HCM Cloud Service Definition

Taleo Zone Refresh with Fusion HCM

Environment Refresh (P2T)
OR AC LE WHI TE P AP E R

JULY 2015

Taleo Zone Refresh with Fusion HCM Environment Refresh (P2T, or Production to
Test Data Copy)
This document provides information about how to complete a service request (SR) for the coordinated fulfillment of
both a Taleo Zone Refresh and a Fusion HCM Environment Refresh (P2T). Oracle provides this service entitlement
only to those customers that use the delivered integration between Fusion HCM and Taleo Recruiting. Its use for
any other purpose is not supported.

CHARACTERISTIC

DESCRIPTION

Compatible

Fusion HCM Releases 8 and Taleo Recruiting 13b, 13c, 14a, 14b

Release(s):

Fusion HCM Release 9 and Taleo Recruiting 14a, 14b

Fusion HCM Release 10 and Taleo Recruiting 14b

Service Type:

Data Copy

Definition:

This service copies data from your Fusion HCM and Taleo Recruiting production
environments to their corresponding non-production environments.
Using one SR, you are requesting that: a Fusion environment refresh (P2T) be run to copy
data from your production Fusion HCM instance to your non-production Fusion HCM
instance; and a Taleo Refresh be run to copy data from your production Taleo Enterprise
Edition instance to your non-production Taleo Enterprise Edition instance.
Although it would be possible for you to request that the refreshes be fulfilled independently
from each other, Oracle provides a coordinated refresh solution because doing so assures
that both processes complete as closely together as possible. This is important because,
once you start either refresh, you must suspend normal integration process scheduling
between production environments until both refreshes are completed. If you were to
run these integration processes between production environments, it is highly likely that your
paired Fusion/Taleo non-production environments would have data integrity issues because
the production environments from which their data originates will contain different data. This
is discussed further in the section entitled Fulfillment Considerations below and it is important
that you review this material thoroughly.
Optional HCM Data Masking Service: HCM customers on Release 10 or above with a paid
subscription to the data masking service may request that the refresh and data masking
services be combined, where data migrated to the target environment via a refresh will be
masked, or obfuscated, at the same time as and as part of the Fusion environment refresh
fulfillment process. If you need to add or change data after it is migrated via a refresh, but
before data masking is applied, you will need to submit two SRs. File one SR to request the
coordinated Taleo/Fusion refresh service and a second SR to request the Fusion Data
Masking Standalone service. For more information about Fusion data masking, refer to
HCM Cloud Service Definition: Data Masking Standalone in My Oracle Support
document, Doc ID 1534683.1.

FUSION HCM CLOUD SERVICE DEFINITION: TALEO ZONE REFRESH WITH FUSION HCM ENVIRONMENT REFRESH (P2T)

Business Need

This service addresses several business objectives during the lifecycle of your

Met:

implementation and ongoing use of the Fusion HCM and Taleo Recruiting Cloud Services:
After going live, this service makes production data available for ongoing development,
enhancement, and maintenance work in non-production environments using your real data.
For upgrades and new product versions, this service creates copies of your production
environments against which Oracle applies the upgrade or new version, so that you can test
this maintenance prior to accepting the upgrade in production environments.
Refreshes non-production environments whenever you need to re-establish a new baseline
for such purposes as initiating a new project and replacing test data that is no longer useable.

Typical

As needed, but no more than one combined Taleo/Fusion refresh will be provided in a

Frequency:

calendar quarter with a minimum of 30 days between each one.

Fulfillment

SR/Preapproval/Oracle Support: You file the SR, the SR is evaluated for approval, and, when

Method:

approved, Oracle Support works with you to ensure the combined Taleo/Fusion refresh
request is fulfilled. This process prioritizes all customer requests so that, to the extent
possible, Oracle fulfills them in timeframes requested. You will receive confirmation of the
fulfillment date through the SR you opened to request it. In addition, you will receive outage
notifications for the target Fusion and Taleo non-production environments in advance of the
outages.

