To prepare for your Oracle Business Intelligence installation, verify that your system meets the basic requirements. Then obtain the correct installation software and complete the procedures in this chapter.
When you run the Oracle Business Intelligence 12c installer and select BI Platform Distribution, a foundation is laid for performing various lifecycle tasks. For example, binary files to configure the system are installed. When you run the Oracle Business Intelligence 12c Configuration Assistant to configure your 12c system, system components, service instance, and other binary files used to start system components, and administer the 12c system are created.
This guide contains the complete information required to install and configure the standard topology for Oracle Business Intelligence. The guide also refers to additional information that you can use if you want to create a modified version of this topology. Table 2-1 lists the steps required to install and configure the standard topology for Oracle Business Intelligence:
Table 2-1 Standard Installation Roadmap
No. | Task | Description | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|
Planning and Preparing | |||
1 | Verify your system environment. | Before beginning the installation, verify that the minimum system and network requirements are met. | See Roadmap for Verifying Your System Environment. |
2 | Obtain the following Oracle distributions:
|
Download the Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c Infrastructure and Oracle BI (12.2.1) distributions from any of the following locations:
Oracle Technology Network or Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. |
See Understanding and Obtaining the Product Distributions. |
3 | Determine your installation directories. | Verify that the installer can access or create the installer directories that it must access or create. Also, verify that the directories exist on systems that meet the minimum requirements. | See Understanding Directories for Installation and Configuration. |
Installing Software | |||
4 | Install prerequisite software. | Install the Java Development Toolkit (JDK) and the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure to create Oracle home, and to install the Oracle Fusion Middleware software directory for further installations. | For installing the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure, see Installing and Configuring the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure.
Note: You only need to install the Infrastructure. You do not need to configure a domain for the Infrastructure. |
5 | Install the Oracle Business Intelligence software. | Run the Oracle BI installer to install Oracle BI software in the same Oracle home where you installed the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure infrastructure. | See Installing Oracle Business Intelligence. |
6 | Verify the installation. | Check the directory structure and the logs to verify whether the installation is successful. | |
Configuring the Domain | |||
7 | Configure the BI domain. | Run the Oracle Business Intelligence 12c Configuration Assistant tool to configure the BI domain.
Note: You can create the database schema either using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU) or using the Oracle Business Intelligence 12c Configuration Assistant. |
For more information on Repository Creation Utility, see Creating Schemas with the Repository Creation Utility. |
8 | Verify the domain configuration. | Verify that all the links detailed in the summary page of the Configuration Assistant are accessible and you are able to log in.
Also, verify whether all the required processes are active by running the status.sh|cmd script. |
status.sh|cmd is located at Domain_Home/bitools/bin/status.(sh|cmd) .
|
Next Steps | |||
9 | Administer and prepare your domain for high availability | Discover additional tools and resources to administer your domain and configure your domain to be highly available. | See Next Steps After Configuring the Domain. |
You must read and understand the important information in Table 2-2 before you begin the installation and configuration process. It identifies important tasks and checks to be performed to ensure that your environment is properly prepared for installing and configuring the Oracle Business Intelligence.
Table 2-2 Roadmap for Verifying Your System Environment
Task | Description | Documentation |
---|---|---|
Verify certification and system requirements |
Verify that your operating system is certified and properly configured for installation and configuration. |
See Verifying Certification, System Requirements, and Interoperability. |
Identify a proper installation user |
Verify that the installation user has the proper permissions to install and configure the software. |
|
Select the installation and configuration directories on your system |
Verify that you can create the necessary directories for installation and configuration, according to the recommended directory structure. |
See Understanding Directories for Installation and Configuration. |
Install a certified JDK |
The installation program for the distribution requires a certified JDK present on your system. |
See Understanding JDK Requirements for an Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation. |
Install and configure a database for mid-tier schemas |
To configure your WebLogic domain, you must have access to a certified database that is properly configured for schemas required by Oracle Business Intelligence. |
See Understanding Database Requirements for an Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation. |
Oracle recommends that you use the certification matrix and system requirements documents in conjunction with each other to verify that your environment meets the necessary requirements for installation.
Verifying your environment meets certification requirements
Make sure that you are installing your product on a supported hardware and software configuration. For more information, see the certification document for your release on the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page.
Oracle has tested and verified the performance of your product on all certified systems and environments; whenever new certifications occur, they are added to the proper certification document right away. New certifications can occur at any time, and for this reason the certification documents are kept outside of the documentation libraries and are available on Oracle Technology Network.
Using the system requirements document to verify certification
Oracle recommends that you use the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications document to verify that the certification requirements are met. For example, if the certification document indicates that your product is certified for installation on 64-Bit Oracle Linux 6.5, this document should be used to verify that your Oracle Linux 6.5 system has met the required minimum specifications, like disk space, available memory, specific platform packages and patches, and other operating system-specific items. System requirements may change in the future. Therefore, the system requirement documents are kept outside of the documentation libraries and are available on Oracle Technology Network.
