Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Study Guide
Support Accreditation for Oracle Customers and Partners.
We recommend you
preview the series
modules and study guide
before you begin this
accreditation.
Get Help
If you have questions during your accreditation, please click Contact Us from the
Oracle Support Accreditation Level 1 page, Doc 1579751.1. The program team
will answer your questions and provide recommendations.
How to use My Oracle Support How-To Video Series Doc 603505.1
Providing Feedback
Use the Rate this Module link next to each video to provide feedback on that
video. Be specific about what you liked and what you would like to see improved.
Use the Contact Us link to provide general feedback to the program team.
If you get accredited, post updates to the Oracle Support Accreditation
Community with examples of how you are changing your business with
accreditation best practices. Tip: see the post-accreditation roadmap at the end
of the study guide.
The Exam
Please do NOT post specific questions and answers in community.
Questions about specific exam questions should be forwarded to the program
team.
Accreditation Results
Tools
Insights
Best
Practices
Toolkit
Service
Requests
Module Checklist
Module
01
02
03
04
05
Product Certifications
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Completed
A key Best Practice in Oracle Support Accreditation is building and maintaining a personalized toolkit of key resources.
This is an easy way to keep track of content of interest (and locate it again when needed).
From My Oracle Support, click on the Favorites folder in the top navigation (Gold Star) and select Manage Favorites.
Click New Folder to create a personalized folder such as My Oracle Support or create a series of product-specific
folders for topics like troubleshooting and patching.
Click the arrow to the left of My Folders to expand it and see your new folder.
Locate your newly marked documents and move them to your folder.
Best Practice:
Also create a browser folder for your
products to find that content quickly as part
of your extended toolkit.
Another recommended best practice is to set up Hot Topics E-mail notifications. This functionality works with the documents you marked as Favorites in your toolkit. From My
Oracle Support, navigate to My Account from Settings or from your user name. Select Hot Topics E-Mail from the left navigation. Fill out the options based on how you want
to be updated.
Functional User
Technical User
Our functional user has general access to My Oracle Support, which includes the
knowledge base and My Oracle Support Community. This user searches the portal for
knowledge content to research and resolve issues or questions.
Our technical user has SR Create and Update privilege in My Oracle Support and access
to Patch downloads.
10
Path Objectives
This content is intended for both
functional and technical users who
regularly use My Oracle Support and
want to be proactive with Oracle
support tools and products.
11
12
13
14
Use the control bar on the bottom of the video frame to pause, play, make the video
full screen, or adjust the volume. Or, click and drag the cursor on the control bar to go
back a few seconds. If you mouse-over the video, the video name appears on top of the
header bar (along with an information button). If you click the information icon, details
about the video appear. Click the video image to return to the video view.
When you take the exam, you receive immediate notification about your accreditation
status in the exam interface. The accreditation exam is 60 questions (multiple choice,
T/F) and requires a score of 80% to become an Oracle Support Accredited User.
Study Guide Download the Study Guide and use it along with each video to prepare for your exam. You can use the Sticky Note feature to add comments or questions for
follow-up.
Closed Captions Make use of Closed Captions in the video console to display the script onscreen if prefer to read the narration. Use the options to adjust your display.
How To Series Leverage the My Oracle Support How-To Video series for any new topics. These short videos provide step-by-step demonstrations of basic functionality.
You can watch any of the videos at any time, and then return back to this accreditation. Be sure to make this document a favorite for your toolkit.
Try It Yourself Try it yourself to reinforce your understanding. Click the Pause button on your video and try the suggested action.
Get Help Finally, use the Contact Us link on your accreditation home page to engage the program team. We are here to help, so please let us know if you need anything.
18
CUA
Support
Identifier
My Oracle Support is Oracles online support portal. A personalized, one-stop shop for knowledge, solutions, community,
proactive tools, and service requests. Leveraged by both functional and technical users to meet the objectives of the role.
Support Identifiers A Support Identifier or SI is a numeric value assigned to orders when you purchase Hardware and all
software. SIs can be hardware only, software only, or a combination of hardware and software. Partners also have Support
Identifiers OPN software Support Identifier, Support Partner SP software SI, or SP hardware SI.
Under My Account, view products associated to your Support Identifiers and the type of access you have associated to that
Support Identifier. If you need any assistance to locate your SI, log a non-technical Service Request in My Oracle Support,
located under Contact Us. Or, for partners, access the Oracle Partner Business Center and log a non-technical Service
Request.
Your Customer User Administrator (CUA) performs an administration role that includes managing user access and support
identifier features.
Best Practice: Establish a minimum of two CUAs per support identifier. Why is this important? Managing user access requests
in an ongoing function of the CUA. Having multiple CUAs in place ensures that users like yourself have adequate coverage and
back-up coverage if any CUA is unavailable.
Customer purchases
products from
Oracle and a
support identifier is
assigned.
Technical contact is
sent an email
welcome pack with
the new support
identifier.
