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Oracle® Business Intelligence Discoverer Configuration Guide
10g Release 2 (10.1.2.1) for Microsoft Windows and Solaris Operating System (SPARC)
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7 Installing OracleBI Discoverer in a multiple machine environment

Note: This chapter only applies to Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Viewer. For more information about configuring Discoverer Plus OLAP, see Chapter 6, "Configuring the Discoverer Catalog and Discoverer Plus OLAP".

This chapter explains how to configure OracleBI Discoverer in a multiple machine environment, and contains the following topics:

7.1 What is a multiple machine Discoverer environment?

A multiple machine Discoverer environment is a Discoverer deployment that contains two or more machines running an OracleBI Discoverer installation.

A typical multiple machine Discoverer environment uses a standard commercial hardware router to distribute Discoverer Web traffic to multiple Discoverer middle tier machines. This is commonly known as load balancing.

However, you can also provide load balancing using OracleAS Web Cache as a proxy server to distribute Discoverer Web traffic to other Discoverer middle tier machines.

Load balancing improves OracleBI Discoverer's performance, scalability, and availability.

Description of multi3.gif follows
Description of the illustration multi3.gif

In the diagram above, OracleAS Web Cache on machine_a (URL http://company.machine_a.com) distributes Discoverer Web traffic to machine_b (http://company.machine_b.com) and machine_c (http://company.machine_c.com). In other words, you can have a single Discoverer URL for multiple Discoverer middle tier machines.

For more information about using OracleAS Web Cache to load balance, see Section 7.5.2, "How to configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing".

Notes

7.2 About Oracle Business Intelligence installations

Before you can deploy OracleBI Discoverer on multiple machines, you need a basic understanding of OracleBI Discoverer installations (if you are already familiar with Oracle Business Intelligence installations, skip to Section 7.3, "What are the pre-requisites for using OracleAS Web Cache to provide load balancing for OracleBI Discoverer").

An OracleBI Discoverer installation can be one of the following:

For more information, see Section 2.1, "About installing Oracle Business Intelligence".

A typical Oracle Business Intelligence installation comprises the following:

You can have more than one middle tier installation on one machine. For example, you might have one OracleAS infrastructure installation and one Oracle Business Intelligence standalone CD installation on the same machine, but in different Oracle homes. For more information, see Section 7.2.1, "About installing Discoverer on a single machine".

Notes

7.2.1 About installing Discoverer on a single machine

When Discoverer is deployed on a single machine, the Oracle Business Intelligence standalone installation is located in its own Oracle home.

If the Oracle Business Intelligence installation is associated with an OracleAS infrastructure, the infrastructure installation is installed in a separate Oracle home (see figure below).

Figure 7-1 Installing OracleBI Discoverer on a single machine

Description of Figure 7-1  follows
Description of "Figure 7-1 Installing OracleBI Discoverer on a single machine"

7.2.2 About installing Discoverer on multiple machines

When Discoverer is deployed on multiple machines, the OracleAS infrastructure installation is typically installed on one machine, and one or more Oracle Business Intelligence standalone installations are installed on other machines. These standalone components are typically linked together in an OracleAS farm.

Note: An OracleAS farm is a collection of Oracle installations (e.g. OracleBI installations) that share the same OracleAS infrastructure installation.

In the diagram below, OracleAS machine_a contains the OracleAS infrastructure installation. OracleAS machine_b and OracleAS machine_c contain Oracle Business Intelligence standalone installations. The three machines are linked together in an OracleAS farm.

Figure 7-2 Installing OracleBI Discoverer on multiple machines

Description of Figure 7-2  follows
Description of "Figure 7-2 Installing OracleBI Discoverer on multiple machines"

You might use OracleAS Web Cache as a proxy server to distribute Discoverer Web server requests to other Discoverer middle tier machines in an OracleAS farm. For more information about using OracleAS Web Cache to provide load balancing, see Section 7.5.2, "How to configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing".

7.2.3 About using Application Server Control to manage multiple machines

When you install an Oracle Business Intelligence installation on more than one machine, you can link installations together in an OracleAS farm.

For example, you might have installed the following:

  • one OracleAS infrastructure installation on host 1 (e.g. in d:\oracle\infra10_1_2)

  • one Oracle Business Intelligence standalone installation on host 1 (e.g. in d:\oracle\bi_ias\bi1)

  • one Oracle Business Intelligence standalone installation on host 2 (e.g. in d:\oracle\bi_ias\bi2)

You use Application Server Control to manage OracleAS farms. The screen below shows how the above scenario is represented in Application Server Control. Each machine is represented as a row in the Standalone Instances table.