Verifying interoperability among multiple products
The Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Interoperability and Compatibility document defines interoperability and compatibility, and describes how multiple Fusion Middleware products from the same release or mixed releases may be used with each other. You should read this document if you are planning to install multiple Fusion Middleware products on your system.
This section contains important information about the permissions and privileges of the user who is performing the installation and configuration on your system.
This section includes the following topics:
The user who installs a Fusion Middleware product owns the files and has certain permissions on the files.
The user who installs a Fusion Middleware product has the following permissions on them:
Read and write permissions on all non-executable files (for example, .jar
, .properties
, or .xml
). All other users in the same group as the file owner have read permissions only.
Read, write, and execute permissions on all executable files (for example, .exe
, .sh
, or .cmd
). All other users in the same group as the file owner have read and execute permissions only.
This means that someone other than the person who installs the software can use the installed binaries in the Oracle home to configure a domain or set of Fusion Middleware products.
During configuration, the files generated by the configuration process are owned by the user who ran the Configuration Wizard, with the same permissions as described above for the installation user. However, security-sensitive files are not created with group permissions. Only the user that created the domain has read and write permissions and can administer the domain.
Consider the following examples:
Example 1: A Single User Installs the Software and Configures the Domain
This example shows the permissions if the same user installs the software and configures the domain.
To ensure the proper permissions and privileges for all files, Oracle recommends that the same owner perform both tasks: install the Oracle Fusion Middleware product and configure the WebLogic Server domain using the Configuration Wizard.
If domain creation must be performed by a different user than the one who installed the software, then both users should be from the same group to have the necessary permissions, as shown in the next example.
Example 2: The Oracle Home and Domain are Created by Different Users
This example shows the permissions if the Oracle home is created by one user, but the domain is configured by another user.
Note:
Certain domain files do not have group permissions. For example, cwallet.sso.Below are some additional considerations to make prior to running the installer:
On UNIX operating systems, Oracle recommends that you set the umask
to 027
on your system prior to installation. This ensures that file permissions are set properly during installation. Use the following command:
umask 027
You must enter this command in the same terminal window from which you plan to run the product installer.
On UNIX operating systems, do not run the installation program as the root
user. The installer startup validation will fail and you will not be able to continue.
When managing a product installation (for example, applying patches, or starting Managed Servers), you must use the same user ID as was used to perform the initial product installation.
On Windows operating systems, the user performing the installation must have Administrator privileges. See Verifying the Installation User has Administrator Privileges on Windows Operating Systems for more information.
Changing default permissions settings reduces the security of the installation and possibly your system.
Oracle does not recommend changing default permissions settings. If other users require access to particular files or executables, consider using the UNIX sudo
command (or other similar command) in lieu of changing file permissions.
Refer to your UNIX operating system Administrator's Guide or contact your operating system vendor if you need further assistance.
The user performing the installation on Windows operating systems must have Administrator privileges to update the Windows Registry.
By default, members of the Administrator's group log in to the system with regular privileges, but may request elevated permissions to perform administrative tasks.
To perform a task with elevated privileges:
During the installation and domain configuration process, you must plan on providing the locations for the following directories:
Oracle Home
Domain Home
This section contains information that will help you decide where you want to create these directories.
Oracle recommends specific locations for the Oracle Home, Domain Home, and Application Home.
Oracle recommends a directory structure similar to the one shown in Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1 Recommended Oracle Fusion Middleware Directory Structure
A base location (Oracle base) should be established on your system (for example, /home/oracle
) and from there, two separate branches should be created. The product
directory should contain the product binary files and all of the Oracle home directories. The config
directory should contain your domain and application data.
Oracle recommends that you do not keep your configuration data anywhere underneath the Oracle home; if you upgrade your product to another major release, you will be required to create a new Oracle home for binaries. You must also make sure that your configuration data exist in a location to which the binaries in the Oracle home have access.
The /home/oracle/product
(for the Oracle home) and /home/oracle/config
(for the application and configuration data) directories are used in examples throughout the documentation; be sure to replace these directories with the actual directories on your system.
When you install any Oracle Fusion Middleware product, you must enter an Oracle home directory.
This directory is a repository for common files that are used by multiple Fusion Middleware products installed on the same machine. For this reason, you can consider the Oracle home directory central support directory for all Oracle Fusion Middleware products installed on your system.
Files in the Oracle home directory are essential to ensuring that Fusion Middleware operates correctly on your system. They facilitate checking of cross-product dependencies during installation.
Fusion Middleware documentation refers to the Oracle home directory as ORACLE_HOME
.
