Preparing to Install Liquid Data

Note: If you are upgrading from Liquid Data 1.0 to 1.1, please review Migrating from Liquid Data 1.0 to 1.1 prior to installing Liquid Data 1.1.

Before you install the BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic^TM software, make sure your system meets the requirements for it. This section provides information about supported platforms, system hardware and software requirements, how to install all needed software in the proper order, how to get up-to-date product licenses, and an overview of what gets installed.

The following sections are included here:

• Supported Platforms and Databases
• Accessing Information from Enterprise Information Systems or Custom Applications
• Internationalization Support
• Installation Prerequisites

• Server Installation Prerequisites
• Client Installation Prerequisites

• Required Order of Installation Tasks
• About Licensing for Liquid Data
• What Gets Installed

• Preconfigured Samples Domain

• Considerations for Adding Liquid Data to a WebLogic Server Domain

 

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Supported Platforms and Databases

For the latest information about platform support, see also the Liquid Data Release Notes.

Note: Support for HP UX, IBM AIX, and SuSE Linux for IBM is new in BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic version 1.0.1.

Table 1-1 Supported Platforms and Databases for Liquid Data  

Operating System and Version	JDK Support	Hardware and Software Requirements	Database Support For more information, see Supported Databases and Drivers in the WebLogic Platform documentation.
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition with Service Pack 2 or later	JDK 1.3.1_061	Intel Pentium II or later 400 MHz or faster 512 MB RAM recommended TCP/IP network interface	Oracle 8.1.7 Oracle 9i Release 2 PointBase 4.22 Sybase Adaptive Server 12.5 DB2 7.2 SQL Server 2000 SQL Server 7 SP3
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Service Pack 2 or later	JDK 1.3.1_061	Intel Pentium II or later 400 MHz or faster 512 MB RAM recommended TCP/IP network interface	Oracle 8.1.7 Oracle 9i Release 2 PointBase 4.22 Sybase Adaptive Server 12.5 DB2 7.2 SQL Server 2000 SQL Server 7 SP3
Microsoft Windows NT (Server) 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or later	JDK 1.3.1_061	Intel Pentium II or later 400 MHz or faster 512 MB RAM recommended TCP/IP network interface	Oracle 8.1.7 Oracle 9i Release 2 PointBase 4.22 Sybase Adaptive Server 12.5 DB2 7.2 SQL Server 2000 SQL Server 7 SP3
Sun Solaris 73 Sun Solaris 83	JDK1.3.1_031	UltraSparc 5 or later Sparc 168 MHz or faster 512 MB RAM recommended TCP/IP network interface	Oracle 8.1.7 Oracle 9i Release 2 PointBase 4.22
HP-UX 11.0 HP-UX 11i4	JDK 1.3.1.055 JDK 1.3.1.06	HP 9000 PA RISC at 100 MHz or higher 512 MB RAM recommended TCP/IP network interface	Oracle 8.1.7 Oracle 9i Release 2 PointBase 4.22
IBM AIX Version 4.3.3 IBM AIX 5L Version 5.1 ML1	JDK 1.3.1 32-bit PTF 1 (IY30887)	pSeries: PowerPC, POWER3 Minimum processor speed: —PowerPC: 200 MHz —POWER3: 450 MHz 280 MB free disk space 512 MB RAM minimum TCP/IP network interface	DB2 7.2 Oracle 8.1.7 Oracle 9.i Release 2 PointBase 4.22
SuSE Linux for IBM zSeries/S3906, 7 Also required: SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for S/390 updated to Kernel 2.4.7 (dated 05/21/02 or later)	JDK 1.3.1 Service Refresh 2 Special Build (APAR PQ63617)	IBM S/390 G5 or later 180 MB free disk space 1 GB RAM minimum TCP/IP network interface	Oracle 9i Release 1 (Thin Driver) Oracle 9i Release 2 (Thin Driver) DB2 7.2

1. The Sun JDK is bundled with BEA WebLogic Platform and is installed, automatically, under the BEA Home directory. 2. PointBase is a pure-Java relational database management system that BEA includes with WebLogic Platform to allow you to run code samples. It is provided for development use only. A special PointBase production license must be obtained for use in a production environment. 3. If you are planning to use the JDK 1.3.1_03 with the Solaris operating system, you must install the latest JDK 1.3.1_03 patches. For additional information, see: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/install-solaris-patches.html 4. Before you can run the JVM on this platform, you must first install two patches provided by HP: GOLDAPPS11i and HWEnable11i. 5. The name of this JDK is HP-UX SDK 1.3.1.05. It has been labeled 1.3.1.03, however, by the authors of the WebLogic Platform HP-UX installer. 6. JavaTM 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition (build 1.3.1) Classic VM (build 1.3.1, J2RE 1.3.1 IBM build cx390131-20020622 (JIT enabled: jitc)). For download instructions, see "DownLoad Instructions for IBM JVM Build APAR PQ63617" at the following URL: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13222_01/wls/certifications/certifications/suse_linux_s390.html 7. The SuSE Linux version of Liquid Data is certified on WebLogic Server only, not on all components of the WebLogic Platform.