Description of cluster2.gif follows
Description of the illustration cluster2.gif

Notes

7.3 What are the pre-requisites for using OracleAS Web Cache to provide load balancing for OracleBI Discoverer

Before you can configure OracleBI Discoverer for load balancing using OracleAS Web Cache, you must have the following installed:

Notes

7.4 About using OracleAS Web Cache Manager to configure load balancing for OracleBI Discoverer

You can use OracleAS Web Cache Manager to configure load balancing for OracleBI Discoverer across multiple machines. For example, you might have the following:

Configuring OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing involves the following tasks:

For more information about using OracleAS Web Cache Manager to provide load balancing with OracleBI Discoverer, see Section 7.5.2, "How to configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing".

7.5 How to deploy OracleBI Discoverer with load balancing using OracleAS Web Cache

You deploy OracleBI Discoverer with load balancing to increase the number of supported Discoverer end users and improve Discoverer performance.

To deploy OracleBI Discoverer with load balancing using OracleAS, do the following:

  1. If you have not already created an OracleAS farm, use Application Server Control to create a new farm (for more information, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Help).

  2. Use Application Server Control to add OracleBI Discoverer installations to the farm (for more information, see Application Server Control Help).

    Hint: Make sure that you can run Discoverer directly from a machine before trying to load balance to that machine. For example, if you want to load balance OracleBI Discoverer installed on machine_b, start a Web browser and enter the Discoverer URL for that machine (e.g. http://machine_b:80/discoverer/viewer) to make sure that Discoverer works correctly.

  3. Start OracleAS Web Cache Manager on the machine that you want to specify as the proxy machine (for more information, see Section 7.5.1, "How to start OracleAS Web Cache Manager").

  4. Configure OracleAS Web Cache Manager to act as a proxy machine to direct Discoverer Web server requests to other Discoverer middle tier machines (for more information, see Section 7.5.2, "How to configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing").

  5. Confirm that Discoverer Web traffic is being routed correctly (for more information, see Section 7.5.3, "How to verify that OracleAS Web Cache is configured correctly for load balancing").

  6. (optional) You might want to deploy a single centralized Discoverer Preferences component (for more information, see Section 7.6, "About the Discoverer Preferences component in a multiple machine environment").

  7. (optional) You might need to make sure that the tnsnames.ora file on each machine contains the same database names and aliases information (for more information, see Section 7.7, "About configuring the tnsnames.ora file in a multiple machine environment").

7.5.1 How to start OracleAS Web Cache Manager

You start OracleAS Web Cache Manager on a machine when you want to configure and monitor OracleAS Web Cache on that machine. For example, you might want to configure a machine as a proxy machine to route OracleBI Discoverer Web traffic to multiple machines.

To start OracleAS Web Cache Manager:

  1. Start a Web browser.

  2. Enter the OracleAS Web Cache Manager URL for the machine on which you are running OracleAS Web Cache using the fully qualified host name and domain used by your installation.

    For example:

    http://<host.domain>:4000/Webcacheadmin

    Note: The default port number for OracleAS Web Cache is 4000. You can obtain the port number from the OracleAS Ports page (for more information, see Section 5.8, "How to list ports used by Oracle Application Server").

    The Enter Network Password page is displayed.

  3. Enter an OracleAS Web Cache Manager user name (i.e. 'administrator' or a user name with administrator privileges) and network password to display the OracleAS Web Cache - Cache Operations page.

    Description of mm5.gif follows
    Description of the illustration mm5.gif

You can now configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing (for more information, see Section 7.5.2, "How to configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing").

7.5.2 How to configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing

You can use OracleAS Web Cache Manager to configure load balancing for Web applications such as OracleBI Discoverer. OracleAS Web Cache Manager has pages for each aspect of OracleAS Web Cache that you can configure.

For example, the Origin Servers page in the Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing area enables you to specify which machines you want to use to provide load balancing for a Web application.

Note: Before you start, make sure you have the necessary components installed (for more information, see Section 7.3, "What are the pre-requisites for using OracleAS Web Cache to provide load balancing for OracleBI Discoverer").

To configure OracleAS Web Cache for load balancing:

  1. Specify the origin servers (for more information, see Section 7.5.2.1, "How to define the origin servers").

  2. Specify the site to server mapping (for more information, see Section 7.5.2.2, "How to specify the site to server mapping").

  3. Specify the session binding value (for more information, see Section 7.5.2.3, "How to specify the session binding value").

