OBI EE 10.1.3.4.1 Installation procedure in Linux x86

I have searched the internet to get a proper guideline for installing Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1 but did not find any thing that can state all the steps involved in this installation process. I struggled a bit and finally able to install and configure it in LINUX x86 environment. I have faced some issues and do not want anyone working in the same field to face the same problems when they start their installation.

In the following sections I have tried to document end to end installation and cluster configuration process if anyone find anything missing please let me know I will add them as well.

I will devide the whole installation process in 5 steps -

• Get softwares and setup the platform for Oracle BI EE
• Install Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1
• Configure the user.sh file for Orcle Database Connectivity
• Configure the odbc.ini file for Clustered Analytics DSN
• Managing the Services (Command Set)

Step 1> Get softwares and setup the platform for Oracle BI EE
Before you start the actual installation make sure you have all the installers with you. Oracle BI EE needs GNU Compiler Collection [commonly known as gcc, man gcc for details) C++ runtime version 3.4.3 (or later) for compilation so you have to have this in your Linux environment. The best way to know the version of gcc is very simple just put this command 'gcc -v' and check the version from there. If the version is not present please ask you Linux administrator to install the proper version.

Second thing that is important for the environment is the limit set to the number of resource handle. This can be checked issuing this command 'ulimit' or 'ulimit -n'. For proper installation of Oracle BI EE this limit should be set either to 10240 (or higher) to unlimited. If this is not set properly the UnixChk.sh script will fail and say the system is not proper for Oracle BI EE installation. So make sure you have it :)

Also check that all the server that you are planning to add the cluster have their name registered in DNS register of the network. If this is not done your clustered BI Servers will not be able to communicate with each other. The other way to resolve this is to put the IP and Name pair in the hosts file of the system. This again needs root access. :(

Now create a folder in Linux and named it OBI_EE_BASE. We will export this and use as $OBI_EE_BASE in the following section. You can create this directory anywhere in the directory structure where you (or the user who will run Oracle BI EE) has all the accessed. (Normally in my case it is 750. All to Owner, Read-Execute to Group and nothing to Other). Inside OBI_EE_BASE create three folders Installer, OracleBI, OracleBIData. Download the Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1 installation binary file from Oracle e delivery and put it inside the Installer directory. for my installationthe name of the file was biee_linux_x86_redhat_101341_1of1.tar. The name may get changed with new versions. untar this file using 'tar -xvf biee_linux_x86_redhat_101341_1of1.tar' command. This will create the installer image inside the $OBI_EE_BASE/Installer/RH_Linux directory.

Once you have the created the installer image, check the version of the JDK (Java development Kit) in the system. Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1 requires 1.5.0 or higher. You can check the installed JDK version using 'java -version' command. In my case I do not have JDK 1.5.0 so I have to install JDK in my system. I take the latest 1.6 version. The also is very simple. Download the binary installer from SUM website and put it under $OBI_EE_BASE directory. [Note. If you do not have root access then download the .bin (jdk-6u16-linux-i586.bin) file only.]. Change the mode of the file to 750 (chmod 750 jdk-6u16-linux-i586.bin). Now run the ./jdk-6u16-linux-i586.bin command and it will install Sun JDK 1.6. New JDK directory location will be $OBI_EE_BASE/jdk1.6.0_16. If you want you can export JAVA_HOME=$OBI_EE_BASE/jdk1.6.0_16. But this is optional.

Step 2> Install Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1
Now we will start the actual Oracle BI EE installation. Go to the $OBI_EE_BASE/Installer/RH_Linux/Server/Oracle_Business_Intelligence directory. Run the ./UnixChk.sh $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBI command for system check. If there is any issue with the system this command will identify all of them. As these are Linux system related issues so you may need to take the help of Linux administrator to resolve them. Now start Oracle BI EE installation running ./setup.sh -console command. Follow the normal instructions for the installation. During the installation you have to provide some inputs from your end like –

• OC4J Administrator Password = Any valid string
• jdk Location = $OBI_EE_BASE/jdk1.6.0_16
• OracleBI Location = $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBI
• OracleBIData Location = $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBIData

Once these are given the installer will do the whole installation and you can rest on your sofa :).

Step 3> Configure the user.sh file for Orcle Database Connectivity
The installation itself does not configure the Oracle Client information. So if you are planning to connect Oracle Databases. You have to configure this yourself. Also make sure you have Oracle Client installed on the system.

This is again very simple. Go to the $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBI/setup directory and open the user.sh file. Uncomment the following lines -

# Oracle Parameters
#---------------------------
ORACLE_HOME= (In my case /$ORABASE/product/10.2.0.1)
export ORACLE_HOME
TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
export TNS_ADMIN
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:/opt/bin:$PATH
export PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib32:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/j2se/jre/lib/sparc
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
#---------------------------

Normally this should make you enable to access databases but some time it may cause an error like this - [nQSError: 46029] Failed to load the DLL /ias_home/install/OracleBI/server/Bin/libnqsdbgatewayoci10g.so. Check if 'Oracle OCI 10G' database client is installed. I faced this in my own installation as well. There are many reasons for this. In my case the path for LD_LIBRARY_PATH was wrong. There was no lib32 directory under $ORACLE_HOME. I changed it to $ORACLE_HOME/lib and it solved my problem. The other two reason for this error is - Improper version of Oracle Database Client and Missing of libclntsh.so softlink inside $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBI/setup/Bin directory. Check the metalink3 document id 537898.1 for details.

Step 4> Configure the odbc.ini file for Clustered Analytics DSN

Once you set the Oracle Client related information in the user.sh file. It is now time to configure the odbc.ini file for Oracle BI Server DSN. Open the odbc.ini file under $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBI/setup directory and change the following section –

[Cluster]

Driver=/ias_home/install/OracleBI/server/Bin/libnqsodbc.so

Description=Oracle BI Server

ServerMachine=local

Repository=

FinalTimeOutForContactingCCS=60

InitialTimeOutForContactingPrimaryCCS=5

IsClusteredDSN=Yes

Catalog=

UID=

PWD=

Port=9703

PrimaryCCS=

PrimaryCCSPort=9706

SecondaryCCS=

SecondaryCCSPort=9706

Regional=No

The default name of the DSN is Cluster. If you want you can change it to any other name but in that case you have to change the same in instanceconfig.xml file as well under $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBIData/web/config directory.

Step 5> Managing the Services (Command Set)

All the commands required to manage different services for Oracle BI EE can be found under $OBI_EE_BASE/OracleBI/setup directory. The use of them is also very simple.

OC4J can be manually started by running the command:

nohup ./oc4j -start > /dev/null 2>&1 &

OC4J can be manually stopped by running the command:

./oc4j -shutdown -port 23791 -password

BI Server can be started by running the command:

./run-sa.sh start

BI Server can be manually stopped by running the command:

./run-sa.sh stop

BI Presentation Service and Javahost can be started by running the command:

./run-saw.sh start

BI Presentation Service and Javahost can be manually stopped by running the command:

./run-saw.sh stop

BI Scheduler Service can be started by running the command:

./run-sch.sh start

BI Scheduler Service can be manually stopped by running the command:

./run-sch.sh stop

BI Cluster Controller can be started by running the command:

./run-ccs.sh start

BI Cluster Controller can be manually stopped by running the command:

./run-ccs.sh stop

If anyone needs any other information then please let me know. I have not writen about the cluster configuration in this blog as that this same as windows installation. But if any one needs that please let me know. I will document that in another blog.