Installation Planning Checklist

In This Section:

Product-Specific Installation Planning

The following table provides a checklist to use to prepare for installing EPM System products. Oracle recommends that you review the checklist with your consultant at least one week before installation. Completing the checklist before installation helps ensure a smoother, faster installation.

Table 3.  Pre-installation Planning Checklist

TaskCommentsCheck When Completed
Preparing the work area  
Prepare a work area for consultants who are assisting with the installation.

  • Internet access—a direct connection outside the firewall

  • Work area and computer (ideally located where the servers on which you are installing EPM System products are located), with network access

  • Telephone

 
Ensure that you can access the Oracle® E-Delivery (http://edelivery.oracle.com/) site.   
Obtaining third-party licenses  
Obtain required third-party license keys. Some third-party products require license keys or license files. Requesting and receiving a license key can require several days.

For Web application servers, consider which type of license works best for your organization. For example, you might not need a license for the highest level of functionality; a license for a lower level of functionality might meet your needs.

 
Preparing the software  
Download the EPM System Installer, and the required product installation assemblies from the media packs for the products that you purchased. Download from the Oracle® E-Delivery (http://edelivery.oracle.com/) site.

Review the Media Pack Readme on Oracle® E-Delivery to identify the products that are required and optional for use with your products.

Tip:

Oracle recommends that you download files to a shared drive.

See the “Preparing for Installation” chapter of the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide for information about how to unzip and organize the files.

 
Ensure that the products meet EPM System product release compatibility requirements.See the Release Compatibility tab in the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Certification Matrix (http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html listed in the Oracle Business Intelligence product area.) 
Install all third-party components that are required by EPM System products and validate that all third-party product versions meet system requirements.

See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Certification Matrix (http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html listed in the Oracle Business Intelligence product area.)

Ensure that you have obtained all licenses that are required by third-party software.

 
Gathering required documentation  
Download the EPM System installation and product documentation for the products that you purchased. In addition to this guide, download the following files from the Oracle® E-Delivery (http://edelivery.oracle.com/) site or from the Oracle Documentation Library (http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/epm.html) on Oracle® Technology Network:

  • Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide

  • Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Security Administration Guide

  • Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Troubleshooting Guide

  • Other installation and deployment documentation required for your deployment. (See Installation Documentation Roadmap.)

  • The documentation for the products that you are installing

 
Preparing the hardware  
Plan your deployment architecture.For example, before you configure EPM System products, you need to know whether you will deploy in a clustered environment. See:
 
Ensure that the necessary hardware is available for your deployment architecture, and verify that the computers meet system requirements. For assistance in planning your deployment architecture, see Sample Deployment Scenarios.

For system requirements, see the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Certification Matrix (http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html listed in the Oracle Business Intelligence product area.)

 

Prepare each server for the EPM System installation.

  • Update server software as needed. For example, ensure that required service packs, hotfixes, and so on are installed.

  • Disable unnecessary services.

 
If you are clustering for load-balancing or failover, ensure that IT prepares the load balancer (hardware, software) or the failover mechanism.Ensure that the load balancer or failover mechanism is tested and ready before you start the installation. See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System High Availability and Disaster Recovery Guide for additional information. 
Check network bandwidth and latency for distant sites.  
Synchronize server time. When servers are not time synchronized, authentication errors that result in user access problems can occur between the EPM System application servers. 
Arrange backup functionality. After the installation, Oracle advises that you perform a full backup of all servers and databases. After the initial backup, include servers and databases in daily backup procedures. See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Backup and Recovery Guide. 

Resolve potential firewall problems

Use port information in this document (See Ports.) to open a restricted range of ports in your firewalls for client to server or server to server communication. Additional information about ports is available in Communication Flows for 11.1.2.1 EPM System Products on http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/resource-library-090986.html

 
Disable anti-virus software.

Antivirus software can cause performance issues with EPM System products if, each time you access any resource on the server, the antivirus software tries to open and scan the object. To prevent these issues, exclude the EPM Oracle home directory from automatic antivirus scans and scan this directory only at scheduled times.

