How To: Manage your Oracle patch deployment life cycle using Oracle Support Patch Plans Introduction As part of my writing I often try to document and share best practices I develop on my day to day work, this one relates to formalizing the patch deployment process for your oracle environments. This approach is developed for organizations that have formal release cycles and have established procedures to take patches through test life cycles that; at a minimum, begin in a develop environment, followed by integration testing in a QA and culminate when patches are promoted to production. I will try to keep this post brief so, at a high level, I have found that the best way to manage patches is to use the Oracle support portal patch & upgrades functionality to create a patch plan for each environment in the life cycle for either each major release or at least each quarter. This process is always initiated by the need to apply a patch so whenever no patches are necessary during a release or quarter no patch plans are created. The two main benefits of this approach is (1) that it brings transparency into which patches have been approved for each environment, (2) it is a straight forward process that does not carry a lot of overhead. The way patches make it to a patch plan is when a project manager requests a patch to be applied or promoted to each environment in your life cycle, this in turn is monitored using standard project management mechanisms such as issue, task and test management. Implementation Creating your first patch plan is very simple, just take your first requested patch through the process outlined below. 1. Login to http://support.oracle.com 2. Click on the Patches & Updates tab 3. Locate the appropriate version of your patch by specifying a patch number and operating system on the patch search interface
4. Locate your patch on the search results screen and click on Add to Plan > Add to new 5. 6. Locate the a valid target application server or host name using the search box Provide a patch plan name using your company s naming standard and click create plan An example naming convention I have used in the past, this particular one allows system administrators to sort by date and to manage patch plans by product: approved patches 7. To add any additional requested patches to your plan go back to Patches & Updatesand select your plan from the Plans list and click on the Add Patch button. Having this patching plan makes it easy to manage patch deployment through your environments. As for the actual deployment of each patch, I am a command line geek and like the ability to make sure that each individual patch deployment works correctly by running OPatch for each individual package. If you find this post useful please or Share our site! Reference: More about Patch Plans on Oracle Support How To: Download, install, configure and verify you have the latest version of Opatch
How To: Apply an individual patch on your Oracle Environment using OPatch As part of my writing I often try to document and share best practices I develop on my day to day work, this one relates to formalizing the patch deployment process for your oracle environments How to Make sure an index is defined as unique in odi Indexes are defined as constraints on the Model view in ODI Studio. To make a field unique follow one of the two alternatives listed below. PRIMARY KEY Define the Index as a Primary Key constraint object on the Models area within the design view Add the unique columns on the Columns tab In the Control tab make sure the constraint is active and marked to be
defined in the database for both flow and static control checkboxes Review that the correct settings are configured in the Flexfields tab ALTERNATE KEY Define the constraint object for your table as an alternate key in the ODI models area
Add the unique columns on the Columns tab In the Control tab make sure the constraint is active and marked to be defined in the database for both flow and static control checkboxes Review that the correct settings are configured in the Flexfields tab Configuring the windows host file to correctly use the loopback adapter for
Oracle product installations This procedure is required when installing Oracle products such at the Oracle Database or Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition on a host machine that uses DHCP. Follow the steps to configure a loopback adapterand then: 1. 2. Open the host file under c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc using notepad Identify your computer s host name by right clicking on My Computer, selecting properties and clicking on the computer name tab 3. On the first line of your host file add a link between the static IP address you assigned your loopback adapter and your computer s host name, for example: # IP hostname.domain hostname 10.10.10.35 virtualxp.acme.com virtualxp 4. On the second line associate the same static IP with the localhost default alias, for example: 10.10.10.35 localhost.localdomain localhost Once you have completed these steps you can proceed with the next steps in your Oracle product installation. If you find this post useful please or Share our site! This procedure is required when installing Oracle server products such at the Oracle Database or Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition on a host machine that uses DHCP. Follow the steps to configure a loopback adapter and then the steps outlined on this article
Configuring OBIEE to run as a Windows Service Introduction One key step to configuring an enterprise deployment of Oracle Business Intelligence is to be setup your services to run in the background as Windows services and start automatically with your server. By default the installer will create windows services for Oracle Process Manager (OPMN) and the Weblogic Node Manager, this leaves us with the need to configure services for the Weblogic AdminServer and the BI Managed Server. Pre-requisites Verify boot.properties files exist for both Weblogic Servers AdminServer: %mw_home%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\adminserver \security\boot.properties BI Managed Server: %mw_home%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\bi_server1\ security\boot.properties Define the MW_HOME Variable Edit %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd to redirect standard output to a file and to set the service name prefix to Oracle_ Log Syntax: - log: %MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\%SERVE R_NAME%-stdout.txt Example Customization: set MW_HOME=%WL_HOME%\..\ rem *** Install the service %WL_HOME%\server\bin\beasvc -install - svcname: Oracle_%DOMAIN_NAME%_%SERVER_NAME% -javahome: %JAVA_HOME% - execdir: %USERDOMAIN_HOME% -maxconnectretries: %MAX_CONNECT_RETRIES% -host: %HOST% -port: %PORT% -extrapath: %EXTRAPATH% - password: %WLS_PW% -cmdline:%cmdline% - log: %MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\%SERVE R_NAME%-stdout.txt
