WebLogic Server (WLS) Installation

I was going to this blog entry under my OID series but it occured to me that it made more sense to do a generic installation blog post instead given WLS is used by OID, OEM and many other components with which I've used and the only difference would be the WLS version used. The installation process is the same for 10.3.4 to 10.3.6. I can't vouch for other versions since I've not used prior versions and 12c is a bit different. So without further ado here is the install process, first the usual command line silent installation and then the GUI method.

Common Step - JDK Installation

1. Install a certified version of JDK to use. In the case of WLS 10.3.5 this would be JDK 1.6.0_24

For Oracle JRocket (required a GUI):

chmod +x jrockit-jdk1.6.0_24-R28.1.3-4.0.1-linux-x64.bin
./jrockit-jdk1.6.0_24-R28.1.3-4.0.1-linux-x64.bin

For Sun JDK:
chmod +x jdk-6u24-linux-x64.bin
./jdk-6u24-linux-x64.bin

2. I like to setup the environment for the installation process, specfiically calling out the location of the Java version to use. This would be required if you have multiple Java installations and you want to ensure the correct location/version is used.

export JAVA_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/jdk
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

Method 1: Command Line Silent Installation

1. Build or edit the "silent.xml" file as below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Silent installer option -mode=silent -silent_xml=/u01/app/stage/silent.xml -->
<!-- Specify values for each data-value name as follows:
BEAHOME - Complete pathname to the Middleware Home directory that will contain this installation.
WLS_INSTALL_DIR - Complete pathname to the product installation directory in which to install WebLogic Server.
COMPONENT_PATHS - Components and subcomponents to be installed. To install multiple components, separate the components with a bar (|). To install subcomponents, specify a component/subcomponent combination. For example, to install Core Application Server, use "WebLogic Server/Core Application Server".
INSTALL_NODE_MANAGER_SERVICE - Install Node Manager as a Windows service. The default is "no". Requires Administrator privileges.
NODEMGR_PORT - Node Manager listen port number. If none specified, installer uses default port 5556.
INSTALL_NODE_MANAGER_SERVICE - must be set to "yes".
INSTALL_SHORTCUT_IN_ALL_USERS_FOLDER - The Windows Start menu folder in which you want the Start menu shortcuts created. The user performing the installation must have Administrator privileges to install the shortcuts in the All Users folder. Possible values: true/yes The shortcuts are created in the All Users folder (default) false/no The shortcuts are created in the local user's folder
BEA_BUNDLED_JVMS - Option to select BEA bundled JVMS (for e.g. either jrockit_160_05 or jdk160_05 for Windows and Linux platforms). The default value is all BEA bundled JVMs for selected platform.
LOCAL_JVMS - Option to select supported JVM, which is already installed. Note: The presence of either(BEA_BUNDLED_JVMS or LOCAL_JVMS) or both of these tokens negates any default selection and only sets the values assigned for these tokens as user selection. The value of the token can be a pipe ('|') separated JavaHomes. -->
<bea-installer>
<input-fields>
<data-value name="BEAHOME" value="/u01/app/oracle/fmw" />
<data-value name="WLS_INSTALL_DIR" value="/u01/app/oracle/fmw/wlserver_10.3" />
<data-value name="COMPONENT_PATHS" value="WebLogic Server/Core Application Server|WebLogic Server/Administration Console|WebLogic Server/Configuration Wizard and Upgrade Framework|WebLogic Server/Web 2.0 HTTP Pub-Sub Server|WebLogic Server/WebLogic SCA|WebLogic Server/WebLogic JDBC Drivers|WebLogic Server/Third Party JDBC Drivers|WebLogic Server/WebLogic Server Clients|WebLogic Server/WebLogic Web Server Plugins|WebLogic Server/UDDI and Xquery Support|Oracle Coherence/Coherence Product Files" />
<data-value name="LOCAL_JVMS" value="/u01/app/oracle/jdk"/>
</input-fields>
</bea-installer>

Save the file in the same location as the installation program ("/u01/app/stage" in my case).

2. Run the installation as the oracle user:

cd /u01/app/stage/
java -d64 -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -jar wls103x_generic.jar -mode=silent -silent_xml=/u01/app/stage/silent.xml

Extracting 0%....................................................................................................100%
Jan 24, 2012 3:10:29 PM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences$2 run
INFO: Created user preferences directory.

Method 2: GUI Installation

1. Run the installation as the oracle user:

For Oracle JRocket:
java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -jar wls103x_generic.jar


For Hybrid Oracle/Sun JDK:
java -d64 -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -jar wls103x_generic.jar



2. Choose the location of middleware home:



3. Optionally register for security updates. I tend to decline since this is not production, but feel free.







It requires internet access so if you don't have, you should decline otherwise you will be greeted with the message below (you can also setup your proxy access here as well):



4. Select "Typical" installation. If you want to be a bit more specific in the components select "Custom" but ensure all the expected components are installed as expected by the application.



