Cookbook: Installing and Configuring Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1

In this article, Kevin McGinley and I will take you through the steps required to install, configure and then load an initial set of tables within Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1, using data sourced from Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3 The objective of this article is to create a "minimum viable" Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 environment on your laptop or workstation so that you can then explore the application, see how Oracle Data Integrator 11g along with tools such as Oracle BI Applications Configuration Manager and the Load Plan Generator for ODI 11g differ from previous releases of the BI Applications, and then use as a starting point for further data loads from other supported application sources.

Understanding the Oracle BI Applications Architecture

Previous releases of the Oracle BI Applications used Informatica PowerCenter as the embedded data integration engine, with individual data loading tasks being orchestrated into execution plans using another tool called the Data Warehouse Administration Console (DAC). Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 instead uses Oracle Data Integrator 11g (11.1.1.7) to perform data loads, along with a number of Java-based applications that are deployed into managed servers within the Oracle Business Intelligence WebLogic domain. Figure 1 below shows the Oracle BI Applications logical product architecture, showing you how the usual WebLogic Server managed server deployed as part of an Oracle Business Intelligence BI domain extended to include new Oracle BI Applications-related Java applications, and a new managed server added that contains Oracle Data Integrator-related Java applications.

Figure 1: Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 Logical Architecture

As we will see in a moment, Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 is set of packaged data extraction and loading routines designed to load a pre-built Oracle data warehouse, together with a set of dashboards, reports and other business metadata objects designed to provide customers with a quick-to-deploy, best-practice BI environment for Oracle's ERP and CRM applications. Whilst a full installation of Oracle Data Integrator is provided with Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1, its role is as an "embedded" data integration engine with administrators mainly interacting with it using web-based administration and configuration tools, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Oracle Data Integrator Studio and Oracle BI Applications Configuration Manager

Developers can though, as in previous releases, customize and extend these packaged data integration routines, bringing in additional data from existing sources or from new ones.

Installing and Configuring Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1

In this example, we will install Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 into a fresh Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 environment that has access to an Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.3+) database to hold the various repository schemas and the BI Applications data warehouse. Whilst most installations of Oracle BI Applications would be in a multi-tier Linux and Windows-based environment, this "minimal" setup will give you a "sandbox" environment to explore this new release, with our recommendation being that you use virtualization software such as Oracle Virtualbox or VMWare Workstation/Fusion to create a "clean-state" environment to perform the installation in.

Installation Prerequisites

For full details of the platform and software pre-requisites for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 11.1.1.7.1, see the System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Release 11.1.1.7.x document on OTN, currently located at http://www.oracle.com/middleware/technologies/fusion-certification.html .

For the purposes of this article, which will take you through an install of Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 11.1.1.7.1 on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, you will need access the following infrastructure components:

• A Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit environment, with minimum 8GB RAM and 300GB of disk storage. Note that the examples in this article assume that you have given this environment the host name obia111171w64, so if you can change the hostname to this, it will make the examples easier for you to follow.
• Oracle Database 11.2.0.1+ with a database configured with the following settings:
  
  System Class : Server Class
  Grid Installation Options : Single instance database installation
  Select Install Type : Advanced Install
  Select Database Edition : Enterprise Edition
  Select Configuration Type : Data Warehousing
  Specify Configuration Options : Character Sets > Use Unicode (AL32UTF8)
  Specify Configuration Options : Security > uncheck Assert all new security settings
  Specify Schema Passwords : Use the same password for all accounts ("welcome1")

Note that in this initial, 11.1.1.7.1 release of Oracle BI Applications with Oracle Data Integrator 11g support, only source systems running on Oracle Database are supported, and Oracle Fusion Applications are not yet supported as a source. In addition, only Oracle Database is supported as a target, with these restrictions likely to be lifted in a future release.

Configure the Windows environment to use the Microsoft Loopback adapter, and edit the "hosts" file to resolve the machine name to the loopback adapter's IP address by following these steps - note that utilities such as Device Manager can be launched by typing the utility name into the Search programs and files search box in the Windows Start menu.

1. Add the loopback adapter to the machine by launching Device Manager, and then when the Add Hardware dialog comes up, press Next, Next, Next. Then at the Common hardware types list, selectNetwork adapters. Then, at the Select Network Adapter page, select Microsoft as theManufacturer, and then Microsoft Loopback Adapter as the Network Adapter. Press Next, Next and Finish.
2. Then, using Network and Sharing Center click on the Local Area Connection 2 link to bring up theLocal Area Connection 2 Statusdialog. Press Properties, then double-click on the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), then enter the following details:

   IP Address: 10.10.10.10

   Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

   Leave other values at default, then press OK, OK, Close; then close the dialog.

3. Add an entry in the "hosts" file that resolves your machine name to the loopback adapter, by selecting Start, then right-click on Notepad and select Run as Administrator When notepad.exe opens, select File > Open > and using the file selector select C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and then enter the following details to the end of the file, to resolve the host name mentioned earlier to the IP address for this new loopback adapter

   10.10.10.10 obia111171w64

   Then, select File > Save to save the updated version of the file,

4. Finally, test that these new network settings work as expected by selecting Start > Command Prompt, then typing ping [machine name], so that the output looks like this:
   Copy

   
   
   Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
   Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
   
   C:\Users\Administrator>ping obia111171w64
   
   Pinging obia111171w64 [10.10.10.10] with 32 bytes of data:
   Reply from 10.10.10.10: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
   Reply from 10.10.10.10: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
   Reply from 10.10.10.10: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
   Reply from 10.10.10.10: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
   
   Ping statistics for 10.10.10.10:
       Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
   Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
       Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
   

Installing Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 Software

We're now ready to install the software for your Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 development environment. Before you start, make sure you have downloaded the following items from the Oracle Technology Network website, in this example all for the Windows Server 64-bit platform:

Also, part of the installation process will require you to upgrade Oracle WebLogic Server from version 10.3.5 to 10.3.6, and to do this you will need to download the upgrade installer for WebLogic Server 10.3.6 from My Oracle Support, by loading download patch no. 13529623 and following article 1421307.1, to give you a file called wls1036_upgrade_generic.jar.

