5 Prepare for an Installation

Prepare the shared storage for Oracle Identity Management and Oracle Fusion Applications as defined in the Oracle Fusion Applications Installation Workbook. Ensure the shared storage has the required space as defined in Storage: Plan Storage Configuration and that they are configured according to the instructions detailed in Shared Storage Considerations.

Mount the shared storage on each server according to the information defined in the Oracle Fusion Applications Installation Workbook , the in the Storage tab , and the in the Shared Storage table. Ensure that the file system is mounted as read-write.

If different shared storage are used for Oracle Identity Management and Oracle Fusion Applications, follow these steps to mount each shared drive:

• The Oracle Identity Management shared storage should be mounted on the servers running Oracle Identity Management components (see the Topology tab in the Oracle Fusion Applications Installation Workbook).

• The Oracle Fusion Applications shared storage should be mounted on the servers running Oracle Fusion Applications components (see the Topology tab in the Oracle Fusion Applications Installation Workbook).

Ensure the locations defined for the Install Directories and Temporary Shared Storage are owned by the appropriate user, are read/write and can be created later during install. They may include both shared and local file systems.

For servers located in the DMZ, which normally don't have access to the shared storage, the same base path used for the other servers (as defined in the Oracle Fusion Applications Installation Workbook) is applicable.

Ensure there is no oraInst.loc file present in the /etc directory unless using a central inventory and preferring to not have the installer create it later (which requires root access). In this case, ensure the oraInst.loc file points at the location defined for oraInventory in the Oracle Fusion Applications Installation Workbook. The oraInst.loc file contains the following two lines:

inventory_loc=<oraInventory path>

inst_group=<oraInventory owner group>

The file must be present and have the correct oraInventory and group owner values for all servers.

When planning the Oracle Identity Management deployment, ensure that the Software Installation Location directory path is 45 characters or fewer in length. Specify this directory on the Installation and Configuration page when the provisioning profile is created. A longer path name can cause errors during Oracle Identity Management provisioning. See Null Error Occurs When WebLogic Patches Are Applied.

UNIX: The kernel parameter and shell limit values shown below are recommended values only. For production database systems, Oracle recommends to tune these values to optimize the performance of the system. See the operating system documentation for more information about tuning kernel parameters.

Kernel parameters must be set to a minimum of those below on all nodes in the cluster.

The values in the following table are the current Linux recommendations. See the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications.

To deploy a database onto the host, it might be necessary to modify additional kernel parameters.

Linux:

To set these parameters:

1. Log in as root and add or amend the entries in /etc/sysctl.conf.

2. Save the file.

3. Activate the changes by issuing the command:

4. /sbin/sysctl -p
   
   

Solaris:

The table lists the recommended kernel parameters on Solaris. Verify that the kernel parameters shown in the table are set to values greater than or equal to the minimum value shown.

To verify the current value of kernel parameters:

1. Retrieve the project id:

   Example:

   $ /bin/id -p

   uid=100(oracle) gid=100(dba) projid=1 (group.dba), where group.dba is the project ID

2. Execute prctl command with the project ID to get the current value:

   /bin/prctl -n project.max-sem-ids -i project <project-id>

   /bin/prctl -n process.max-sem-nsems -i project <project-id>

   /bin/prctl -n project.max-shm-memory -i project <project-id>

   /bin/prctl -n project.max-shm-ids -i project <project-id>

If any value listed for privileged is below the recommended value, increase it:

On all UNIX operating systems, the minimum Open File Limit should be 150000.

The following examples are for Linux operating systems. For other operating systems, consult the respective documentation to determine the commands to be used.

Linux: See how many files are open with the following command:

/usr/sbin/lsof | wc -l

To check the open file limits, use the following commands:

C shell:

limit descriptors

Bash:

ulimit -n

Solaris:

See how many files are open with the following command:

/usr/local/bin/lsof | wc -l

To check the open file limits, use the following command:

/bin/ulimit -n

UNIX:

To change the shell limits, login as root and edit the /etc/security/limits.conf file.

Add the following lines:

* soft  nofile  150000
* hard  nofile  150000
* soft  nproc   327679
* hard  nproc   327679

If installing on Oracle Linux Server release 6, edit /etc/security/limits.d/90-nproc.conf to make sure it has the following line:

* soft nproc 327679

After editing the file, reboot the machine.

Solaris:

To change the shell limits, login as root and edit the /etc/system file.

To set shell limits parameter:

rlim_fd_cur 150000

rlim_fd_max 150000

maxuprc 327679

max_nprocs 327679

After editing the file, reboot the machine.

The operating system configuration can influence the behavior of characters supported by Oracle Fusion Middleware products.

On UNIX operating systems, Oracle highly recommends to enable Unicode support by setting the LANG and LC_ALL environment variables to a locale with the UTF-8 character set. This enables the operating system to process any character in Unicode.

If the operating system is configured to use a non-UTF-8 encoding, some components may function in an unexpected way. Oracle does not support problems caused by operating system constraints.

Synchronize the time on the individual Oracle Internet Directory nodes using Greenwich Mean Time so that there is a discrepancy of no more than 250 seconds between them.

If OID Monitor detects a time discrepancy of more than 250 seconds between the two nodes, the OID Monitor on the node that is behind stops all servers on its node. To correct this problem, synchronize the time on the node that is behind in time. The OID Monitor automatically detects the change in the system time and starts the Oracle Internet Directory servers on its node.

Increase the limit of open files to 327679 or higher for the operating system.

For Linux x86-64:

Modify /etc/security/limits.conf to read as follows:

• FUSION_USER_ACCOUNT soft nofile 327679

• FUSION_USER_ACCOUNT hard nofile 327679

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config as follows:

Increase the maximum open files limit.

Edit /proc/sys/fs/file-max and set it to 6553600. The change becomes effective immediately but does not persist after a reboot. To make the change permanent edit /etc/sysctl.conf and set fs.file-max = 6553600. This change does not be effective until the sysctl command is run or the server is rebooted.

For Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit):

Edit /etc/system and set as follows:

set rlim_fd_cur=327679

set rlim_fd_max=327679

For all platforms, typically, have max user processes set to 16384:

$ulimit -u 16384

Increase the maximum user process to 16384 or higher.

Linux:

To check the max user processes:

$ulimit -u

16384

To change the max user processes:

Modify /etc/security/limits.conf to read as follows:

FUSION_USER_ACCOUNT soft nproc 16384

FUSION_USER_ACCOUNT hard nproc 16384

Solaris:

To check the max user processes:

$ulimit -u

16384

To change the maximum user processes:

Modify below parameter in file /etc/system:

maxuprc = 16384

max_nprocs = 16384

After editing the file, reboot the machine.

The value of 16384 for max user processes is the recommended starting value for installing Oracle Fusion Applications in a multi-host topology. Depending on the hardware topology for the Oracle Fusion Applications environment planned for setup, a higher number for max user processes might need to be used when allocating more WebLogic domains and managed servers into a fewer number of hosts. Is is recommended to go through a proper sizing exercise to determine the configuration.

When a host reaches the limit of the max user processes during provisioning of Oracle Fusion Applications, the following error messages might be encountered while starting additional managed server processes even when the IP address and port number are valid.

Node Manager log:

2013-12-28 03:31:57.932 NOTIFICATION [logStatus] STATE=BUILD_ERROR!TIMESTAMP=2013-12-28 03:31:57 GMT!TARGET=common-apps-startup!CATEGORY=BUILD_ERROR!DOMAIN=HCMDomain!HOSTNAME=<host>!PRODUCTFAMILY=hcm!PRODUCT=HCM-Talent!TASK=nodeManagerStartServer!TASKID=hcm.HCM-Talent.BUILD_ERROR.common-apps-startup.nodeManagerStartServer!MESSAGE=Node Manager Start Server operation could not be carried out. Please check the log files in the Managed Server directory <file path to a managed server directory>/logs/ and the NodeManager log at <APPLICATIONS_CONFIG>/nodemanager/<host>/nodemanager.log to find out details of the problem.!DETAIL=Process execution failed with return code: 1. Check the logs for more information.!BUILDFILE=<FAPROV_HOME>/provisioning/provisioning-build/common-lifecycle-build.xml!LINENUMBER=68!

Failed Managed Server log:

####<Dec 28, 2013 3:31:39 AM GMT> <Error> <Server> <host> <TalentManagementServer_1> <DynamicListenThread[Default]> <<WLS Kernel>> <> <> <1388201499505> <BEA-002606> <Unable to create a server socket for listening on channel "Default". The address <ip address> might be incorrect or another process is using port <port>: java.net.BindException: Address already in use.>

####<Dec 28, 2013 3:31:39 AM GMT> <Critical> <WebLogicServer> <host> <TalentManagementServer_1> <Main Thread> <<WLS Kernel>> <> <> <1388201499517> <BEA-000362> <Server failed. Reason: Server failed to bind to any usable port. See preceeding log message for details.>

Define the local port range to ensure that it does not overlap with the ports used by the Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) and other servers. This action avoids port conflicts during server startup. To view and modify localRange:

Linux:

To view:

$cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range

To modify:

$echo "32768 61000" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range

To make the local port range permanent after server restart, add (or update) the following line in /etc/sysctl.conf:

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 32768 61000

Solaris:

To view:

#/usr/sbin/ndd /dev/tcp tcp_smallest_anon_port tcp_largest_anon_port

To modify:

#/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_smallest_anon_port 32768

#/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_largest_anon_port 61000

All engine and data tier servers (including SIP) must accurately synchronize their system clocks to a common time source, to within one or two milliseconds. Large differences in system clocks can cause severe problems.

Before provisioning, ensure that the provisioning server and the computer hosting Oracle Access Server have the same date and time stamp settings. The WebGate installation fails with an Oracle Access Manager certificate error if the date and time settings on the provisioning server are different from the Oracle Access Server.

Before installing the Oracle Database using the Provisioning Wizard, ensure that the value of the kernel parameter shmmax on the database host is greater than the value of the System Global Area (SGA) Memory.

The value of SGA Memory (sga_target) is 9 GB in the default Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) template for the Starter database. If DBCA is run using the production DBCA template packaged with Oracle Fusion Applications Provisioning, the value of the SGA Memory is 18 GB. Ensure that shmmax > (shmall * shmmni) > SGA Memory, where shmmax, shmall, shmmni are kernel parameters.

Linux:

For example, to retrieve the values of these kernel parameters, use the following command:

user@host> /sbin/sysctl -a | grep shm 
kernel.shmmni = 4096 
kernel.shmall = 3145728 
kernel.shmmax = 12884901888

To set the value of a kernel parameter:

user@host> /sbin/sysctl -w sys.kernel.shmmax=value

Solaris:

To check the current values of these kernel parameters:

1. Execute id to get the project ID.

   Example: $ /bin/id -p

   uid=100(oracle) gid=100(dba) projid=1 (group.dba),where group.dba is the project ID

2. Execute prctl with the resource control and project ID to get the current value:

   /bin/prctl -n project.max-shm-memory -i project <project-id>

   /bin/prctl -n project.max-shm-ids -i project <project-id>

If any value listed for privileged is below the recommended value, increase it using the following commands:

Before provisioning an Oracle Fusion Applications environment make sure the LIBPATH variable is not set. See Start the Wizard and Prepare to Install.

UNIX:

• Use env or echo $LIBPATH to check if the variable is set.

• Use unsetenv LIBPATH to unset the variable.

All server machines must have the same time zone settings as described in the following paragraph:

• The time zone should be the standard time zone for the instance.

• Set the TZ environment variable on Linux or an equivalent on other operating systems to have a valid time zone ID.

• Check the time zone setting using the command: echo $TZ. The tzselect tool may be handy if the setting needs to be changed.

• Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Database then derive the default VM and database time zones from the system, respectively, unless otherwise configured. JVMs and the database need to be running in the same time zone.

If the Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management (Oracle Fusion HCM) application offerings are being provisioned, namely Workforce Development and Workforce Deployment, and the Workforce Reputation Management feature is planned to be used, perform the following tasks after provisioning is complete:

A warning message is displayed in the provisioning log during the preverify phase when the Workforce Development and Workforce Deployment offerings are selected for provisioning if the directory is not setup. The warning message is a reminder. Proceed with provisioning the environment and mount the shared disk after provisioning is complete and before starting using the Workforce Reputation application.