5. Next up is the JDK select screen. The installation will detect the available JDK versions on your server if you have multiple versions and allow you to select the appropriate version. Select the correct version.



6. Specify the product installation directories:



7. You are presented with an installation summary where you can review what products will be installed:



8. Following is the actual installation process where you can view the progress:



9. Following a successful installation the completion screen is shown. Deselect the option to run the Quickstart process and you have completed your WLS installation:

Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control Installation

This is a long overdue posting on my experience with installing the recently released Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c (12.1.0.1). But before a few items of interest that I think should be pointed out:

Product Rename - Oracle has renamed the product from "Enterprise Manager Grid Control" to "Enterprise Manager Base Platform". A side effect of this is easier knowledge searching and support for this specific release/product.

Architecture redesign - The architecture has been redesigned (a good thing) to utilize plug-ins for everything. So now the OMS can be patched and/or upgraded independent of any capabilities in monitored targets, and even more importantly, so plug-ins can now be patched and/or upgraded to take advantage of new features and/or functionalities of their respective targets. For example, when Database 12c is released a simple upgrade to the "Enterprise Manager for Oracle Database" plugin should be all that is required to allow EM12c to monitor and leverage all the new features DB12c would offer. Previously, the Agent and the OMS would require patches and/or upgrades to fully support such a new database release. At least this is the plan, we will see when DB12c is released if this is indeed the case.

Repository is master - The repository is now the master for data with the Agents being even more stateless. This is an improvement which allows agents to simple pass monitoring data to the OMS, and hence can be upgraded or re-installed without any loss of target data since they can be fully re-synchronized from the repository.

On now with my installation...

Installation Setup

I wont go into the full detailed list of prerequisites since you can get that from the documentation here. It is pretty much the usual, you can simple reuse your settings for database (11.2 since that is what I use) installations. Lets just say it was all accurate as at this writing. So I created a VM guest environment with the following specifications:

OS: RHEL 5.6 x86_64
RAM: 8 GB
CPU: 2 x 2.67 GHz Intel Xeon
VM: Yes (VMware 4.1u1)

While many may shy aware from using VMs, I think EM is one area where this is ideail since there are no license implications (except for the OMR, more on that later) and the requirements are optimal for a VM. For production deployment I would have at least two OMS, spread across separate cluster hosts with node affinity setup so both OMS never share the same host (unless temporarily necessary when doing some form of VM host maintenance). There are multiple ways to do the configuration, if you need ideas based on your unique situation please feel free to contact me.

On the issue if license, Enterprise Manager does come with a restricted use license for all its components (the basic tool is free, you pay for the plugins, connectors, and packs). This means however, that if you chose to go outside those boundaries, you will need to license the component as appropriate. For example, the repository database is licensed as an Enterprise Edition Single Instance, choosing to use a RAC setup would mean you need to pay for those RAC licenses, as well as the second instance (or each additional RAC instance as the case may be). This is all documented in the license information here.

As most should be aware since EM 11.1, the OMR is no longer installed as part of the installation. So you will need to install and setup an existing database to use as your OMR prior to installation of EM. For my installation I chose 11.2.0.3. Yes, as of this writing it is not yet on the certification listing, but this minor and I fully expect this version to be included shortly though for production I will be adhering to the certification matrix. I chose to let the installation install WebLogic (10.3.5). I prefer this method since it is simply cleaner and avoids any unnecessary patch, or upgrade issues which would result from using a shared WebLogic farm.

Step 1: Meet pre-requisite requirements
Check the documentation here for the requirements.


Step 2: Setup the repository database

This is included in the documentation here but I chose to include it since a few things have changed, or perhaps have not yet been documented, and otherwise stand out. In prior versions EM required setting '_b_tree_bitmap_plans=false', and 'aq_tm_processes=1' but there is no mention of these settings being required for EM12c (so I did not include them). Also, the documentation states "The instance parameters db_cache_size, large_pool_size, java_pool_size, and streams_pool_size must not be set for Enterprise Manager 12c installations.". I definitily do not agree with this note as my experience has been not setting minimum values for these parameters in the real world causes headaches with pool starvation and the reallocation not keeping up with demand (i.e. poor performance). AMM is recommended but since I'm installing on Linux and prefer to enable huge pages (in my humble experience this provides better performance), I instead use ASMM with huge pages (huge pages and AMM are mutually exclusive). I will leave my thoughts of ASMM and AMM for another blog. So in any case, the installation will complain (give a warning) but will go through otherwise with no issues. My usage thus far has also not encountered any issues. A final thing to note, that is not mentioned, is that the automatic stats gathering job should be disabled in the repository database. This will be detected during installation and can be disabled at that point so it is not critical.