 

 

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Accessing Information from Enterprise Information Systems or Custom Applications

Liquid Data supports use of several Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) and custom applications as Application View data sources. Liquid Data interoperates with the BEA WebLogic Integration Application Integration (AI) layer through the Liquid Data Application View interface. Liquid Data can retrieve information through commercial application-specific adapters such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Oracle Financial and so on which are certified to work with BEA WebLogic Integration.

 

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Internationalization Support

The Liquid Data server and Data View Builder are internationalized and support multi-byte data from the underlying data sources. For this release, the user interface is in English only; it is ready for translation, but has not yet been translated into other languages.

Liquid data has been tested with Japanese character sets, where the underlying databases are running in Japanese locales. In accordance with the XML specification, target schema element names must be composed of single-byte characters. For any specific internationalization issues, see the Release Notes.

 

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Installation Prerequisites

Client systems and Server systems have slightly different installation prerequisites—the main difference being that Server systems require that WebLogic Platform 7.0 SP2 is installed before installing the Liquid Data Server. Client systems where you plan to install only the Data View Builder do not require an installation of WebLogic Platform.

• Server Installation Prerequisites
• Client Installation Prerequisites

Server Installation Prerequisites

This section lists the prerequisites for installing the Liquid Data server.

WebLogic Platform 7.0 SP2

You must have WebLogic Platform version 7.0 installed on the system where you plan to install the Liquid Data Server, and have a valid license.

• WebLogic Platform 7.0 SP2 is available as a Web download from the BEA Download Center at http://commerce.bea.com/downloads/products.jsp.
• See the WebLogic Server Installation Guide in the WebLogic Server documentation for instructions on installing WLS.
• See Installing and Updating a WebLogic Server License in the WebLogic Server Installation Guide for instructions on how to acquire and install a valid license for WLS.

Application Integration for Application Views Data Sources

Liquid Data works with WebLogic Integration to support the use of application views as data sources. If you want to use application views as Liquid Data data sources, you must have completed the following:

• Install and configure WebLogic Integration
• Deploy each adapter for which you will define application views
• Use the Application Integration console to define the application views you want to use as Liquid Data data sources.

WebLogic Integration and the Application Integration console are part of the WebLogic Platform 7.0 SP2.

For complete information on how to use Application Integration—including application views, refer to Application Integration in the BEA WebLogic Integration documentation. A good place to start is Introduction to Using Application Integration.

For convenience, the Liquid Data Administration Guide provides information on the final prerequisite step on how to define application views (see Configuring Access to Application Views). But this information is also in the WebLogic Integration documentation.

Memory, JDK, System Requirements, and Other Prerequisites

• Minimum of 256 MB of RAM

The 256-MB RAM recommendation is minimal for one instance of WebLogic Server on which Liquid Data is running. You may need more memory if you run two or more instances of WebLogic Server and/or Liquid Data.

• In addition to the disk space requirements for WebLogic Platform, you need at least 100 MB of free disk space for Liquid Data
• Web browser

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or above
• Netscape Navigator 4.7 or above

• Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, v1.3.1 (JDK 1.3.1) or higher. (See Supported Platforms and Databases for exact JDK versions required on various platforms.)

When you install WebLogic Server, JDK 1.3.1 is installed directly under the BEA Home directory in the jdk131 directory, as follows:

BEA_HOME\jdk131_06

where BEA_HOME is the path to your BEA home; that is, where you installed WebLogic Platform. By default, BEA_HOME is c:/bea.

Note: jdk131_06 is automatically installed with BEA WebLogic Platform 7.0 SP2, which is a prerequisite for Liquid Data server installation. So, if you are installing the Liquid Data server you will already have the correct JDK installation as a part of the application. However, if you are installing the Data View Builder client only you do need to ensure that you have an installation of at least JRE 1.3.1 (or JDK 1.3.1 which includes the JRE). Some problems have been reported running Data View Builder with jdk131_02, therefore we recommend using jdk131_03 or higher.

• JDK or JRE 1.3.1 bin directory (preferably jdk131_06 or higher) in the PATH

An entry for the JDK or JRE 1.3.1 bin directory (for example BEA_HOME/jdk131_06/bin) must be included in your PATH environment variable setting before any other JDK bin directories. This is a requirement for running the Liquid Data installer program on both Windows and UNIX platforms.