Finally, you will also need to download the 7-zip archive utility to use during the patching process for Oracle Business Intelligence applications, which you can download for free from http://7-zip.org/. Once you have downloaded all of these installer and patch files, create a directory called c:\installers in your Windows environment and copy all of them to this new directory, so that the contents it look similar to the directory listing below (note that file names and sizes may change as Oracle release updated versions of the installers and patches).

c:\installers>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 420D-1A5C

 Directory of c:\installers

06/21/2013  07:01 AM              .
06/21/2013  07:01 AM              ..
05/01/2013  09:54 AM     1,477,281,437 BI_Apps_11.1.1.7.1_generic_part_1of2.zip
05/01/2013  09:49 AM     1,146,121,737 BI_Apps_11.1.1.7.1_generic_part_2of2.zip
05/01/2013  09:22 AM       243,322,480 BI_Apss_11.1.1.7.1_win64.zip
03/20/2013  01:18 PM     1,839,352,090 bi_windows_x86_111170_64_disk1_1of2.zip
03/20/2013  01:06 PM     1,507,378,836 bi_windows_x86_111170_64_disk1_2of2.zip
03/31/2013  04:15 PM     1,972,657,395 bi_windows_x86_111170_64_disk2_1of2.zip
03/20/2013  01:17 PM     1,844,051,359 bi_windows_x86_111170_64_disk2_2of2.zip
05/01/2013  09:50 AM     1,168,015,448 Bus_Analytics_Apps_Suite_Installer_11.1.1.7.1.zip
05/01/2013  10:05 AM       731,662,496 Bus_Analytics_Apps_Suite_RCU_Win64.zip
05/01/2013  04:32 PM     1,817,477,360 ofm_odi_generic_11.1.1.7.0_disk1_1of2.zip
04/21/2013  03:02 PM     1,179,390,571 ofm_odi_generic_11.1.1.7.0_disk1_2of2.zip
03/13/2013  03:21 PM       340,731,739 ofm_rcu_win_11.1.1.7.0_64_disk1_1of1.zip
06/01/2012  07:47 AM     1,043,157,187 p13529623_1036_Generic.zip
  13 File(s) 16,310,600,135 bytes
  2 Dir(s)  1,479,612,510,208 bytes free

Now that you have downloaded the software and patch files, we can start the actual installation process. In the following steps, we're assuming that you are already familiar with the installation process for Oracle Business Intelligence 11g, and the setup of the various repository schemas using Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility 11g, and therefore we will only provide the key settings that you need to select when installing these products. For those products that are likely to be new to you with Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.7, we will provide step-by-step instructions for their installation and configuration.

1. Start by unzipping the Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility installer files from the Windows Command Prompt, and starting the Repository Creation Utility (RCU) installer, like this:
   Copy

   
   
   unzip rcu ofm_rcu_win_11.1.1.7.0_64_disk1_1of1.zip
   cd rcuhome\BIN
   rcu.bat
   

   Then choose the following options when running the RCU:

   Create a new repository

   Database Type: Oracle Database
   Host Name: obia111171w64
   Port: 1521
   Service Name: orcl
   Username: sys
   Password: welcome1
   Role: SYSDBA

   
   Repository schema prefix: DEV_
   At the Select Components screen, select Oracle Business Intelligence so that the Business Intelligence Platform, and the Metadata Services options are pre-selected for you, as per Figure 3.

   

   Figure 3: The Select Components Screen for Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility

   Do not select Oracle Data Integrator as a second Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1-specific Repository Creation Utility will do that for you later on.

   When prompted at the end of the process, select Use same passwords for all schemas and use "welcome1" as the password.

2. Next, unzip the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g 11.1.1.7 installer files and start the installer, like this:
   Copy

   
   
   unzip bi_windows_x86*
   cd bishiphome\Disk1
   setup
   

   Then, install Oracle Business Intelligence using the following main options, leaving other installation choices at their default value:

   Installation Type: Enterprise Install, Create New BI System
   Administrative username/password: weblogic/welcome1
   Middleware Home: c:\middleware
   Choose all products for installation, including Essbase

3. Now you should install Oracle Data Integrator 11g, making sure that you do not choose the option to configure repositories, as a later stage in the configuration process will do this for you.
   Copy

   
   
   unzip ofm_odi*
   cd Disk1
   setup.exe -jreLoc c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\jdk
   

On the Select Installation Type page, tick the Developer Installation checkbox and its options, and the Java EE installationcheckbox and its options. Then, at the Specify Installation Location screen, select the same middleware home that you used for Oracle Business Intelligence (for example, c:\middleware). Finally, as mentioned previously, at the Repository Configuration page select Skip Repository Configuration.

4. The next step in this installation process is to use an additional, special version of the Repository Creation Utility to create the additional repository and other schemas used by Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1.

