This article by Heidi Buelow, Manas Deb, Jayaram Kasi, Demed L'Her and Prasen Palvankar, provides the instructions for installing and configuring the Oracle SOA Suite server and the Oracle JDeveloper development tool. These instructions are for the GA version of 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0), dated July 2009. In addition, this article includes the instructions for installing Oracle Service Bus.

These instructions are Windows based but Linux users should have no difficulty adjusting them for their environment.

Checking your installation

If you already have SOA Suite and JDeveloper installed, confirm that you have the correct version and configuration by following the steps in the section below called Testing your installation. In addition, you may want to complete the items in the section called Additional actions. Finally, you must complete the section called Configuration to run a tutorial.

What you will need and where to get it

This installation requires 3 GB or more available memory. If you have less memory, try separating the installation of the database, the servers, and JDeveloper onto different machines.

Memory and Disk Space requirements

This installation requires 3 GB or more available memory. If you have less memory, try separating the installation of the database, the servers, and JDeveloper onto different machines.

The installation process requires about 12 GB of disk space. After installation, you can delete the files used by installation to save about 4 GB.

As you can see, you are installing a lot of software with a large memory and disk footprint. Running your disk defragmentation program now, before you start downloading and installing, can significantly improve install time as well as performance and disk space usage later on.

Downloading files

Download all the software to get started.

1. In the following steps, save all downloaded files to c:stageSOA. This document assumes that path. If you save them somewhere else then make sure there are no spaces in your path and adjust accordingly when c:stageSOA is referenced in this document.
2. Go to: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/soasuite/index.html, and download the following from SOA Suite 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0) to c:stageSOA:
   • WebLogic Server:
     wls1031_win32.exe
   • Repository Creation Utility:
     ofm_rcu_win32_11.1.1.1.0_disk1_1of1.zip
   • SOA Suite:
     ofm_soa_generic_11.1.1.1.0_disk1_1of1.zip
   • JDeveloper Studio, base install:
     jdevstudio11111install.jar
3. Unzip the SOA Suite ZIP file to c:stageSOA.
4. Unzip the RCU ZIP file to c:stageSOA.
5. Additional Files needed:
   • Tutorial Files: In Chapter 3, you were directed to download the files needed for this tutorial. Do that now as some are used during installation. You can download the files from here:http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/soasuite/11gthebook.html. Unzip the tutorial ZIP file to c:stageSOA.
   • SOA Extension for JDeveloper: You will get this later using the JDeveloper update option.
   • Oracle Service Bus: When you are ready to do the Oracle Service Bus (OSB) lab, you will download the install file to install OSB.

Checking your database

Having your database up and running is the most important pre-requisite for installing SOA Suite.

1. Read the following bulleted requirements carefully to be sure you are ready to begin the SOA Suite installation:
   • You need one of:
     
     1. Oracle XE Universal database version 10.2.0.1
     2. Oracle 10g database version 10.2.0.4+
     3. Oracle 11g database version 11.1.0.7+
   • You cannot use any other database version in 11gR1 (certification of additional databases is on the roadmap). Specifically, you cannot use XE Standard, it must be Universal.
   • We have seen problems with installing XE when a full 10g database is already installed in the environment. The Windows registry sometimes gets the database file location confused. It is recommended to pick one or the other to avoid such issues.
   • If you need to uninstall XE, make sure that you follow the instructions in Oracle Database Express Edition Installation Guide 10g  Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows Part Number B25143-03, Section 7, Deinstalling Oracle Database XE (http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B25329_01/doc/install.102/b25143/toc.htm).
   • If you need to uninstall 10.2, be sure to follow the instructions in Oracle Database Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit) Part Number B14316-04, Section 6, Removing Oracle Database Software(http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/install.102/b14316/ deinstall.htm).
2. Optional: Install OracleXEUniv.exe—recommended for a small footprint database. Make sure that you read step 1 above before installing. You can get XE from here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/ xe/index.html.
   

   When you are using XE, you will see a warning when you install the database schema that this database version is too old. You can safely ignore this warning as it applies only to production environments.

3. If needed, configure Oracle XE Universal.

   When you are using Oracle XE, you must update database parameters if you have never done this for your database installation. You only have to do this once after installing. Set the processes parameter to >=200 using the following instructions.

   C:OracleMiddlewarehome_11gR1user_projectsdomains domain1
   binsetSOADomainEnv.cmdCODE 1
   sqlplus sys/welcome1@XE as sysdba
   SQL> show parameter session
   SQL> show parameter processes
   SQL> alter system reset sessions scope=spfile sid='*';
   SQL> alter system set processes=200 scope=spfile;
   SQL> shutdown immediate
   SQL> startup
   SQL> show parameter session
   SQL> show parameter processes
   
   

   The shutdown command can take a few minutes and sometimes the shutdown/startup command fails. In that case, simply restart the XE service in the Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services dialog after setting up your parameters.

Checking your browser

Oracle SOA Suite 11gR1 has specific browser version requirements.

1. Enterprise Manager requires Firefox 3 or IE 7.
   • Firefox 3—get a portable version, such as the one available from http://portableapps.com, if you want it to co-exist peacefully with your Firefox 2 installation.
   • Firefox 2 and IE 6 are not supported and will not work.
2. BAM requires IE 7.
   • Beware of certain IE 7 plugins that can create conflicts (a few search plugins have proved to be incompatible with BAM).
   • IE 8 is not supported with 11gR1 (but is on the roadmap). IE 6 has a few issues and Firefox will not work with BAM Studio.

Checking your JDK

If you are going to install WebLogic server and JDeveloper on the same machine, you will use the JDK from WebLogic for JDeveloper too. However, if you are going to install on two machines, you need Java 1.6 update 11 JDK for JDeveloper.

1. JDK 1.6 update 11—from the Sun downloads page: http://java.sun.com/products/archive/
   • You must use Java 1.6 update 11. Update 12 does not work.