Technical contact
signs into My Oracle
Support and
requests access to
the Support
Identifier.
Best Practice: have a minimum of two CUAs per support identifier. This gives your organization adequate coverage
for access requests, especially if your CUA is unable to respond to a request. If you are the only CUA for a support
identifier, talk to your manager about expanding the coverage with at least one back-up.
Best Practice: understand your organizational strategy for user access. What do you need to know before granting
access for SR Create and Update? Your organization can guide you on how to effectively manage the number of
users who are logging service requests.
Best Practice: plan time in your schedule to manage access notifications. Maybe you spend 15 minutes early in
the morning to process all pending requests. Make it work for your typical workday, number of requests, and how
you like to work.
Best Practice: Take advantage of both My Oracle Support and Mobile My Oracle Support to easily review and
respond to user requests.
Best Practice: Keep your access model current. On a quarterly basis, review users with access to each CUA and
add or remove access as required. Export a list of all users associated with the SIs you manage and implement any
desired changes.
Best Practice: Enable full text in the email notification to improve the productivity of your users. Check with your
organization to confirm if this aligns with corporate direction. ONSCREEN This functionality is available for most
Oracle products.
Best Practice: If you manage many SIs and have users who need access to the SIs you manage, add the other SIs
they will be using once you approve the first SI.
Best Practice: Add more detail to the SI Name and Account. Access the SI and update the Name and Description
fields. Your users can now see the more detailed Name (SI) and Description (Account) and this improves which SIs
are selected when users create SRs.
Best Practice: Use SI Groups to organize your users, assets, and SIs into groups that mirror how your organization
works. Setting up Support Identifier Groups (or SIGs) allows you to group users to only see the assets and
products of interest.
Best Practice: Set up auto approval for functional user access to knowledge base and community. This saves you
review time and allows the user to immediately begin searching for solutions.
Best Practice: If you have hardware, associate the Hardware settings to the HW users who need to manage the
assets and Auto Service Requests.
Action Plan;
Best Practice: Get help from your CUA via My Account Your CUA is your primary contact for access requests and
SI needs. This best practice includes knowing how to look up and email your Administrators in My Account and
use the general functions related to SIs, hardware, and access. In most cases, your CUA will address your question
or need.
Best Practice: Provide justification for your access request to let the CUA know about your access needs. A
detailed business justification for SR Create and Update and patch downloads is a key best practice. Include your
role, team, project, and any manager approvals. Why is this important? Your CUA could refuse your request
without a full understanding of the business need and that could delay your work. ONSCREEN I am part of the
upgrade team for this product area and will need to log service requests to support the XYZ project that kicks off
at the beginning of the month. If you need confirmation, please contact Greg Jones.
Its a similar process if you need access to a new Support Identifier. Select Request Access and enter your SI. If you
have a serial number, select Find a Support Identifier and enter your serial number. ONSCREEN Again, be sure
to include the business justification.
Best Practice: Enable SR Details this option is available when the CUA enables this feature on the SI. This
enables you to receive email updates with the body of the update in the email for most product lines.
Best Practice: If you need assistance to locate your SI, log a non-technical Service Request, located under Contact
Us in My Oracle Support. Or, for partners, access the Oracle Partner Business Center and log a non-technical
Service Request.
Best Practice: Think about the future If you know that your role is changing, make sure your access levels and
support identifiers are in alignment. Lets say you just joined a new project team for a different product. Although
you log service requests, this is a new team and they use a different SI from your current team. Find out which SI
they use for service requests and submit a request to add that SI. Remember to include a business justification
that explains why this specific SI is required.
Action Plan;
24
Spending just a few minutes customizing your dashboard adds ongoing value. It can help you quickly focus on your areas of
interest every time you access My Oracle Support. And, you can easily change the dashboard as your role changes. The
objective is to make My Oracle Support work best for you.
The number of tabs you see depends on the Support Identifiers associated to your account. If you have more tab options
than the space available, they are located under the More tab. The top section displays the global content that appears on
every page in My Oracle Support.
The search option shown is about searching the knowledge base. When you are on a specific tab, such as Service Requests
or Patching, there is an additional search option available on those tabs for searching within those topics specifically.
If you need access to a Support Identifier once you have registered, select Request Access and enter your SI. If you have a
serial number, select Find a Support Identifier and enter your serial number. Add the reason you need access and the
request will be reviewed by your CUA.
Most user access issues can be addressed by the CUA for the SI. It is the role of the CUA to make sure the correct level of
access is established for each of their end users.
You have flexibility to the layout of the dashboard based on the tasks you perform. Take time and spend a few minutes to
lay out the dashboard exactly how you like.
Hardware Assets
If you are on the Systems home page
(and do not see a list of your hardware
assets), it could be due to two reasons:
1) You need to have a Support Identifier
associated to your account for hardware
and 2) you need to be approved to view
assets to see the related content.
