Fusion Middleware 12.2.1.3.0 Released (OBIEE and ODI)

There I was, happily patting myself on the back that I’ve installed and patched a bunch of lovely new OBIEE 12.2.1.2.0 servers when they go and drop 12.2.1.3.0. Aaarrggghhhh!

I’ve now ripped them all out and reinstalled them with the new version. It was pretty straight forward actually, and easier to do it now than when they start getting used a lot! 🙂

The only real difference is the names of the files. I used exactly the same response files to do the installs. 🙂

I’ve also done a rebuild of an ODI server to 12.2.1.3.0. Once again the main difference is the file names.

I’ve actually rejigged all the articles a little, so they more closely reflect what I actually do now. As always, your process evolves over time. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

OBIEE, ODI, OBIA Semi-Silent Installations

I’ve written recently about doing OBIEE, ODI and OBIA installations here. A couple of days ago I tweeted about doing some more in a semi-silent manner, which saved loads of time. It took 1 day for the semi-silent approach compared to 3 days doing it the GUI way. I can’t talk about the process in detail, as I explained here, but I thought I would post an overview of the steps for those whose curiosity was peaked by my tweet.

  • DB Installation : Silent software-only installation of 12.1.0.2, as described here.
  • Database Creation : DBCA in silent mode to create a non-CDB instance, as described here.
  • WebLogic Installation : Silent installation of WebLogic 11g (10.3.6), including Java 7, as described here.
  • RCU : The first of two RCU install and runs. This one is similar to the silent install and run described in the OBIEE silent installation here.
  • OBIEE Installation : Silent installation of OBIEE 11g, as described here, but without the configuration stage, which is done later by OBIA.
  • ODI Installation : Silent installation of ODI 11g, as described here, but without the configuration stage, which is done later by OBIA.
  • OBIA RCU : We did this using the GUI because I’ve not had time to figure out the parameters to do it silently. It’s probably quite simple.
  • OBIA Installation : Silent installation of OBIA 11g using a response file we saved from the previous GUI installation.
  • OBIA Tech Patch : The command line instructions are with the patch, so we scripted it.
  • Patch Set Assistant : Three separate runs of this. We did it in GUI mode.
  • OBIA Configuration : Silent configuration of OBIA using a response file saved from a previous configuration.
  • BI Application Configuration : Silent configuration of OBIA using a response file saved from a previous configuration.
  • ODI Studio Configuration : We did this using the GUI.
  • Bundle Patch plus Extra Patches : On our version “opatch napply” wouldn’t work because of some version issues and conflicts, but we were able to apply the 8 patches in the bundle, plus an extra 3-4 patches. This was all scripted.
  • Additional Config : There were a bunch of manual fixes to files and admin console config, related known bugs.
  • That’s the end of the infrastructure part of the installation. At this point we handed it over to the functional folks to do their bit, which I know nothing about. 🙂

As you can see, we used a mix of scripted and manual steps. We are only doing 4 of these installations, so that approach seemed a reasonable compromise, rather than spending hours making it 100% silent. It’s a return on investment thing. 🙂

I’ve linked to examples on my website for the database, OBIEE and ODI stuff. I can’t say too much about the OBIA stuff, as I explained here, but most of that stuff is pretty straight forward if you use response files.

This stuff is all to support the link between Oracle Cloud Apps and our internal data warehouse. I’ll also be doing some OBIEE 12c and ODI 12c silent installations for our internal development, but these are simple and they are already on the website. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

PS. Don’t ask me for help with this stuff. I’m a noob and I just know enough to get my bit done. If what I’ve put on my website helps that’s great. If not, ask someone who knows more about this than me! 🙂

Being a Beginner Again (OBIEE, ODI, OBIA)

Things have been a little quiet on the blog front recently, because work has been crazy. I keep being asked to do stuff I’ve never done before and it makes life really hard.

I hate being crap at stuff, and I don’t like to do things at work that I’ve not already done at home, so when something new is thrown at me it I put a lot of pressure on myself to get up to speed as quickly as possible.

I wrote a few weeks ago about doing some OBIEE 12c and ODI 12c installations, which was a way of giving me a little understanding about these products. I spent last weekend doing the 11g equivalents of those articles. Currently Oracle Cloud Apps are only certified with the 11g stack, so it’s into the time machine to do old crap*, which I find hard to get excited about. Having done all that I felt a little better prepared, but was still kind-of nervous. My inferiority complex always has me thinking, perhaps this will be the thing that breaks me!

This last week we spent three days with a consultant doing OBIEE, ODI and OBIA 11g installations. I did everything, with him guiding the process and one of my colleagues observing and correcting my typos. 🙂 I wrote down all the instructions, did screen shots of everything and captured all response files where they were available. Yesterday I spent the day going through the notes trying to make the process silent quiet. We are going to do about 4 of these environments, so scripting is really important, but I’m not going to waste my life trying to make it completely silent. There are some config stages that are going to be super fiddly to script, so we’ve decided to go for a halfway approach to the build process, with a combination of scripts and manual actions.

The OBIEE and ODI 11g stuff I did at home is already on the website, but I won’t be adding any of the extra stuff I did this week because:

  • I did it on company time, not on my own time.
  • Although the basic installs are easy and obvious, some of the “threading together” is a little funky and it would have taken a lot longer than 3 days if we hadn’t had the consultant on site. I’m not going to publish what is effectively his company’s documentation and pass it off as my own.
  • I think for most people this will be seen as rather old stuff.

At some point we will have to move the whole environment to the 12c Fusion Middleware stack. At that point I may well do it all myself at home, write it up and put it on the website. If we have to rely on external consultancy and company time for that again, same rules will apply.

I’m glad I did all the prep work during the weeks leading up to this, as it made the whole process a lot easier. It was good to focus on the bits that were awkward, rather than having to waste time discussing basics.

Overall, I was happy with the process. It didn’t break me! 🙂

I’ll be away in Bulgaria next week, back for a week to do more BI stuff at work, then off to the Netherlands for a few days. After that, normal service should resume… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

* I’m referring to the fact it is the 11g version, rather than the 12c version. I’m not saying it is crap because it is OBIEE+ODI+OBIA, rather than some “cool” stuff. 🙂

OBIEE and ODI 12c Silent Installations : First Steps

The company I work for is in the process of moving some core systems to Oracle Cloud Apps. As part of that process the folks who do the warehousing, BI and reporting stuff are transitioning from a bunch of SAP tools to ODI, OBIEE, OBIA etc. I am not part of either the old or new projects related to this work, but it does seem I am going to have to get involved in some of the infrastructure side of it, namely installations and basic “turn it off and on again” type support. I will never actual use this stuff. 🙂

I don’t like surprises, so I’ve spent some time recently playing with some of this stuff from an infrastructure perspective. I’ve been building, destroying and rebuilding this stuff repeatedly, trying to figure out how some of it hangs together and some of the pain points. That resulted in these articles.

There may be some more to follow, but they could be for older bits of kit, depending on the certification status of the various pieces when used against Oracle Cloud Apps.

I can’t emphasise enough how little I know about this stuff. I understand databases and I know a bit about WebLogic. As a result I can muddle my way through some installations of this OBIEE and ODI stuff. That is about it. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

PS. If you are wondering about the image, it’s a stupid cow. It represents how clueless I am about this stuff, as well as how amusing I find it that we are transitioning to these tools just as the rest of the world is transitioning away from them. 🙂