1 Overview of Oracle BPEL Process Manager

This chapter provides an overview of Oracle BPEL Process Manager components and installation scenarios.

This chapter contains the following topics:

• Oracle BPEL Process Manager Components Overview

• Installation Scenarios for Oracle BPEL Process Manager

• System Requirements for Oracle BPEL Process Manager

• Oracle Application Server Portal and Oracle BPEL Portlets

• Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Oracle Application Server Integration B2B

1.1 Oracle BPEL Process Manager Components Overview

Oracle BPEL Process Manager provides a user-friendly and reliable solution for designing, deploying, and managing BPEL processes. When you install Oracle BPEL Process Manager, you are provided with two installation types, as shown in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1 Oracle BPEL Process Manager Installation Types

Installation Type	Description
Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers	Provides a single environment for designing and running BPEL processes. The included components are JDeveloper BPEL Designer and BPEL Process Manager. This installation type is configured with an embedded Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J) and, on Windows only, an Oracle Database Lite as its database.
Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier	Provides a standards-based environment for running processes designed using BPEL. This runtime environment includes Oracle BPEL Server, Oracle BPEL Console, runtime services, and adapters. This installation type requires that an Oracle Application Server 10g J2EE middle tier already be installed in the chosen Oracle home.

Oracle BPEL Process Manager consists of the key components shown in Figure 1-1. Oracle BPEL Process Manager runs standard BPEL processes that you deploy to Oracle BPEL Server.

Figure 1-1 Oracle BPEL Process Manager Components

Description of the illustration xipig003.gif

The following components are included with Oracle BPEL Process Manager.

• BPEL Designer—a graphical and user-friendly way to model, edit, design, and deploy BPEL processes. BPEL Designer also enables you to view and modify the BPEL source code. This component is available with Oracle JDeveloper or as a plug-in on the Eclipse Platform version 3.0GA and gets installed with Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers.

• Oracle BPEL Server—the server to which you deploy the BPEL process that you design and that contains human workflow, technology adapters, and notification services components.

• Oracle BPEL Console—the console from which you run, manage, and test your deployed BPEL process. Oracle BPEL Console provides a Web-based interface for management, administration, and debugging of processes deployed to Oracle BPEL Server.

• Oracle Database Lite, on Windows—the database that holds your BPEL schema. This option gets installed with Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers on Windows only. For UNIX platforms, or if you want to use a multibyte character set, you must configure an Oracle Database to test your deployed BPEL processes. See "Preinstallation Tasks for Oracle BPEL Process Manager" for details about configuring an Oracle Database.

See Also: Oracle BPEL Process Manager Developer's Guide Oracle BPEL Process Manager Quick Start Guide Oracle BPEL Process Manager Order Booking Tutorial Oracle Adapters for Files, FTP, Databases, and Enterprise Messaging User's Guide http://www.oracle.com/technology/bpel

1.2 Installation Scenarios for Oracle BPEL Process Manager

Installation scenarios are described in the following sections:

• Scenario 1: Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers

• Scenario 2: Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier

Note: For information about other installation configurations, see: "Oracle Application Server Portal and Oracle BPEL Portlets" to use Oracle Application Server Portal with Oracle BPEL Process Manager "Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Oracle Application Server Integration B2B" to use Oracle Application Server Integration B2B with Oracle BPEL Process Manager "Step 6: If Installing on a Cold Failover Cluster (CFC) Middle Tier" Chapter 3, "Installing Oracle BPEL Process Manager with the JBoss or BEA WebLogic Application Server" for details on installing Oracle BPEL Process Manager with the JBoss Application Server or BEA WebLogic Application Server Chapter 4, "Installing Oracle BPEL Process Manager with the IBM WebSphere Application Server" for details on installing Oracle BPEL Process Manager with the IBM WebSphere Application Server Chapter 5, "Oracle BPEL Process Manager Migration" for details on migrating an existing 10.1.2.0.0 release of Oracle BPEL Process Manager to release 10.1.2.0.2 Appendix A, "Using Microsoft SQL Server as the Dehydration Store" Oracle BPEL Process Manager high availability details in the Oracle Application Server High Availability Guide, which is accessible by clicking View Library > System Management under the Oracle Application Server 10g Release 2 (10.1.2.0.2) header at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/appserver101202.html Oracle BPEL Process Manager Administrator's Guide for instructions on creating an Oracle BPEL Process Manager clustering environment at http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/bpel/htdocs/101202_support.html

1.2.1 Scenario 1: Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers

Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers provides a design and standalone test environment. With this scenario, you design your process and then perform preproduction deployment and testing. Once you are ready to deploy a production version, you use the OracleAS Middle Tier scenario to deploy the BPEL process.

When you install Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers, you get these components:

• JDeveloper BPEL Designer

• Oracle BPEL Server

• Oracle BPEL Console

• Oracle Database Lite, on Windows only

1.2.2 Scenario 2: Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier

Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier provides robust production components for running BPEL processes.

When you select Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier, you get these components:

• Oracle BPEL Server

• Oracle BPEL Console

Dehydration Store Database Options

Oracle BPEL Process Manager uses a dehydration store database to enable the states of long-running processes to be automatically persisted. When installing Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier, there are these options for setting up a dehydration store database:

1. Before installation, configure your Oracle Database for use with Oracle BPEL Process Manager by running the Oracle Application Server Metadata Repository Creation Assistant

2. Use an existing Oracle Application Server Metadata Repository 10.1.2.0.2 installed with Oracle Application Server Infrastructure. This requires the use of an upgrade script to upgrade the BPEL schema version, as explained later.

