Why we enable Maintenance Mode in R12.1.3

Hey DBA-Mates, Good to know you all are doing Well !!!

Many of us are not clear about that why we enable Maintenance Mode even though our Application is stopped/down.

Almost people still know that only to inform users that Application is under Maintenance for Patching or any other task but this is partially true.

Almost 90% of interviewers will ask these Questions and we answers only Half-cooked answers as mentioned above.

We got this questions from many users then thought to share with you all because we didn't found google where clearly mentioned these reasons.

So, we collected the information and tried to make it simple and share with you all here.

Maintenance Mode was introduced in Release 11.5.10, in which users are not allowing to login any responsibility.

In Maintenance mode the Oracle Applications system is made accessible only for patching activities.

Why we need to enable Maintenance Mode and their Advantages:

As we know that there are several practical points relating to the use of Maintenance Mode:

We can toggle Maintenance Mode between Enabled and Disabled using the new Change Maintenance Mode menu in AD Administration (Adadmin), or the equivalent function in Oracle Applications Manager.

Although we can run AutoPatch (Adpatch) without enabling Maintenance Mode but noted there will be a significant degradation in performance.

As we know that while the application is in Maintenance Mode there is a separate login page for Restricted Mode access.

Here, restricted Mode allows administrators access to specific privileged functionality in OAM, for example to view the timing report that shows the progress of a patching session.

In Restricted Mode, only valid database users are allowed to login into OAM via a special URL and are allowed to access a limited set of features.

The database role AD_MONITOR_ROLE has access to all the required database objects for Restricted Mode features.

Or the OAM Online Help (OAM->Patches and Utilities -> Managing Downtime Schedules -> Restricted Mode)

Conclusion:

1. To ensure optimal performance and reduce downtime during patching sessions.

2. Maintenance Mode shutdown the Workflow Business Events System (oracle application services).

3. Setup a function security so that Oracle Applications functions are unavailable to users.

4. Provide a clear visibility/information to user that System/Application is down for patching purpose.

Easy/short-cut steps to Enabling and Disabling Maintenance Mode:

This is also same as ADADMIN because when we Enable or Disable 'Maintenance Mode', adadmin will also execute the below script:

$AD_TOP/patch/115/sql/adsetmmd.sql    ####sending the parameter 'ENABLE' or 'DISABLE' as shown below as example:

SQL>@$AD_TOP/patch/115/sql/adsetmmd.sql ENABLE    ##### For ENABLE

SQL>@$AD_TOP/patch/115/sql/adsetmmd.sql DISABLE   ##### For DISABLE

Real-time scenario:

SQL> show user

USER is "APPS"

SQL>

SQL> select fnd_profile.value('APPS_MAINTENANCE_MODE') from dual;

FND_PROFILE.VALUE('APPS_MAINTENANCE_MODE')

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAINT

SQL>

SQL> @$AD_TOP/patch/115/sql/adsetmmd.sql DISABLE

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Commit complete.

Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production

With the Partitioning, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP, Data Mining

and Real Application Testing options

$

SQL> select fnd_profile.value('APPS_MAINTENANCE_MODE') from dual;

FND_PROFILE.VALUE('APPS_MAINTENANCE_MODE')

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NORMAL

SQL>

If MAINT ==> Maintenance Mode is Enabled.

If NORMAL ==> Maintenance Mode is Disabled.

Regards,