Phew! So, we are at the end of the book, having taken you through all the areas you need to be confident in using, administering, and developing in OBIEE. It's a lot to take in, but also remember that this is a starting point. Many of the previous chapters could be expanded to become books in their own right!
We are aware that many people reading this will have already used a previous version of OBIEE, so for our final chapter, let's look at the upgrade process for the most fundamental parts of the system, from a version-11g implementation to 12c, that is, the Repository and Presentation Catalog.
The upgrade process for this is extremely straightforward as Oracle has provided an easy-to-use upgrade tool that we will step through in this chapter. We are helped in that user-interface and infrastructure changes are not as big from 11g to 12c as they were from older versions to 10g.
If you are upgrading a current live implementation, the wider implications of the upgrade must be considered, especially the possible effects on current functionality. Therefore, in this chapter, we will also touch upon the thinking and planning that is needed prior to a full upgrade for a current live implementation.
It is also advisable to review the install we did in Chapter 3, Installing the Windows Server 2012, as there is some crossover depending on the import method you choose.
Before attempting an upgrade, ensure that you have the necessary files and the correct administrator details for the following:
- 11g RPD
- 11g Presentation Catalog
You should also be running at least the following OBIEE versions and have filesystem permissions on both:
- 1.1.7 OBIEE: Your current running version must be at least this version. Any version below this cannot be upgraded to 12c
- Your new 12c system
You should also consider the following before the upgrade:
- Check that the new 12c system has the correct database connectivity setup for the newly upgraded 11g RPD. For example, on an Oracle database, this would mean configuring the
TNSNames.orafile on the new system. Remember that 12c utilizes its ownTNSnames.orafile rather than requiring a separate Oracle client installation. - If you have other customizations on your current 11g implementation, you may need to reapply these. This may include CSS files to change the look and feel of the frontend, or enhanced functionality via JavaScript. Also, rather than reapplying, you may actually need to redevelop customized styles and skins. You can ascertain this by testing your old customization during the regression cycle that we will go through at the end of this chapter.
Before embarking on the upgrade of these components, also check that you have started up all of the relevant 12c services. These services are as follows:
- BI services
- WebLogic Server
- Enterprise Manager
You can test this by logging in to the following links (the port numbers will be different if you have changed these in your initial installation):
- Enterprise Manager:
http://localhost:7001/em - Weblogic Server Console:
http://localhost:7001/console
- OBIEE Answers:
http://localhost:9704/analytics
The upgrade process has changed from previous versions and is now a bit more command-line driven. However, it is more comprehensive in that it requires less reconfiguration after running the process.
Oracle provides a simple and straightforward script for this called the BI Migration Script (migrationtool.sh). This is used to export both 11g OBIEE and BI Publisher objects into an export bundle that can be imported into the new 12c instance.