   Start by unzipping and then running the Oracle BI Applications Repository Creation Utility installer, like this:

   Copy

   
   
   cd c:\installers
   unzip -d biappsrcu Bus_Analytics_Apps_Suite_RCU_Win64.zip
   
   cd biappsrcu\bin
   rcu.bat
   

   Then, select the option to create new repositories, and use the following details on the relevant dialog pages:

   Database Type: Oracle Database
   Host Name: obia111171w64
   Port: 1521
   Service name: orcl
   Username: sys
   Password: welcome1
   Role: SYSDBA

   At the Select Components page as shown in Figure 4, check the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications checkbox and its options, and use the following (default) repository schema names:

   Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse : DEV_DW
   Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Components : DEV_BIACOMP
   Oracle Data Integration Master and Work Repositories : DEV_BIA_ODIREPO

   

   Figure 4: The Select Components Screen for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Repository Creation Utility

   When prompted to set passwords for these schemas, use the option to use the same password for all schemas, setting it to "welcome1".

   At the Custom Variables page shown in Figure 5 below, enter the same value below for the three database export file locations:

   C:\installers\biappsrcu\rcu\integration\biapps\schema

   

   Figure 5: Providing the Location of the Database Export Files

   Once you have entered these details, creation of the relevant tablespaces and schemas along with importing of the schemas' database objects, usually takes around fifteen minutes or so. Once complete, you are now ready to install the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications software.

5. To unzip the installer files for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications and then run the installer, run the following from the Windows Command Prompt:
   Copy

   
   
   unzip Bus_Analytics_Apps_Suite_Installer_11.1.1.7.1.zip
   
   cd biappsshiphome\Disk1
   
   setup.exe -jreLoc c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\jdk
   

   At the Specify Installation Location dialog, select the existing middleware home (c:\middleware), and change the Oracle Home Directory value from the default Oracle_BI2 back to the existing one used by the previous Oracle Business Intelligence install, Oracle_BI1. Once done, press Install to start the installation process.

6. The previous step installed the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications software, and now you need to apply various patches to it and the other components you installed earlier on. Oracle have supplied a script that uses the 7-zip archive utility you downloaded earlier on to apply the patches, and this script uses a parameter file that allows you to specify where the patch files are located. Before you start the patching process though, shut down all of your BI-related products by selecting Start > All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Stop BI Services, and use the Windows Services applet to stop the Node Manager and Oracle Process Manager services, if they are running.

   To prepare the parameter file for the patching utility, use a text editor such as WordPad or Notepad to edit the c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\tools\bin\apply_patches_import.txt file, and edit the entries so that they read as follows:

   Copy

   
   
   # Required - Java home
   JAVA_HOME=C:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\jdk
   # Required - Inventory Location
   INVENTORY_LOC=C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory
   ORACLE_HOME=C:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1
   MW_HOME=C:\Middleware
   COMMON_ORACLE_HOME=C:\Middleware\oracle_common
   WL_HOME=C:\Middleware\wlserver_10.3
   ODI_HOME=C:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1
   # Required - An existing writable directory to create logs and temp patch files
   WORKDIR=C:\installers\patches\workdir
   # Required - Path of patch directory till the release patch-set folder which is inside patches4fa/dist.
   # i;e the patch-set folder for a particular release to apply patch from 
   # eg; /scratch/aime/tmp/ps1/biappsshiphome/patches4fa/dist/ps6rc3
   PATCH_ROOT_DIR=C:\installers\patches
   

   Then, with the same text editor application, open the APPLY_PATCHES.pl file in the same directory and modify the following lines within the download_patch routine, from the default:

   Copy

   
   
   
   $DOWNLOAD_EXE = "\"C:${DIRSEP}Program Files${DIRSEP}WinZip${DIRSEP}wzunzip.exe\" -ybc -d";
   $cmd = "$DOWNLOAD_EXE $_[0] $PATCHES_HOME";
   

   So that it now reads:

   Copy

   
   
   
   $DOWNLOAD_EXE = "\"C:${DIRSEP}Program Files${DIRSEP}7-Zip${DIRSEP}7z.exe\"";
   $cmd = "$DOWNLOAD_EXE x $_[0] -o$PATCHES_HOME";
   

   Then, from the Windows Command prompt type in the following to run the patch installer script:

   Copy

   
   
   
   cd c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\biapps\tools\bin
   perl APPLY_PATCHES.pl apply_patches_import.txt
   

   Once the script completes, check the resulting output which should look similar to this:

   
   
   ----------START OF PATCHING REPORT------------------
   
   * BIAPPSSHIPHOME Patching Report ..........
   Patch Succeded: fsclite_rel7mlr2_16424872.zip
   Patch Succeded: BISHIPHOME_11_1_1_7_0_GENERIC_130409_1210_16492220.zip
   Patch Succeded: atglite_rel7mlr5A_database_16239380.zip
   Patch Succeded: atglite_rel7mlr5_16480022.zip
   Patch Succeded: fsmlitedb_rel7mlr2_16424869.zip
   Patch Succeded: fsmlite_rel7mlr2_16424870.zip
   Patch Succeded: BISERVER_11_1_1_7_0_WINDOWS_X64_130326_2045_4_16583998.zip
   Patch Succeded: BIFNDN_11_1_1_7_0_WINDOWS_X64_130322_1000_5_16462147.zip
   
   * Oracle Common Patching Report ..........
   Patch Succeded: p16433147_111170_Generic.zip
   Patch Succeded: p16080773_111170_Generic.zip
   Patch Succeded: Webservices_Patch-3-PS6RC3_bug-16487786.zip
   Patch Succeded: p16433036_111170_Generic.zip
   Patch Succeded: JDEVADF_REL7MLR10-RT_16525527.zip
   Patch Succeded: WebCenter_BP1REL7RC3_16311963.zip
   Patch Succeded: fmw_diagnostics_14757820_2.zip
   Patch Succeded: SOACOMMON_REL7B8_16438735.zip
   
   * SOA Patching Report ..........
    Not applying SOA Patches since SOA Home (SOA_HOME) value is not specified
   
   * ODI Patching Report ..........
   Patch Succeded: p16629917_111170_Generic.zip
   
   * Weblogic Patching Report ..........
   
