In Chapter 3, Installing on Windows Server 2012 the steps for installing Oracle BI 12c on a Windows Server operating system were highlighted. Unlike previous versions of Oracle BI, there is only one enterprise installation process, which helps to simplify getting up-and-running with the software. The installation has given you a fully functioning Oracle BI 12c foundation from which to work and develop. The install conducted earlier in the book is for a sandbox or development environment. It would also work in a simplified production environment. Several other advanced installation and post-installation configuration options are considered for production environment architecture. Several of these additional installation and environment configuration options are what we will cover in this chapter. You'll learn how to configure these options, step-by-step, while some of the more advanced options will be discussed at a high-level. Ultimately, the idea in this chapter is for you to be well informed about the capabilities of setting up a production-ready Oracle BI 12c environment.
The nature of this chapter requires additional components and configuration, which may be advanced for someone just getting started with Oracle BI or server infrastructure to conduct. So feel free to read through this chapter without applying the steps explained if you're looking to avoid making changes to the environment in which you've currently been working.
For most implementations, Oracle Business Intelligence will run on its own physical or virtual server. This is often the case so that no other enterprise application suite run on the same machine, thus competing for the server's resources. Often the terms BI Server or BI Box is used when talking about the Oracle BI application server. In a high availability (HA) or failover architecture, the number of servers is increased in order to handle additional consumption of the server's resources or concurrent usage that is anticipated. Each server is then a node in a cluster of servers. Each node gets classified as an instance of Oracle BI. Typically, each Oracle BI instance will run on a physical server in production (plausibly in test or quality assurance (QA) environments as well), but usually on a virtual machine in a development or sandbox environment. This mindset for using physical machines to run enterprise applications is quickly changing and IT groups are beginning to use virtual machines even in production environments due to the reduction costs and maintenance efforts. In a high availability environment, the application tier, which is where Oracle BI server and its many Java-based components run, are on one server and the web (HTTP) tier is on a separate server for each environment (that is, test, production, and so on).
Before installing Oracle BI, it works best if you understand the architectural needs of the implementation. If you only require a single Oracle BI instance per each environment then there isn't much to worry about in the way of the install and the instructions provided in earlier chapters will suit you well. However, if failover, high availability (horizontal scaling), or vertical scaling (increasing the nodes on a single machine) are needed, you will need to make several environment architecture decisions as part of an installation planning process.
Making any enterprise environment high availability (HA) is an advanced process. It usually requires several technical components involving both hardware and software. The hardware components are classified under: server hardware, load balancers, and firewall. The software components are classified as: database, application tier, web tier, identity store (LDAP), and storage (that is, SAN/NAS).
The most important part, which is most commonly missed when setting up an Oracle BI HA environment, is the pre-configuration process. This is where a network administrator is required to set up shared storage locations on a NAS/SAN and also to configure the web tier and load balancer (that is, virtual servers, virtual IPs, and DNS). The network administrator during this process should also set up the selected shared storage locations with mapped paths/mounts. These shared storage locations are critical for installing the Oracle BI system into a HA environment; if they are not conducted correctly, the failover effect being sought may not function properly.
Oracle provides the Oracle BI Enterprise Deployment Guide (EDG), which illustrates a diagram of a basic HA environment as well as installation and configuration processes to ensure your organization can leverage the best practices and recommended setup for Oracle BI HA. Attempting to create an HA environment for Oracle BI without following these instructions is not recommended. Links to the specific documentation can be found here, https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1221/core/BIEDG/toc.htm and further https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1221/biee/BIESG/highavail.htm#BIESG1584 .
Oracle even provides a specific Planning Workbook spreadsheet for the Oracle BI 12c configuration planning process, which can be found here http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=fmw122100&id=biedg_workbook .
Just like the RCU installation, there is a silent installation component that can be used in Oracle BI 12c for a quicker approach to installing the system. This option is great for streamlining installations or when attempting to simplify a production control change management process where you are required to hand-off an installation process and/or document it for a change management team, who would then commence the installation without your involvement on other servers. This idea of a silent install may seem difficult and unfamiliar at first. The easiest way to create a silent installation script is to start the Oracle BI 12c installation wizard as you did in Chapter 3, Installing on Windows Server 2012. If you recall in the Summary step of the install there was a Save Response File button at the bottom of that step in the wizard. You can repeat the process as a mock configuration within the intention of not conducting another full installation, but rather to set and store the necessary configuration options and preferences as if conducting the installation for real. Then on the last Summary step in the installation wizard click the Save button to create a response file:
Once the response file is saved to a location that can be accessed at a later time, with a name that marks the occasion (for example, obi12c_book_install.rsp), you can exit the installation wizard without actually completing the installation. This response file can then be used against the installation wizard command line (CLI) executable and scripted into a batch file. The same process can be used for the Oracle BI 12c configuration, which is the bulk of the configuration if comparing those two setup wizards. Executing the response file is fairly straightforward, for example:
../bi/bin/config.bat -silent -response C:tmpobi12c_book_install.rsp
The deinstall process can be conducted in a similar fashion using the silent method with the deinstall command.
Although the silent installation option exists, we find that installation of the Oracle BI 12c platform is often an intimate affair and best conducted manually using the GUI installation wizards. For more information on the silent install method, please see the Oracle documentation, https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1221/core/BIEIG/GUID-4F0BD89A-C8BE-4851-8D0C-422779D5BC1D.htm#INSOA375.