Oracle Home Considerations
Keep the following in mind when creating the Oracle home directory and installing Fusion Middleware products:
Do not include spaces in the name of your Oracle home directory; the installer gives you an error message if your Oracle home directory path contains spaces.
You can install only one instance of each Oracle Fusion Middleware product in a single Oracle home directory. If you need to maintain separate versions of a product on the same machine, each version must be in its own Oracle home directory.
Although you can have several different products in a single Oracle home, only one version of each product can be in the Oracle home.
Multiple Home Directories
Although in most situations, a single Oracle home directory is sufficient, it is possible to create more than one Oracle home directory. For example, you need to maintain multiple Oracle home directories in the following situations:
You prefer to maintain separate development and production environments, with a separate product stack for each. With two directories, you can update your development environment without modifying the production environment until you are ready to do so.
You want to maintain two different versions of a Fusion Middleware product at the same time. For example, you may want to install a new version of a product while keeping your existing version intact. In this case, you must install each product version in its own Oracle home directory.
You need to install multiple products that are not compatible with each other. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Interoperability and Compatibility for more information.
Note:
If you create more than one Oracle home directory, you must provide non-overlapping port ranges during the configuration phase for each product.The Domain home is the directory where domains that you configure are created.
The default Domain home location is ORACLE_HOME
/user_projects/domains/
domain_name
. However, Oracle strongly recommends that you do not use this default location. Put your Domain home outside of the Oracle home directory, for example, in /home/oracle/config/domains
. The config
directory should contain domain and application data. Oracle recommends a separate domain directory so that new installs, patches, and other operations update the ORACLE_HOME only, not the domain configuration.
See Understanding the Recommended Directory Structure for more on the recommended directory structure and locating your Domain home.
Fusion Middleware documentation refers to the Domain home directory as DOMAIN_HOME
and includes all folders up to and including the domain name. For example, if you name your domain exampledomain
and locate your domain data in the /home/oracle/config/domains
directory, the documentation would use DOMAIN_HOME
to refer to /home/oracle/config/domains/exampledomain
.
Oracle Fusion Middleware enables you to configure multiple Oracle WebLogic Server domains from a single Oracle home. This allows you to install the Oracle home in a single location on a shared volume and reuse the Oracle home for multiple hosts installations.
If you plan to use shared storage in your environment, see "Using Shared Storage" in Oracle Fusion Middleware High Availability Guide for more information.
Most Fusion Middleware products are in .jar file format. These distributions do not include a JDK. To run a .jar distribution installer, you must have a certified JDK already installed on your system.
Make sure that the JDK is installed outside of the Oracle home. If you install the JDK under the Oracle home, you will encounter problems when you try to perform tasks in the future. Oracle Universal Installer validates that the Oracle home directory is empty; the install will not progress until you specify an empty directory. Oracle recommends that you locate your JDK installation in the /uo1/oracle/products/jdk
directory. You can then use the java -jar
command to run the installer JAR file.
The BI distribution is a platform-specific distribution. Platform-specific distributions have a .bin (for UNIX operating systems) or .exe (for Windows operating systems) installer; in these cases, a platform-specific JDK is in the distribution and you do not need to install a JDK separately. However, you may need to upgrade this JDK to a more recent version, depending on the JDK versions that are certified.
Always verify the required JDK version by reviewing the certification information on the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page.
To download the required JDK, navigate to the following URL and download the Java SE JDK:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Many Oracle Fusion Middleware products require database schemas prior to domain configuration. If you do not already have a database where you can install these schemas, you must install and configure a certified database.
To find a certified database for your operating system, see the certification document for your release on the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page.
To make sure your database is properly configured for schema creation, see "Verifying Requirements for Oracle Repository Creation Utility" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications document.
Note:
For 12c (12.2.1), only a certified Oracle database can be used for the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure standard installation topology.
Note:
The Configuration Assistant supports creation of product schemas only for Oracle database. However, if you are using DB2 or SQL Server as your database, you must create the product schemas using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU).The RCU is the tool used to create schemas in your database. This tool is available by installing the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure. For more information, see Installing and Configuring the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure.
Refer to Creating Schemas with the Repository Creation Utility for more information about the Repository Creation Utility.
You create the initial Oracle Business Intelligence domain using the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure distribution. This distribution contains both the Oracle WebLogic Server software and the Oracle JRF software in one distribution.
The Oracle JRF software consists of Oracle Web Services Manager, Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF), Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control, the Repository Creation Utility (RCU), and other libraries and technologies required to support the Oracle Fusion Middleware products.
The distributions for Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure is available as a ".jar" file and the distribution for Oracle Business Intelligence is available as ".bin|exe" file. You must have a certified JDK installed on your system to install and configure this distribution.
For more information about product distributions, see "Understanding and Obtaining Product Distributions" in Planning an Installation of Oracle Fusion Middleware.
The installation process requires specific information from you.
