1 Oracle BI Applications Architecture and Installation Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications architecture and installation process.

This chapter contains the following topics:

• Section 1.1, "Oracle BI Applications Architecture"

• Section 1.2, "Oracle BI Applications Installation Roadmap"

1.1 Oracle BI Applications Architecture

Figure 1-1 shows the Oracle BI Applications deployment architecture.

Figure 1-1 Oracle BI Applications Deployment Architecture

Components Deployed Into Manager Server "bi_server1"

• Oracle BI Applications Configuration Manager - This component is a Web application that enables you to perform system setups, functionally configure your BI Applications, and define, generate, run, and monitor load plans.

• Functional Setup Manager - (Depicted as FSM in Figure 1-1) This component is a Web application used by Configuration Manager for sequenced task implementation and task dependency management.

• Load Plan Generator - This component is a set of jar files used to create load plans in the ODI Repository.

• ATGLite - This component is a J2EE component used by Oracle BI Applications Configuration Manager and Functional Setup Manager.

Components Deployed Into Managed Server "odi_server1"

• ODI Console - This component enables you to control and monitor ETL.

• ODI Agent - This component is a Java EE Agent, which handles schedules and orchestrates sessions.

Oracle BI Applications Repositories

• Business Analytics Warehouse - The Business Analytics Warehouse is a unified data repository for all customer-centric data, which supports the analytical requirements of the supported source systems. The Business Analytics Warehouse is supported only on Oracle Database.

• Business Intelligence Applications Components Repository (BIACOMP) - This is the repository for Configuration Manager and Functional Setup Manager. It contains load plan definitions as well as BI Applications product hierarchy, setup objects, such as parameters and domain mappings, and a list of functional tasks. This repository is supported only on Oracle Database.

• Business Intelligence Applications I/O Schema - This schema is a mirror schema and is used by all other components to read the BIACOMP schema. It supports read/write of configuration and functional setup data through ETL processes.

• ODI Repository for BI Applications - This repository contains the BI Applications-specific prebuilt ETL logic.

Client Tier

As depicted in Figure 1-1, the client host machine hosts the Configuration Manager and ODI Console, which users access through Web browsers. This tier also includes the Load Plan Generator Plug-in, a client version of the Load Plan Generator, which is deployed into ODI Studio and enables you to manage load plans from ODI Studio. The Load Plan Generator Plug-in requires ODI SDK to be installed.

Additional Tools

Golden Gate is an optional tool integrated with Oracle BI Applications. It enables you to optimize ETL loads and reduce impact on the source system, using a source-dependent data store.

For information about deploying Golden Gate in an Oracle BI Applications environment, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications.

ETL Architecture

For information about ETL architecture, see the section titled "ETL Overview," in Oracle Fusion Middleware ETL Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications.

1.2 Oracle BI Applications Installation Roadmap

The process of installing and configuring Oracle BI Applications includes the following high-level steps:

1. Review the "System Requirements and Supported Platforms," for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications release 11.1.1.7.1, on Oracle Technology Network at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-certification-100350.html.

2. Review preinstallation and deployment requirements.

3. Install prerequisites:

   • Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition:

     • Software Only Install mode requires WebLogic Server 10.3.6 as a prerequisite.

     • Enterprise Install mode installs WebLogic Server 10.3.5. You must upgrade to WebLogic Server 10.3.6 after installation of Oracle BI Applications is complete.

   • Oracle Data Integrator.

4. Create schemas for Oracle BI Applications

   In this step you run the Business Analytics Applications Suite Repository Creation Utility (RCU) to create the necessary schemas for Oracle BI Applications.

5. Install Oracle BI Applications.

   In this step you run the Business Analytics Applications Suite installer to install the binary files for Oracle BI Applications.

6. Apply Fusion Middleware Platform Patches.

7. Configure Oracle Business Intelligence.

   This step is the configuration phase of the installation process. You perform this step if you installed Oracle BI EE in Software Only Install mode. In this step you configure Oracle Business Intelligence with the configuration script.

8. Configure BI Applications.

   This step is the configuration phase of the installation process. In this step you configure Oracle Business Intelligence Applications with the configuration script.

9. Apply post-installation patches.

10. Perform system setup tasks.

    You perform system setups to complete integration of the Oracle BI Applications components and to ready the system for functional configurations and data loads.