Optimizing Oracle Forms with Steelhead Appliances

OPTIMIZING ORACLE FORMS WITH STEELHEAD APPLIANCES

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Introduction:

Since RiOS 4.1, Riverbed has provided optimizations for Oracle Forms traffic. Since RiOS 5.0.2, the feature has been enhanced to cover modes of deployment that were previously not supported. This document explains what Oracle Forms is, how to identify the Forms deployment mode and how to configure Steelhead Appliances to provide optimizations for it.

What is Oracle Forms?

Oracle Forms is a platform for developing user interface applications to interact with an Oracle database. It has been available since Oracle Database version 2 and was initially available only as a command line tool. In Oracle Forms 6i (designed to connect with Oracle Database version 8), Oracle introduced "WebForms" which is a browser Java applet. The current version, recently released, is Oracle 12i. This Forms platform is licensed to other products that use it to connect to an Oracle database. One of the products that uses Oracle Forms is Oracle EBusiness Suite. Another is iFlex's Banking Solutions. Oracle Forms uses a Java applet (named “JInitiator”) that gets downloaded to a customer's browser. Due to this, prior Riverbed literature sometimes refers to this feature as JInitiator optimization although that is technically inaccurate. Oracle is pulling support for their custom Java Virtual Machine (aka "JInitiator") and replacing that with the JVM from Sun. Whether the application uses JInitiator or the Sun JVM makes a difference to how we provide our optimizations. The section on Supported Versions talks about this in more detail.

Identifying an Oracle Forms deployment

Oracle has many products - especially after several acquisitions in the recent years - so if a prospect asks if we “support Oracle", it could mean almost anything. This document talks exclusively about Oracle Forms support but we can provide optimizations for several of the other Oracle products. See the section on Other Oracle Products that briefly discusses the other optimizations Steelhead Appliances can provide. If the prospect mentions Oracle Forms, JInitiator, Oracle EBusiness Suite or Oracle Applications, then it is almost certain that they are referring to Oracle Forms. A typical Oracle Forms deployment is shown below:

The Oracle Forms optimizations discussed in this whitepaper will optimize the traffic between the Forms java client (which is either JInitiator or the Sun JRE) and the Forms Services on the application server.


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To make sure that it is Oracle Forms, ask to see the application and/or traces. The base page is typically an HTML page like the one below.


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Ask the prospect to walk through the application and if possible, collect client-side LAN traces. Clicking on a link will download the Java applet that connects to the Oracle database. The applet will look something like this:


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The heavy “Java plugin" look for Oracle Forms traffic is rather distinctive. It will display the rows and columns of the database that is being updated. Note that it does not necessarily have to be this row/column screen. This view can be customized as well. Oracle Forms works over several modes:

1. Native (aka socket) mode - where the applet communicates with the backend server typically over port 9000

2. HTTP mode - the applet tunnels the communication to the Oracle Forms server over HTTP. The default is port 8000 but that can be changed as well.

3. HTTPS mode (aka 'SSL mode') - the applet tunnels the communication to the Oracle Forms server over HTTPS

To determine which mode of deployment is being used, you will need to access the Java console. The java console can be accessed by right-clicking on the little Java icon on the taskbar and choosing Show Console.


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This console should have a message connectMode=<mode> that determines what mode the Oracle Forms is

deployed with. If connectMode=HTTP,native, then it’s HTTP mode.

If connectMode = HTTPS, native, then the deployment is HTTPS mode.


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If connectMode = Socket, then it’s native mode.

If you do not have access to check out the application and the console, then get the client-side LAN traces. Make sure the traces include the first connection from the Oracle Forms client to the server. Getting the first connection to the forms server is absolutely necessary. The first connection has a unique message that determines that this is an Oracle Forms deployment. Once the deployment mode for Oracle Forms has been determined, the Steelhead Appliances can then be configured to provide optimizations.


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Configuring Oracle Forms optimizations

The RiOS configuration is different depending on the Oracle Forms deployment mode. All of the instructions provided here are for RiOS 5.0.2 and beyond. The screenshots are from RiOS 5.5.

1. Configuring for Native mode:

• Enable Oracle Forms support

• Set up preoptimization policy:


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2. Configuring for HTTP mode:

• Enable Oracle Forms support in HTTP mode:



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3. Configuring for HTTPS mode:

• The SSL optimization blade MUST be configured before configuring Oracle Forms support on HTTPS

• Enable Oracle Forms support in HTTPS mode:


• If SSL Autodiscovery is in place, then only the Oracle Forms pre-optimization policy needs to be enabled

• If, instead, SSL preoptimization was to be used, then the Oracle Forms over SSL preoptimization needs to be inserted.