Fulfillment
Considerations:

Plan ahead
A 3-week advance notice is required.
Submit your coordinate Taleo/Fusion refresh request at least 3 weeks prior to the date
needed.

Lead time is required to evaluate the status of update levels between your source

and target environments, verify that they are at the same version, and schedule and obtain
approval. When filing the Taleo/Fusion refresh SR, if the exact date is not known, you must
provide a best-guess date; when you subsequently know the exact date for your combined
refresh, you can amend the original SR with that date. Fusion Environment Refresh (P2T)
Fulfillment Considerations
Downtime of up to 72 hours downtime is required, if data masking is requested for the Fusion
HCM environment refresh.
Downtime of up to 72 hours is required in the target non-production environment,
but there is no outage in the source environment when you request an
environment refresh with data masking. This applies only to HCM customers on
Release 10 or above with a paid subscription to the data masking service and who
request the data masking service as part of the environment refresh service
fulfillment. When a date for the environment refresh fulfillment is determined, you
will be contacted to verify that you can accept this outage.
Downtime of up to 48 hours is required, if data masking is not requested.
Downtime of up to 48 hours is required in the target non-production environment,
but there is no outage in the source environment. When a date for a Fusion

FUSION HCM CLOUD SERVICE DEFINITION: TALEO ZONE REFRESH WITH FUSION HCM ENVIRONMENT REFRESH (P2T)

refresh fulfillment is determined, you will be contacted to verify that you can accept
this outage.
At the end of the environment refresh, the entire target database is replaced with sources
database. Also WebCenter content (UCM) and business intelligence (BI) Web Catalog and
RPDs are overwritten with this same data from the source. As a result, you should
backup/archive any BI artifacts in the target you wish to preserve prior to the refresh; this
applies equally to functional setup and Composer changes which exist in the target but not
the source, if you wish to retain them.
Depending on the update cadence that a particular environment is assigned (for more on
this, please see MOS article 1646394.1), there will be a period in which update levels
between non-production and production environments will be out of sync. This is called a
blackout period. A Fusion environment refresh (P2T) will not be performed during the
blackout period which runs from the first weekend of each month through the third weekend
of each month. In addition to update levels being in sync between the source and target
environments, installed language packs must also be the same between the two
environments.
The environment refresh process copies pre-compiled FastFormula, but not their binaries.
As a result, you must recompile FastFormula in the target environment after a refresh data
content migration.
The environment refresh process does not migrate scheduled Enterprise Scheduler Service
(ESS) processesrecurring or one-timefrom the source environment to the target
environment. As a result, you will have to reschedule any processes you wish to run in the
target environment; this includes those processes which support the Fusion HCM/Taleo
Recruiting integration (i.e., Export Changed Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service Data,
and Import Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service Data). Note that, in doing so, default
parameters (for example, the number of threads and frequency) will be used unless you
change them. As a result, you should review your new process parameters carefully before
you run a process for the first time in the target environment.
Taleo Zone Refresh Fulfillment Considerations
Downtime of 8 hours minimum is required. A typical outage lasts 8 hours to several days,
depending on the amount of data and other factors. Few instances may require downtime of
up to 5 days maximum.
The Refresh operates against a backup copy of your production environment.
Typically, these backups are taken over the weekend (US Pacific Time), beginning
Friday evening and often continuing through to Sunday. As a result, there is no
additional outage required in the source production environment. The target nonproduction environment will be unavailable for the duration of the Refresh, with an
approximate outage of 8 hours minimum, and up to 5 calendar days maximum.
Both the source and target Zones must be at same product version in order for the Refresh to
run. If your source and target Zones are not at the same version, Oracle Support will ask you
to open an SR to request that the necessary maintenance be applied to bring your
environments to the same product version before the Taleo/Fusion refresh will be scheduled