System Administrator
SP Partner for HW
There are many ways to stay informed about changes and content within My
Oracle Support. Here are some examples My Oracle Support Resource Center,
the Hot Topics Email, Blogs, and Twitter.
My Oracle Support Resource Center You can search for My Oracle Support
Resource Center in My Oracle Support. You can also locate it within the Getting
Started on the dashboard home page (Existing Users: Whats New, Doc
873313.1 ). Click the star icon to make it a favorite and check back often as this
is a great resource. Navigate through the tabs when you have time and look at
the available content. With every portal release, there are release notes under
Whats New which provide the latest information about updates in My Oracle
Support.
Best Practice: Try options to stay informed and see how they work for your role
and how you like to be updated. If you are getting too much email, change
your options. You could change your frequency to Weekly if that is a better fit
than daily emails.
Product Support Blog and Newsletter Index each of the product lines often have great content about how to stay informed about their product or how to stay informed
about product-specific features within My Oracle Support. Over time, many of the product lines have transitioned from the traditional newsletter to a product blog format.
Find your product of interest and locate their product updates. Product Support Blog and Newsletter Index, Doc 222.1.
Blogs there are two blogs we would like to highlight. The first is Support Portal and this is the My Oracle Support Blog and the second one is the Get Proactive Blog. This
also has tips and tricks for using My Oracle Support and from this one you can see there is a link through to Twitter. If you select that, it will take you through to the My
Oracle Support Twitter account, which you can subscribe to. The link for the My Oracle Support Blog is in the Getting Started region Support Portal Blog. Access the Get
Proactive blog from the Get Proactive Index, Doc 432.1 Get Proactive Blog
Essentials Webcast Program The Essentials webcast program has a great list of topics including the My Oracle Support basics that provides more detail topics covered in
this module you can select the time and language available to you. My Oracle Support Essentials Webcast Series, Doc 553747.1.
Help menu There is always the Help menu located up in the top right-hand corner in My Oracle Support. It is content-sensitive based on the page where you select it. Best
Practice: Leverage the help menu. This resource is often under-used. It takes just a minute to look up content of interest to learn more about the topic, how to use it, and an
explanation of the feature.
Search refinement
PowerView filtering
29
There are more than 500,000 active knowledge articles. There are over 9 million searches per month, resulting in over 12 million article views by users. More than 50% of
service requests are resolved with known solutions from the knowledge base.
So, why does this matter to you? We want to help you find relevant content and solve your problems and answer your questions quickly and easily. Thats it. The full value of
My Oracle Support is delivered to you when you are able to find what you need.
Most users start their search by entering in a key word in global search; the knowledge search engine works best with a natural language search where you type a phrase or a
question or more than one keyword. For example you might have noticed that as you type a list of suggestions appear. This list is displayed based on your knowledge settings,
located under My Account, Knowledge Preferences.
The search suggestions are displayed based on the settings in this preference and you have a few options either ON or OFF, and if ON, how many do you want supplied (5 or
10). For example, I can edit this and select 5 and apply. Now, when I start to type, only 5 suggestions are returned. The other options are all best left ON as they support your
search experience within My Oracle Support.
Global search is available on most tabs. If you search within the global search box, your results are displayed on the knowledge tab. Search performs best when you enter a
phrase or a set of key words.
If I enter My Oracle Support Training the words are treated as My Oracle Support and Training. Notice the difference in the results if I put quotes around My Oracle Support
Training now I have results with my exact phrase. When I type in just the word training, the tips recommend what I should do to improve my search. When the results are
displayed, you can change your search results by clicking on the different knowledge bases. You can click to add or remove and the results are updated in real time. Did you
notice that if the search has no results in the Knowledge base, the search automatically includes the other sources?
Best Practice: Think about exactly what you need to make sure your results are targeted and effective and filter by selecting the product, adding more terms, etc.
Notice that you can enter a product and/or version. This allows you to enter your product and version (and then additional key words to refine your results). Additionally, weve
been working to co-locate content around activities users often perform. The co-located content is called an information center. If I navigate to the knowledge tab, now I have the
ability to pick a product. And, if an information center exists, its automatically displayed. By now, you should be very familiar with the layout of an information center. These
documents are a great way to learn about a product. Other information centers are focused around products or tasks. For example, if I wanted to check the configuration of my
software, I could make use of ORAchk and Doc 1268927.2 provides everything I need in order to get started using this tool.
Have you used PowerView to streamline your search for specific products or support identifiers? You can create a PowerView to filter by product. How PowerView works is
covered extensively in the PowerView training video accessed from the My Oracle Support Video How-To Training Series. Best Practice: check if your PowerView is ON or OFF if
you are not seeing the results you expect from your search. If you have a product-specific filter on, it will limit your results to that product and may not be applicable to a more
generalized search need.
Sometimes when you search, the results include documents with the word assistant in the title. These documents have been created to assist you in locating answers for a set of
symptoms. For example, a troubleshooting assistant document co-locates typical symptoms you may be experiencing. The document displays a set of prompts for you to select
from based on your answers, the assistant displays one or more documents that may have the solution for your set of symptoms.