For UNIX platforms, ensure that the provisioning hosts have a miminum of 1 GB of swap space. During the provisioning of an Oracle Fusion Applications environment, a validation test is performed in the preverify phase. An error message is displayed if the provisioning hosts do not have at least 1 GB of swap space. This error must be resolved by increasing the swap space before proceeding with provisioning the environment.

UNIX:

Use free or top command to verify swap space. Refer to the respective Operating System manual for details about how to increase swap space.

A warning is received if there is at least 1 GB of swap space but less than the larger of 2 GB and 10% of memory allocated to the host. This means if a host has less than 20 GB of memory, then the swap space must be at least 2 GB. If a host has more than 20 GB of memory, then the swap space must be at least 10% of the memory.

The decision on whether to set swap space higher than 10% of the memory is a performance tuning exercise that can be made at a later time. Under certain conditions in some platforms, it might be necessary to increase swap space to 30% of the memory in order to complete provisioning an environment.

On the provisioning host where the Oracle Business Intelligence domain is provisioned, ensure it has at least 7 GB of swap space.

Solaris:

To see how many files are open, use the following command:

/usr/local/bin/lsof | wc -l

To check the open file limits, use the command below.

/bin/ulimit -n

For UNIX platforms, confirm that the host names are correctly formatted in /etc/hosts, for each host that is participating in provisioning. Review /etc/hosts for each participating host and edit any host entries that do not meet the following recommendations:

WARNING: Do not enter multiple host aliases into a single line in the /etc/hosts file. There are some software components which do not process a line with more than 700 characters. Some error messages might be encountered during provisioning phases, such as "UNABLE TO OPEN CREDENTIAL STOREFAILED TO ADUTPSINITIALIZE" caused by incorrect resolution of the host names. If a host has many aliases, then limit the line to 700 characters and break it down into separate lines. Ensure that each line begins with the IP_address and canonical_hostname, then the aliases.

Ensure that /bin/bash shell is installed on the hosts before provisioning an Oracle Fusion Applications environment. Ensure that the provisioning hosts have bash shell version 3.2 or higher when upgrading the environment at a later time.

To provision on UNIX platforms, ensure that the en_US.UTF-8 locale is installed on the operating system of the provisioning hosts. Oracle Business Intelligence expects the en_US.UTF-8 locale in the operating system before provisioning the Oracle Fusion Applications environment. Use the locale command to list the locale-specific information of the operating system.

If the en-US.UTF-8 locale is not installed, an error is encountered during the provisioning configure phase. The runProvisioning-bi-configure.log displays the following error message:

FAILED:Distributing Repository

Error:

<APPLICATIONS_BASE>/fusionapps/bi/bifoundation/provision/scripts/bidomain/bi-install.xml:274: exec returned: 1.

Inspecting the oraInventory logs, it indicates that the EN_US.UTF-8 locale must be installed on the provisioning host for Oracle Business Intelligence. The error message is:

Executing Task: Distributing Repository

[CONFIG]:Distributing Repository

ReEncrypting RPD: [nQSError: 46116] The locale EN_US.UTF-8 needs to be installed on the machine for the Oracle BI locale setting english-usa specified in NQSConfig.INI.javax.management.RuntimeMBeanException:javax.management.RuntimeMBeanException: Repository File '<APPLICATIONS_CONFIG>/BIInstance/tmp/OracleBIApps.rpd' does not exist or is not accessible.

If this error is encountered during the configure phase, install the missing locale and then retry the configure phase to complete the task.

Make sure the hosts have enough entropy values in the provisioning hosts. If this value is less than 1000, increase it to a value to a greater value using the rngd command. Run these commands as the root user for the current session:

To check the entropy value:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail

To increase the entropy value:

rngd -r /dev/urandom -o /dev/random

To set the rngd service to start automatically after rebooting the host, enter the following text into a script, such as, start.rngd, and run the script as root user:

 #! /usr/bin/perl -w 
 
 # minimum required bytes to be happy with the device 
 my $want_bytes = 8192; 
 
 # list of commands to check 
 my clist = qw(/sbin/rngd /usr/sbin/rngd); S
 
 # list of device names to check 
 my slist = qw( 
   /dev/hwrandom /dev/hw_random /dev/hwrng /dev/intel_rng /dev/i810_rng 
   /dev/urandom 
 ); 
 
 
 use Fcntl qw(O_RDONLY); 
 