Note: Make sure you replace beasvc and the subsequent space with Oracle_ on the section for -svcname Change the environment script %MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin\setOBIDomainEnv.cmd Edit %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd to ensure the correct Java memory arguments are utilized by your windows service Old Code: call %WL_HOME%\common\bin\commEnv.cmd New Code: call %WL_HOME%\..\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin\setOBIDomai nenv.cmd Edit %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd to implement a workaround for the Windows limitation of the maximum length of the command line being 2KB Locate the two instances where the script sets the value of the CMDLINE variable Add the code below before each instance, this code will output the current value of CLASSPATH to a text file REM REM output the class path to text file and change reference to file on CMDLINE variable REM this is a workaround to a limit on windows command line to 2KB echo %CLASSPATH% > %WL_HOME%\server\bin\classpath.txt Replace the class path variable reference \ %CLASSPATH%\ with@%wl_home%\server\bin\classpath.txt as depicted in the example below set CMDLINE= %JAVA_VM% %MEM_ARGS% %JAVA_OPTIONS% -classpath @%WL_HOME%\server\bin\classpath.txt -Dweblogic.Name=%SERVER_NAME% - Dweblogic.management.username=%WLS_USER% - Dweblogic.ProductionModeEnabled=%PRODUCTION_MODE% - Djava.security.policy=\ %WL_HOME%\server\lib\weblogic.policy\ weblogic.server Read the Microsoft Support article on specifying the startup order of Windows Services Using regedit, add the one group for each of the OBIEE processes to be started at the end of the list entry at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ServiceGroupOrder
Example groups: OBI Node Manager OBI AdminServer OBI Managed Server OBI OPMN This will sequence the startup of your services based on group Note down the names of the OPMN and Node Manager Services from the registry Registry Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ Sample Service Names: OracleProcessManager_instance1 Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (d_obi_mw_wlserver_10.3) For each of the two services above add a string value (right click the registry folder and follow New > String Value) named Group and provide the corresponding group value for each service (ie. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (d_obi_mw_wlserver_10.3)\group=obi Node Manager). This will work along with the ServiceGroupOrder configuration to ensure the startup order of your services Implementation AdminServer Service Create a new script named %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installAdminServer_svc.cmd and using the code below: SETLOCAL @echo off set MW_HOME=d:\obi_mw set DOMAIN_NAME=bifoundation_domain set USERDOMAIN_HOME=%MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\%DOMAIN_NAME% set SERVER_NAME=AdminServer set PRODUCTION_MODE=true call %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd ENDLOCAL Run the installadminserver_svc.cmd script Using regedit, verify that a service named
Oracle_bifoundation_domain_AdminServer now exists under the following location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value Group and double click on it to add OBI AdminServer as a value. This will work in tandem with the ServiceGroupOrder configuration to ensure the startup order of your services. Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > Multi-String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value DependOnService and double click on it to add the node manager service as a dependency, the node manager service must match the service listing you noted down as part of the pre-requisite preparation steps (ie. Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (d_obi_mw_wlserver_10.3)). Using this dependency value will cause Windows to verify that dependent services have been started before attempting to start this service. BI Managed Server Service Create a new script named %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installbi_server1_svc.cmd and using the code below: SETLOCAL @echo off set MW_HOME=d:\obi_mw set DOMAIN_NAME=bifoundation_domain set USERDOMAIN_HOME=%MW_HOME%\user_projects\domains\%DOMAIN_NAME% set SERVER_NAME=bi_server1 set PRODUCTION_MODE=true set ADMIN_URL=http://localhost:7001 call %MW_HOME%\wlserver_10.3\server\bin\installSvc.cmd ENDLOCAL Run the installbi_server1_svc.cmd script Using regedit, verify that a service named Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1 now exists under the following location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value Group and double click on it to add OBI Managed Server as a value. This will work in tandem with the ServiceGroupOrder configuration to ensure the startup order of your services. Right click your service folder and follow the context menus New > Multi-String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value DependOnService and double click on it to add the node