Lets take a look at a few examples and see which search approach is going to fit best
with her needs. As you build your search expertise, youll be able to quickly and easily
locate content based on the objective and product.
She has tried several searches in the global search field, but did not find exactly
what she wants. And, it feels like it is taking too long to get results.
John wants to search for content related to Siebel CRM but with a more specific
parameter.
He was talking to a support engineer about fix packs and the engineer indicated
that he had just updated a knowledge document that has information relevant to
Johns question.
Is it possible for John to review content based on update date? Yes, he can use the
Knowledge tab and input his product, version, and select Updated in the last 2
weeks as the time filter.
In this scenario, John uses the inline product refinement option on the Knowledge
Tab to narrow his search results. The date parameter is especially helpful if he does
not know the exact wording of a document name but knows that it was just
updated.
Which search or filtering technique should she follow? In this scenario, we would
recommend that Sue create a new PowerView filter.
She could select Product Line and then JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and Create.
She can see that the new PowerView is set to ON as it appears in the global area at
the top of My Oracle Support.
If she types in a search for JDE patches, all her results on the knowledge tab are
related to JDE. And, she can see that the Knowledge tab shows that PowerView is
filtering by Product Line.
She can now refine her search to be more targeted and know that she is reviewing
all the content the JDE product team has developed.
One of our favorite best practices is to leverage context-sensitive help as part of your
search toolkit.
It is a very fast and targeted way to learn about content in My Oracle Support that
can help you understand terminology, how things work, and give you information
that may help you further improve your search technique.
If you click the Help menu in the upper right of the global banner, it displays the
documentation manual focused on your current page.
For example: if John is on the Patches & Updates tab and clicks the Help menu, he
sees content for patch topics like Patching Quick Links, Patch Searches, and Patch
Details. If he switches to the Service Requests tab and clicks Help again, he can see
content such as How do I search for a service request? or How do I create an SR?
Best Practice: try out some of the search techniques covered in this module. Make
sure you understand the best way to find content of interest. Frustration with
searching is often related to search technique. Effective search technique saves you
time, helps you avoid unnecessary service requests, and benefits your company by
helping you find (and leverage) the latest information available.
The Help Menu offers users a powerful filtering
mechanism and is easily accessible as you navigate. You
can save a lot of time by simply clicking Help wherever you
are in My Oracle Support to find targeted content (without
setting filters or creating a search).
Foundational Knowledge
Need help with the basics for Certification?
34
Databases
Directory/
LDAP
Operating
Systems
Enterprise
Applications
Desktop
Applications
Get Proactive
Upgrade
New Hardware
You plan to upgrade specific
products or operating systems
and need to review the target
version combinations to validate
or modify your upgrade plans.
Provide Feedback
Ask questions in
My Oracle Support
Community
Get Proactive
5
Search My Oracle
Support
3
Prepare for
Upgrades
Develop effective
search technique
Leverage Certification
Quick Links
Get Proactive
Review your product combinations on a quarterly basis to make sure your products continue to be certified to work
together. This is a good way to avoid surprises when you begin your next upgrade cycle. If there are noted concerns
with length of support or a specific combination, review that data with your leadership team. Be sure your components
and versions are documented to easily research support availability for your current footprint.
Find what you need quickly at any time during your product lifecycle. Confirm if your products are available on the
Certifications tab. Consider saving searches for easy access in the future.
There are helpful links to training content, tips, and certification news.
Check to make sure your planned product combinations are certified to work together. Review the available support for
the product combination and any patches required to enable the products to work together. If you are researching an
upgrade for your team, provide several options for the upgrade plan.
If you dont see the exact information you need on the Certification tab, search in the portal to confirm if productspecific certification data is be available from your product team. If you find certification resources for your product,
make them a Favorite for your customized toolkit. Save time by not having to search for the same content again.
Questions about Certifications can be asked in your specific Product Community. Locate the Product from the Space
List and look for a certification sub-space or the most appropriate product sub-space. This is also a great way to see
what your peers are saying about specific upgrade paths that may relate to your upgrade plan. If you find a relevant
sub-space for discussion, follow it for future updates.
Provide feedback
Use the Give Feedback link in the upper right from the Certifications tab to send your feedback directly to the product
team. Let them know about your experience, specific content you found helpful or additional information you need.
Our technical user, Bob, is ready to research a proposed upgrade plan for his team. He has the current footprint of components and versions documented to make the process
easier. He also has the upgrade target versions from the leadership team. Now its time to research the combinations to see whats certified and the associated support
coverage dates. He will document a couple certification combination options to review with the team to discuss the strengths of each approach and fit with objectives.
Bobs company wants to upgrade their E-Business Suite products to Release 12.2.5. He needs to get ready for a project meeting later in the week by investigating certified
combinations for the proposed upgrade path.
