Installing OBIEE 12c on Windows 10 – Part 1

JULY 25, 2017JULY 25, 2017ADMIN

Hello Everyone,

This is my fist blog article and I am pretty excited about it. Let me begin with introducing myself. My name is Jahnavi Yeddanapudy
and I am currently working as Software Engineer for Biz-Metric Partners, Inc. I have done my Masters in Computer Science from
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Biz- Metric Partners Inc, provides end- to- end software consulting, development, support and managed services. We offer
solutions relating to Enterprise BI, Application Middleware, Mobility and Web applications using various technologies with some of
current deliveries using Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE), Oracle Business Applications (BI Apps/ OBIA), ETL – ODI,
Informatica, EPM – Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financials(HFM), Other BI Tools include Tableau, Qlikview, Business Objects,
Cognos, Oracle Apps(EBS), Fusion Middleware.

Recently, I had to install OBIEE 12c in Windows 10 as part of a project. In this blog, I will share my experience in installing OBIEE
12c with Oracle 12c database. I will also try to compare my earlier experience of installing OBIEE 11g with Oracle Database 11g on
Windows 8 OS.

In Part1 of the blog, I will discuss the pre-requisites we need to consider before installing OBIEE 12c.

Oracle releases Certification matrix for their products which provides us the information about the compatible Software versions
that support the product. OBIEE 12.2.1.0.0 certification matrix link.

Major pre-requisites that needs be installed for OBIEE 12c are:

 JDK 1.8
 Oracle database 12c
Java – jdk 1.8.0_112
I started my installation on a Windows 10 operating system with 12GB RAM. As per, OBIEE 12c certification matrix, jdk version
1.7_15 and higher versions are compatible for such configuration. I recommend to install the jdk latest version. In my case, I chose
jdk 1.8.0_112

Tip:

Java jdk version compatible for OBIEE 12c must be installed otherwise we might get compatibility errors during the OBIEE
Deployment Phase.

Download links

Download the JDK file and run the setup. Follow the steps that are mentioned below. Link I used for download can be
accessed here:
 First and foremost, before installing remaining Oracle software try to install jdk correctly. Make sure Java Path is set correctly in the
‘Program Files‘ directory. By default, if the jdk version that you are using is installed in ‘Program Files (86)‘ directory, uninstall
Java and reinstall, otherwise you will get errors during the Deployment of OBIEE 12c.

If you try to change the default java path or uninstall and reinstall jdk after OBIEE installation, uninstalling remaining softwares like
Oracle database, weblogic server, OBIEE will not be successful. Therefore, it is very important to install java correctly.

For example, the path should look this in the environmental variables

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_112\bin

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_112\bin

The reason to reiterate for setting the correct Java Path is because we cannot diagnose this issue till OBIEE 12c throws the error. I
had to go through a lot of trouble shooting as the error that OBIEE points is not straight forward and I tried to research different
error logs, files…etc. I will explain in detail about the trouble shooting I performed during the installation in the Part II of my blog.

Oracle Database 12c

Tip:

Before installing Database, add loop back adapter if it is not already setup. Loop back adapter will set static IP address.

Loop Back Adapter

 Go to Device manager. In the Action tab select ‘Add legacy hardware’.

 If you cannot see the ‘Add legacy hardware’ option. Don’t worry.
 Look for Network Adapters and choose ‘Scan for hardware changes’
 ‘Add legacy hardware’ option is now visible in Action Tab. Choose ‘Add legacy hardware’.
 Continue with next screens
 Choose ‘Install the hardware that I manually select from a list(Advanced)’ option
 Select ‘Network Adapters’
 Now under Manufacturer choose ‘Microsoft’ and under Model select ‘Microsoft KM – TEST Loopback Adapter’
We successfully added the Loop Back Adapter.

Next I will walk through the steps on how to install Oracle Database 12c.