So after you download, met all the pre-requisits and built your repository you are ready for the actual installation.

Step 3: Start installation
./runInstaller



This is my lab environment which has no internet access so I disable the email option and clicked 'Next'. This leads to a follow-up screen confirming your intent to remain uninformed:



Step 4: Software updates



I selected to skip the updates (not that any are available just yet) since I have no internet access.

Step 5: Prerequisite Checks



Ensure that all the checks are successful here otherwise you may run into problems later on. I've been a good boy and everything is passed successfully.


Step 6: Select your installation type



Even though this a lab environment I prefer to choose the 'Advanced' option to 'Create a new Enterprise Manager System' since this is what I will be doing when testing for my company. So I then will need to specify a location for the middleware software location.



You can also choose to upgrade, or install just the software. I'll let you know how things work out with the other options once I've had a chance to test.


Step 7: Select Plug-Ins



Here is where things get interesting. This is the new architecture where everything is a plug-in. Those you see in the screen shot are selected by default and mandatory (i.e. you can't unselect). What is not so obvious is that the 'Oracle Fusion Middleware' plug-in is dependent on 'Exalogic Elastic Cloud Infrastructure', which is of course not selected. Seems silly to not just select and install the two together since there is a dependency, even if it is a soft one since you can move on by selecting to install it later. I chose to install it now and avoid any potential issues (admittedly I doubt there would be since I would not be using the feature).





Step 8: Weblogic Server Configuration



Default domain is GCDomain and default node manager is 'nodemanager'. This could be changed when invoking the runInstaller but I don't see any reason. Enter the passwords, and the OMS instance base location.


Step 9: Repository Database Configuration Details



Clicking 'Next' makes a test connection, and if successful verification of the repository commences. I did not know of the requirement to disable the automatic stats job in the repository database, but the installion handles disabling it (if I so choose which I did):



After fixing the stats collection job, a further warning is given for failing to exactly meet requirements:



My settings are higher than the requirement so most of these are silly and should not be displayed as they could cause unnecessary changes. For example the minimum for 'processes' is 300, and mine is set to 1024. Annoying me about the minimum which I've exceeded is a bug IMHO, after all it is not a maximum recommendation.

Next up is the SYSMAN credentials and tablespace setup. Enter the appropriate file system location for the database files. Here the system has detected (partially) that I'm using ASM, so I oblige by entering my disk group information to store the tablespace data files.





Step 9: Port Configuration



I don't have any need to modify anything here and leave the defaults. Your security requirements may be different and require the usage of non-standard ports, which is fine.



Step 10: Review

Almost done!

Step 11: Install

Watch (or get some refreshments) as the installation should breeze through! Note that EM12c uses the same database 11g process of packing already installed software, so the installation is essentially compressed into copying over those files, relinking for your system, and making some configuration changes.

Run the 'allroot.sh' script when prompted:

Step 12: Installation Complete!

All should have gone well so you need only review the results of your successfully installation, and make some notes, if you don't want to check files later, as to URLs and ports. I highly recommend following the note about exporting the configuration which includes the encryption key. This should actually be a scheduled job and become part of your backup/recovery process for EM.

Step 13: Access the New UI

Redesigned (dear I say gorgeous?) login prompt.

Your first access greets you with an updated license acceptance screen. Following which you will need to select your future welcome screen:

This can be changed later, but the point is EM12c allows your to easily customize your welcome screen. Very cool!

So that is it! It is a very clean and easy installation process, compared with previous versions, and I am left impressed. Having used it for a little while things do take a bit of getting used to and finding your way around (as with any redesign), but it is a definte improvement. I'll be following up with usage posts in future and letting you know what I find.

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Grid Control

I've always used Enterprise Manager to some extent. I can remember when it just started out as a Java console program. Clunky, unrefined and not very friendly. Yet, I could see the potential and where Oracle likely wanted to take the product, but wondered as to if they were up to the task. I often thought they would just buy Quest who had an impressive portfolio and was probably (I thought) used most by DBAs, developers, and architects alike. Maybe even Embarcadero, whose DBArtisan tool I actually preferred and found to be a better tool than Quest Toad back then. It is now several years later and how Enterprise Manager has grown up. It is now offered as "DB Console" for single database administration, and as "Grid Control" for multiple database administration and your enterprise-wide monitoring and administration tool.

Grid Control 11g (11.1.0.1) is a web-based tool leveraging WebLogic Server (WLS) 10.3.2 for UI presentation, a database back-end for its storage repository, and agents for data gathering and carrying out monitoring and administration. I'm sure I've been told on many an occasion why each Grid Control will require a specific WLS version but the answer escapes me for now. This however should not be an issue since the WLS should be self-contained (i.e. only for Grid Control) and IMHO installed on the same server as the OMS. If you have multiple OMS for HA, then install a WLS instance on each OMS as well for HA.