He logs into My Oracle Support and navigates to the Certifications tab. His first step is to create the search. He doesnt have a saved search for the current product set, so he
will create a new one. He enters E-Business Suite, Release 12.2.5 and the Platform, Linux 5, and selects Search.
2.
This search relates to a
proposed upgrade, so he
selects a future release.
1.
Start typing the product
name to bring up a list of
products in the system.
3.
Adding a Platform further
targets the search.
1.
Always check out the Top
Level Certification Results
2.
Expand and review the
relevant components here to
see what combinations are
certified.
He starts reviewing his additional product components by reviewing Database options. The team wants to validate if Data Guard 11.2.0.4.0 is certified for the target upgrade
path. He needs to review this combination and provide feedback on feasibility.
From here, he can select 11.2.0.4.0 from the Data Guard row to learn more.
1.
Select the desired version
associated to the Database
product.
1.
In particular, check out
the Ongoing Support for
future planning.
2.
The team wants to ensure the length
of coverage aligns to their planned
roadmap, including availability of
patches for Ongoing Support.
There is a lot of great functionality on the Certifications tab. Take advantage of these options the next time you search for certification data.
1.
Use the breadcrumb
trail to easily
navigation your path.
3.
Use the View link to
export to Excel or
print.
4.
Send the link to your
team if you want
others to review the
data.
2.
Select Edit Search to
edit the current search or
Save it.
Another reason that users may leverage the Certifications data is to proactively validate the current footprint of components and versions. In this example, your team does not
have an upgrade window on the roadmap, but you have planned for a quarterly proactive review to ensure the team is aware of any possible support coverage concerns.
The search process is the same as covered for the upgrade, except the focus is on the current versions. Review each component and the associated support coverage.
1.
This search relates to the
current release in
production.
2.
Review current
versions in your
combination to note
support dates.
Patch downloading
47
Take time to learn about patching. The foundational video training walks you through patching with step-by-step instructions.
Patching and upgrading are common activities many technical users like support administrators are asked to perform.
From the certification video, you discovered how to validate different releases of software, operating system and
hardware platforms to see if they work together.
Once your environment is certified, you may need to upgrade or patch to keep the configuration current over time.
Or, you may run into some type of issue and your application or hardware is not performing as expected.
You may have an error string or code problems and you search the knowledge base and a patch is recommended.
Regardless of the trigger, you need to download a patch and there are a number of simple ways to do this.
Lifecycle Advisors
Make use of patching and maintenance
content available as part of the lifecycle
advisor series, Doc 250.2.
These articles are easy to locate by entering
in terms such as patch advisor.
Select the lifecycle advisor, locate the
product of interest, and select upgrading or
patch advisor.
The content is laid out in a tab format, using
a step-by-step approach to evaluate, plan,
test, and implement patching and
maintenance activities.
Take time to explore this resource, including
the content-specific videos about patching
for your product.
For example, you want the patch set for database 11.2.0.2 and are provided patch number 10098816. Just enter the patch number, click Search, and the results are displayed.
The table is sorted by selecting the column names.
Based on the details you provided, this search shows every platform. Select Edit Search, and add your platform (Oracle Solaris x86) and the results are refined.
If you are working with a team, you can share the results using the Share Link feature.
Selecting the patch number provides additional information (if available) such as a list of the bugs covered by this patch, download access level, and related knowledge articles
referenced by this patch. There is even a count of downloads and a trends option.
Best Practice: be sure to notice if a patch has been superseded. The Download Patch page will provide that data for you and recommendations.
If you have questions, you can enter them directly into the community from this page. In addition, you can review what others have been posting about this patch.
JD Edwards For JD Edwards patches, the search process is the same. However, select JD Edwards
Patches link from the Patch Search region. Select your configuration, the release, and platform,
agree to the license and select Search. Once you locate your patch, you can download it.
Recommended Patch Sets Some teams, like E-Business Suite, have created a Quick Link to the
patch sets or recommended patch sets for its products.
Patch-Related
Plans
Advisors
Similar to certifications,
recommended patch advisor (Patch
Search > Search) allows you to enter
a product and get the latest release
by selecting Oracle Solaris, release
11, for your x86 64-bit platform and
the latest release is displayed.
Help Menu Remember our best practice of leveraging context-sensitive help? Its a great option for patching just access the help menu in the top right-hand corner. On
the patches and updates tab itself, there are Quick Links located on the left-hand side which also provide additional support and information. Or, you can search the
knowledge base as I advised previously where there is a lot of content related specifically to patching by product family.
Document Your Plan Best Practice: Have your current product, OS, and patch levels documented and readily available. When you look for patch information in My Oracle
Support, update your upgrade or patch plan with your latest information. Do you know your patch level at any given time? Do you proactively look at available patches on a
quarterly basis? Finding patches or patch information is only part of the equation, the big picture is about keeping your platform up to date and delivering against your
business objectives.
Ask Questions and Get Answers If you still have questions, find your product family in the My Oracle Support Community. Look to see if there is a patch-related discussion
and if not, post a question at the product level and the support team will investigate and provide the answer you are looking for.
Description
Requires OCM
Patch
Recommendations
Patch Search
Upgrade Planner
Who is in community?
Using sub-spaces
57
Value of Community My Oracle Support Community is available 7x24 and the communities are staffed with Oracle Support
engineers and My Oracle Support users. Both groups will react and respond to your questions as soon as they are able. You
can leverage the shared experience and expertise at any time. Post your question and the community members will share
their known solutions. The community is NOT somewhere to post private corporate data and it is NOT a replacement for the
technical support experience. If you need help with the basics, check out Doc 1616733.1 for documentation and training
videos on community.
Manage Your Profile Your profile is managed by selecting Edit Profile, Your Profile. If you only choose to do one thing,
change your user name from a number to your name. Being able to reply to a users name is much nicer than replying to a
number. And, take time to add a photo to make the community experience more personal for other users.
Sort your activities by making different connection streams (you can have up to 10). Then, within the connection streams,
turn ON or OFF notifications based on what you want. The tip here is if you follow a product space, then you get notifications
about all the activity in that space and your inbox may become large very quickly. Another example is if you follow the My
Oracle Support Community at the top level, then you are following EVERY space and every sub-space within the whole
environment and your inbox will explode.
You will notice there are always a few gurus who seem to have answers for questions in your sub-space community. You may
wish to follow those individuals by mousing over their avatar and selecting FOLLOW. Users become gurus by answering
postings with replies that are marked correct by the original poster.
Learn more about how the points are assigned by clicking your avatar and then View Profile. Mouse-over your points total to
see how points are earned.
Be sure to indicate which reply resolved your issue and mark it Correct. This enables other users to find questions with
answers skip your question as they can see a Correct reply has been provided and no further update is needed.
Locate Sub-Spaces
Use the navigation banner to locate
product spaces and associated subspaces of interest to follow. By
default, everything you follow goes
into the connection stream in your
activities.
Post Questions
Best Practice: Always find the most
relevant sub-space before posting a
question. This gets your question
directly to the right experts rather
than having it re-assigned to a
different community.
New Questions: include product,
version, and details on what you need.
What are experiencing or attempting to
do? Is there an error message? Give
some background about what it is you
are trying to do and some examples.
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The Oracle Support teams have worked to ensure you have an easy time locating the tools and resources to help assist you resolve known issues for your products.
Best Practice: Make use of the product-based resource tools co located in the Get Proactive Portfolio.
The Get Proactive Series can be accessed from either the Getting Started Region, the Knowledge Tab, or by Searching on Get Proactive. Document 432.1 is the introduction
page to learn about the portfolio, and allows you to select a product of interest and then access Best Practice Tools and resources highlighted by the product team to Prevent
and Resolve issues and Upgrade your Oracle Products.
For each link there may be an ACT link to provide more content and a DISCOVER link to access a video that explains more the feature or tool.
Many of these product-based resources are reviewed in the Level 2 product based accreditation series. Some of the features listed in the Get Proactive pages require the
installation of Oracle Configuration Manager or the Oracle Hardware Support Tools bundle.
If these terms are new to you, I would recommend that you review the Essentials Advisor Webcast program, Doc 553747.1 and look for sessions covering Oracle
Configuration Manager or Oracle Hardware Best Practices for a deep dive on this topic and the ability to ask questions during the live presentation.
Did you know its a best practice for Oracle Software support to enable Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM)? This application only collects your product configuration data
to enable Oracle Support to quickly assist resolving your issues and to enable the Health and Patch Recommendations displayed in the System Tab on My Oracle Support.
The first two collection tools are Oracle Collection Manager and Oracle Enterprise Manager Harvester collection job. These tools are available for the displayed products, as
you can see many of Oracles Products can make use of this feature. The data collected is analyzed and made available within My Oracle Support and based on your product
you can make use of the following features available in the Systems Tab.
There are many existing knowledge articles that explain how to set up these tools in your environment. The core point I would like to stress is that these tools only collect
your configuration data in Oracle Home and automate the sending via a secure method of this data to Oracle. We dont collect your data and we have a very strict Data
Security and Privacy policy in place to ensure only the Oracle Support Engineer working your issue has access to your configuration information.
The configuration information supplied by you, is made available within My Oracle Support in the System Tab or the Dashboard. The analysis is done on our side, therefore
there is no impact to your systems and you can view an analysis output on the Systems Tab in each of the regions, for example: System Patch Recommendations, System
Health Recommendations and an overview of your configuration.
Based on how frequently you send this data, you can track changes that have occurred in your systems. Best Practice: Use the configuration data to ensure you apply
recommended patches, make use of the upgrade planner, and address the Health recommendations. This data can also be used when triggering a Service Request to provide
the Support Engineer with everything they need to get started.