Server Performance Considerations

For information on factors relevant to Liquid Data server performance, see Platform Performance Factors under "Tuning Performance" in Deploying Liquid Data. For larger development projects and for most production environments, it is useful to consider these issues at or before installation time.

Client Installation Prerequisites

• The Liquid Data installer requires access to <JAVA_HOME>/bin/java.exe. Therefore, JRE 1.3.1 (or JDK 1.3.1 which includes the JRE) must be available on the system where the Data View Builder client is installed and an entry for the JDK or JRE 1.3.1 bin directory (for example BEA_HOME/jdk131_06/bin) must be included in your PATH environment variable setting before any other JDK bin directories.

Note: Please note that apart from the requirement for the JDK for use by installer (as detailed above), once it is installed the Data View Builder must use the same version of the JDK that the Liquid Data server uses. For the current release, the Liquid Data server uses JDK 1.3.1_06. For example if Liquid Data server is using C:/BEA_HOME/jdk131_06/, then the Data View Builder must use this same Java home.

• The WLS file weblogic.jar is required to start the Data View Builder. Therefore, a copy of WebLogic Server 7.0 SP2 weblogic.jar file must be available to the machine where you install the Data View Builder. (For install options that include Liquid Data server, this is addressed automatically as a part of the installation but not so for the Client-Only install.)

Note that, unlike the previous JDK/JRE PATH prerequisite, weblogic.jar is not required for the installation itself but will be required after installation to start the Data View Builder client. For details, see For Client-Only Installations Modify Data View Builder Start Script in "Post-Installation Tasks."

Note: You can use Liquid Data in a team development environment with multiple clients accessing a shared Liquid Data server Repository for resources such as schema files, XML files, local WSDL definitions for Web services, and so on. For more information on various deployment and development scenarios and environments, see the Deployment Tasks topic in the Deployment Guide.

 

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Required Order of Installation Tasks

To ensure a valid Liquid Data installation, you must install products and components in the following order:

1. Install WebLogic Platform 7.0 SP2 including WebLogic Server 7.0 and JDK 1.3.1 (Required for all but Liquid Data Client Only install set.)

2. Make sure that the JDK or JRE 1.3.1 <JAVA_HOME>/bin/ is in your PATH and that it is the first Java bin directory specified in PATH. The Liquid Data installation will not complete if Java 1.4 is in the PATH before Java 1.3. For example, in Windows, run the PATH command from a command window to check your PATH environment variable setting, as follows:

   C:\>path
   PATH=C:\bea\jdk131_06\bin;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;

3. Install Liquid Data.

 

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About Licensing for Liquid Data

When you install Liquid Data, a valid evaluation license is automatically included with the installation. You do not need to take any extra steps for Liquid Data licensing.

 

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What Gets Installed

Before you install Liquid Data, you must install the WebLogic Server.

The full install of Liquid Data results in the installation of the following key components on the system:

• Liquid Data Server (running as a deployed application in WebLogic Server)
• Liquid Data configuration and monitoring pages added to the WLS Administration Console
• Data View Builder GUI

For more information about the software, refer to the Liquid Data Product Overview.

For information on how to configure Liquid Data once you have installed it, refer to the BEA WebLogic Server Administration Guide.

Preconfigured Samples Domain

The full Liquid Data with Samples option provides a preconfigured samples domain as shown in the following table. You can create more domains and add Liquid Data to them.

For a detailed explanation of domains, see the topic Creating and Configuring WebLogic Server Domains in the WebLogic Server documentation.

Table 1-2 Liquid Data Samples Preconfigured Domain and Start Commands for Samples Server

Platform	Windows and UNIX Paths to Start in Each Domain	Description
Windows	Start—>Programs—>BEA WebLogic Platform 7.0—>Liquid Data for WebLogic 1.0—>Liquid Data Samples—>Launch Samples Server Or WL_HOME\liquiddata\samples\config\ ld_samples\startWeblogic.cmd	Starts the Liquid Data samples server on Windows
UNIX	WL_HOME/liquiddata/samples/config/ ld_samples/startWeblogic.sh	Starts the Liquid Data samples server on UNIX

 

Note: WL_HOME is the home location of your WebLogic installation, by default, WL_HOME is c:/bea/weblogic700.

 

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Considerations for Adding Liquid Data to a WebLogic Server Domain

For information about adding Liquid Data to a WebLogic Server domain (including preconfigured domains for BEA WebLogic Integration, BEA WebLogic Portal, or WebLogic Workshop), see the Deployment Tasks topic in the Deployment Guide. The information provided in the Deployment Guide about adding Liquid Data to a domain as well as setting up clustered environments is relevant to both deployed systems and development environments.