Table 2-3 lists important items that you must know before, or decide during, Oracle Business Intelligence installation.
Table 2-3 Installation Checklist
Information | Example Value | Description |
---|---|---|
|
|
Environment variable that points to the Java JDK home directory. |
Database hostname |
|
Name and domain of the host where the database is running. |
Database port |
|
Port number that the database listens on. The default Oracle database listen port is 1521. |
Database service name |
|
Oracle databases require a unique service name. The default service name is |
DBA username |
|
Name of user with database administration privileges. The default DBA user on Oracle databases is |
DBA password |
ExamplePassword1 |
Password of the user with database administration privileges. |
|
|
Directory you will install your software in. This directory will include Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure and Oracle Business Intelligence, as needed. |
WebLogic Server hostname |
|
Hostname for Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Business Intelligence consoles. |
Console port |
|
Port for Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Business Intelligence consoles. |
|
|
Location in which your domain data is stored. |
|
|
Location your application data is stored in. |
Administrator user name for your WebLogic domain |
|
Name of user with Oracle WebLogic Server administration privileges. The default administrator user is |
Administrator user password |
ExamplePassword1 |
Password of the user with Oracle WebLogic Server administration privileges. |
RCU utility |
|
Path to the Repository Creation Utility (RCU). |
RCU schema prefix |
|
Prefix for names of database schemas used byOracle Business Intelligence. |
RCU schema password |
ExamplePassword1 |
Password for the database schemas used byOracle Business Intelligence. |
Config utility |
|
Path to the configuration wizard for domain creation and configuration. |
You must install the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure to create an Oracle home directory and install supporting software for installing Oracle Business Intelligence. Follow the procedures in this section to locate and install a certified JDK, install the Oracle Fusion Middleware infrastructure, and check the directory structure.
Oracle Fusion Middleware requires that a certified Java Development Kit (JDK) is installed on your system.
To find a certified JDK, see the certification document for your release on the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page. After you identify the Oracle JDK for the current Oracle Fusion Middleware release, you can download an Oracle JDK from the following location on Oracle Technology Network:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html.
Be sure to navigate to the Download section for the Java SE JDK.
The Web tier host computers, which reside in the DMZ, do not necessarily have access to the shared storage on the application tier.
To install the latest supported JDK:
After installing the supported JDK, you must install the infrastructure to create a WebLogic domain in preparation to install Oracle BI.
This topic helps you to understand the installer screens as you proceed with the installation.
The installation program displays a series of screens, in the order listed in Table 2-4:
If you need additional help with any of the installation screens, click the screen name.
Table 2-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure Install Screens
Screen | Description |
---|---|
On UNIX operating systems, this screen appears if this is the first time you are installing any Oracle product on this host. Specify the location where you want to create your central inventory. Make sure that the operating system group name selected on this screen has write permissions to the central inventory location. For more information about the central inventory, see "Understanding the Oracle Central Inventory" in Installing Software with the Oracle Universal Installer. |
|
This screen introduces you to the product installer. |
|
Use this screen to automatically search My Oracle Support for available patches or automatically search a local directory for patches that you have already downloaded for your organization. |
|
Use this screen to specify the location of your Oracle home directory. |
|
Use this screen to select the type of installation and consequently, the products and feature sets you want to install. For this topology, select Fusion Middleware Infrastructure. Note: The topology in this document does not include server examples. Oracle strongly recommends that you do not install the examples into a production environment. |
|
This screen verifies that your system meets the minimum necessary requirements. If there are any warning or error messages, refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications document on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). |
|
If you already have an Oracle Support account, use this screen to indicate how you would like to receive security updates. If you do not have one and are sure you want to skip this step, clear the check box and verify your selection in the follow-up dialog box. |
|
This screen appears if the both of the following statements are true:
This screen lists the patches that were found by the Auto Updates feature. Select one or more patches and click Next to apply the selected patches to the Oracle home. |
|
Use this screen to verify the installation options you selected. If you want to save these options to a response file, click Save Response File and provide the location and name of the response file. Response files can be used later in a silent installation situation. For more information about silent or command line installation, see "Using the Oracle Universal Installer in Silent Mode" in Installing Software with the Oracle Universal Installer. |
|
This screen shows the installation progress. When the progress bar reaches 100% complete, click Finish to dismiss the installer or click Next to see a summary. |
|
Review the summary information on this screen, then click Finish to dismiss the installer. |
Review the contents of the installation log files to make sure that no problems were encountered. By default, the installer writes logs files to the Oracle_Inventory_Location/logs
(on UNIX operating systems) or Oracle_Inventory_Location\logs
(on Windows operating systems) directory.
For a description of the log files and where to find them, see "Installation Log Files" in Installing Software with the Oracle Universal Installer.
After you install the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure and create the Oracle home, you should see the following directory and sub-directories. The contents of your installation vary based on the options you selected during the installation.