As per OBIEE 12c Certification Matrix, Oracle Database 11.2.0.4+ or 12.1.0.1+, supports OBIEE 12c. But I faced issues while
installing the patch 11.2.0.4+ on Windows 10. Oracle database 11.2.0.4 is a full installation patch. I tried to install using “out of
place” methodology (recommended by Oracle documentation) as Oracle database 11.2.0.1 was pre-installed on the system. The
11.2.0.4+ installation failed. So, I moved to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 install and installed successfully.

Download Link

Download both the zip files and unzip to one folder.

Tip:

If the files are extracted to different folders, then the installation will be unsuccessful.

Run the setup file.

Ignore the error, if you don’t wish to get the security updates. Click on Yes and continue.
Select the desktop option if you want to install on a ‘laptop or desktop’. If you want to install on ‘server’ select server class option.
This article explains in installing the desktop class.
You can Ignore warning, if you wish to use the built administrator account. Alternatively, you can create a new Windows user or if
you have multiple accounts in the Windows system and want to use one of them select the option ‘Use Existing Windows user’ and
provide the credentials. Click on yes and continue,

Tip:

The error INS – 32011 may occur if the oracle database location you specified has character space. Make sure you don’t have any
spaces in the path name.

Tip:

Make sure to select Unicode(AL32UTF8) Character set option. Oracle recommends Unicode as a universal character set because
of its advantages like usability, compatibility and extensibility. Unicode supports multilingual data which may not be your current
requirement but it is helpful in future as Oracle trying to limit the other character set usage in their future releases.
Save response file. Click on install.
Yay!!! The Oracle database was installed successfully.

Enable Pluggable Database

In Oracle Database 12c, we have Container Database and Pluggable Database. By default, Multitenant Container database is
enabled. It is very important to enable the Pluggable Database otherwise OBIEE 12c will throw errors. In my Part2 of the blog, I will
explain in detail what type of error we might get if the Pluggable Database is not enabled during the OBIEE installation.

I used SQL plus to enable Pluggable Database. Following are the steps in SQL Plus:

Run the sql plus. Enter the sys credentials.

Enter the following commands to alter the session to pluggable database

· ALTER PLUGGABLE DATABASE ALL OPEN;

· ALTER SESSION SET CONTAINER = pdborcl;

Check the connection name:

show con_name

Editing tnsnames.ora File

The default tnsnames.ora file that is created during the database installation that doesn’t have the pluggable database description.

Tip:

Include the pdborcl description in the tnsnames.ora file as shown below which is helpful during OBIEE installation.

The file is located in the Oracle Database home path: For example

C:\app\[username]\product\12.1.0\dbhome_1\NETWORK\ADMIN

Append the PDBORCL lines in the file after ORCL

 Cheers! All the pre-requisite steps are complete! Please share your comments on the blog content so far.

In my next part of the blog, I will discuss the steps on how to install OBIEE 12C.

Thanks,

Jahnavi

Installing OBIEE 12c on Windows 10 – Part 2

JULY 25, 2017SEPTEMBER 22, 2017ADMIN

This article is in continuation of the first part of the blog – ‘Installing OBIEE 12c on Windows 10 – Part 1’ where we discussed the
pre-requisites for the installation. In this part, we will discuss the OBIEE 12c installation steps.

OBIEE 12c Installation can be divided into three parts.

 WebLogic Server
 OBIEE 12c
 Deployment
WebLogic Server
There are some fundamental differences in OBIEE install compared to prior versions. In previous versions, WebLogic Server was
included in OBIEE installation but in 12c release Fusion middleware (WebLogic server) needs to be installed first and then it needs
to be followed with OBIEE installation.

Fusion middleware

Download link for Web Logic Server

Unzip the file to a folder. For example, create a FusionMiddleware folder in C drive. Unzip the downloaded file to this folder.