   ----------END OF PATCHING REPORT------------------
   

   Note that no Weblogic patches will be applied in this step, as they only apply to WebLogic Server 10.3.6 (to which you will upgrade later on in this process) and Oracle no longer require these patches to be applied.

7. The penultimate step in the installation process is to use the Configuration Utility to extend the Oracle BI Domain to include the new Oracle BI Applications Java components, and add an additional WebLogic Server managed server for the Oracle Data Integrator Java components. Before you do this though, make sure that the Node Manager and Oracle Process Manager services are started, and you have restarted your Oracle Business Intelligence installation using Start > All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Start BI Services.

   To start the Configuration Utility, type in the following commands at the Windows command prompt:

   Copy

   
   
   cd c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\bin
   configApps.bat
   

   When the Configuration Utility starts, at the Extend BI Domain page enter the following values:

   Hostname: [pre-completed for you]
   Port: 7001
   User Name: weblogic
   User Password: welcome1

   At the Configure Components page, check the BI Application Components checkbox, and press Next, as shown in Figure 6.

   

   Figure 6: Selecting Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Products for Install

   At the RPD Encryption Password page, enter Admin123 as the password. At the BI Applications Administration User page, type in the following values, to create an administration user called "biadmin" that you will use later on in the second-half of this article.

   Username: biadmin
   Password: welcome1
   Confirm Password: welcome1

   At the MDS Schema page, enter the following values

   Database Type: Oracle
   Connect String: obia111171w64:1521:orcl
   MDS Schema Username: DEV_MDS
   MDS Schema Password: welcome1

   At the BI Applications Components Repository Schema page, enter the following values:

   Database Type: Oracle
   Connect String: obia111171w64:1521:orcl
   BIA Components Repository Schema Schema Username: DEV_BIACOMP
   BIA Components Repository Schema Schema Username: welcome1

   At the Business Analytics Warehouse Schema page, enter these values:

   Database Type: Oracle
   Connect String: obia111171w64:1521:orcl
   Business Analytics Warehouse Schema User: dev_dw
   Business Analytics Warehouse Schema User: welcome1

   At the BI Applications ODI Repository Schema page:

   Database Type: Oracle
   Connect String: obia111171w64:1521:orcl
   ODI Repository Schema Username: DEV_BIA_ODIREPO
   ODI Repository Schema Password: welcome1

   Once values for these settings have been provided, the configuration process will start, as shown in Figure 7 below. Allow this process to complete and check that all steps have completed successfully before proceeding further.

   

   Figure 7: Reviewing the Progress of the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Configuration Process

8. As Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.7 comes with version 10.3.5 of Oracle WebLogic Server, you will now have to upgrade it to version 10.3.6 using the upgrade installer you obtained previously from My Oracle Support.

   Before you do this though, start by shutting-down WebLogic Server and the various Oracle Business Intelligence system components by selecting Start > All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Stop BI Services from the Windows Start menu, entering the WebLogic administration username and password you specified earlier (weblogic/welcome1) when requested. Then, using the Windows Services utility, stop the Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (c_Middleware_wlserver_10.3) service.

   Unzip the upgrade installer patch file and start the installer like this:

   Copy

   
   
   cd c:\installers
   unzip p13529623_1036_Generic.zip
   c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\jdk\bin\java -jar wls1036_upgrade_generic.jar
   

   Middleware Home Directory: Use an existing Middleware Home (c:\Middleware)
   Products and Components: select everything

   Then, press Next until the upgrade starts. Ensure it completes successfully, and untick the "run quickstart" checkbox before exiting the upgrade installer.

9. A number of post-installation steps now have to be performed, starting by configuring Oracle Data Integrator to use Fusion Middleware rather than standalone security.

   To perform this security configuration, run the following commands from the Windows command prompt:

   Copy

   
   
   
   c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\common\bin\wlst.cmd 
   
   c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\install\createJPSArtifactsODI.py embedded --ADMIN_USER
   _NAME weblogic --DOMAIN_HOSTNAME obia111171w64 --DOMAIN_PORT 7001 --DOMAIN_HOME_
   PATH c:\Middleware\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain
   

   When prompted, enter welcome1 as the password for the WebLogic Server administration user.

   Then, issue the following command-line commands to copy across the wallet files created by the above steps to where Oracle Data Integrator is installed:

   Copy

   
   
   copy c:\Middleware\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\odi-client-config\embedded\cwallet.sso
   c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\client\odi\bin\
   
   copy c:\Middleware\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\odi-client-config\embedded\jps-config-jse.xml
   c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\client\odi\bin\
   

   Then, using a text editor edit the c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\client\odi\bin\odi.conf document and replace the line:

   AddVMOption -Doracle.security.jps.config=./jps-config.xml

   with the text:

   AddVMOption -Doracle.security.jps.config=./jps-config-jse.xml

   ...so that the new wallet file is used when authenticating from Oracle Data Integrator Studio.