 
Preparing databases  
If necessary, install a database client and prepare a database for EPM System products that require a repository for relational storage.

  • Be sure to install a supported version of the database software. See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Certification Matrix (http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html listed in the Oracle Business Intelligence product area.)

  • Set up database client access from the servers to the database setup.

  • Set up user accounts to access the database.

  • If you are using an Oracle database, install the full database client and test the database client with the TNSPing command.

If the database is installed, perform a full backup.

For additional information about preparing databases, see Preparing a Database.

 
Preparing the security infrastructure  

Collect the information needed to configure external security user directories in Oracle Hyperion Shared Services Console.

See “Configuring User Directories” in Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System User and Role Security Guide.

 
Prepare a user account

Windows:

  • Do not use the Administrator user to install and configure. Run EPM System Installer and Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Configurator as a user with administrator rights. Install and configure as an administrator and as the same user for all EPM System products.

  • Assign local policies if required by your product. For Windows, the user ID typically requires “Act as part of the OS, Bypass Traverse Checking, Log on as a batch job, and Log-on as a service.”

  • Before installing in a Windows 2008 environment, ensure that you disable User Account Control (UAC). This can be done through User Accounts in the Control Panel by clicking on Change User Account Control Settings, and then dragging the slider to Never notify. This also requires a reboot.

    UAC must remain disabled in order for EPM System server components to function properly. UAC can be enabled on end-user client desktops.

  • When you upgrade or apply the maintenance release, install and configure using the same user that was used to install and configure the earlier release.

UNIX

  • Prepare a user account (not the root user). Install and configure as the same user for all EPM System products. On UNIX machines, for all Oracle products, the user that is installing must be part of the same group; the group must have write permission to the central inventory (oraInventory).

  • If you have installed any other Oracle products, the user who will be installing EPM System products must be in the same group as the user who installed the other Oracle products. For example, both users must be part of oinstall. If you are upgrading EPM System products, follow this requirement even if you used multiple users to install components in previous releases.

 
Create domain accounts.

  • DCOM account, if required for your product (for example, hypdcom) — Domain user or system account with local Administrator rights and “Log On Locally” and “Interactive Logon” rights.

  • Hyperion administrator (for example, hypadmin) — Domain user account

 
Obtain an account for external authentication with access to the user directory.

  • Create a login (which can be a service account) with Browse privileges for the user directory.

  • Ensure that the service account name does not include special characters.

  • Ensure that the service account's Distinguished Name (DN) can access the user directory.

  • Note the user directory port.

  • Be familiar with the name of a Primary Domain Controller that can access MSAD (if applicable).

  • Ensure that the server can communicate with the user directory.

See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System User and Role Security Guide.

 
If you are using secure communication, ensure the availability of SSL certificates for all components. See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Security Administration Guide.

Oracle recommends a secure sockets-capable server in a production environment, or where the local network is not protected by some other means (such as a firewall), or where public users can access the Web server.

 
If you are using the embedded Shared Services Native Directory, consider whether to provision users or groups. Oracle recommends that you provision groups to reduce administrative overhead. If you provision by group, decide whether to use Native Directory groups or external authentication provider groups.See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Management System User and Role Administration Guide. 
Setting up Web application servers and Web servers  

Ensure that WebLogic Server is available for EPM System product deployment. The application server and the product that you are deploying must be installed on the same computer.

  • If you are not using the version of WebLogic provided during installation, ensure that your existing version is the supported version. See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Certification Matrix (http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html listed in the Oracle Business Intelligence product area.)

  • To identify the products that require an application server and to view the list of supported application servers, see Tier Architecture .

  • For additional information about setting up a Web application server, see Preparing Web Application Servers.

  • For UNIX, ensure that you have root access to the application server installation directory.

 

Ensure that a Web server is available for EPM System product deployment.

 
If you are using software load balancing, in the Web server, prepare the load balancer plug-in to the Web application server.

See your load balancer documentation.

 
Resolving ports  

Identify and resolve port conflicts.

Review the list of EPM System product default ports in Ports.

 
Preparing for product configuration  
Collect the information needed to configure products after installation.See “Configuring EPM System Products” in the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide