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Starting and Stopping OracleAS Reports Services

This chapter provides information on starting and stopping OracleAS Reports Services. It includes the following main sections:

• Starting and Stopping the Reports Server

• Verifying that the Oracle HTTP Server Is Running

• Verifying that the Reports Servlet and Server Are Running

  Note: The examples in this chapter use ORACLE_HOME to denote where the Oracle Application Server is installed. This includes OracleAS Reports Services.

If you plan to run reports on the Web, you must first start the Oracle HTTP Server. You'll find information on doing this in your Oracle Application Server documentation. When you follow any of the procedures in this chapter, we assume you have already started the Oracle HTTP Server.

2.1 Starting and Stopping the Reports Server

The best way to run the Reports Server is through the Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN). OPMN provides a centralized mechanism for initializing, maintaining, and shutting down your Oracle HTTP Server, Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE processes, and OracleAS Reports Services. For more information about configuring the Reports Server through OPMN, refer to Chapter 3, "Configuring OracleAS Reports Services".

Note: Another advantage of configuring your Reports Server through OPMN is that OPMN will automatically restart a Reports Server if it crashes for some reason.

2.1.1 Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Reports Servers from Oracle Enterprise Manager

When the standalone Reports Server is configured through OPMN, as it is by default, you can start, stop, and restart it through Oracle Enterprise Manager.

Note: The standalone Reports Server is automatically configured in OPMN and thus registered with Oracle Enterprise Manager during installation of Oracle Application Server. If you add any Reports Servers after installing Oracle Application Server, you must register the new server(s) manually in the Oracle Enterprise Manager's targets.xml file and the Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server's opmn.xml file. For more information, see Configuring Reports Server with the Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server and Oracle Enterprise Manager. The in-process Reports Server is not configured in OPMN.

To start, stop, or restart a Reports Server:

1. In the Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Server Control, go to the Targets > host name > Application Server > Reports Server for the Reports Server you want to manage.

2. On the Reports Server's main page:
   • Click Start to start the server.

   • Click Stop to stop the server.

   • Click Restart to restart the server.

   These buttons appear on a Reports Server's main page according to the server's current state:

   • When the server is down, the Start and Stop buttons display.

   • When the server is up, the Restart and Stop buttons display.

2.1.2 Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Reports Servers from the Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server

You can use the following command lines to start, stop, and restart the Reports Server if it was configured through the Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server:

ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl startproc ias-component=reports_server_name
ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl stopproc ias-component=reports_server_name
ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl restartproc ias-component=reports_server_name

The Reports Server name must match the name in the ias-component id in the opmn.xml file. For more information about configuring the Reports Server through the Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server, refer to Chapter 3, "Configuring OracleAS Reports Services".

2.1.3 Alternative Methods of Starting and Stopping the Reports Server

If you choose not to run your Reports Server through OPMN and maintain it via Oracle Enterprise Manager, you can use these older methods of running the Reports Server:

• Installing and Starting the Reports Server as a Service (Windows)

• Starting the In-Process Server (Windows and UNIX)

• Starting the Reports Server from a Command Line (Windows and UNIX)

• Stopping the Reports Server

The following subsections tell you how to set up each of these options.

2.1.3.1 Installing and Starting the Reports Server as a Service (Windows)

By default, the Reports Server is installed as an in-process server, but, if you wish, you can install the Reports Server as a service on a Windows machine. To do so, at the command prompt enter:

rwserver -install server_name [batch=yes/no] [autostart=yes/no]

For batch, the default is no. Enter yes if you do not want to be prompted for confirmation during installation. For autostart, the default is no. Enter yes if you want the service to start automatically at reboot without requiring a user to manually start the Reports Server.

Add the cluster name to this command if this server will be a member of a cluster. For example:

rwserver -install server_name.cluster_name [batch=yes/no] [autostart=yes/no]

To learn more about clustering servers together, see Chapter 12, "Clustering Reports Servers".

Note: To remove the Reports Server service, type the following at a command prompt: rwserver -uninstall server_name. Include the cluster name if the server is a member of a cluster, for example: rwserver -uninstall server_name.cluster_name.

To start your Reports Server on Windows:

1. On the machine that hosts the Reports Server, choose Start > Settings > Control Panel and double-click Services in the Control Panel folder.

2. In the Services dialog box, choose Oracle ORACLE_HOME Reports [repserver], where ORACLE_HOME is the home directory of the Reports Server and repserver is the name of the Reports Server instance.

3. Click Startup. The Services dialog window displays.

4. In the Services dialog window, select This Account in the Log On As section, and select an operating system user name and password. This specifies the user account under which the server process is run.

   Note: If you want to output to PostScript or to a printer, then ensure the user running the Reports Server service has access to a default printer. Do this by using a specific, real user who has printer access when you set up the Log On As section of your Windows service. Typically, the System Account does not have access to printers. For that matter, the user running the Reports Server service must have access to anything the server may need. For example, the server may need write access to another drive.

5. Set the Startup Type of the service to Automatic when the system is started.

6. Click OK.

7. Click Start.

   A Service Control message box indicates when your Reports Server has started.

2.1.3.2 Starting the In-Process Server (Windows and UNIX)

If you are using the Reports Server as an in-process server (the default configuration), sending a run report request starts the in-process Reports Server; however, if you are sending a request via a command line, the servlet must be invoked first using either the run report URL or the Web command URL. When you have successfully started the servlet, this also means you have successfully started the in-process Reports Server.