   Then, install the Load Plan Generator plug-in for Oracle Data Integrator by unzipping the plugin archive file, and then copying the plugin files to the Oracle Data Integrator Studio client installation.

   Copy

   
   
   cd C:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\clients\biappsclients\odi
   unzip 
   
   copy lpggui.jar c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\client\ide\extensions
   
   xcopy c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\clients\biappsclients\odi\* 
   c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\client\ide\extensions /s /i /e
   
   del c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\client\ide\extensions\OBIA_LPG_Plugin.zip
   
   del c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\client\ide\extensions\Readme.txt
   

   Almost there! There are just a few more patches to apply, and a new version of the Oracle BI Administrator application to install into your Windows environment.

10. Begin by stopping your Oracle Business Intelligence installation, by selecting Start > All programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Stop BI Services

    Then run the following SQL script to update the Oracle ATG repository data:

    Copy

    
    
    
    c:\Middleware\instances\instance1\bin>sqlplus 
    dev_biacomp/welcome1 
    @C:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\sdf\DW\ATGPF\sql\fndtbs_11170_upg.sql
    

    The patches that upgraded Oracle Business Intelligence as part of this installation also delivered an updated version of the Oracle BI Administration tool. To install this within your Windows environment, run the following command-line commands:

    Copy

    
    
    cd c:\installers\patches\biappsshiphome\generic
    
    unzip BISHIPHOME_11_1_1_7_0_GENERIC_130409_1210_16492220.zip
    16492220\files\clients\biserver\biee_client_install_x64.exe
    

    When prompted for an install location, choose c:\obi_client\, and also distribute this installer to all other developers working with Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 11.1.1.7.1.

    The installation process also imported some files that the data loading process later on will require. To place these files in the correct location, again from the command prompt enter the following commands:

    Copy

    
    
    Mkdir c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\etl
    xcopy c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\biapps\etl 
    c:\Middleware\Oracle_ODI1\oracledi\etl /s /i /e
    

    Finally, to try out Oracle Data Integrator Studio and set up a login connection, select Start > All Programs > Oracle > Oracle Data Integrator > ODI Studio. Click on the Connect to Repository link, when the Oracle Data Integrator login dialog is shown, press the "+" (New) button to bring up the Repository Connection Information dialog. Enter the following details to create the connection:

    Login Name: BI Admin
    User: biadmin
    Password: welcome1

    User: DEV_BIA_ODIREPO
    Password: welcome1
    Driver List: Oracle JDBC Drive
    Driver Name : oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver
    URL : jdbc:oracle:thin:@obia111171w64:1521:orcl
    Work Repository : BIAPPS_WORKREP

    Once you've created this connection and used it to log into Oracle Data Integrator Studio, click on the BI Apps Project > Mappingsfolder, and then you'll see the pre-built data loading routines that you use to load the Oracle Business Analytics data warehouse, as shown in Figure 8. Congratulations! You have now performed the install part of the process.

    

    Figure 8: Oracle Data Integrator Studio

Configuring a BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 Data Load

At this point our environment consists only of installed software and an empty data warehouse. The next step in the process is to run Oracle's pre-packaged data extraction and load routines against a supported source system, which for the purposes of this article will be Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3. To do this, we will use a combination of three tools: the aforementioned Oracle BI Applications Configuration Manager and Oracle Data Integrator, along with another application called Oracle BI Applications Functional Setup Manager.

Configuration Manager and Functional Setup Manager are web-based applications that run in the BI Managed Server and replace many of the configuration and administration capabilities of the DAC in the prior release. Where Configuration Manager serves as the interface for administering the entire BI Applications environment and configuring Oracle Data Integrator, Functional Setup Manager acts as a lightweight project management tool for configuring a specific BI Application, like Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics Tasks in Functional Setup Manager

With that distinction in mind, configuring a data load in BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 involves making environment-specific configurations in Configuration Manager, and then application-specific configurations in Functional Setup Manager. For the purposes of this article, we're going to focus on making as few configurations as possible for sandboxing and running a simple data load, bringing in inventory information as part of the Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics BI application. The steps below are not meant to be a complete set of configurations for a production environment of a full BI Application. With that disclaimer out of the way, let's take a look at the environment-specific configurations first.

Configuring a New BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 Instance

If you've been following along on your own sandbox environment up to this point, here is where the going will get a little rough, as we'll need a supported source system environment to configure against and load from. If you happen to have access to such an environment, congratulations! This guide will make note of where you'll enter your own configuration values instead of the ones provided. If you don't have your own supported source system environment to connect to, the easiest option for you will be to stand up your own EBS 12.1.3 VISION database instance by following the wonderful instructions provided by our friends over at Pythian:

You can skip the steps for creating the EBS Apps tier, but please note that these instructions create a second virtual machine using Virtual Box only (VMware not supported) and as such, you may need to navigate additional system requirements and/or setup tasks that won't be covered in this article to integrate your BI Applications instance with your EBS VISION database instance. Alternatively, you may have an instance of the Vision demo environment already available in your organization, or Oracle Partners may be able to download a copy of the Vision demo EBS dataset from the Oracle Partner Network website – if you work for an Oracle Partner organization, contact your local OPN representative who may be able to help you.

The following instructions have both instances running on the same physical machine containing 16GB RAM and the network is configured to allow both instances to connect to each other.