ORAchk Another tool available for Software users is ORAchk. This tool checks your configurations by performing an Audit. It does this by interrogating your Oracle stack
components and provides a series of output files that cover your System Health Score, known issues and recommended solutions. Use the link below to further research
ORAchk for your role and business. Review, download, and install ORAchk to resolve known issues on your Oracle Software Products.
Get Proactive Portfolio, Doc 432.1 | ORAchk, Doc 1268927.1 | Oracle Services Tools Bundle (STB), Doc 1153444.1 | Proactive Analysis Center (PAC) Doc 1634073.1
Best Practice: A best practice for Oracle systems is to download and install the Oracle Services Tool Bundle and enable Auto
Service Request (ASR) on your hardware. This enables you to prevent known issues, automatically log service requests for a
range of errors and faults as they occur and enable you to create a fully qualified service request. Use the Get Proactive
Portfolio for Oracle Systems to locate these tools. From the ACT link, find support documents that cover the installation
steps, frequently asked questions, and deep-dive how-to videos to learn more.
Once you enable the sending of explorer data to Oracle, you can make use of the Proactive Analysis Center.
Best Practice (Hardware): Use the PROACTIVE ANALYSIS CENTER to analyze your system risk. How at Risk is your Oracle
Hardware and Operating System? Can you answer this question easily? If you have enabled Service Tools Bundled and
installed Explorer can you can make use of the Proactive Analysis Center accessed via My Oracle Support.
There is a detailed instructional document, Doc 1634073.1 that provides screen snapshots, an overview, and a video to
explain how to use this application. Using the Proactive Analysis Center enables you to diagnose how at risk your systems
are by displaying a risk index and providing detailed information on how to address and resolve each risk identified.
This Best Practice resource is a holistic proactive system solution and has been known to assist with quickly identify
vulnerabilities for at Risk Systems, decrease the operational cost by managing downtime and reduce the number of service
requests and potentially the time to resolve the issue.
Best Practice (Hardware): Enable Auto Service Request for your business.
Set up Auto Service Request to enable your system to automatically notify Oracle
Support and open a prioritized Service Request on your behalf when a specific
hardware fault has occurred.
After installing the Sun Service Tools Bundle, review the information on
oracle.com/asr to learn more about installing, configuring, validating, completing
the activation and testing your ASR installation.
Once enabled, the electronic fault telemetry data will be sent securely to Oracle
using a one-way method; therefore, there is no risk to your environment.
This best practice resource enables Oracle Support to work the issue before you
are even aware of it and parts are dispatched on receipt of the service request.
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Diagnostics
My Account
Community
Lets review the Service Request process. Typically, the service request flow is a four-step process.
Step one is the problem-definition stage where you outline the problem and where the problem is located. Based on your product selection, you may be prompted to answer
more questions, and it may even trigger a guided resolution. The guided resolution is triggered when there may be a known solution to your issue.
Based on the data you entered, the second step is to identify if your issue is a known issue and a solution already exists. If the guided resolution does not resolve your issue,
it displays instructions about data to collect. If the guided resolution was not triggered, you may be presented with questions to gather more information about your issue.
The third step is more details. Again, based on the product problem definition, a number of uploads may be requested. We will not ask for data that we dont need. The files
being requested aid in the timely analysis of your issue.
The final step is to determine how critical the issue is to your business. Best Practice: review your support policy for a correct understanding of the severity levels. Not every
issue is a severity 1. If you select Severity 1, additional data is required.
2. Known
Issue?
3. Problem
Details
1. Problem
Definition
4. Severity
Your SR
Favorites Be sure to make your Service Request a favorite and this will enable you to quickly access it from your
mobile phone or mobile device.
SR Updates Best Practice: Enable SR Updates to be included in the body of the email. This helps you be more
efficient by allowing you to read the full update that the support engineer has entered. Check with your CUA to ensure
they have activated this feature for the SI you are associated with and that your organization supports the use of it.
Online Chat When in the office, enable the online chat feature. Being available for chat can save you and the support
engineer time. The support engineer may initiate a chat session to share a solution, validate a solution, or request
additional information.
Primary Contacts Manage who is the primary contact for your service requests. If you will be out of the office, you
can easily adjust this field. If you resolve your issue before Oracle does, select the reason and provide a comment. This
improves our knowledge and enables Oracle Support to create knowledge documents to assist other users.
Ensure Your Data is Complete and Accurate During the SR process, there may be times when you feel the SR is not
progressing. Be proactive. Validate your problem statement, business impact, and severity. Are there any milestone
dates documented in the SR or against the particular support identifier? Is there a workaround? Did the workaround
work for you? Or, is there something stopping you from implementing the suggested workaround?
Request Management Attention You can request Management Attention by either updating the SR by providing the
answers in the template displayed or by calling the Support Hotline Number and provide the same information to the
support engineer working your service request. Management Attention is about bringing the right resources to your
servicer request, improving the communication process, and creating an action plan to resolve your issue. To learn
more: How to Engage Management Attention to a Service Request with Oracle Support Services, Doc 199389.1.
