OBIEE 11g Installation

You might be thinking, how come I blogged for OBIEE uninstallation, before OBIEE installation. Well, I had to do atleast one uninstall before finally we were able to have a successfull install, and so I followed the same order while blogging too. Here are the steps we followed:

Environment:

Server OS: Linux red hat -
Client OS: Win XP Proff
Database (for BI repository): Oracle 10g
BI Warehouse database may or may not be the same, it does not matter.

Requirements:

- Linux terminal (putty) and FTP access
- root or sudo root access in Linux
- sysdba access to database (just DBA access will not work)
- All install / patch files downloaded and copied to Linux server
- RCU (repository creation utility) must be downloaded and saved to Client machine.
- Either firewall software must be disabled on Linux box, or all ports required by BI server must be opened before installation



Steps for Installation:

1. Run the RCU on windows client machine (or linux if you have 32 bit server). This installs two schemas on database which store BI server metadata. OBIEE 11g merged tables for BI publisher, usage tracking and iBots all into this schemas, along with several new tables to support BI functionality. This step will fail if you dont have a database ID with sysdba level of access.

• Run rcu.bat file from command prompt
• Select ‘Create Repository’, click Next
• Enter the database connection details where schemas will be installed
• Ignore the warning about the AL32UTF8 character set (not sure who should not ignore)
• Select the components to be installed and specify a prefix, example 'DEV'. We installed two schemas - MDS and BIPLATFORM
• Click Next all the way till its completed

2. On Linux server, create a group 'orainstall', a user 'obi'  and a folder as 'MiddlewareHome'. Following commands will comein handy:

• groupadd oinstall
• /usr/sbin/user add obi -g oinstall
• mkdir -p /MiddlewareHome
• chown -R obi:oinstall /MiddlewareHome
• chmod -R 775 /MiddlewareHome

3. On your client machine, download and install a X-windows server like X Cygwin or Xming. Google this for free installable software. This will be useful to run installation from your desktop. If you have direct access to Linux box, and dont need to use putty, skip this step and go directly to step 8 below.

4.  Login to Linux using terminal and execute command

              xhost + <>
This step will let you view GUI on your windows machine from installer running on linux server (compared to text based terminal / putty window). I am not aware if Linux has something similar to remote desktop connection as in windows. So this should work till we have something like RDC.

5. Open Putty on your windows machine and specify the host name for linux server. Next, click on

         Connections > SSH > X11
    and check 'Enable X11 forwarding'. Also make sure 'MIT-Magic-Cookie-1' is selected in radio button below.

6. Login to linux server using Putty and execute following command

        export DISPLAY= <>
    Replace IP address with that of your windows client machine.

7. Make sure that your windows client is not accepting the connections. To do that, execute command like "xterm" or "firefox" in Putty, and it should open a window for application on your local client. That way, then you start the installation for 11g, the GUI window will open on your windows machine.

8. In putty window, change directory to the folder containing the installer (bishiphome/Disk1)

9. Execute command “./runInstaller”

10. Select the ‘create local inventory option’, when asked to create the oracle inventory.

11. Choose “Enterprise Install”

12. Enter password for weblogic user. Follow minimum password standard, alphanumeric, atleast 8 characters long. Then click Nexk.

13. Browse or enter Oracle Middleware Home Location (/MiddlewareHone). This should fill out rest of the options for this screen. Hit Next.

14. Select the components you want to install. Not many companies have Real-Time Decisions, so uncheck it if you dont have the license, to save some space. Hit Next

15. On this screen enter database details for BI Platform schema that was created in step 1 above followed by MDS schema in next step.

16. Choose Auto Port Configuration on the next screen

17. Specify email ID on the next screen

18. Hit "Install" to start the installation process.

Thats it. Unless you have space limitations, you should be good with installation. Follow my blog for more articles if you liked this post. Give me a google+ for your appreciation. Thank you.