With those pesky details out of the way, let's begin.

1. Our first task is to make sure the Oracle Data Integrator Agent is running, as that will be the "air traffic controller" to allow our Load Plans to execute. To do this, first ensure that the WebLogic Node Manager service is running, and then use your Web browser to navigate to the WebLogic Server Administration Console at http://obia111171w64:7001/console , logging in as weblogic/welcome1.

   On the console Home Page, click the Servers link under Domain Structure > Environment. The Summary of Servers page will list the three servers in this environment: the Admin server (AdminServer), the managed BI server (bi_server1), and the managed ODI server (odi_server1), and while the state of first two will show as 'RUNNING', odi_server1 will show as 'SHUTDOWN'.

   Click the Control tab and then check the checkbox next to the odi_server1 managed server. This should enable the Start button above and below the table of servers. Then, click the Start button and press Yes when prompted. The odi_server1 will start, though it may take several minutes to do so. You can click the double circular arrows icon to have the status refresh automatically. Once the state of odi_server1 is 'RUNNING', you may continue.

2. Now that the ODI Agent is ready to do our bidding, we can begin the process of configuring our BI Applications environment in Configuration Manager.

   Using your Web browser, navigate to http://obia111171w64:9704/biacm, and login as biadmin/welcome1.

   There are several global configuration steps we must perform first in Configuration Manager, and they are grouped under Tasks>System Setups on the left-hand side of the screen. Click our first task, Define Business Intelligence Applications Instance, to start this configuration process.

   Clicking on this task then presents three tabs for configuration: Source Systems, Target Warehouse, and Environment Configuration. If you look at the Target Warehouse and Environment Configuration tabs, you'll see that the BI Applications Configuration Utility has already configured these for you. However, there are no Source Systems defined, so that becomes our first task.

   Click the Source Systems tab (if it isn't selected already) and click the green plus symbol to add a new source system. Enter the following details, when prompted:

   Product Line: Oracle E-Business Suite
   Product Line Version: Oracle E-Business Suite R 12.1.3.x
   Source Instance Name: EBSVISION
   Description: EBS VISION instance
   Data Source Number: 1000
   (The above fields can be altered based on your source system.)

   Click the Next button to register the source in the ODI Topology. It's worth noting here that Configuration Manager writes configuration details directly into the ODI Repository. This saves an administrator valuable time because Configuration Manager consolidates multiple ODI configurations into a single Configuration Manager screen.

   Start by selecting Global in the Context dropdown, and then in the Technology: Oracle tab, enter the following information:

   ODI Data Server Name: EBSVISION
   JDBC Driver: oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver
   JDBC URL: jdbc:oracle:thin:@ebsvision.local.org:1563:VIS
   Database Username: APPS
   Database Password: apps
   (The above fields can be altered based on your source system.)

   Now click the Test button under Test Connection to make sure you've entered the connectivity information properly and your OBIA environment can communicate with your source system.

   

   Figure 10: Connection Details for the EBS Database in Configuration Manager

   The BI Applications have always made use of text files as sources for some key content not stored in the source system. While text files are flexible, they aren't the best enterprise solution, so with BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1, Oracle started the process of moving some of this content to Configuration Manager. However, there are still text files to be managed and maintained, so before we can complete the next tab, use Windows Explorer to copy the the 'etl' folder in C:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\biapps\ to a new directory called C:\biappsfiles\. Note that you can name the target folder anything you want (no spaces) and it can be in any location you want, but it's recommended to move them to another location to avoid them being overwritten during an upgrade. On a production server, a SAN or NAS server is preferable.

   We also need to update this location in ODI, so before continuing with Configuration Manager, open ODI Studio, navigate to the Topology tab, and expand Technologies: File: BIAPPS_DW_FILE tree until you see the following object:

   BIAPPS_DW_FILE.c:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1/biapps/etl/data_files/src_files/BIA_11

   Double-click this object to open it and update the following two fields in the Definition tab:

   Copy

   
   
   
   Directory (Schema):
   C:\biappsfiles\etl\data_files\src_files\BIA_11
   
   Directory (Work Schema):
   C:\biappsfiles\etl\data_files\src_files\BIA_11
   

   Click the Save icon in the toolbar (notice the object name changes) and you can close the object in ODI Studio.

   Then, in the Technology: File System tab back in Configuration Manager, enter the following information:

   ODI Data Server Name: EBSVISIONFILES
   Host Name: obia111171w64
   Path To File: C:\biappsfiles\etl\data_files\src_files\EBS_12_1_3

   Finally, click the Save and Close button, and then Done, to finish this configuration process.

   At this point, Configuration Manager has written the configuration from this one screen into the ODI Repository for four different objects in the Physical and Logical Topology, two of which are shown in Figure 11. You can now open the ODI Studio application to view these configurations within ODI if you so desire.

   

   Figure 11: EBSVISION Physical and Logical Architecture Objects Created and Linked in ODI

3. The first major step of our environment configuration is complete: our source system. The next task is to inform Configuration Manager of which BI Applications "offerings" are licensed to be used in this environment. The key emphasis here is what is licensed to be implemented, not what you're actually implementing at this time. We will configure that in a later step. Note that for demo or personal training purposes, you can select any offering from this list, but you should ensure that you only select those that you have licensed when working on a full implementation project – see your local Oracle representative, or an Oracle partner, if you need your licensing to be clarified or extended to include the BI Applications.

