Cloning Principle & What changed in Rapid Clone from 11i to R12/12i

Cloning Principle

1. Cloning is creating replica of your source instance (PRODUCTION) to target (DEVLOPMENT) so that patch level & data in target instance is same as source instance.

2. Overview of cloning steps

2.1 Ensure you are autoconfig enabled on both Application Tier & Database tier (This is for Rapid Clone)
2.2 Maintain snapshot is executed at least once after any patches(tech stack) or database changes(adding new tablespace)
2.3 Run Preclone on DB Tier (on Source )
2.4 Run Preclone on Apps Tier (on Source)
2.5 Copy source instance file system to target instance
2.6 Run postclone/config on DB Tier (on Target Instance)
2.7 Run postclone/config on Apps Tier (on Target Instance)
2.8 Update Profile option (server, responsibility, user level), Printer, workflow config settings

What changed in Rapid Clone from 11i to R12/12i

1. adpreclone.pl script in 11i is in $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/$CONTEXT_NAME where as same perl script in R12/12i is in $INST_TOP/admin/scripts

2. Files to copy, If target instance pre-exist

—In 11i you copy $APPL_TOP, $OA_HTML, $OA_JAVA, $OA_JRE_TOP, $COMMON_TOP/util, $COMMON_TOP/clone, 806 & iAS ORACLE_HOME, Database ORACLE_HOME & DB_TOP
—In R12/12i you copy $APPL_TOP, $COMMON_TOP, Forms & Reports ORACLE_HOME (10.1.2), Web IAS_ORACLE_HOME (10.1.3) , Database ORACLE_HOME & DB_TOP 

3. Clone Configuration Script on target instance (adcfgclone.pl in both 11i & R12, 12i is in same location $COMMON_TOP/clone/bin)

4. There is no change in clone script location at Database Tier in 11i or R12/12i