Download the WebLogic file and follow the steps

 Start the command prompt with administrator privilege.
 Then change directory to jdk bin path.
 Run the command
java -jar \FusionMiddleware\fmv_12.2.1.0.0_infrastructure.jar
Once the jar file is executed we can now view the following screens.
If you are not interested for auto updates, Skip the auto updates.
When the screen pops up with Default Oracle Home path, choose the default path. Oracle recommends to go with the default path
according to article mentioned in this link in regard to installing Oracle WebLogic Server.
If you are interested in examples, select ‘Fusion Middleware Infrastructure with Examples’ otherwise opt for ‘Fusion Middleware
Infrastructure’. In this case, I chose ‘Fusion Middleware Infrastructure with examples’.
Java version compatibility warning triggers at this step. Remember? In my previous article, I mentioned that if we are sure of
installing the latest java version we can ignore the warning and proceed with next steps.
If you don’t wish to receive security updates uncheck the option and ignore the error.
Save the response file for future references. Click Install. This might take few minutes.
We successfully installed the Fusion Middleware (WebLogic Server)!!

Now comes the much-awaited part, OBIEE installation.

OBIEE 12c
Download link for OBIEE 12c

Download OBIEE 12c two zip files and unzip to a folder.

Tip:

Create a folder OBIEE12c in C: drive and unzip both files to the same folder. You can find a zip file after unzipping. Unzip the file
one more time in the same folder.

Run the setup file

Following screenshots will walk through the steps for OBIEE 12c Installation.
These screenshots look familiar, isn’t it? Yes, they are almost the same.

You can skip the auto updates if you wish to.

Select the path

Tip:

Make sure to select the same path where the Fusion middleware (WebLogic Server) is installed.
If you wish to install the ‘BI Platform Distribution with Sample’ opt for it or else opt for ‘BI Platform Distribution’. In the present
scenario, ‘BI Platform Distribution with Samples’ is chosen.
The pre-requisite checks are successful. Make sure the all the checks are successful.
Save response file for future references but it is not mandatory to store the file.

While installing OBIEE 12c, it may trigger to repair Microsoft Visual C++2010 x64 Redistributable Maintenance. No worries, repair
it. Follow the screenshots below.
Yay!! We successfully installed the OBIEE. We are almost done.

There is one last step which is very important and needs to be completed for successful install.

Deployment
Run the config batch as administrator. The file is located at the following path C:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\bi\bin

If you are interested only in ‘Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition’ and ‘Business Intelligence Publisher’ which is current
selection, uncheck ‘Essbase’ or you can choose all the options.

Ignore the Java version compatibility since we installed the latest version currently.
In the present scenario default location for new domain is picked. Please enter credentials for the new domain.
 Tip:

 In the OBIEE 12c you need not create rcu explicitly. The following step in the configuration assistant does that.
 For the connect string make sure to enter pdborcl (Pluggable Database name) and not orcl. Connect string should look like
localhost:1521:pdborcl. OBIEE uses pluggable database not the Container database.
Enter password for the schema. Provide the database credential details. Enter the details that you provided during the Oracle
Database 12c.
Go with the default Port range if you don’t have any specifications.
In this case, I chose Oracle Sample application (SampleAppLite). I would recommend to install SampleAppLite.

Save this response file. This provides the information about the Ports assigned. This might be helpful in future.
If you are getting the error at this step. It means the pluggable database is not enabled. I mentioned in my previous
article (Installing OBIEE 12c on Windows 10 – Part 1) how to enable pluggable database. Please refer to it.
Congratulations!!! We successfully installed OBIEE 12c on Windows 10.

Tip:

Save the configuration complete which provides us important information like Database, Ports …etc. for future references. Now it is
time for a basic test.

Once you click finish the webpage shown below pops up. Enter weblogic credentials.
Hope you all had very good experience and fun installing OBIEE 12c. Our journey continues, Stay tuned. In my next article, I will
post how to trouble shoot the Issues that you might get during the OBIEE installation in detail.

Thanks,