2 Preparing to Install and Configure Oracle HTTP Server

To prepare for your Oracle HTTP Server installation, verify that your system meets the basic requirements, then obtain the correct installation software.

2.1 Selecting an Oracle HTTP Server Installation Type

You must decide whether to install Oracle HTTP Server collocated with an existing WebLogic Server domain or in a standalone domain.

Use the following flowchart to decide which of the two primary Oracle HTTP Server domain options to configure.

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2.2 Roadmap for Installing and Configuring Oracle HTTP Server in a WebLogic Server Domain

This roadmap provides all the steps required to install and configure Oracle HTTP Server in a WebLogic Server domain.

Table 2-1 Roadmap for Oracle HTTP Server Installation Configured in a WebLogic Server Domain

Task Description For More Information

Install and configure the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure standard installation topology.

Before beginning the Oracle HTTP Server installation, you must install and configure Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure.

See Installing the Infrastructure Software in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installing and Configuring the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure.

Make sure all processes associated with the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure domain are shut down.

If your Node Manager, Administration Server, Managed Servers, or any other servers are up and running, then you must shut them down before you can begin installing and configuring Oracle HTTP Server in a WebLogic Server domain.

Stopping an Oracle Fusion Middleware Environment in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Methods for Installing Multiple Products in the Same Domain in Oracle Fusion Middleware Planning an Installation of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

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

Check for any mandatory patches that will be required before or after the installation.

Review the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure release notes to see if there are any mandatory patches required for the software products you are installing.

See Install and Configure in Oracle Fusion Middleware Release Notes for Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure.

Obtain the appropriate distribution.

To create the topology described in this guide, obtain the Oracle HTTP Server distribution.

See Obtaining the Product Distribution.

Determine your installation directories.

Verify that the installer can access or create the required installer directories. Also, verify that the directories exist on systems that meet the minimum requirements.

See Oracle HTTP Server Directory Structure.

Install Oracle HTTP Server.

Run the installation program to install the software. On the Installation Type screen, select Collocated HTTP Server (Managed through WebLogic server).

The installer then transfers the software to your system and updates the Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure Oracle home to include the Oracle HTTP Server binaries.

See Installing the Oracle HTTP Server Software.

Update the existing Infrastructure domain.

Use the configuration wizard to extend the Infrastructure domain to include an Oracle HTTP Server instance.

During this step, choose whether you want the Full-JRF or Restricted-JRF operation mode. See Understanding Full-JRF and Restricted-JRF Modes for more information about these modes.

Note: If you have not configured Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure yet, then you can configure it at the same time as Oracle HTTP Server.

See Configuring Oracle HTTP Server in a WebLogic Server Domain.

Review post-configuration administration and configuration tasks.

Discover additional tools and resources to administer your domain and configure your domain to be highly available.

See Next Steps After Configuring the Domain.

2.3 Roadmap for Installing and Configuring Oracle HTTP Server in a Standalone Domain

This roadmap provides all the steps required to install and configure Oracle HTTP Server in a standalone domain.

Table 2-2 Roadmap for Oracle HTTP Server Installation Configured in a Standalone Domain

Task Description For More Information

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.

Obtain the appropriate distribution.

To create the topology described in this guide, obtain the Oracle HTTP Server distribution.

See Obtaining the Product Distribution.

Determine your installation directories.

Verify that the product and config directories are created, are accessible by the installer, and exist on systems that meet the minimum requirements.

See Oracle HTTP Server Directory Structure.

Install Oracle HTTP Server.

Run the installation program to install the software. On the Installation Type screen, select Standalone HTTP Server (Managed independently of WebLogic server).

The installer then transfers the software to your system and creates the Oracle home directory.

See Installing the Oracle HTTP Server Software.

Create an Oracle HTTP Server Standalone Domain.

Use the configuration wizard to create and configure an Oracle HTTP Server in a standalone domain.

See Configuring Oracle HTTP Server in a Standalone Domain.

Review post-configuration administration and configuration tasks.

Discover additional tools and resources to administer your domain and configure your domain to be highly available.

See Next Steps After Configuring the Domain.

2.4 Roadmap for Verifying Your System Environment

Before you begin the installation and configuration process, you must verify your system environment.

The following table identifies important tasks and checks to perform to ensure that your environment is properly prepared for installing and configuring Oracle HTTP Server.

Table 2-3 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, and Interoperability Requirements.

Identify a proper installation user.

Verify that the installation user has the proper permissions to install and configure the software.

See Selecting an Installation User.

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 HTTP Server.

See Understanding Database Requirements for an Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation.

2.4.1 Verifying Certification, System, and Interoperability Requirements

Oracle recommends that you use the certification matrix and system requirements documents with each other to verify that your environment meets the requirements for installation.

  1. 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 be released at any time. Therefore, the certification documents are kept outside the documentation libraries and are available on Oracle Technology Network.

  2. 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, use this document to verify that your system meets the required minimum specifications. These include disk space, available memory, specific platform packages and patches, and other operating system-specific items. System requirements can change in the future. Therefore, the system requirement documents are kept outside of the documentation libraries and are available on Oracle Technology Network.

  3. Verifying interoperability among multiple products

    See Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c Interoperability and Compatibility in Oracle Fusion Middleware Understanding Interoperability and Compatibility to learn how to install and run multiple Fusion Middleware products from the same release or mixed releases with each other.

2.4.2 Selecting an Installation User

The user who performs installation and configuration on your system requires sufficient permissions and privileges.

