Oracle Linux 7: System Administration course

The default firewall service in Oracle Linux 7 is firewalld. In previous versions of Linux, you use iptables. firewalld offers several advantages over iptables:

• Changes do not require restart of the firewalld service.
• Networks can be separated into different zones based on the level of trust.

Firewall services is one of the many topics covered in Oracle's Linux system administration training. You can learn about firewalld and many other topics by taking the Oracle Linux 7: System Administration course. This course is available as a:

• Training-on-Demand: Start training within 24 hours of registration, following lectures at your own pace through streaming video and booking time to perform hands-on exercises when suits your schedule.
• Live Virtual Event: Attend a live event from your own desk, no travel required. Choose from a selection of events on the schedule to suit different time-zones including 4, 12, and 25 September, 9, 16 and 24 October, 28 November and 4 December 2016.
• In-Class Event: Travel to an education center to take a class. Below is a selection of the in-class events already on the schedule.

Location	Date	Delivery Language
Melbourne, Australia	26 September 2016	English
Sydney, Australia	5 September 2016	English
Brussels, Belgium	19 September 2016	English
Brasilia, Brazil	24 October 2016	Brazilian Portuguese
Sao Paulo, Brazil	22 August 2016	Brazilian Portuguese
London, England	7 November 2016	English
Reading, England	5 September 2016	English
Paris, France	10 October 2016	French
Berlin, Germany	14 November 2016	German
Dortmund, Germany	5 September 2016	German
Hamburg, Germany	14 November 2016	German
Munich, Germany	22 August 2016	German
Athens, Greece	26 September 2016	Greek
Milan, Italy	19 September 2016	Italian
Jakarta, Indonesia	10 October 2016	English
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	10 October 2016	English
Mexico City, Mexico	19 September 2016	Spanish
Utrecht, Netherlands	1 August 2016	English
Warsaw, Poland	14 November 2016	Polish
Johannesburg, South Africa	1 August 2016	English
Bangkok, Thailand	15 August 2016	English
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	9 October 2016	English
Miami, FL, United States	17 October 2016	English
Chicago, IL, United States	28 November 2016	English
Albuquerque, NM, United States	29 August 2016	English
Reston, VA, United States	26 September 2016	English

If you want to learn about Linux 5 or 6, take the Oracle Linux 5 & 6 System Administration course. You can take this course in the following formats:

• Training-on-Demand
• Live-Virtual Event: Choose from events to suit different time-zones including 25 July, 22 August, 4 and 12 September, 16 and 17 October, and 7 November 2016.
• In-Class Event: Events on the schedule include:

Location	Date	Delivery Language
Sao Paulo, Brazil	29 August 2016	Brazilian Portuguese
Reading, England	12 September 2016	English
Milan, Italy	26 September 2016	Italian
Rome, Italy	12 December 2016	Italian
Tokyo, Japan	12 September 2016	Japanese
Seoul, Korea	19 September 2016	Korean
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	17 October 2016	English
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia	22 August 2016	English
Mexico City, Mexico	22 August 2016	Spanish
Casablanca, Morocco	1 August 2016	French
Utrecht, Netherlands	3 October 2016	English
Johannesburg, South Africa	22 August 2016	English
Pretoria, South Africa	5 December 2016	English
Istanbul, Turkey	10 October 2016	Turkish
Belmont, CA, United States	8 August 2016	English
Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States	25 July 2016	English
Reston, VA, United States	31 October 2016	English

To register an event or to learn more about the Oracle Linux curriculum, go to http://oracle.com/education/linux

Oracle News, July 2016

· Larry Ellison Announces Oracle Private Cloud Machine for PaaS and IaaS New cloud platform allows enterprises to combine the cloud benefits of agility, simplicity, and low cost with the control and security of their own data centers

· Oracle Cloud Day: Transforming Your Tomorrow Join us for Oracle Cloud Day to explore a range of industry-leading cloud solutions suited to the specific needs of your job role. Discover why Oracle is considered the cloud company and learn how we can help you.

· OTN Virtual Technology Summit - On-Demand Replay All middleware track sessions from the July 2015 and September 2015 OTN Virtual Technology Summit events are now available for on-demand viewing via a special group space on the OTN Community website. As a member of this group you'll have access to all middleware session videos, plus you'll be able to interact with session presenters and other community members for answers to any questions about the session content. Group membership is absolutely free. Join the group now.