FUSION HCM CLOUD SERVICE DEFINITION: TALEO ZONE REFRESH WITH FUSION HCM ENVIRONMENT REFRESH (P2T)

and run.
Coordinated Taleo/Fusion Refresh Fulfillment Considerations
When requesting a coordinated Taleo/Fusion Refresh, you must recognize two important
factors and take the appropriate action for each of them:
IMPORTANT! You must temporarily suspend integration processes between your two
production environments to assure that data integrity issues do not surface between your
paired non-production environments.
Because of the above, you must request the best date for the coordinated Taleo/Fusion
Refresh to minimize the amount of time your production environments have not been
synched up via the integration processes.
Suspend Integration Processes: As previously discussed, you must take steps to ensure
that Fusion HCM/Taleo Recruiting ESS (Enterprise Scheduler Service) integration processes
between your paired production environments are NOT run during the period of time the
combined Taleo/Fusion Refresh are being fulfilled. Oracle provides the following guidance in
this area:
Because the Taleo Refresh runs against a backup of Taleo production taken over each
weekend, you can run the production integration from Fusion HCM to Taleo Recruiting (i.e.,
the Export Changed Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service Data ESS process) after the
weekend backup. The Taleo production environment is fully available after it has been
backed up.
The production integration process from Taleo Recruiting to Fusion HCM (i.e., the Import
Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service Data process) cannot be run from the time the Taleo
production weekend backup completes until the Fusion environment refresh has completed.
Oracles guidance is that you disable scheduling for this process in your production
environment Friday PM (US Pacific Time) prior to the Taleo backup and reinstate
normal scheduling after the Fusion environment refresh has completed. If you do run
this process prior to completion of the environment refresh, the Fusion HCM non-production
environment will be ahead of the Taleo non-production environment and data integrity issues
will likely surface.
To disable scheduling for the Import Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service Data Enterprise
Scheduler Service (ESS) process, navigate to Scheduled Process via the Navigator. Select
the existing Import Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service Data process from the search
results and select Cancel Process.
Note: you must cancel both the New Hire Data and Requisition Data imports. As a result,
you will be canceling two ESS processes.
To resume scheduling for the Import Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service Data ESS
process after the Taleo/Fusion refreshes have completed, navigate to Schedule Process via
the Navigator. Select Schedule New Process, search on Import Oracle Taleo%, and
select that process. Enter the process parameters, using the scheduling frequency you have
established.
Note: You must reschedule both the New Hire Data and Requisition Data imports. As a

FUSION HCM CLOUD SERVICE DEFINITION: TALEO ZONE REFRESH WITH FUSION HCM ENVIRONMENT REFRESH (P2T)

result, you will be re-establishing scheduling for two ESS processes.

Choose the Best Date for the Coordinated Taleo/Fusion Refresh: It is important to
complete the Taleo and Fusion refreshes close to each other to minimize the amount of time
you cannot run integration processes between your production environments. There are,
however, restrictions on when you can run your Taleo and Fusion refreshes. Refer to Figure
1 below.
Taleo production backups are taken each weekend (US Pacific Time), starting on Friday
evening and continuing through Sunday; this is indicated in Figure 1 with vertical lines.
During these times, Refreshes cannot be run. Further, the Fusion refresh process is not
available on any Friday or from the first weekend of each month through the third weekend of
each month because update levels will be out of synch between your Fusion environments;
see the dates with the horizontal lines. On several weekend days during the month, neither a
Taleo nor Fusion refresh can be run; Figure 1 displays these dates using cross-hatched
shading. The net of this is that the only days on which your Taleo and Fusion refreshes can
be coordinated are those with no shading.
Because you want to minimize the period of time during which you cannot run integrations
between Fusion HCM and Taleo Recruiting, you should request an available date early in the
week for your coordinated Taleo and Fusion Refresh. Monday is the best day to request
coordinated refreshes; each following day in the week is less desirable, which is reinforced in
Figure 1 by the number of asterisks displayed.