 # find the rngd binary 
 my $command; 
 
 foreach (clist) { 
   -x && ($command = $_) && last; 
 } 
 
 # stop if rngd isn't installed 
 defined $command || die "$0 error: rngd is not installed\n"; 
 
 
 # look for a hw random device 
 my $source; 
 my $continue = 1; 
 $SIG{'ALRM'} = sub { $continue = 0 }; 
 
 foreach my $test (slist) { 
   -e $test || next; 
 
   alarm 2; 
   $continue = 1; 
 
   my $bytes = 0; 
 
   sysopen FILE, $test, O_RDONLY or next; 
   while ($continue) { 
     sysread FILE, $_, 4096 or last; 
     $bytes += length $_; 
   } 
   close FILE; 
 
   if ($bytes > $want_bytes) { 
     $source = $test; 
     last; 
   } 
 } 
 
 
 # use the select command and source 
 print "starting $command with $source... "; 
 system "$command -r $source"; 
 print "done.\n"; 
 
 exit 0; 

For Solaris 10 Only

For Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit) platforms, ensure that the Solaris Operating System patch 150400-xx is installed on the servers.

For Oracle Solaris on x86-64 (64-bit) platforms, ensure that the Solaris x64 Operating System patch 150401-xx is installed on the servers.

These patches can be obtained from My Oracle Support.

For Solaris 11 Only

Ensure that the Solaris Package SUNWttf-bh-luxi is installed on the FA servers for both Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit) and Oracle Solaris on x86-64 (64-bit) platforms.

The Solaris 11 Update 3 on SPARC or x86-64 requires the Support Repository Update (SRU) 11.3.3.6.0 or later (mandatory patch).

Oracle groups its software releases by product area. A Product Media Pack refers to those groupings. Each media pack may also include a zipped file containing electronic documentation files or Quick Install files, which facilitate the initial installation of the software.

For installations of Oracle Fusion Applications, have available the complete set of software contained in the product media pack. Individual pieces cannot be installed. Therefore, to install from media that is no longer available on Oracle Software Delivery Cloud, contact My Oracle Support to obtain the complete media pack.

After the software licensing agreements have been completed, obtain the Oracle Fusion Applications software using one of these two methods:

• Oracle Software Delivery Cloud Portal: Provides a readme document that helps to determine which media is needed to fulfill the purchased license. Download only the necessary media. This is the default delivery method.

• My Oracle Support: Provides a complete set of the software in DVD format. Use only the DVDs covered by thesoftware licensing agreement.

Using either method, obtain the Oracle Fusion Applications Provisioning repository and gain access to the Oracle Fusion Applications documentation library.

If Oracle Fusion Applications Release 12 Media Pack is downloaded for the following platforms, then use the following version (and above) of the UnZip / 7-Zip utility to extract the Oracle software to a preferred location (REPOSITORY_LOCATION). UnZip is freeware that is available at: http://www.info-zip.org.

• Linux x86-64 (64-bit) - Info-ZIP version 6.0

• Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit) - Info-ZIP version 6.0

• Oracle Solaris on x86-64 (64-bit) - Info-ZIP version 6.0

• Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) - 7-Zip version 9.20

Go to the E-Delivery website and follow these instructions:

Order a complete set of the software in DVD format by contacting My Oracle Support. Use only the DVDs covered by the software licensing agreement.

Oracle Fusion Applications require specific operating system packages and libraries in the hosts where the software is installed. During the preverify phase of provisioning an Oracle Fusion Applications environment as detailed in Provision a New Oracle Fusion Applications Environment, the Provisioning Wizard and the provisioning command line verifies if the hosts have the required packages, libraries, and other requirements such as swap space, free space, and kernel parameters. Any issues during the check are reported in the provisioning log. To perform the manual checks ahead of time, follow these steps after creating the provisioning repository.

For Database Host

1. Navigate to REPOSITORY_LOCATION/installer/database/Disk1.

2. Run the command:

   UNIX: ./runInstaller -executePrereqs -silent

3. Review the output located at: oraInventory/logs/installAction<timestamp>.log. For example, oraInventory/logs/installActionyyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ssPM.log.

Other Oracle Fusion Applications Hosts