Meanwhile... People were coding ...

I'll publish also how to get your PeopleSoft sandbox up and running.
Meanwhile, if you're already a PS coder check this out.
My new PeopleSoft blog.

Hardware fine tuning

I find that with my configuration, less memory(1.3 GB) doesn't impact performance that much. Two processors for my VM however  improve performance drastically.

Quick guide

How to install Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12 on Windows?

Different OS? Not in this Blog yet...

Also, asp, R12 on Linux RedHat and Sun10, Tools and patches.

While I encourage you to read the installation guide, I hope that the following sections will make the standard install faster and if you encounter problems, I hope we can address them, preemptively here. About Rapid Install, and Rapid Install Express: these options of rapid install have common prerequisites. I'll comment about differences between them in a different post. If you covered the rapid install express then then the standard installations will work as well.

Do not install the following software yet, but you will need it before you start installing R12.

Software prerequisites:

• Perl (Active Perl)
• Microsoft Visual C++ (free for the VisualStudio 2008 version)
• MKS toolkit ( I went with cygwin, it's free, GNU GPL)
• You do not need to install GNU MAKE if you choose cygwin!
• Although JDK is required, the Oracle Application Server will install the required version. Also, don't be fooled, the Application Server is not an optional software for this installation (you can't follow the edelivery guidelines blindly), if you don't have this tier already installed. You need to download these parts as well from http://edelivery.oracle.com: B24453-01, B24454-01, B24455-01.
• WinRar or any archiving tool for unzipping
• Login to edelivery.oracle.com and then click this: R12 for Windows from edelivery.
• Good luck and good bandwidth for 40.34 Gb Download, with optional documentation

I have installed Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1 on Windows 2003 SP1, on Virtual Machine.

Hardware

• 1 CPU, mine is 2.93 Ghz, but of course, you can go for less, depends on usage. 
• 2 GB of RAM. Again, less will also work.
• The Ebusiness suite with Vision data takes 247.38 GB on disk. I recommend leaving more available if you want development tools on the same node/ disk. Roughly 45 GB for database & 28 GB for Application Tier without the Vision Database.

The prerequisite software has to be installed in a certain order. Please read the following.

Common prerequisite software installation steps

1) Install Windows 2003 Server. 

2) Set 'Computer Name' and a 'Domain Name'. To be clear, I'll say your computer name is “PS” and your domain Name is “vision”.

Set 'Computer Name' as well as 'Domain Name'.

• Right click on 'My Computer' > Properties > 'Computer Name' > Change
• Set 'Computer Name' to
• Click on More
• Set a 'Primary DNS Suffix of this Computer' to

3) Create a new user: 'Oracle'.

Oracle has to be a member of:
- Administrators (local user)

Oracle, or the user you create for this purpose can not be part of Guests !

4) Enable navigation to your own machine.
I installed a loopback adaptor and edited the hosts file since I have a single node install.

a) To install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter by using the Hardware Wizard, follow these steps:

1. In Control Panel, double-click Add Hardware, and then click Next
2. Click Yes, I have already connected the hardware, and then click Next.
3. At the bottom of the Installed hardware list, click Add a new hardware device, and then click Next.
4. Click Install the hardware that I manually select from a list, and then click Next
5. In the Common hardware types list, click Network adapters, and then click Next.
6. In the Manufacturers list box, click Microsoft.
7. In the Network Adapter list box, click Microsoft Loopback Adapter, and then click Next.
8. Click Next to start installing the drivers for your hardware.
9. Click Finish.
10. Click Start, click Settings, and then click Network Connections to verify that the Microsoft Loopback Adapter has been installed.

Set a fix IP: 111.111.111.111 or 10.10.10.10

b) Edit the hosts file

For my domain and machine name I added this to the Hosts File :
111.111.111.111 PS.vision.com

c) Make sure you can ping back:

C:\> ping 111.111.111.111
C:\> ping hostname
C:\> ping PS.vision.com

5 ) Install MS Visual C++ 2008 (Which is included and free with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express edition) in a directory that DOES NOT contains spaces, for example C:\msvc. Not in “C:\Program Files” because there is a space in that name.