Now released is Enterprise Manager 12c (12.1.0.1) Grid Control which will require WLS 10.3.5. This brings a new and improved interface, which also includes cloud computing management features such as charge back and metering.




My interest in this case are the available upgrade options as shown below:

Two-System Upgrade - Creating a new EM 12.1 infrastructure and switching the new 12.1 agents to point to the new EM 12.1 infrastructure. Requires minimal downtime but new EM infrastructure and you will also have to merge data that was accruing while the upgrade was taking place.



One-System Upgrade - This option requires more downtime but no additional infrastructure. Here you are installing the new 12.1 OMS (and 10.3.5 WLS) on the same servers, and then upgrading your OMS to 12.1 (which includes upgrading the repository). Prior to this you would have shutdown your pre-12.1 agents and started up your new 12.1 agents (which were already installed).



I prefer the Two-System approach since it has the advantage of minimizing downtime, while providing a fallback option. It also seems a bit less complicated. The previous hardware can be recycled so I don't find that to be an issue (also serves to provide a hardware refresh opportunity). I think most would agree with this being the better of the two options given. To provide a bit more information see the comparison below:

Installing and Configuring Enterprise Manager Client Interface (emcli)

Notes:

• Enteprise Manager Client Interface (emcli) needs to be installed on each host from which its usage is required.
• Environment was EM Grid Control 10.2.0.5
  

Installation

1. Obtain the EM CLI Client kit (emclikit.jar). The emclikit.jar file is physically located in the $OMS_HOME/sysman/jlib directory of the 10.2 Grid Control OMS home, it can also be downloaded from http(s)://host:port/em/console/emcli/download
2. Set your JAVA_HOME environment variable and ensure that it is part of your PATH. You must be running Java 1.4.1 or greater.
3. Install the EM CLI Client. You can install the client in any directory either on the same machine as the EM CLI Management Services or on any machine in your network (download the emclikit.jar to that machine). Run the followingcommand:

java -jar emclikit.jar client -install_dir=

Setup
1. Tell emcli how to find em repository with the following command

$> emcli setup -url=http://:4889/em -username=sysman

emcli will ask you for your password.

2. Tell emcli how find your sudo program (all on 1 line)

$> emcli create_privilege_delegation_setting -setting_name=sudo_setting -setting_type=SUDO -settings="SETTINGS:/usr/local/bin/sudo –S –u %RUNAS% %command%"

3. Apply this setting to your specific hosts (all on 1 line)

$> emcli apply_privilege_delegation_setting -setting_name=sudo_setting -target_type=host -target_names="host1;host2;host3;"

Setting Credentials for the Job System to work with Enterprise Manager

Windows systems require that you set the correct credentials for the Jobs system to work properly in Enterprise Manager. By default, the Management Agent service is installed as a LocalSystem user. When submitting jobs, such as stopping or starting the database, the user submitting the job must have the Log on as a batch job privilege enabled.

Perform the following steps to establish that privilege for any
operating system user who needs to submit an Enterprise Manager job.

1. Start the Local Security Policy tool:
   
   • Windows 2000: From the Start menu, select Control Panel, Administrative Tools, then Local Security Policy.
     
   • Windows 2003: From the Start menu, select Administrative Tools, then Local Security Policy.
     
   • Windows XP: From the Start menu, select Control Panel, Administrative Tools, then Local Security Policy.
     
   
   
2. Under the Security Settings list, expand the list to Local Policies.
   
3. Under Local Policies, double-click User Rights Assignment.
   
4. Under Policy, search for the Log on as a batch job policy.
   

   If the Management Agent service is installed as any other user (that is, not LocalSystem), then, in addition to granting the Log on as a batch job privilege, you must grant the "Windows service" user the following three privileges:

   
   
   • Act as part of the operating system
     
   • Adjust memory quotas for a process (This setting is named Increase memory quotas

     on Windows 2000.)

   • Replace a process level token
     
   
   
5. With each policy, perform the following steps:
   
   1. Double-click the policy name.
      
   2. In the Properties dialog box, click Add User or Group.
      
   3. In the Select Users or Groups dialog box, enter the name of the user (for example, jsmith, administrator, and so on.)
      
   4. Click Check Names to check that you have entered the name correctly.
      
   5. Click OK.
      
   
   
6. Click OK to exit the Properties dialog box, then exit Local Security Settings and Administrative Tools.
   
7. Restart your computer.
   

If a user exists locally and at the domain level, Windows gives the
local user precedence. To use the domain user, qualify the user name
with the domain name. For example, to use the user joe in the ACCOUNTS domain specify the user name as ACCOUNTS\joe.

Note: Validated for EM Grid Control 10.2.0.4 - 10.2.0.5

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