Notes

  • To change the capacity value of load balanced machines:

    1. Display the Origin Servers page.

    2. In the Select column, select the radio button next to the machine(s) on which you want to load balance.

    3. Click Edit Selected to display the Edit Application Web Server page.

    4. Change the value in the Capacity field to a smaller value.

    5. Click Submit.

    6. Click Apply Changes.

    7. Click Restart.

  • For more information about using OracleAS Web Cache Manager, see Oracle Application Server Web Cache Administration and Deployment Guide.

7.5.2.1 How to define the origin servers

You define the Oracle Business Intelligence machines that you want to load balance as origin servers.

To define the origin servers:

  1. Start OracleAS Web Cache Manager (for more information, see Section 7.5.1, "How to start OracleAS Web Cache Manager").

  2. Select the Origin Servers link in the Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing area of the Navigator Pane to display the Origin Servers page.

    Description of mm6.gif follows
    Description of the illustration mm6.gif

    Note: You select the Origin Servers link in OracleAS Web Cache Manager, not Application Server Control.

    You use the Origin Servers page to specify and manage the OracleAS machines that you want to use to provide load balancing. For example, if you want to use OracleBI Discoverer installed on machine_b and machine_c, you need to add entries for machine_b and machine_c to the Application Web Servers table.

  3. For each OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machine on which you want to load balance, do the following:

    1. Click Add... beneath the Application Web Servers table to display the Add Application Web Server page.

      Description of mm13.gif follows
      Description of the illustration mm13.gif

    2. Enter the fully qualified hostname of the machine (e.g. http://machine_b.company.com) in the Hostname field.

    3. Enter the Web Cache HTTP/HTTPS Listen port number of the machine into the Port field:

      Hint: To find out the Web Cache HTTP/HTTPS Listen port number, display the OracleAS Ports page on the Oracle Business Intelligence machine and obtain the Web Cache HTTP Listen port number. For more information, see Section 5.8, "How to list ports used by Oracle Application Server".

    4. Type 100 into the Capacity field (recommended setting).

      Note: This value specifies the maximum number of concurrent connections the origin server can accept. For more information about specifying the capacity value, see Oracle Application Server Web Cache Administration and Deployment Guide.

    5. Type 5 into the Failover Threshold field (recommended setting).

    6. Type / in the Ping URL field (recommended setting).

    7. Type 10 in the Ping Interval field (recommended setting).

    8. Select the communication protocol used by the machine from the Protocol drop down list.

      Note: If you are using the OracleAS Web Cache HTTP Listen (non-SSL) port, select HTTP. If you are using the OracleAS Web Cache HTTPS Listen (SSL) port, select HTTPS.

    9. Click Submit to save the details and display the Origin Servers page.

7.5.2.2 How to specify the site to server mapping

Having defined the Oracle Business Intelligence machines that you want to load balance, you now define the load balancing relationship between OracleAS Web Cache and the Oracle Business Intelligence machines. For example, you might want to specify that machine_a directs Discoverer Web server requests to machine_b and machine_c.

To specify the site to server mapping:

  1. Select the Site to Server Mapping link in the Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing area of the Navigator Pane to display the Site to Server Mapping page.

    Description of mm7.gif follows
    Description of the illustration mm7.gif

    The Site to Server Mapping page has an entry for the machine on which you are running OracleAS Web Cache. For example, if you are running OracleAS Web Cache on machine_a, you will see a row for machine_a with default settings.

    Hint: The Port Number field under the Enter Site Name area should contain the OracleAS Web Cache listening port number that is displayed on the Listening Ports page in the Ports area.

    The next step is to specify which OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machines you want to load balance.

  2. In the Select column, select the radio button next to the OracleAS Web Cache machine.

  3. Click Edit Selected... to display the Edit/Add Site to Server Mapping page.

    Description of mm8.gif follows
    Description of the illustration mm8.gif

  4. In the Select Application Web Servers area, select the check box next to each OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machine on which you want to provide load balancing.

    You should see the machines that you defined in the Application Web Servers table on the Origin Servers page.

    For example, if you have installed OracleBI Discoverer on machine_b and machine_c, select the check boxes next to machine_b and machine_c.

  5. Click Submit to save the details and display the Site to Server Mapping page.

7.5.2.3 How to specify the session binding value

You specify the session binding value to define how a user session is bound to a particular application Web server.

To specify the session binding value:

  1. Select the Session Binding link in the Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing area of the Navigator Pane to display the Session Binding page.