Figure 1-2 shows these options:

Figure 1-2 Dehydration Store Options

Description of the illustration bpmig002.gif

In addition, you can now also use Microsoft SQL Server as your dehydration store database.

See Also: Appendix A, "Using Microsoft SQL Server as the Dehydration Store" for instructions on using Microsoft SQL Server as a dehydration store

OracleAS Middle Tier with Oracle Identity Management

Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier with Oracle Identity Management provides both a robust production platform for running BPEL processes, and an integrated security infrastructure including Oracle Internet Directory.

Installing Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier on a Processor Farm

See the Oracle BPEL Process Manager Administrator's Guide for instructions on installing Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier on a processor farm.

1.3 System Requirements for Oracle BPEL Process Manager

This section describes operating system and database requirements for Oracle BPEL Process Manager.

Note: The information provided here reflects the platforms that were supported at the time this document was released. For the most recent list of supported platforms, see the Certify tab in Oracle Metalink, available at http://metalink.oracle.com/ for Oracle customers.

1.3.1 Platform Requirements for Oracle BPEL Process Manager

Table 1-2 describes the hardware and memory requirements for Oracle BPEL Process Manager.

Table 1-2 Oracle BPEL Process Manager System Requirements

Element	Requirement
Operating system	Sun SPARC Solaris version 8, 9, and 10 See Also: Oracle Application Server Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) for Solaris Operating System (SPARC) for information on any required operating system patches, packages, swap space requirements, and kernel parameter settings Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS/ES 2.1, 3.0, and 4.0 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 and 9 See Also: Oracle Application Server Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) for hp HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit) and Linux x86 for information on any required operating system patches, packages, swap space requirements, and kernel parameter settings Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 Windows XP See Also: Oracle Application Server Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) for Microsoft Windows for information on processor, TEMP directory, virtual memory, and swap space requirements Note: For support on operating systems not listed in this table, check the Certify section of Oracle MetaLink (http://metalink.oracle.com). For UNIX-based operating systems not listed in this table, but listed as supported in Certify, use the instructions in this guide labeled for UNIX and the corresponding Oracle Application Server Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) for that operating system (for information on any required operating system patches, packages, swap space requirements, and kernel parameter settings). Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier is supported on all operating systems listed in Certify. However, Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers is supported only on Sun SPARC Solaris, Linux x86, and Microsoft Windows.
Memory	512 MB RAM minimum (1 GB preferred)
Disk space	Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers: 600 MB Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier: 200 MB
Swap space	1535 MB minimum
Monitor	Configured to display at least 256 colors

1.3.2 Supported Databases for Oracle BPEL Process Manager

Table 1-3 lists information about supported databases for your Oracle BPEL Process Manager installation.

You can use your existing Oracle Database, if it meets the requirements shown in Table 1-3.

Table 1-3 Supported Databases

Database	Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers	Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier
Oracle Database Lite	Included on Windows installations only. No database installation steps are necessary. Refer to the note in this section about multibyte character set support	Not applicable
Oracle Database 10g release 10.1.0.4, 10.1.0.5, or 10.2	Recommended for UNIX installations	Recommended
Oracle9i Database	Supported	Supported
Microsoft SQL Server	Supported	Supported

Note: Oracle Database Lite currently does not support multibyte character sets. This restriction only applies to Oracle BPEL Process Manager for Developers on the Windows platform. Therefore, if your locale requires multibyte support, use an Oracle Database instead of Oracle Database Lite.

See Also: Patches & Updates tab of OracleMetaLink (http://metalink.oracle.com) for information about any required patches for your version of the Oracle Database Oracle Application Server Installation Guide for your operating system for information about the supported Oracle Application Server Metadata Repository databases Appendix A, "Using Microsoft SQL Server as the Dehydration Store"

1.3.3 Supported Web Browsers for Oracle BPEL Console

Oracle BPEL Console supports these browsers:

• Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack (SP) 2

• Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7

Note: Ensure that cookies are enabled in your Web browser. The Oracle BPEL Console caching mechanism uses cookies to identify user sessions.

1.4 Oracle Application Server Portal and Oracle BPEL Portlets

Oracle BPEL Portlets consist of Oracle BPEL Console report portlets and Oracle BPEL Worklist Application portlets. To use Oracle BPEL Portlets, you must install the following installation types:

• Install the Identity Management and Metadata Repository installation type of Oracle Application Server Infrastructure 10g Release 2 (10.1.2.0.2)

• Install the Portal and Wireless Middle Tier (same release)

• Install Oracle BPEL Process Manager for OracleAS Middle Tier (same release)

See Also: "Oracle BPEL Portlets" in the Oracle BPEL Process Manager Developer's Guide for additional information about deploying portlets.

1.5 Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Oracle Application Server Integration B2B

The B2B WSIL Browser enables interoperability between Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Oracle Application Server Integration B2B. This browser is available in the B2B-BPEL.zip file in the following Oracle Application Server Integration B2B installation directory:

Oracle_Home\ip\install

See Also: README.txt file, located in the B2B-BPEL.zip file, for instructions on installing the B2B WSIL Browser Oracle Application Server Integration B2B User's Guide