   Moving back to your Web browser, click System Setups > Manage Business Intelligence Applications on the left-hand sidebar in Configuration Manager. Then, within the Manage Business Intelligence Applications page, locate the Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics entry and check the Enabled checkbox next to it to select that BI Applications offering (you may need to use the scroll bar to see this checkbox). Then, press the OK button in the dialog then is then displayed, and once it closes, pressSave.

   Next, select the Business Intelligence Application Offerings and Associated Sources tab and expand Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics. The 'EBSVISION' checkbox in the Enabled column should be checked; once confirmed, press the Done button to return to the main Configuration Manager page.

4. While there are other configurations that could be done at this time, we've completed the minimum configurations required to move to the next phase, which is to generate and execute a Domain Load Plan. Load plans are the steps that execute a data load and are similar to execution plans in earlier, DAC-based versions of the BI Applications. The difference is that BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 contains metadata about what steps are required to load every application and you must generate an executable load plan based on what you specifically plan to load. This potentially reduces the amount of step pruning you need to do after the fact.

   There are also different types of load plans. The Domain-Only Load Plan will run some targeted data extractions from the source system to assist with configurations for specific applications. This stands in contrast to a Source Extract And Load Plan, which focuses on loading the facts and dimensions in the warehouse.

   In the next step you will build your first load plan, in this instance a domain load plan to extract data from the source system to support loading the Inventory Transactions fact table group within the Supply Chain and Order Management offering. To start this process, using your Web browser and still within the Configuration Manager application, click Load Plans Administration > Manage Load Plans

   Then, when the Manage Load Plans page opens, click the green plus symbol to add a new load plan, and enter the following details to define the new domain load plan:

   Name: EBSVISION SCOM Domain
   Description: [optional]
   Load Plan Type: Domain-only Extract and Load (SDE and SIL)
   Source Instances: EBSVISION
   (The above fields can be altered based on your source system except 'Load Plan Type'.)

   Then, press the Next button to display the list of available fact table groups; check the checkbox in the Selected column for the Inventory Transactions (INVTRX_FG) fact group, which you can find under the Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics > Logistics fact grouping.

   

   Figure 12: Selecting the Fact Groups for the Domain Load Plan

   Click the Save button and select Save and Generate Load Plan when prompted. This will create a custom load plan in ODI that is a subset of the master load plan based on the load plan type and fact groups we selected. This process will take a few minutes and can be monitored by clicking the blue circular arrows refresh symbol. Once the generation is complete, as indicated in the Generation Status column by a green checkmark next to the black circular arrows symbol, you may proceed to the next step, which is actually executing the load plan.

   To execute the load plan, click the Execute button, signified by a green play button symbol in a white box, and select the following values when the Execute Load Plan dialog is shown:

   Context: Global
   Logical Agent: OracleDIAgent
   Oracle Data Integrator Work Repository: BIAPPS_WORKREP

   Then, click the OK button, and the ODI Agent will now execute the domain load plan we created. This process will take several minutes depending on your system and can be monitored by clicking the blue circular arrows refresh symbol. Once the execution is complete, as indicated in the Execution Status column by a large white checkmark in a green circle symbol, you may proceed to the next step.

Configuring a Specific BI Application Offering and Run a Data Load

The first few configurations we made were universal environment configurations, such as the source system. Now it's time to turn our attention to application, or offering-specific configurations. Before we get too far into this step, let's reinforce what we said at the beginning: minimal required configuration to run a load. At this point, we could actually skip this entire section and go straight to a data load, as some key configurations are already seeded with values from our domain load plan and the out-of-the-box content. The data may not be accurate nor will you have the functionality you desire, but you could do it. However, skipping this section would prevent us from highlighting one of the more interesting features of BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1: Functional Setup Manager.

While technically a separate application, Functional Setup Manager operates much like Configuration Manager does for ODI: a faster, simpler way to get to the configuration you need to make. More often than not, Functional Setup Manager opens a window to a specific parameter screen in Configuration Manager that is required for a particular offering you are implementing. Rather than hunt and peck through the many parameters in Configuration Manager, Functional Setup Manager notifies you that a parameter is important and takes you to the right place in Configuration Manager to configure it. So really, it's a helper application to make sure you know exactly what you need to do, and that's an important distinction, because you technically don't have to use it if you know what you're doing. So let's walk through the basics of Functional Setup Manager so you can see how it works.

1. The first step, again performed through your Web browser, is to jump to Functional Setup Manager through Configuration Manager.

   Click Perform Functional Configurations in Configuration Manager, and then login to Functional Setup Manager as biadmin/welcome1. Then, click Configure Offerings; here we will enable our licensed offering for implementation.

   Check the Enable for Implementation checkbox beside Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics and press Yes to continue.

   Check the Enable for Implementation checkbox besideOracle E-Business Suite-Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics and every box under it. Then, click Save and Close.

   

   Figure 13: Enabling Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics to be implemented for EBS

2. Next we're going to create an implementation project for our enabled offering. An implementation project is nothing more than a collection of tasks required to configure the offerings you include in the project. Much like the load plan, BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 contains a master task list for every offering, with some tasks having a one-to-many relationship to the offerings. Creating an implementation project is very similar to generating a load plan in that you only get a subset of the master based on your selections.

   Click Implementation Projects tab and click the 'Create' icon, then enter and select the values below:

   Name: EBSVISION SCOM
   Code: EBSVISION_SCOM
   Description: EBSVISION SCOM
   Assigned To: biadmin
   Start Date: [accept default]

   Finish Date: [leave blank]

   Click the Next button.