  2. In the Select column, select the radio button next to the row that contains the Default Session Binding option in the Site Name column.

    Description of mm12.gif follows
    Description of the illustration mm12.gif

  3. Click Edit Selected to display the Session Binding page.

    Description of mm10.gif follows
    Description of the illustration mm10.gif

  4. Select JSESSIONID from the Default Session Binding drop down list.

  5. Select Cookie Based from the Please select a session binding mechanism drop down list.

  6. Click Submit to save the details and display the OracleAS Web Cache page.

    The next step is to apply the changes you have made and restart OracleAS Web Cache.

  7. Click Apply Changes at the top of the OracleAS Web Cache page to display the Cache Operations page.

  8. Click Restart.

    When OracleAS Web Cache has restarted, the Success page is displayed.

    You can now verify that browser sessions connecting to the OracleAS Web Cache machine are routed to one of the OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machines specified for load balancing. For more information, see Section 7.5.3, "How to verify that OracleAS Web Cache is configured correctly for load balancing".

    Hint: If the changes that you apply are not accepted, you might find that the capacity that you have defined on one or more of the load balancing machines is too high. For example, when you click Restart you might get an error message similar to the following:

    opmnctl: stopping opmn managed processes... opmnctl: starting opmn managed processes... Request failure: 0 of 1 processes started

7.5.3 How to verify that OracleAS Web Cache is configured correctly for load balancing

You can verify that OracleAS Web Cache is configured correctly for load balancing by confirming that OracleBI Discoverer Web traffic is being routed to the correct machines.

For example, you might want to confirm that Discoverer browser sessions connecting to:

http://machine_a.company.com:80/discoverer/viewer

are routed to:

http://machine_b.company.com:80/discoverer/viewer

or:

http://machine_c.company.com:80/discoverer/viewer

To verify that OracleAS Web Cache is configured correctly for load balancing:

  1. Start OracleAS Web Cache Manager (for more information, see Section 7.5.1, "How to start OracleAS Web Cache Manager").

  2. Select the Origin Server Statistics link in the Monitoring area of the Navigator Pane to display the Origin Server Statistics page.

    Description of mm11.gif follows
    Description of the illustration mm11.gif

  3. Verify the status of the OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machines to which you are distributing Discoverer Web traffic by confirming that:

    • the Origin Server Statistics table contains a row for each OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machine

      For example, if you have Discoverer sessions running on machine_a and machine_b, the Origin Server Statistics will contain a row for machine_a and a row for machine_b.

    • the application server port number is correct in the hostname column

    • the up/down setting in the Up/Down Time column setting is UP

    • the Active Sessions values should correctly reflect the number of OracleBI Discoverer sessions that are running on each machine

      For example, if you have ten Discoverer sessions running on machine_a and machine_b, the Active Sessions-now column might contain the value 6 for machine_a and the value 4 for machine_b (i.e. ten sessions in total).

    • the Active Sessions values should indicate an even distribution of server requests between the OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machines (i.e. according to how you have configured each machine in the Origin Servers page)

      For example, if you have 100 Discoverer sessions running on machine_a and machine_b, the Active Sessions-now column might should reflect a similar number of sessions for each machine.

Notes

  • For more information about using the Origin Server Statistics page, see OracleAS Web Cache Manager Help.

  • You can also select the Health Monitor link in the Monitoring area of the Navigator Pane to see a summary of server requests served by the OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machines. If OracleAS Web Cache is configured correctly for load balancing, there will be an even distribution of server requests across the OracleBI Discoverer middle tier machines.

7.6 About the Discoverer Preferences component in a multiple machine environment

Each Discoverer installation includes a Discoverer Preferences component. The Discoverer Preferences component stores preference settings (e.g. worksheet axis style, default EUL, auto-query enable) for OracleBI Discoverer users accessing that Discoverer installation (for more information, see Section 1.8.2.2, "What is the Discoverer Preferences component?").

In a multiple machine environment, you might want to store all Discoverer end user preferences in a single location. In other words, you want each Discoverer installation to use the same Discoverer Preferences component. To store all Discoverer end user preferences in a single location, you specify a centralized Discoverer Preferences component (for more information, see Section 7.6.1, "How to specify a centralized Discoverer Preferences component").

7.6.1 How to specify a centralized Discoverer Preferences component

If you want to store all Discoverer end user preferences in a single location, you configure each Discoverer installation to use the Preferences component running on the Preferences server machine, instead of running their own Preferences component. The diagram below shows how additional Discoverer middle tier machines reference the preferences on the Preferences server machine.