· Resource Library: IT Strategies from Oracle You may have heard of the IT Strategies from Oracle (ITSO)collection of reference architectures, solution designs, and technology strategy documents, and you may have taken advantage of some of those resources in the past. But you may not know that access to the complete ITSO library no longer requires registration. The whole shebang is freely available on the OTN Community website. 

Browse the library.

· Podcast: Cloud Architect - Rising to the Role Recorded during Oracle OpenWorld, the latest OTN ArchBeat Podcast features Oracle ACE Directors Ron Batra, Simon Haslam, Ronald van Luttikhuizen, Frank Munz, and Sten Vesterli, plus Oracle ACE Associate Arturo Viveros in a free-flowing, wide-ranging conversation about the emerging role of the Cloud Architect. 

Listen to the podcast.

· Oracle Launches Oracle BPM & Oracle WebCenter 12.2.1 The new Oracle BPM includes a full set of REST API that enable applications built with any technology to leverage BPM Suite as an engine for workflow management, service integration, and process orchestration. The new Oracle WebCenter provides a refreshingly new user experience that is cohesive, responsive and device friendly across Oracle WebCenter Sites, Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle WebCenter Content and Oracle BPM Suite. Get the details.

Brazilian University Taps SGI for New Supercomputer

Michael Feldman, July 14, 2016, 3:32 p.m.

The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) has deployed a 226-teraflop SGI ICE X supercomputer to support engineering and research projects aimed at the Brazil’s energy industry. The system will serve both commercial and academic interests from its new home in the university’s High Performance Computing Center at the Graduate School of Research and Engineering (COPPE).

The new machine, which will go by the name of “Lobo Carneiro” (after Prof. Lobo Carneiro, who founded COPPE/UFRJ), is expected to increase the available FLOPS at UFRJ by a factor of two, along with a three-fold reduction in power consumption.

Its 226 teraflops are spread across 506 Intel Xeon E5-2670 v3 12-core processors, running at 2.3GHz. The Xeons will be housed in a 253 dual-socket servers and the whole system will contain 16 terabytes of memory. Although nearly a quarter of a petaflop, Lobo Carneiro won’t make the TOP500 list, whose last entry reaches 286 teraflops on Linpack.

Storage will be provided by three SGI InfiniteStorage 5600 systems, which will house 720 terabytes and deliver 17 GB/second of I/O. Intel’s Enterprise Edition of Lustre will be used as the file system.

The new system will support research and development for an array of scientific and engineering applications in oil and gas, wind energy and renewable biofuels. A good of its capacity is expected to be devoted to running seismic imaging models and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.

According to a blog posted by SGI’s Cori Pasinetti, the new supercomputer has its work cut out for it:

In oil and gas research, the simulation of turbidity currents, seismic imaging and oil spills are ongoing projects involving several academic and industrial partners. The SGI supercomputer will simulate exploration and production of energy, giving researchers a deeper understanding of the behavior of energy reserves. This information will help lead to more precise data to reduce costs associated with discovery, exploration and extraction. In addition, the new system will support international cooperation projects, such as the Brazil EU HPC for Energy, jointly developed with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in Spain.

The system will also be used to research renewable energy sources. COPPE/UFRJ is partnering with BSC on a three-year project,HPC4E, to help the industry address future energy demands and to reduce carbon footprints. The SGI ICE X supercomputer allows COPPE/UFRJ to more efficiently assess resources and respond to demand peaks and output predictions in wind energy. The system can also assist in the development of efficient biomass-derived fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, hydrocarbon dependency and fuel costs.

Versatus HPC, an SGI partner based in Brazil, completed installation of the machine on July 13.

JRE 1.8.0_101/102 Certified with Oracle EBS 12.x

By Steven Chan - EBS-Oracle on Jul 20, 2016

Java Runtime Environment 1.8.0_101 (a.k.a. JRE 8u101-b13) and its corresponding Patch Set Update (PSU) JRE 1.8.0_102 and later updates on the JRE 8 codeline are now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 and 12.2 for Windows desktop clients.

All JRE 6, 7, and 8 releases are certified with EBS upon release

Our standard policy is that all E-Business Suite customers can apply all JRE updates to end-user desktops:

• From JRE 1.6.0_03 and later updates on the JRE 6 codeline
• From JRE 1.7.0_10 and later updates on the JRE 7 codeline 
• From JRE 1.8.0_25 and later updates on the JRE 8 codeline

We test all new JRE releases in parallel with the JRE development process, so all new JRE releases are considered certified with the E-Business Suite on the same day that they're released by our Java team.  You do not need to wait for a certification announcement before applying new JRE 6, 7, or 8 releases to your EBS users' desktops.

