Anybody who has tried this multi-node to single-node cloning in 11i knows that it’s difficult and very error-prone. If we outline the Apps Tier cloning process, it looks like this (supposing we have a two-node instance with the DB and CM on one node, and Web and Forms on the other):

# CM Node
# copy all files to the target
$ perl adpreclone.pl appsTier merge

# Web Node
# copy $COMMON_TOP/clone/appl directory only to the target
$ perl adpreclone.pl appltop merge

# Target Node
$ perl adcfgclone.pl appsTier

This process is called merging appltops. It’s not as easy as it looks. Many times, the production environment might not have proper values in the fnd_nodes table, which makes adcfgclone.pl fail to properly recognize the appltops for merging.

But in R12, life is made easy. It employs a new concept called Unified Appltop, which means that no matter what you choose while installing, R12 will install a complete apps file system on all nodes. In the case of 11i, RapidInstall copies from the Staging Area only reports on CM nodes and Forms on the Web nodes. The only downside with the R12 unified appltop is the additional disk space required on all nodes. But, with storage being lot cheaper nowadays, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.

To do the same multi-node to single-node cloning in R12, there is no need to pass any extra arguments. All you need to do is choose a node for running adpreclone.pl appsTier, copy that node to target system, and run adcfgclone.pl

Happy cloning!