6) Install 'Cygwin' with the required packages (metalink Note: 414992.1 Using Cygwin to Maintain Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 on Windows). Install 'Cygwin' in 'C:\cygwin' -- Make sure not to install 'Cygwin' in a directory that contains spaces. Not in “C:\Program Files” because there is a space in that name.

7) GNUMake is not required when using 'Cygwin' since it comes as a part of the 'Cygwin'. However it is very important that you place a gnumake.exe file in C:\cygwin\bin' or Windows\System32. I installed GNU Make to get this file but you can also download it from the web.

C:\cygwin\bin>xcopy gawk.exe awk.exe
C:\cygwin\bin>xcopy grep.exe egrep.exe
C:\cygwin\bin>xcopy make.exe gnumake.exe
C:\cygwin\bin>xcopy gcc.exe cc.exe

NB. Depending on cygwin version some of these commands won't work.

8) Add 'C:\cygwin\bin' to the system path.

9) No JDK installation is required, JDK 5.0 (java version "1.5.0_08") is bundled with Oracle Application Server R12 installation.

10) Set Up the Stage Area:

The staging or stage area is a way to prepare for multiple installations, and allows you to avoid mounting DVDs one by one. There is no mystery to it once you know how it is structured.
My F:\Stage12 requires a 43.41 GB on disk on my Fat32 HD.

Extract the zip files (25 files) which have been downloaded from (http://edelivery.oracle.com). WinRar will attempt to create this directory structure below automatically. It might not work so you can also follow a manual method.
I've build my stage area manually (I'll tell you why over lunch :-) 

Once you're done you should have the following:

Disk Labeled	Directory	Folder Names
DATABASES	F:\stageR12\oraAppDB	Disk1 to 49
APPL_TOP	F:\stageR12\oraApps	Disk 1 to 11
Oracle Application Server 10g	F:\stageR12\OraAS	Disk 1 to 3
RDBMS	F:\stageR12\oraDB	Disk 1 to 5
START HERE	F:\stageR12\startCD	BSC, Disk1, WFEMB, XMLPUB
TOOLS	F:\stageR12\Tools	Disk 1 to 3

I wish I could say that installation went fine with no errors from the 1st time. It's always more instructive if you get to have errors and bugs. All in all the installation of R12 is a bit easier than 11i. Read on. Post a comment about your bugs.

Running the Express Install option installs a single node (single user). You would mostly want this, if you want the Vision Database. Vision takes it's name from Vision Corp, the dummy setup for training and demo purposes.

Start the installation

As mentioned earlier I'll discuss the diffrences between Rapid Instal and Rapid Install with Express option in a diffrent post.

F:\> cd Stage12\startCD\Disk1\rapidwiz
F:\Stage12\startCD\Disk1\rapidwiz> RapidWiz.cmd

For 'msvc' and 'Cygwin' provide deeper paths:

MKS browse to C:\cygwin\bin

Visual C++ go to C:\VCPlus\VC

• It took me several attempts and about 3 hours to finish the installation. Hopfully, thanks to this documentation it will work fine for you the first time. You might have to provide manual imput halfway trough.
• If you have warning messages where you need to click retry, it's not a good sign. Checksum your files and compare them to this document.

References:

• Thanks to, Hussein Sawwan, Oracle Apps DBA
• How to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter in Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Note: 405293.1 (Oracle Applications Release Notes Release 12)
• Note: 402311.1 (Oracle Applications Installation and Upgrade Notes Release 12 (12.0) for Microsoft Windows)
• Note: 414992.1 (Using Cygwin to Maintain Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 on Windows) 
• Oracle® Applications Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install Release 12 (Part No. B31295-02)

It took some effort to test this an put this together so please let me know if this helped. If this inspired you, reference this blog. Give me some free credit.

Check out my Multiorg Setup Video