Enable network connectivity to Applaud Cloud – Applaud Support

Prerequisites

Network access from the Oracle E-Business Suite database tier to Applaud Cloud is required to leverage Applaud Cloud platform capabilities. To enable network connectivity, you:

Create the wallet directory
Import certificates
Create the network ACL
Confirm network access

If your database is using RAC, you will need to perform the above steps on all database nodes.

Connectivity to Applaud must be over HTTPS and use a minimum of TLS 1.2 or above. Insecure, older ciphers are not supported. Please ensure you are on Oracle's recommended bundle and CPU to ensure strong TLS encryption.

Create the wallet directory

An Oracle Wallet Manager feature enables PKI- or password-based access to services without providing credentials at the time of access. This auto-login access stays in effect until the auto-login feature is disabled for that wallet. File system permissions provide the necessary security for auto-login wallets. When auto-login is enabled for a wallet, it is only available to the operating system user who created that wallet.

Log in to the database server as the Oracle user
Source the database environment
If the directory $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/wallet (the default wallet directory location on the database) is not present, create it. If it is already present go to step 4
```
$ mkdir $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/wallet
```

Create an auto login wallet under $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/wallet:

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/wallet
$ orapki wallet create -wallet . -auto_login -pwd <password>

Import certificates

Import one of the CA certificates:
$ orapki wallet add -wallet . -trusted_cert -cert <certificate>.crt -pwd <password>

To download the certificates, see our knowledge base article, Applaud Cloud certificates.
Repeat this step for all the certificates
Check the certificates were imported successfully using the below command:
$ orapki wallet display -wallet .
Check that the profile option Database Wallet Directory (FND_DB_WALLET_DIR) value is pointing to the above wallet directory ($ORACLE_HOME/appsutil/wallet).

Create the network ACL

A new security measure is introduced in Oracle 11g Release 1 (11.1) for the following network-related PL/SQL packages: UTL_TCP, UTL_HTTP, UTL_SMTP, UTL_MAIL, UTL_INADDR, DBMS_LDAP, and the HttpUriType type. The invoker of those packages needs additional privileges to connect to an external host or to resolve the name or the IP address of a host.

The packages check the invoker for the necessary privileges only when the calls are made at runtime and raise an exception if the invoker lacks the privileges. This new security measure is implemented by the XML DB access control list (ACL) mechanism and requires the following before these packages will work:

XML DB to be installed
Network Access Control Lists (ACLs) are configured in the database

Connect as SYSTEM or SYSDBA and run the below SQL to create ACL:

SET VERIFY OFF
SET FEEDBACK OFF
WHENEVER OSERROR  EXIT FAILURE ROLLBACK
WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT FAILURE ROLLBACK

DECLARE

 l_filename varchar2(30) := 'ApplaudCloud.xml';
 l_schema   varchar2(20) := '<APPS_SCHEMA_NAME>';

BEGIN

    BEGIN
        DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.DROP_ACL(
            acl => l_filename
        );

    EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN
        NULL; -- ACL does not exist yet
    END;

    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL(
          acl           => l_filename
        , description   => 'ACL for Applaud Cloud'
        , principal     => l_schema -- schema name
        , is_grant      => TRUE
        , privilege     => 'connect'
    );

    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(
          acl       => l_filename
        , principal => l_schema -- schema name
        , is_grant  => TRUE
        , privilege => 'resolve'
    );

    --
    -- Replace your-tenant-id with your actual Tenant Id.
    -- See docs.applaudsolutions.com/managing-your-tenant     --
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL(
          acl           => l_filename
        , host          => 'your-tenant-id.applaudcloud.com'
        , lower_port    => 443
    );

END;
/

COMMIT;
/

Port 443 is the standard HTTPS port for secure communication between E-Business Suite and Applaud Cloud.

Confirm network access

The network access and firewall rules will also need to be configured to enable connectivity from the Oracle E-Business Suite Database Tier to Applaud Cloud. Please check with your network team to confirm connectivity.

Access is needed at the Database Tier, not the Application Tier.

Once installation is completed, you can check the connection status of Applaud Cloud to confirm it is working as expected. See our knowledge base article, Confirm connection to Applaud Cloud.

Follow-up tasks