To directly start the in-process Reports Server from a URL, enter the following from your Web browser:

http://your_machine_name:your_port_num/reports/rwservlet/startserver

2.1.3.3 Starting the Reports Server from a Command Line (Windows and UNIX)

You can also start the Reports Server as a stand-alone server on Windows using the following command:

rwserver server=server_name

Add the BATCH command line keyword to start up the server without displaying dialog boxes or messages.

rwserver server=server_name batch=yes

You can run this command on UNIX using the following syntax:

rwserver.sh server=server_name

Or:

rwserver.sh server=server_name batch=yes

You can run this command from any directory as long as the shell script can be reached in your PATH environment variable.

2.1.3.4 Stopping the Reports Server

This section discusses how to stop the Reports Server on Windows and UNIX.

• If the Reports Server is running on Windows as a service, stop it through the Services control panel.

• If the Reports Server running on Windows through the rwserver executable, or on UNIX through a shell script, rwserver.sh, click Shutdown in the Reports Server dialog box.

• Launch Oracle Enterprise Manager, and navigate to the Reports Server you wish to shut down; click Stop on the selected Reports Server's home page. For more information about Reports Server and Oracle Enterprise Manager, see Chapter 19, "Managing and Monitoring OracleAS Reports Services".

• If the Reports Server is running as an in-process server through the Reports Servlet, issue the following URL:

  http://your_host_name:port_number/reports/rwservlet/stopserver
  
  

• If the Reports Server running from a command line on Windows or UNIX, at the command prompt enter the following command:

  For Windows and UNIX (on UNIX use rwserver.sh in lieu of rwserver):

  The following command line shuts down the server normally (i.e., finishes pending jobs and then stops):

  rwserver server=server shutdown=normal authid=username/password
  
  

  The following command line shuts down the server immediately (i.e., stops without finishing pending jobs):

  rwserver server=server shutdown=immediate authid=username/password
  
  

  The following command line shuts down the server without displaying any related messages:

  rwserver server=server shutdown=normal authid=username/password batch=yes
  

  Note: authid is the Reports Server's administration user name and password. For a secure Reports Server, this user must be a member of the RW_ADMINISTER privilege group in the Oracle Internet Directory. For a non-secure Reports Server, this user is defined in the identifier element. The following bullet contains more information on how to stop a non-secure Reports Server using the command line.

• When you stop or shut down a non-secure Reports Server from the command line using either rwserver.sh or rwrqv.sh, you need to provide a valid authid, which must match the value set in the identifier element in the server configuration file. However, the identifier element is set during Reports configuration while installing Oracle Application Server 10g and encrypted by the Reports Server. You can reset the identifier element to any value. Then, you also need to change the corresponding properties in targets.xml for Oracle Enterprise Manager integration to work. Perform the following steps:
  1. In the non-secure Reports Server's configuration file, server_name.conf, modify the identifier element to specify the username/password and set the encrypted attribute to no. For example:

     <identifier confidential="yes" encrypted="no">scott/tiger</identifier>
     

  2. Stop and restart the Reports Server manually for the changes made to the server_name.conf file to take effect.

     Note: You must restart the Reports Server for any configuration changes to take effect.

     The Reports Server will now encrypt the username/password value of the identifier element. After the Reports Server reads the changes made in the server_name.conf file, the following commands should execute successfully (with scott/tiger as the username/password):

     ./rwserver.sh server=server_name shutdown=normal authid=scott/tiger 
     ./rwrqv.sh server=server_name shutdown=normal authid=scott/tiger 
     

  3. For Oracle Enterprise Manager integration, edit the targets.xml file (in ORACLE_HOME/sysman/emd/) using any text editor, as follows:
     • Search for target with TYPE="oracle_repserv" and DISPLAY_NAME="Reports Server: server_name".

     • In the entry, set the UserName property and the Password property to the same user name and password as in the identifier element in the server_name.conf file. Set the ENCRYPTED attribute to FALSE for these two properties.

     • Restart Oracle Enterprise Manager for the changes to take effect.

You should now be able to stop and shut down a non-secure Reports Server using Oracle Enterprise Manager.

Note: These steps are required only for a non-secure Reports Server and not for secure Reports Servers..

The keywords used with the rwserver command are described in Appendix A, "Command Line Options".

2.2 Verifying that the Oracle HTTP Server Is Running

You can verify that your Oracle HTTP Server is running from Oracle Enterprise Manager. For more information, refer to your Oracle Enterprise Manager documentation.

Alternatively, you can verify that the Oracle HTTP Server is running, in your browser, by navigating to the following URL:

http://server_name.domain:port_number/

2.3 Verifying that the Reports Servlet and Server Are Running

To verify that the Reports Servlet is running, navigate to the following URL:

http://your_machine_name.domain_name:your_port_number/reports/rwservlet/help

Note that the URL is case sensitive. If this URL executes successfully, you should get a help page describing the rwservlet command line arguments.

To verify that the Reports Server is running, navigate to the following URL:

http://your_machine_name.domain_name:your_port_
number/reports/rwservlet/showjobs?server=server_name

The server=server_name argument is not required if you are using the default Reports Server name (rep_machine_name) or the Reports Server specified in the servlet configuration file, rwservlet.properties (ORACLE_HOME\reports\conf\). If this URL executes successfully, you should see a listing of the job queue for the specified Reports Server.

Note: You'll find more information about the servlet configuration file in Chapter 3, "Configuring OracleAS Reports Services".