manager service and Weblogic AdminServer services as a dependencies (ie.oracle_bifoundation_domain_adminserver ). Using this dependency value will cause Windows to verify that dependent services have been started before attempting to start this service. Right click the service folder for OPMN and follow the context menus New > Multi-String Value to add a new entry in your service folder, call your new string value DependOnService and double click on it to add the node manager service and Weblogic AdminServer and your new BI Managed Server services as a dependencies (ie. Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1). Using this dependency value will cause Windows to verify that dependent services have been started before attempting to start this service. On the Administration Tools > Services application verify that all of the following services are configured to start automatically and, optionally, configure what actions are taking on failure starting each service. Oracle WebLogic NodeManager Oracle_bifoundation_domain_AdminServer Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1 Oracle Process Manager (instance 1) Setup Validation Restart your windows server and monitor the order in which services are started If you see issues with OPMN starting at the same time as your WebLogic servers you might need to try setting the AdminServer, BI Managed Server and OPMN services to start manually and using the code below to create batch command file that is executed by a scheduled task each time the computer starts: net start Oracle_bifoundation_domain_AdminServer timeout 300 net start Oracle_bifoundation_domain_bi_server1 timeout 300 net start OracleProcessManager_instance1 This script would use the timeout DOS command to institute a five minute wait between each of the OBI services being started. One key step to configuring an enterprise deployment of Oracle Business Intelligence is to be setup your services to run in the background as Windows services and start automatically with your server. By default the installer will create windows services for Oracle Process Manager (OPMN) and the Weblogic Node Manager, this leaves us with the need to configure services for the Weblogic AdminServer and the BI Managed Server.
ODI Solutions: Error - Unable to access Oracle Data Integrator repository. You will not be able generate or execute load plans. Upon logging to the Oracle Business Intelligence Application s Configuration Manager system I was greeted with an error message stating the following: Unable to access Oracle Data Integrator repository. You will not be able generate or execute load plans. Upon some triage I was able to determine a couple of possible root causes to my issue. 1. 2. 3. Not using the BIAdmin user created during the install process, or, the BIAdmin user account was not created. Current session was initiated with a set of credentials that haven t been granted the BIA_ADMINISTRATOR_DUTY role on weblogic security Additional roles are missing or not assigned to the credentials initiating the current session After reviewing all possible options and confirming I am using a valid account with the proper roles and permissions I asked my system administrator to restart the server, this fixed my issue. I should have started there but at least I came out of the experience with a better understanding of the roles that control security in my installation of OBIA 11.1.1.7.0. Last resort, if all else fails: * Make sure after you have regenerated and moved the security files that the file odi.conf is updated to refer to jps-config-jse.xml.
How to define an index on a source or target table in ODI The topic of indexes in Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) is an easy one once you learn your way around in ODI studio. Indexes are defined under Design > Models > [your model] > [Table] > [Constraints]. They are independent of the column definitions for the most part although they do reference valid column definitions. The first step to create metadata for an index is to add a new constraint and name it: On the Columns tab define the list of columns to be indexed
Ensure that the index is active and marked for creation on the database on the Control tab Review all additional options on the Flexfields tab, for some of the options such as Index Type you do need to manually type your selection. After you have defined an index on metadata you need to run a new load for the index to be created on the database. My Tools: Oracle Business Intelligence Applications (OBIA) 11.1.1.7.0 Oracle Data Integrator 11g (ODI Studio, ODI Server, no clustering) Customizing your DOS prompt Being back on a windows shop I find the DOS prompt sort of gets in my way, I
have customized it so that it will display my current path and then let met type on a new line with this command: PROMPT Ignacio s rocking at $P$G$_ The different formatting options for the command are: $A & (Ampersand) $B (pipe) $C ( (Left parenthesis) $D Current date $E Escape code (ASCII code 27) $F ) (Right parenthesis) $G > (greater-than sign) $H Backspace (erases previous character) $L < (less-than sign) $N Current drive $P Current drive and path $Q = (equal sign) $S (space) $T Current time $V Windows XP version number $_ Carriage return and linefeed $$ $ (dollar sign) To make your changes permanent go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables and create a new variable called PROMPT. If you find this post useful please or Share our site! Being back on a windows shop I find the DOS prompt sort of gets in my way, I have customized it so that it will display my current path and then let met type on a new line with this command Configuring a new loopback adapter in windows 1. Start > Control Pannel> Add Hardware 2. Click next on the Welcome screen
3. When ask if you have connected your hardware, specify yes 4. In the next dialog select Add new hardware device 5. On the following screen select Network Adapters
6. Select Microsoft > Microsoft Loopback Adapter from the list 7. Select next in the following screen to install your loopback adapter 8. Click finish to complete this section of the installation process
9. Find your newly created adapter by going to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections 10. 11. Right click your new connection and select Properties Select the Internet Protocol on the second section of the screen and click properties 12. In the IP properties dialog configure a static IP address following the example belowip Address: 10.10.10.35 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Once you have configured a static IP address you will have completed the configuration of your new loopback adapter. For instructions on configuring your hosts file to correctly use your loopback adapter when installing Oracle products see this post. If you find this post useful please or Share our site! This short reference article will guide readers through the configuration process for a loopback adapter, this is a pre-requisite for most Oracle server software installs How to: Install the Oracle Web Tier / Oracle HTTP Server This post will guide you through the steps to deploy Oracle Web Tier 11.1.1.2.0. This instance will later be upgraded to 11.1.1.5.0 by applying PatchSet 1 (12395155) and configured to serve as a front end for WebLogic as part of an Oracle Business Intelligence environment. If you find this post useful please or Share it!
