3 Oracle Business Intelligence Requirements

This chapter provides information you must know before installing Oracle Business Intelligence software. It contains the following sections:

3.1 System Requirements and Certification

Refer to the system requirements and certification documentation for information about hardware and software requirements, platforms, databases, and other information. Both of these documents are available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

The system requirements document covers information such as hardware and software requirements, minimum disk space and memory requirements, and required system libraries, packages, or patches:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_requirements.htm

The certification document covers supported installation types, platforms, operating systems, databases, JDKs, and third-party products:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html

3.2 Additional Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer Requirements

Before performing any installation, you should read the system requirements and certification documentation to ensure that your environment meets the minimum installation requirements for the products you are installing.

This topic defines the additional requirements that must be met before following any of the installation scenarios outlined in Chapter 2, "Recommended Installation Scenarios for Oracle Business Intelligence."

  • Before you can run the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer, you must first create required Oracle Business Intelligence schemas in a database (note that the database must not be hardened). You use a tool called the Repository Creation Utility (RCU) to create these schemas with the appropriate permissions and data. Section 3.3, "Create Database Schemas Using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU)" describes this process.

  • Before you begin using the RCU, you should review the Repository Creation Utility (RCU) Requirements" section in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications.

    This section contains important information about your system and component-specific database requirements that should be met before you run the RCU.

3.3 Create Database Schemas Using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU)

The Repository Creation Utility (RCU) is a graphical tool for creating and managing Oracle Fusion Middleware database schemas in your database.

Note:

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Oracle Real-Time Decisions, and Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher support Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM DB2 databases only. For more information, refer to the System Requirements and Prerequisites document.

The topics in this section relate to the RCU:

3.3.1 Database Schemas Created by the RCU

Before installing Oracle Business Intelligence, use the RCU to create the Metadata Services (MDS) and Business Intelligence Platform (BIPLATFORM) schemas in your database.

To create the BIPLATFORM and MDS schemas with the RCU on Oracle databases, you must possess the DBA privilege and be logged in as SYSDBA (for example, as user SYS). Although you can use another database user that has been granted the SYSDBA role, this is not recommended. Using database users other than SYS requires additional steps, which are described in "RCU Requirements for Oracle Databases" in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications.

When you run the RCU, you are creating databases schemas and tablespaces using CREATE ANY SCHEMA, ALTER ANY SCHEMA, CREATE TABLE, CREATE TABLESPACE, and so on. The RCU updates the schema_version_registry by writing entries to the system.schema_version_registry$ system table.

3.3.2 Sharing Schemas Required by Oracle Business Intelligence

If your organization has an MDS schema installed in a supported database, you do not need to install the MDS schema again with the RCU. You can use the existing MDS schema for your Oracle Business Intelligence installation. For this option, deselect the Metadata Services schema in the Select Components screen of the RCU. Then, when you install Oracle Business Intelligence, specify the details for the existing MDS schema in the MDS Schema screen.

However, each Oracle Business Intelligence system (BI domain) requires its own BIPLATFORM schema. Two or more systems cannot share the same BIPLATFORM schema, although they can share the same database. Therefore, you must run the RCU and install the BIPLATFORM schema and the MDS schema (if no MDS schema exists) before installing each distinct Oracle Business Intelligence system (BI domain). For example, if you plan to install two Oracle Business Intelligence systems, you must run the RCU and install the required schemas twice, or once for each system.

This requirement does not apply when you scale out an Oracle Business Intelligence system. In a scaled-out (clustered) system, you only run the RCU and install the database schemas once, before installing the primary node of the Oracle Business Intelligence cluster (the BI domain for the cluster is created at that time). Additional Oracle Business Intelligence nodes that you install during the scale-out process become members of that domain and, therefore, use the same set of schemas.

3.3.3 Creating Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Schemas on IBM DB2

When using Repository Creation Utility (RCU) with an IBM DB2 database, ensure that the database schemas created by the RCU have the required permissions to use the DataDirect ODBC drivers. If these permissions are not set, then Oracle BI Scheduler fails to start because it cannot query the Oracle BI Scheduler tables. You can find the appropriate permissions in the DataDirect driver documentation at the following location:

http://www.datadirect.com/docs/public/tutorials/Connect-for-ODBC/odbcdb2bind.pdf

Additionally, when using the RCU to install the BIPLATFORM and MDS schemas on an IBM DB2 database in a Linux environment, note the following:

  • Ensure that the schema names are eight characters or less.

    Note:

    The prefix for both the BIPLATFORM and MDS schema names must be the same.