   Check the Include checkbox beside Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics, then check the Include checkbox beside Oracle E-Business Suite-Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics and all checkboxes under it. Then, click the Save and Open Project button.

3. Upon opening the project, you are presented with the countless tasks to configure Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics. The tasks in Functional Setup Manager generally fall into three categories:
   1. Informational tasks that route you to the proper place in the documentation.
   2. Parameter or Domain tasks that route you to the proper place in Configuration Manager.
   3. Text file configuration tasks that tell you what file to edit.

   To get a feel for configuring a parameter in Configuration Manager, and to limit the amount of data loaded in our sandbox, let's set the initial extract date for the data load.

   To set this data load restriction, expand the Oracle Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics folder, then click the Go to Taskicon beside * Configure Initial Extract Date. A Configuration Manager screen will open inside Functional Setup Manager.

   Click the '1/1/70' date in Global Parameter Value, and then click Yes.

   Change the year '70' to '07' in the * Parameter Value field.

   

   Figure 14: Changing the Year of the Initial Extract Date Parameter

   Click the Save and Close button, then Done and Done again, and finally close the Functional Setup Manager browser tab.

4. Now for the exciting part! We're now ready to generate and execute a load plan for a full data load.

   Under Load Plans Administration in Configuration Manager, click Manage Load Plans, then click the green plus symbol to add a new load plan. When prompted, select or enter the values below:

   Name: EBSVISION SCOM
   Description: [optional]
   Load Plan Type: Source Extract and Load (SDE, SIL and PLP)
   Source Instances: EBSVISION
   (The above fields can be altered based on your source system except 'Load Plan Type'.)

   When done, click the Next button, and then on the next page check the checkbox in the Selected column for the Inventory Transactions (INVTRX_FG) fact group.

   Then, click the Save button and select the Save and Generate Load Plan option in the dropdown prompt that is then presented. Like before, this will create a custom load plan in ODI based on the load plan type and fact groups we selected. Generating a load plan for a full data load take a little longer than a domain load and can be monitored by clicking the blue circular arrows refresh symbol. Once the generation is complete, as indicated in the Generation Status column by a green checkmark next to the black circular arrows symbol, you may proceed to the next step.

   Data Load Note #1: If you are using the EBS Vision 12.1.3 instance referenced earlier, this execution plan will likely fail because of a unique index constraint on one of the dimensions. You have two choices: you can either proceed with execution and wait for the load plan to fail, then move over to ODI Studio and manually mark the step as complete and restart the load plan, or you can remove the step from the generated load plan in ODI Studio before executing it. The step that will fail is #851 and is located at the following place in the Steps Hierarchy:

   Copy

   
   
   
   Global Variable Refresh > Warehouse Load Phase > 1
     SIL Load > 2 SIL Dimension Group > Parallel – 
     Dependent DimGroup > 3 SIL Dims INVPROD_DIM > 
     Finalize INVPROD_DIM > EXEC_TABLE_MAINT_PROC
   

   Click the Execute button, signified by a green play button symbol in a white box, and select the following values when prompted:

   Context: Global
   Logical Agent: OracleDIAgent
   Oracle Data Integrator Work Repository: BIAPPS_WORKREP

   Click the OK button. The ODI Agent will now execute the domain load plan we created. This process will take several minutes depending on your system and can be monitored by clicking the blue circular arrows refresh symbol. Once the execution is complete, as indicated in the Execution Status column by a large white checkmark in a green circle symbol, your load is complete!

   

   Figure 15: Success!

   Data Load Note #2: Depending on the target database you're using, you may need to increase the number of concurrent processes the database will run. If you find your execution plan is failing in many places with an ORA-12516 error, you may want to run the following statement logged into the database as sys as sysdba, and then shutdown/restart the database (please consult your DBA first if this environment is anything but a personal sandbox environment):

   alter system set processes=250 scope=spfile;

   Data Load Note #3: Additionally, if you have selected different offerings from what has been outlined in this article, you may find yourself running out of temp space in your dev_dw temp file. If you do, you can resize it with the following SQL statement and restart your load plan (please consult your DBA first if this environment is anything but a personal sandbox environment):

   SQL> alter database tempfile 'C:\app\oracle\oradata\orcl\dev_dwtemp.dbf' resize 10G;

   After the load completes, you can run a simple count query against the W_PRODUCT_XACT_F table in the dev_dw schema, like so:

   Copy

   
   
   SQL> select count(*) from w_product_xact_f;
     COUNT(*)
   ----------
       174742
     
   

   Additionally, you can launch the 'Inventory > Activities' dashboard page under Supply Chain and Order Management in OBIEE, which is shown in Figure 16.

   

   Figure 16: The Loaded Data Displayed in OBIEE

   Congratulations! You have just completed your first installation and data load in BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 and learned the basic concepts of this release. We hope this article has proven valuable in your exploration of the latest major release of the Oracle BI Applications.

About the Authors

Kevin McGinley is the Solutions and Offerings Lead for the Oracle Analytics practice at Accenture, Inc., a global system integrator and Oracle Diamond Partner. Kevin is a frequent speaker and writer for Oracle-themed conferences and sites, and is the co-host of Real Time BI with Kevin & Stewart, an Oracle BI talk show on YouTube.
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Kevin and Mark have donated their fee for this article to the Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG) and their nominated charity for KScope 2013, Wine to Water, a 501(c)(3) non-profit aid organization focused on providing clean water to needy people around the world.