What's new in this release?

Oracle now releases a Critical Patch update (CPU) at the same time as the corresponding Patch Set Update (PSU) release for Java SE 8.

• CPU Release:  JRE 1.8.0_101
• PSU Release:  JRE 1.8.0_102

Oracle recommends that Oracle E-Business Suite customers use the CPU release (JRE 1.8.0_101) and only upgrade to the PSU release (1.8.0_102) if they require a specific bug fix.  For further information and bug fix details see Java CPU and PSU Releases Explained.

  32-bit and 64-bit versions certified

This certification includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit JRE versions for various Windows operating systems. See the respective Recommended Browser documentation for your EBS release for details.

Where are the official patch requirements documented?

All patches required for ensuring full compatibility of the E-Business Suite with JRE 8 are documented in these Notes:
For EBS 12.1 & 12.2

• Deploying Sun JRE (Native Plug-in) for Windows Clients in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 393931.1)

EBS + Discoverer 11g Users This JRE release is certified for Discoverer 11g in E-Business Suite environments with the following minimum requirements:

• Discoverer (11g) 11.1.1.6 plus Patch 13877486 and later 
• Reference: How To Find Oracle BI Discoverer 10g and 11g Certification Information (Document 233047.1)

Implications of Java 6 and 7 End of Public Updates for EBS Users
The Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap and Oracle Lifetime Support Policy for Oracle Fusion Middleware documents explain the dates and policies governing Oracle's Java Support.  The client-side Java technology (Java Runtime Environment / JRE) is now referred to as Java SE Deployment Technology in these documents.
Starting with Java 7, Extended Support is not available for Java SE Deployment Technology.  It is more important than ever for you to stay current with new JRE versions.
If you are currently running JRE 6 on your EBS desktops:

• You can continue to do so until the end of Java SE 6 Deployment Technology Extended Support in June 2017
• You can obtain JRE 6 updates from My Oracle Support.  See:
• All Java SE Downloads on MOS (Note 1439822.1)

If you are currently running JRE 7 on your EBS desktops:

• You can continue to do so until the end of Java SE 7 Deployment Technology Premier Support in July 2016
• You can obtain JRE 7 updates from My Oracle Support.  See:
• All Java SE Downloads on MOS (Note 1439822.1)

If you are currently running JRE 8 on your EBS desktops:

• You can continue to do so until the end of Java SE 8 Deployment Technology Premier Support in March 2019
• You can obtain JRE 8 updates from the Java SE download site or from My Oracle Support. See:
• All Java SE Downloads on MOS (Note 1439822.1)

Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JRE 8 for Windows desktop clients?

No.
This upgrade is highly recommended but remains optional while Java 6 and 7 are covered by Extended Support. Updates will be delivered via My Oracle Support, where you can continue to receive critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for JRE 6 and 7 desktop clients. Note that there are different impacts of enabling JRE Auto-Update depending on your current JRE release installed, despite the availability of ongoing support for JRE 6 and 7 for EBS customers; see the next section below.

Impact of enabling JRE Auto-Update

Java Auto-Update is a feature that keeps desktops up-to-date with the latest Java release.  The Java Auto-Update feature connects to java.com at a scheduled time and checks to see if there is an update available.
Enabling the JRE Auto-Update feature on desktops with JRE 6 installed will have no effect.
With the release of the January Critical patch Updates, the Java Auto-Update Mechanism will automatically update JRE 7 plug-ins to JRE 8.
Enabling the JRE Auto-Update feature on desktops with JRE 8 installed will apply JRE 8 updates.

Coexistence of multiple JRE releases Windows desktops

The upgrade to JRE 8 is recommended for EBS users, but some users may need to run older versions of JRE 6 or 7 on their Windows desktops for reasons unrelated to the E-Business Suite.
Most EBS configurations with IE and Firefox use non-static versioning by default. JRE 8 will be invoked instead of earlier JRE releases if both are installed on a Windows desktop. For more details, see "Appendix B: Static vs. Non-static Versioning and Set Up Options" in Notes 290807.1 and 393931.1.

What do Mac users need?

JRE 8 is certified for Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.9 (Mavericks), and 10.10 (Yosemite) desktops.  For details, see:

• Oracle E-Business Suite Release Notes Release 12 for Apple Macintosh OS X (Note 1533334.1)

Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JDK 8 for EBS application tier servers?

