Oracle Applications 11i Architecture Diagrams

Introduction

This post describes the Oracle Applications architecture in brief with architecture diagrams.

• The Desktop Tier
• The Application Tier
• The Database Tier
• The Oracle Applications Technology Layer

The Oracle Applications Architecture is a framework for multi-tiered, distributed
computing that supports Oracle Applications products. In this model, various servers are
distributed among multiple levels, or tiers.
A server is a process or group of processes that runs on a single machine and provides a
particular functionality, often referred to as a service. For example, the HTTP server is a
process that listens for and processes HTTP requests, and the Forms server is a process
that listens for and processes requests for activities related to Oracle Forms.
A tier is a logical grouping of services, potentially spread across more than one
physical machine. The three-tier architecture that comprises an Oracle E-Business Suite
installation is made up of the database tier, which supports and manages the Oracle
database; the application tier, which supports and manages the various Applications
components, and is sometimes known as the middle tier; and the desktop tier, which
provides the user interface via an add-on component to a standard web browser.
A machine may be referred to as a node, particularly in the context of a group of
computers that work closely together in a cluster. Each tier may consist of one or more
nodes, and each node can potentially accommodate more than one tier. For example, the
database can reside on the same node as one or more application tier components. This
may be done for simplicity of administration, or (as in the case of concurrent processing)
to maximize performance by reducing network traffic.
Centralizing the Oracle Applications software on the application tier eliminates the
need to install and maintain application software on each desktop client PC, and also
enables Oracle Applications to scale well with an increasing load. Extending this concept
further, one of the key benefits of using the Shared APPL_TOP model (see Chapter 9) is
the need to maintain only a single copy of the relevant Applications code, instead of a
copy for every application tier machine.

On the database tier, there is increasing use of Real Application Clusters (RAC) , where
multiple nodes support a single database instance to give greater availability and
scalability.

Figure 1-1 Oracle Applications Architecture


Figure 1-2 Forms-based Desktop Tier Architecture



Figure 1-3 Example Oracle E-Business Suite Home Page Applications


Figure 1-4 HTML-Based Applications Architecture


Figure 1-5 Oracle Applications Framework Architecture



Figure 1-6 Forms Server Architecture


Figure 1-7 Forms Server Load Balancing Forms


Figure 1-8 Reports Server Architecture

Figure 1-9 Viewing Concurrent Processing Output

Figure 1-10 Example of Deploying Oracle Applications on Heterogeneous Platforms
Applications


HAPPY LEARNING!