Business Continuity is as we know. The logic is the same :) However; this time we are implemeting it in a Multitenant-aware method.

It is fully documented both for Logical standby and Physical standby-based business continuity.. I share the MOS notes for physical standby implementations below;

MOS notes for implementation:

Business Continuity for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 on Oracle Database 19c Using Physical Host Names (Doc ID 2617787.1)
Business Continuity for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 on Oracle Database 19c Using Physical Host Names (Doc ID 2567091.1)

Q6: Can we use Goldengate for upgrading EBS Database to 19C ? That is; can we create a new EBS CDB-PDB 19C environment and use Goldengate to replicate and sync it with our current release?

Anwer: No. You cannot use GoldenGate for EBS backup, EBS database migration, or EBS database upgrades. Also there is no certification about using Goldengate with EBS. GoldenGate does not certify against applications..

However; there are ways for migrating EBS data and for achieving Operational reporting using Goldengate.

MOS notes for implementation:

Using Oracle GoldenGate to Replicate Data from Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 (Doc ID 2004495.1)
NOTE:1112325.1 - Deploying Oracle GoldenGate to Achieve Operational Reporting for Oracle E-Business Suite.

Q7: Is Preventive Controls Governor (PCG) certified with 19c database and Linux 7 ?

Answer: Development is working on it :)

Here is the note :

Is Preventive Controls Governor (PCG) certified with 19c database and Linux 7 ? (Doc ID 2634785.1)

Oracle Database: 12.2.x version is certified for GRC 8.6.6 even though matrix just lists 12.2.0.1. This includes 18c (12.2.0.2) and 19c (12.2.0.3). CCG 5.5.1 is also supported on Oracle Database 12.2.x, even though matrix lists 12.1.0.2.For GRC certification on Linux 7 refer to ER bug 30822310. For PCG certification on DB 19c and Linux 7 refer to ERs Bug 30808383 and Bug 25971420.

Q8: Do we need to purchase multi-tenancy license to use 19C databases with EBS?

Answer: Using multitenant arch. (CDB-PDB) is a must in EBS 19C database environments. However; EBS customers don't need to purchase license for that.

Q9: What about the custom code? Will they be affected by the 19C upgrade?

Answer: We should pay attention to this subject. We should test our code very well. Something in the code may rely on the standard functionality which may be deprecated or changed in the new database realease.. We should test and implement a method like fix on fail for these code issues.

For instance:
-- in 19C DBMS_JOB is still working but we need to have create job privilege
--SQL performance may change
--UTL_FILE_DIR is desupported. (But, EBS have a workaround for that.. :)
--There may be other undocumented changes in SQL and PLSQL so, a comprehensive test is required both for the functionality and reporting side/queries.

Q10: Is the multitenant CDB-PDB arch. a must for using Oracle Database 19C with EBS? If so, can we have multiple PDBs with a CDB?

Answer: Yes. A CDB with one PDB (single tenant) is currently the only certified deployment for Oracle E-Business Suite with Database 19c. A CDB with multiple PDBs (multitenant) is not currently certified for Oracle E-Business Suite. A non-CDB architecture is not planned to be certified or supported for EBS with Database 19.

Q11: What are the supported 19C database features and options for EBS currently?

Answer: 

Advanced Compression
Database In-Memory
Database Partitioning
Native PL/SQL Compilation
Oracle Application Express (APEX)
Oracle Label Security (OLS)
SecureFiles
Virtual Private Database (VPD)

Q12: Is Oracle E-Business Suite with Database 19c Integrated with Oracle Access Manager for Single Sign-on ?

Answer : Yes

Q13: When will EBS be certified with Autonomous Database?

Answer:  Not certain yet. 

Q14: What about cloning and business contiunity( such as dataguard implementations)? Is there any difference in the approach for EBS 19C databases?

Answer:  The approach is similar, but we do these things by following CDB-PDB aware approaches. Switchover and cloning is done on the CDB level and it is well documented on Oracle Support .