2.4.2.1 Understanding User Permissions

The user who installs a Fusion Middleware product owns the files and has certain permissions on the files.

  • 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.


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    If the user who creates the domain is different than the user who installed the software, then both users must have the same privileges, as shown in the next example.

  • Example 2: The Oracle Home and Domain are Created by Different Users

    This example shows the permissions where one user creates the Oracle home and another user configures the domain.


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Note:

Certain domain files do not have group permissions. For example, cwallet.sso.

Consider the following items before running the installer:

  • On UNIX operating systems, Oracle recommends that you set umask to 027 on your system before you install the software. 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. If you run the installer as a root user, the startup validation may fail and you cannot continue the installation.

  • When you manage a product installation (for example, applying patches or starting managed Servers), use the same user ID that you used to install the product.

  • On Windows operating systems, you must have Administrative privileges to install the product. See Verifying the Installation User has Administrator Privileges on Windows Operating Systems for more information.

2.4.2.2 Understanding Non-Default User Permissions on UNIX Operating Systems

Changing the default permissions setting reduces the security of the installation and possibly your system. Oracle does not recommend changing default permission settings.

If other users require access to particular files or executable, 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.

2.4.2.3 Verifying the Installation User has Administrator Privileges on Windows Operating Systems

To update the Windows Registry, you must have Administrator privileges.

By default, members with the Administrator privilege sign in to the system with regular privileges, but can request elevated permissions to perform administrative tasks.

To perform a task with elevated privileges:

  1. Find the Command Prompt item, either from the Start menu or the Windows icon in the lower-left hand corner.
  2. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
    This opens a new command prompt window, and all actions performed in this window will be done with administrator privileges.

    Note:

    If you have User Access Control enabled on your system, you may see an additional window asking you to confirm this action. Confirm and continue with this procedure.
  3. Perform the desired task.

    For example, to start the product installer:

    For a jar file, enter:

    java —jar distribution_name.jar

    For an executable (.exe, .bin, or .sh file), enter:

    distribution_name.exe

2.4.3 Understanding Directories for Installation and Configuration

During the installation and domain configuration process, you must plan on providing the locations for these directories: Oracle Home, Domain Home, and the Application Home.

The following sections provide information to help you decide where you want to create these directories:

2.4.3.1 Understanding the Recommended Directory Structure

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


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Description of "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.

2.4.3.2 About the Oracle Home Directory

When you install any Oracle Fusion Middleware product, you must use 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. These files are essential to ensuring that Fusion Middleware operates correctly on your system. They facilitate checking of cross-product dependencies during installation. For this reason, you can consider the Oracle home directory a central support directory for all Oracle Fusion Middleware products installed on your system.

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 12c (12.2.1.2) Interoperability and Compatibility in 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.

2.4.3.3 About the Domain Home Directory

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 about 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.

2.4.3.4 About the Application Home Directory

The Application home is the directory where applications for domains you configure are created.

The default Application home location is ORACLE_HOME/user_projects/applications/domain_name. However, Oracle strongly recommends locating your Application home outside of the Oracle home directory; if you upgrade your product to another major release, you must create a new Oracle home for binaries.

See Understanding the Recommended Directory Structure for more about the recommended directory structure and locating your Application home.

Fusion Middleware documentation refers to the Application home directory as APPLICATION_HOME and includes all folders up to and including the domain name. For example, if you name your domain exampledomain and you locate your application data in the /home/oracle/config/applications directory, the documentation uses APPLICATION_HOME to refer to /home/oracle/config/applications/exampledomain.

2.4.3.5 Installing Multiple Products in the Same Domain

There are two methods for installing and configuring multiple products in one domain.

  • Method 1.

    Install and configure Product A, including creating the schemas and starting all servers in the domain to verify a successful domain configuration.

    This is the method used in all installation guides in the Fusion Middleware library. You can repeat this process for as many products as necessary. It allows you to validate one product at a time and add more products incrementally.

    To install Product B, you stop the Administration Server to prevent any updates to the domain while you are adding the new product. Then, follow instructions in the installation guide for Product B, including creating the necessary schemas. Finally, extend the Product A domain to include Product B before starting all of the servers again.

  • Method 2.

    Install all of the necessary products, then create the schemas for all of the products. After creating the schemas, configure the domain using all of the necessary product templates, then start all the servers.

    This method of creating a multi-product domain may be slightly faster; however, the installation guides in the Fusion Middleware library do not provide specific instructions for this method of domain creation. You will need to refer to the supporting documentation as appropriate.

2.4.3.6 Preparing for Shared Storage

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 host 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.

2.4.4 Understanding JDK Requirements for an Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation

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 /home/oracle/products/jdk directory.

Some products (such as Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle JDeveloper) are available as platform-specific distributions. 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

2.4.5 Understanding Database Requirements for an Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation

Many Oracle Fusion Middleware products require database schemas prior to 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 "Repository Creation Utility Requirements" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications document.

After your database is properly configured, you use the Repository Creation Utility (RCU) to create product schemas in your database. This tool is available in the Oracle home for your Oracle Fusion Middleware product. For more information about the RCU, see Understanding Repository Creation Utility in Oracle Fusion Middleware Creating Schemas with the Repository Creation Utility.

2.5 Obtaining the Product Distribution

The Oracle HTTP Server distributionis available as a standalone executable installation program that includes a Java Runtime Environment.

To locate and download the Oracle HTTP Server distribution, see Obtaining Product Distributions in Oracle Fusion Middleware Planning an Installation of Oracle Fusion Middleware.