Description of mm1.gif follows
Description of the illustration mm1.gif

To specify a centralized Discoverer Preferences component, you:

Notes

  • If you do not configure a central Discoverer Preferences server machine, each machine might have different preferences settings. Discoverer end users connecting to different machine might experience different Discoverer behavior according to what preference settings are specified.

7.6.2 How to find out the host name and port number of the Preferences server machine

To find out the host name and port number of the machine that you want to run the Preferences component (i.e. the machine you want to designate as the Discoverer Preferences server machine):

  1. To find out the hostname, do the following:

    1. Open a command prompt on the Discoverer Preferences server machine.

    2. Type hostname and note down the value displayed.

  2. To find out the port number of the Discoverer Preferences server machine, do the following:

    1. Open the opmn.xml file in a text editor (or XML editor).

      For more information about the location of the opmn.xml file, see Section A.1, "List of Discoverer file locations".

    2. Locate the PREFERENCE_PORT variable ID and note down the value.

      For example, in the Discoverer area of the file, you might see the following line of text:

      <variable id = "PREFERENCE_PORT" value = "16001">

    3. Close the opmn.xml file.

You now need to modify the opmn.xml file on other machines to use the Discoverer Preferences server machine (for more information, see Section 7.6.3, "Specify a Discoverer Preferences server on the other machines").

7.6.3 Specify a Discoverer Preferences server on the other machines

Having identified the host name and port number of the machine that is going to run the Preferences component (i.e. the Discoverer Preferences server machine), you must now make sure that other machines use the Preferences component on the Discoverer Preferences server machine.

To modify the opmn.xml file of other machines to use the Discoverer Preferences server machine, do the following on every other machine in the installation:

  1. Display Application Server Control (for more information, see Section 5.1.2, "How to start Application Server Control and display the System Components page").

  2. In the Home tab, select OC4J_BI_Forms in the Name column to display the OC4J_BI_Forms_page.

  3. Display the Administration tab.

  4. In the Instance Properties area, select the Server Properties link to display the Server Properties page.

  5. Scroll down to the Command Line Options area.

  6. In the Java Options field, append the following text to the existing text:

    -Doracle.disco.activation.preferencePort=<portno> -Doracle.disco.activation.preferenceHost=<hostname>

  7. Restart the OC4J_BI_Forms component.

You now need to disable the Preferences component on all machines except the Discoverer Preferences server machine (for more information, see Section 7.6.4, "How to disable the Preferences component on a machine").

7.6.4 How to disable the Preferences component on a machine

When you configure Discoverer to use a single Preferences server machine in a multiple machine environment, you must disable the Preferences component on all Discoverer middle tier machines except the Preferences server machine.

To disable the Preferences component on all machines except the Preferences server machine:

  1. On each machine except the Preferences server machine, open the opmn.xml file in a text editor (or XML editor).

    For more information about the location of the opmn.xml file, see Section A.1, "List of Discoverer file locations".

  2. Locate the Disco_PreferenceServer entry.

  3. Change the Disco_PreferenceServer entry from enabled to disabled.

    For example, you might change:

    <ias-component id="Disco_PreferenceServer" status="enabled">

    to:

    <ias-component id="Disco_PreferenceServer" status="disabled">

  4. Save the opmn.xml file.

  5. Stop the Discoverer Service on that machine (for more information, see Section 5.3.1, "How to stop or restart the Discoverer Service on a machine").

  6. Start the Discoverer Service on that machine (for more information, see Section 5.3.1, "How to stop or restart the Discoverer Service on a machine").

To verify that Discoverer is using a single set of preferences, run Discoverer directly from a machine and check that the preferences that are used are those on the Discoverer Preferences server machine. For example, if the Discoverer Preferences server machine is machine_a, run Discoverer Viewer directly from machine_b and machine_c (e.g. on the URL http://machine_b.us.company.com:80 or http://machine_c.us.company.com:80) and verify that Discoverer uses preferences on machine_a.

7.7 About configuring the tnsnames.ora file in a multiple machine environment

The tnsnames.ora file contains the names and aliases of all the databases that users can access using OracleBI Discoverer.

Each machine in a multiple machine Discoverer installation must have the same tnsnames.ora file or must point to a centralized tnsnames.ora file (to find out the location of this file, see Section A.1, "List of Discoverer file locations").

To make sure that the tnsnames.ora files on the different machines are the same, do one of the following:

Hint: Several versions of the tnsnames.ora file might exist on a machine. Make sure that you use the tnsnames.ora file in the location listed in Section A.1, "List of Discoverer file locations".