If you are a technical user and work service requests, be sure you can
easily upload any content required by Oracle Support as part of the
investigation.
Do you know what to do if your attachment is larger than 2GB and you
have been asked to attach it to the Service Request?
Learn more How to upload and attach files to Service Requests, Doc
1596914.1.
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Best practices
70
In this example, you are away from your desk and you want to see how your service request is progressing.
Log into Mobile My Oracle Support http://support.oracle.mobi. You let the engineer know you uploaded some
files prior to stepping out of the office, and you post a message and provide your update. Best Practice: Bookmark
the Mobile URL for easy access on the go.
While getting your coffee, you received a Tweet about something to do with Solaris 11; you selected the link to find
out more information. You view the knowledge document within your mobile device, reading through the details
and accessing any hyperlinks; this one has some terms you have seen before and it has a bug, so you mark the bug
a favorite and also mark the document a favorite. When you are back in the office in 10 minutes, you can go back
and this information is available to you under your favorites.
If you are the CUA, you can view notifications and in this example, a user is requesting access. You can approve or
deny. Best Practice: Approve for just default level (general access) until you determine who they are and what
access they need for their role. You remind the user to learn how to use My Oracle Support so they can get started
quickly and reduce possible questions back to you as their CUA.
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There are three stages of coverage Premier provides full system support and is a 5-year commitment.
Extended is an additional 3 years for selected Oracle software and operating systems. Sustaining offers
unlimited technical and knowledge support and access to pre-existing content.
Best Practice: Understand the stages of support coverage and know how to locate and review your policies
as needed.
In the module that covered certification, the use case demonstrated how to review the support
information for products.
If you are not using the Certifications tab or if the content is not available there, you can locate the
information by following the links on oracle.com. Download the PDF and search within it to quickly see
what is covered for each product.
The policy PDFs outline what is covered for support. The policy covers troubleshooting and problem
diagnostics that use experienced implementation and use of Oracle products.
The Oracle support team assists with the fixing of product-based support problems.
This accreditation previously covered your Support Identifier and the different levels of access within My
Oracle Support.
The level of Patch Download is directly associated to the type of Oracle Support policy you have purchased.
If you do have issues downloading a patch, review your Patch Download Access levels under My Account.
Check back often to the support policy pages on oracle.com as content does change and this is your source
of truth for what is covered.
Within My Oracle Support, you can locate documents where specific product teams have listed out
additional content. Search using terms such as Technical Support Policies.
Best Practice: Develop a strategy for managing your product installments against your support policies.
Consider checking your policies quarterly to ensure alignment with your goals and any upgrade plans on the
horizon. This is a good opportunity to be proactive and make sure you have the coverage you need.
Breadcrumb trail
of your selections
Availability of patches
Jump to your
support policies
Search the
knowledge base
Ask the
Community
DETAILS
Gather
information for
your SR
Problem
Statements
Products, versions,
systems
Before you initiate the new SR, gather data that Support will need to start working your issue exact error message, log files, screen captures of what
you or your users are seeing, detailed business impact of the issue.
Best Practice: If you note an unusual behavior with your product, go ahead and grab a screen capture. You may be able to solve it with known solutions,
but this screen capture may be important to a future SR. If you are not able to reproduce the issue, this is your evidence of the problem. Note the day,
time, user actions, and results observed.
What is the problem Your problem statement should be very specific.
Users impacted One user unable to complete a process is different from all users are unable to conduct business. Are users completely unable to
perform a function or just limited in performing the function. Only users with XYZ privilege or role.
Occurrence Just a single time? Happens repeatedly? Only happens when XYZ occurs.
What happened before the issue Any change in your environment? Patch applied? New users added/removed from system? Upgrade? Process
change? Do you have a clear date of when it last worked?
Can you reproduce Is the issue reproducible? Have you tried to reproduce? If so, what happened?
Actions you took After the problem was noted, did you apply any solutions or changes? Apply a fix? Change a setting? Reboot the system? Add or
remove a user or parameter? Roll-back a fix? Change a users privilege?
Be sure your selections match your set up. These details ensure your issue gets to the right engineer with the right product knowledge and avoids a
delay if SR needs to be re-assigned to the correct product team.
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Best Practice: Increase your expertise with Community. That includes finding a sub-space of
interest, searching for posted content for a specific question, and following discussions of
interest to get emails when that content is updated. Always take a moment to find the most
relevant sub-space before posting a new question to target your product-specific experts.
Expanded
Space List
Top-Level Spaces
(Communities)
Click here to go to
the Top-Level Space
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Did you use the study guide throughout your accreditation? Take a few minutes to
review the study content now and check on any notes you took during your learning
experience. Make sure you understand the core functions and the suggested best
practices.
Click on Take the Exam from the final module page. Start your exam by clicking Play.
Carefully review and answer each question. Click Finish Test to submit your exam. If
you do not pass, you can re-take your accreditation exam once per 24-hour-period.
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My Oracle Support
Toolkit
Community
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