The New R12 version of the EBS come with new concept of – Instance Top.

In This new version there is a new environment variable called $INST_TOP.

This variable stand for the top level of the Application.

This main directory contain all of the configuration files of the applications ( SSL files,log/out files, scripts act…)

One of the major benefits is that the AD utilities ( adpatch, adadmin act….) while running writing there logs to the new $INST_TOP only.

And As a outcome from that we can grant read-only to the rest of the application this option is gaining the security of our environment.

The new $INST_TOP is allowing us to easily manage and administer the application tier by the separating the configuration  files from the application files.

By dividing the EBS environment to the applicative and administrative part we can share code between different environments  like DEV, TEST, PATCH act…