No.
JRE is used for desktop clients.  JDK is used for application tier servers.
JRE 8 desktop clients can connect to EBS environments running JDK 6 or 7.
JDK 8 is not certified with the E-Business Suite.  EBS customers should continue to run EBS servers on JDK 6 or 7.

Known Iusses
Internet Explorer Performance Issue
Launching JRE 1.8.0_73 through Internet Explorer will have a delay of around 20 seconds before the applet starts to load (Java Console will come up if enabled).
This issue fixed in JRE 1.8.0_74.  Internet Explorer users are recommended to uptake this version of JRE 8.

Form Focus Issue
Clicking outside the frame during forms launch may cause a loss of focus when running with JRE 8 and can occur in all Oracle E-Business Suite releases. To fix this issue, apply the following patch:

• EBS R12 Users:- Patch 21539521

References

• Recommended Browsers for Oracle Applications 12 (MetaLink Note 389422.1)
• Upgrading JRE Plugin with Oracle Applications R12 (MetaLink Note 393931.1)

Related Articles

• Do E-Business Suite Users Need to Worry About Java 9?

Trained Millennial = Happy Millennial, Oracle University

Trained Millennial = Happy Millennial

By Lauren Gelfound-Oracle on Jul 20, 2016

Written by Rena Mayer, PR Online Editor, Oracle University

Growing up in a tech-filled, utterly online, and socially-networked world, the millennial generation has received a lot of attention. 

Raised following the mantra "you can do anything you set your mind to", millennials tend to be confident and determined.

Alongside these positive traits, millennials can be difficult to impress, and even harder to keep in the company.

Companies have been struggling to connect with this generation, as many traditional methods have proven ineffective at capturing their attention and loyalty. 

Furthermore, many companies believe in certain myths about millennials, including the idea that they aren’t loyal. It's important to remember there are just as many myths out there as there are facts about millennial workers.

To tackle this connection challenge, companies need to know what's important to millennials.

For example, a recent Deloitte survey found that two-thirds of millennial across the globe plan to leave their current organization by 2020, and one-quarter plan to change companies within the next year. 

According to the survey, 87% of millennials believe the success of a business should be measured by more than just its financial performance. Also, millennials place great importance on how the company reflects their personal values.

What do millennials value in a company?

The important business outcomes millennials feel their organizations are neglecting include:

• Improving the skills, income, and satisfaction levels of employees
• Creating more jobs
• Providing services & goods that make a positive difference in people's lives

Millennials often feel companies are not doing enough to bridge the gap to ensure a new generation of business leaders is created. 

They tend to fully appreciate that leadership skills and training are important to business and recognize that, in this aspect, their development may be far from complete.

How to Keep Millennials Loyal

According to the same Deloitte survey, the people most likely to leave the company within two years are those unhappy with how their skills are being developed. 

Millennials would place far greater emphasis than current leaders on employee well-being and employee growth and development. 

This generation evaluates success in ways that go beyond a focus of financial performance, increasing the focus on activities and behaviors that support long term sustainability. 

Millenials' loyalty to an employer is driven by understanding and support of their career and life ambitions, as well as providing opportunities to progress and become leaders.

Over the past few years, Oracle University has evolved our training formats to accommodate millennials’ new demands for learning. 

Digital learning on Cloud technology has been rated as one of the most popular and desired platforms; as a result, Oracle has introduced Cloud Training. 

With Oracle Cloud Learning solutions, your millennials train for all job roles in your organization that interact with your Oracle Cloud applications and platform services. 

Empower your employees by teaching them how to migrate to, implement, administer, optimize and use Oracle Cloud solutions. This will also help millenials feel valued within your company.

Millennials view training as incredibly important. It's a driver for their success. They view their future at a company as wholly dependent on the skills they learn and the education available. If they are not constantly learning new skills, they will find the door faster.

Invest in their development and offer them the chance to develop new skills. 

Oracle University simplifies learning by offering all the training millennials need to implement, manage, and start using Oracle Cloud applications and platform services.

Ultimately, all employees want the same thing: fair compensation, growth opportunities and a mission statement they feel strongly about.

Oracle GoldenGate Application Adapters 12.2.0.1.2 for JMS and Flatfile was released on 19/July/2016.

New Features in this release:

• DDL propagation for heterogeneous relational databases
• Metadata in trail for both Extract and Replicat processes
• Oracle Java standard based Java Package names

You now can download the software from OTN or eDelivery.
Oracle GoldenGate Application Adapters 12c (12.2.0.1)  Documentation