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Expected performance benefits

As with all optimizations, the benefits are very much use case dependent. Bandwidth reduction in the order of 30-50% is rather common. One reference (BigBand Networks) who had deployed Oracle Forms (in native mode) saw bandwidth savings of 50% in their environment. A case study is available to share with customers at http://marketingweb.nbttech.com/collateral/CaseStudy-Riverbed-BigBandNetworks.pdf The benefit here is reduced bandwidth. Response time improvements accrue as a result of fewer bits on the wire. It is important to note that at this time, this is NOT a latency blade like we have for CIFS, MAPI and HTTP where we predict, prefetch and/or write-behind data to improve response times.

Supported Versions

We currently support (as of RiOS 5.5), Oracle Forms version 11i only. We are planning to expand coverage in the near future to support version 12i. We are not planning on supporting earlier versions of Oracle Forms. Oracle supports two Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) for Oracle Forms support - their custom JVM (aka JInitiator) and the Sun JVM (also sometimes known under the moniker JRE- Java Runtime Environment). As of RiOS 5.5, we have qualified for JInitiator versions 1.3.1.21 and 1.3.1.28 but it’s likely that other versions will work as well. Oracle is considering pulling support for JInitiator and replacing it with Sun JRE in mid 2009. RiOS 5.0.2 (and later) is qualified for Sun JVM version 1.6.06 for native mode only. At this time we are NOT qualified for optimizations on the HTTP and HTTPS modes with the Sun JRE.

Caveats

1. As noted above, our Oracle Forms optimization blade does NOT do transaction prediction. The Oracle Forms traffic is scrambled by default. We unscramble the traffic, apply our bandwidth optimizations and restore to its original form.

2. Currently we only support the Oracle JInitiator JVM for all modes. We only support the Sun JRE for native mode deployments.

3. In addition, when the HTTP or the HTTPS mode is used, there is no additional benefit to using the HTTP latency optimizations in RiOS. The Forms traffic does not follow the typical web application model which is what drives the HTTP optimizations on Steelhead Appliances.

Other Oracle Products

While this document specifically discusses optimizations for Oracle Forms, we do provide optimizations for several other Oracle products.

• Web Applications: Several Oracle applications are web-based - such as Siebel, Hyperion, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Agile - and for these applications, we provide web application optimizations

• Oracle database: While we do not have a latency blade specifically for Oracle database SQL traffic, we provide very good data reduction for SQL traffic.

A comprehensive list of Oracle products is at http://www.oracle.com/products/product_list.html

Competition

Other vendors - especially Juniper WX - claim that they optimize Oracle Forms traffic but they require that encryption be switched off at the Oracle Forms server. We, however, do NOT require that users switch off encryption at the server. Our Oracle Forms optimizations are transparent to clients and servers.


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Conclusion

For enterprises using Oracle EBusiness Suite or any other Oracle Forms based applications, Riverbed is unique in its ability to transparently optimize Forms traffic. This white paper provides details on deploying Steelhead Appliances to optimize Oracle Forms applications.

Riverbed Technology, Inc. 199 Fremont Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: (415) 247-8800 www.riverbed.com Riverbed Technology Pte. Ltd. 391A Orchard Road #22-06/10 Ngee Ann City Tower A Singapore 238873 Tel: +65 6508-7400

Riverbed Technology Ltd. No 1, The Courtyard, Eastern Road Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 2XB United Kingdom Tel: +44 1344 354910 Riverbed Technology K.K. Shiba-Koen Plaza Building 9F 3-6-9, Shiba, Minato-ku Tokyo, Japan 105-0014 Tel: +81 3 5419 1990

About Riverbed Riverbed Technology is the performance leader in WAN optimization solutions for companies worldwide. By enabling application performance over the wide area network (WAN) that is orders of magnitude faster than what users experience ordinarily, Riverbed is changing the way people work, and enabling a distributed workforce that can collaborate as if they were local. Additional information about Riverbed (Nasdaq: RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com.

© 2009 Riverbed Technology. All rights reserved. Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, Interceptor, Atlas, Think fast, and the Riverbed logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology. Portions of Riverbed’s products are protected under Riverbed patents, as well as patents pending. WP-ORA011509

Optimizing Oracle Forms with Steelhead Appliances

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