Su

Mo

Tu

We

Th

Fr

Sa

31

1
****

2
***

3
**

4
*

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22
****

23
***

24
**

25
*

26

27

28

29
****

30
***

1
**

2
*

Date unavailable due to Taleo production backups and P2T blackout period
Date unavailable due to Taleo production backups

FUSION HCM CLOUD SERVICE DEFINITION: TALEO ZONE REFRESH WITH FUSION HCM ENVIRONMENT REFRESH (P2T)

Date unavailable due to Fusion environment refresh blackout period

Figure 1. Choosing the Best Date for a Taleo Zone Refresh with Fusion HCM Refresh

SR Filing

Instructions for submitting the P2T - Taleo Zone Refresh with Fusion HCM Environment

Guidelines:

Refresh (P2T) SR Template:

1. Log on to My Oracle Support.

2. Select Create SR from the Services Requests section or tab.
3. Under the What is the Problem? section, enter Taleo Zone Refresh/Fusion HCM
P2T as the Problem Summary.
4. Under the Where is the Problem? section, select the Cloud tab and enter the
following:
Service Type: Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources Cloud Service or Oracle
Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service
Problem Type (if using Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources Cloud Service as the
Service Type): Hosting Services - Application -> P2T - Taleo Zone Refresh with
Fusion HCM P2T
Problem Type (if using Oracle Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service as the Service Type):
Zone Maintenance Requests -> P2T - Taleo Zone Refresh with Fusion HCM P2T
Support Identifier: Defaults to your CSI number.
5. Click Next and provide requested information, which will be similar to the following.
1.

The Fusion HCM source and target environment identifiers for the
environment refresh (P2T);

2.

The Taleo source and target Zone identifiers for the Refresh;

3.

The date on which you would like the Taleo and Fusion refresh to start;

4.

For Fusion HCM Environment Refresh (P2T)

a.

5.

For Taleo Zone Refresh, you must choose one type of masking. Most
customers choose Standard.
a.

6.

Do you want data in the target HCM environment to be masked as part

of the P2T? Specify Yes or No. This option is available only to HCM
customers on Release 10 or above with a paid subscription to the data
masking service.

Select type of masking desired:

i.

Standard (i.e., email addresses only)

ii.

Full (scrambling of all data). If selected, Oracle

recommends that you mask Candidates only.

iii.

None

b.

If Standard or Full masking is selected, specify what data you want

to mask: Candidates, Users, or Both

c.

Select the number of external candidates required in your target

zone:
i.

ii.

25000

Verify that you will disable the Import Oracle Taleo Recruting Cloud Service
Data integration process between Fusion HCM and Taleo Recruiting on the
Friday evening (US Pacific Time) preceding the week in which the combined
Taleo/Fusion Refresh will be run. Instructions for doing so are documented in

FUSION HCM CLOUD SERVICE DEFINITION: TALEO ZONE REFRESH WITH FUSION HCM ENVIRONMENT REFRESH (P2T)

the document identified above. (Yes/No)

7.

Choose a refresh reason from the list so that we can serve you better. If you
select Other, provide details in the following additional information field:
a.

Reproduce configuration

b.

Preparing for an upgrade

c.

Clean up after testing project

d.

Implementation of new module

e.

Other

8.

Any additional information that will help clarify the timing and special
considerations for the request; and

9.

Contact information for the person Oracle Support should contact if there are
any follow-on questions or issues (Name, Email, Cell phone number, Office
phone number).

How to Validate

Sign on to the target environments and verify that data matches the data from the source

Service

environment for a sampling of employees, candidates, and setup. For those users that have

Fulfillment:

administrative access to Oracle Identity Management (OIM), sign on as that user and verify
that all OIM functions available to that user in the source environment are identical in the
target environment. Also, you may wish to run a report that your team has developed using
OTBI or an equivalent business intelligence tool.

Related

N/A

Service(s):
Related
Information on
MOS:

Doc ID 1514274.1: Zone Refresh

Doc ID1534683.1: Attachment entitled Fusion HCM Cloud Service Definition Fusion
HCM Environment Refresh (P2T)
Doc ID 1534683.1: Attachment entitled HCM Cloud Service Definition: Data Masking
Standalone

FUSION HCM CLOUD SERVICE DEFINITION: TALEO ZONE REFRESH WITH FUSION HCM ENVIRONMENT REFRESH (P2T)

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Fusion HCM Cloud Service Definition
Taleo Zone Refresh with Fusion HCM Environment Refresh (P2T)
July 2015