Pre-Install Tasks Read through the Fusion MiddleWare 11g Documentation to verify your system meets all pre-requisites Download the Oracle Web Tier 11.1.1.2.0 installer Download Patch Set 1 in anticipation of your upgrade to 11.1.1.5.0 Make sure that the first entry in your system s host file contains a valid host name (ie. 27.0.0.1 obiee.acme.com obiee) Implementation Run the setup.exe file to start your installation Click next on the welcome screen Select the Install and Configure option and click next Verify that all pre-requisite tests are successfull and click next Specify the location of your oracle middleware home and the name of your new web tier oracle home directory
Note: The WebLogic server must already be installed in the same middleware home you specify. Select to configure instances of Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle Web Cache, also select to associate these components with your weblogic domain Enter the host name and port of your weblogic domain and then enter the domain s admnistrator credentials Confirm the instance name, location and component names and click next Enter a password for the administrator of your new web cache instance Allow the installer to perform automatic port configuration using the default port numbers for services
Provide your Oracle Support credentials, this will register this instance so that it will be available for support and, if specified, allow you to receive security updates via e-mail Review theconfiguration presented in the summary screen is correct and click Install to begin the process. Review the information on the completed install progress screen, make a note of the install log location and click next. Review the information presented in the final summary screen, make a note of component urls and click finish to finalize the initial install and configuration process
How To: Download, install, configure and verify you have the latest version of Opatch On this post we will discuss all the steps necessary to ensure you have the correct version of the OPatch patching utility for oracle software running on your system. If you find this post useful please or Share our site! Environment Variables: Set your ORACLE_INSTANCE path to a valid OBIEE 11g instance Set your ORACLE_HOME path to the OBIEE 11g home (Oracle_BI1) Validating Your Environment: OPatch is installed by default, locate it go to the ORACLE_HOME path for your OBIEE installation: \Oracle_BI1\OPatch To verify your current session is correctly configured verify the installed version by running the following command: opatch version Minimum Required Versions: OBIEE 11.1.1.5.0 -> OPatch version 11.1.0.8.3 or higher (do NOT use OPatch 12.x)
OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0 -> No OPatch packages available as of March 12, 2012 Downloading a Newer Version of OPatch: To find and download the appropriate version of OPatch for yor system please go to ORacle Support and find the knoledge base article below: Note 224346.1 Opatch Where Can I Find the Latest Version of Opatch? Installing OPatch: To install OPatch once you have downloaded the appropriate version follow the steps below: 1. 2. 3. 4. Rename your current OPatch directory (ORACLE_HOME\OPatch) Copy the zip file to your ORACLE_HOME Unzip the zip file Verify that the upgrade succeeded cd OPatch opatch version File System Access: OPatch will update the local Oracle Inventory so the user account running OPatch must have acces to the location of the OUI Inventory, to verify this you can run the following command: opatch -lsinventory Patch Directory Location (PATCH_TOP): If you have a centralized location where you store code / releases it is a good idea to create a directory called PATCH_TOP to store patches as they are applied to each environment (DEV, QA, STAGE, PRD). On this post we will discuss all the steps necessary to ensure you have the correct version of the OPatch patching utility for oracle software running on your system.