    For example, if you use the prefix "dev," you must edit the default schema name of "dev_BIPLATFORM" to be eight characters or less. You can shorten the suffix, but the prefix for both schema names must be the same. You can edit the schema name by clicking the name to make it an editable field.

    If you do not shorten the schema name to eight characters or less, then the RCU returns an error on the Password page that states, "Please enter valid username/password." This is the same error that is returned if the user on the DB2 instance does not have the same password as entered in the RCU.

  • There may be a name length restriction for the temporary tablespace name. If the BIPLATFORM tablespace name is too long, then see Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility User's Guide for information about creating a new tablespace with a shorter name. You can also use the same tablespace as that for the MDS schema.

3.3.4 Database Privileges Granted to Oracle Business Intelligence Users

The following privileges are granted to users created by the RCU:

  • resource

  • connect

  • create sequence

For information about the use of the RCU, refer to "Repository Creation Utility Overview" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility User's Guide.

3.3.5 Obtaining the RCU

RCU is available either on its own installation CD-ROM in the bin directory, or in a .zip file on Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/downloads/biee-111150-393613.html

Scroll down to the "Required Additional Software" table and download the RCU package for your operating system and Oracle Business Intelligence version. For example, if you plan to install Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Release 11.1.1.6.0 on Linux, download the RCU 11.1.1.6.0 for Linux.

After downloading the .zip file, extract the contents to a directory of your choice; this is referred to as the RCU_HOME directory.

Note:

Ensure that you do not unzip the RCU ZIP file to a directory whose name contains spaces.

RCU is available on 32- and 64-bit Linux and Windows operating systems. Either the Linux RCU or Windows RCU can be used to create schemas on any supported database.

3.3.6 Running the RCU to Create Oracle Business Intelligence Database Schemas

You can run the RCU locally (from the CD-ROM or your RCU_HOME) or remotely. In situations where the application administrator is not allowed to install components in the database server, the RCU can be started directly from the CD.

To create the Oracle Business Intelligence schemas using the RCU:

  1. Do one of the following:

    • If you downloaded and extracted the RCU .zip file, access the bin directory in the RCU_HOME.

    • If you have the RCU CD-ROM, insert the CD-ROM into your computer and access the bin directory.

  2. Start the RCU:

    • UNIX:

      ./rcu

    • Windows:

      rcu.bat

    The Welcome screen opens.

  3. In the Welcome screen, click Next. The Create Repository screen opens.

  4. In the Create Repository screen, select Create and then click Next. The Database Connection Details screen opens.

  5. In the Database Connection Details screen, select the type of database on your system. This is the database in which you create the Oracle Business Intelligence schemas. Provide the necessary credentials for the RCU to connect to your database.

    Click Next. The Checking Prerequisites screen opens. After the checks conclude with no errors, click OK to dismiss the screen and proceed to the Select Components screen.

  6. In the Select Components screen, near the top of the screen, select Create a new Prefix. The default prefix is DEV. You can provide another prefix, if preferred.

    Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer automatically creates schema names in the format prefix_schemaname. For example, if you provide the prefix BI, the RCU creates a schema named BI_BIPLATFORM.

    Note:

    Make a note of the schema names and the prefix values from this screen. You need them to configure your products later in the installation process.

  7. Click the plus sign (+) next to the Business Intelligence component group. Then, click Business Intelligence Platform so that a check appears next to it. This action automatically selects the Metadata Services (MDS) schema (under the AS Common Schemas group), which is also required by Oracle Business Intelligence.

    If you have another MDS schema installed to use with Oracle Business Intelligence, clear the Metadata Services (MDS) box and ignore the warning message that appears in the Messages box.

    Do not select the Oracle AS Repository Components option, as this configures the RCU to install many other schemas that are not required by Oracle Business Intelligence.

  8. Click Next. The Checking Prerequisites screen opens. After the checking is complete with no errors, click OK to dismiss the screen and proceed to the Schema Passwords screen.

  9. In the Schema Passwords screen, select Use same password for all schemas, and provide and confirm a password for the schemas.

    Click Next to proceed to the Map Tablespaces screen.

  10. In the Map Tablespaces screen, confirm the schema names.

    Click Next to create the tablespaces for the schemas. After the tablespaces are created with no errors, click OK to dismiss the screen and proceed to the Summary screen.

  11. In the Summary screen, click Create. The Create screen opens and the RCU creates the schemas. After the schemas are created with no errors, the Completion Summary screen opens.

  12. In the Completion Summary screen, click Close.