Chapter 6. Understanding the Systems Management Tools

Oracle BI 12c is an enterprise application suite and comprises several major application components that tie it all together. Together, the components operate as a system. These components typically run on a server and are configured by using a web-client interface, an API library, or a command-line interface. These tools, which configure the system, are referred to as System Management tools as they coordinate the operation of the entire Oracle BI 12c system. The WebLogic and Fusion Control administration interfaces were briefly covered in a previous chapter.

This chapter goes into greater detail about each. We'll explain what these components are, what they do, and how they work together. We will delve into the navigation of these tools so that you become more familiar with the interfaces and learn what components are specific to Oracle BI 12c. We will also explore which key controls are used to maintain the Oracle BI 12c environment...

Let's talk management tools

Oracle BI 12c is based on the Fusion Middleware architecture, which provides two core applications, WebLogic Server (WLS) Administration Console and Enterprise Manager (EM) Fusion Middleware Control. Oracle BI is deployed with a limited-use license for Oracle BI. This means that the WebLogic software itself is still the fully functioning product, but the implementation of WLS is bound to certain restrictions, such as a non-scaled-out environment, which would require the additional purchase (always consult your Oracle representative for these details) of an enterprise license for WLS. WLS and EM manage configurations that have a systemic impact. Basically, if those applications aren't online and available, neither is your Oracle BI 12c deployment. Yes, there are other management consoles that allow specific control of the individual applications, such as Oracle BI 12c server, BI Publisher, MapViewer, and so on. Those consoles are referred to as Application Administration...

WebLogic Server Administration Control

If you have any WLS experience, you will understand that WLS is an application in its own right, and a server that runs other applications. If you don't have any WLS experience, don't be discouraged by the many options and configuration points that it offers. At the moment, only concern yourself with the WLS components that relate to the operation of the Oracle BI 12c environment.

The goal of this section is for you to familiarize yourself with the Oracle BI 12c System Management tools. You'll review the main areas of the system, which an Oracle BI administrator frequents, and gain a better sense of how Oracle BI 12c fits together with Fusion Middleware. Follow along from your Oracle BI 12c installation with the steps provided in the following subsections.

First access and checkpoint

Let's begin by getting into the WLS administration console. This is fairly straightforward; just complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to the WLS administration console via...

Servers

As an indication of how the Oracle BI 12c environment was installed and what scaled-out servers have been included in the post-installation configuration, the Servers page provides great insight into the current state of the infrastructure. No matter what installation type you choose, the AdminServer (admin) will always be found in this list. The Oracle BI 12c installation is always considered an Enterprise installation. Previous versions of Oracle BI, such as 11g, had installation concepts such as Software Only or Simple Installations, but these do not exist in the installation of Oracle BI 12c. As Oracle BI 12c is configured during the installation and configuration process, you should expect to see the bi_server1 managed server in this WLS Servers list as well:

1. Expand the Environment node under the bi domain in the navigation pane.

2. Click on the Servers link.

3. Click on the bi_server1 managed server name, which is a link to its specific configuration page:

   

• Notice the many tabs and...

Clusters

A WLS domain cluster establishes the context for the scalability and reliability that come from adding one or more managed servers to the domain. Oracle BI establishes a default cluster in WLS, bi_cluster. This cluster refers to a WLS domain cluster, which has the goal of allowing redundancy and high-availability to be configured. This domain-cluster configuration is for the application server nodes themselves. This should not be confused with clustering the Oracle BI Server system components. A domain cluster is required for scaling-out Oracle BI. The term scaling-out typically refers to either scaling-up vertically, for adding processing power on the same server, or scaling-out horizontally to one or more separate servers for high-availability and fault-tolerance.

Expand bi > Environment > Clusters to see the default cluster configuration established during the default installation configuration of Oracle BI. The name of the cluster is bi_cluster. The default configuration...

Machines / IP address or DNS

Knowing where and how an installation recognizes the server on which it resides is important. During an install or scale-out, the WLS administration console keeps track of its immediate location, as well as any other nodes in the cluster. Any changes to a server's IP address or DNS after installation can be painful to correct, so avoid doing so if at all possible. In a horizontal scale-out, Oracle recommends using a load balancer and virtual IP addresses to handle this complexity:

1. From the left-hand-pane navigation menu, expand bi > Environment > Machines.

2. In the Machines table list, you should see the name of the server on which you have installed Oracle BI.

3. In a horizontally scaled-out environment, multiple machine names would be listed here.

4. Click on the name of the machine in the Machine list.

5. Under the Configuration main tab, click the Node Manager sub-tab.

6. Notice that this area provides insight into the Node Manager, which should reside on each managed...

Data Sources / JDBC connections

WLS is a Java application server. One of the biggest benefits from WLS hosting JEE applications (such as BI Publisher and other Oracle-BI-related applications) is the performance gain achieved by reducing the opening and closing of database connections via leveraging connection pools. WLS controls the connection pooling. The deployed JEE applications typically access the JDBC data-source connections created in the Data Sources area of WLS by calling the JNDI name associated with the JDBC connection:

1. From the left-hand-pane navigation menu, expand bi > Services.

2. Click on Data Sources.

   The resulting page is the Summary of JDBC Data Sources management area. Here are the application server-registered Data Sources, which can be leveraged by one or more applications deployed on the WebLogic Server.

3. On the Data Sources table, look at the column, Targets. As you can see, each of these Data Sources is deployed to (that is, accessible from) the server names listed in...

Security Realms

Management of the over arching system security will take place in the Security Realms area. A Security Realm is basically a configuration area to manage how WLS resources are protected. This is where you configure users, groups, and other security profiles that determine how access to applications deployed on the WLS server and the WLS administration console itself is achieved. More than one Security Realm can exist, but only one can be used as the active realm from which the security configuration for the application server is sourced. Thus, during the Oracle BI installation configuration, only one Security Realm, myrealm, is created. It is within this realm that we will configure and manage authentication providers such as a company's LDAP directory and so on.

Tip

Note that WLS itself contains an Embedded LDAP directory. This is also referred to as the DefaultAuthenticator. It follows the open standard LDAP v3 protocol, and could indeed support custom build directories for...

WebLogic Server is its own application

Working with WLS in the context of Oracle BI for the first time, it is easy to miss the fact that WLS is its own Oracle product. In the case of Oracle BI 12c integration, it is WebLogic Server 12c. To exemplify WLS's ability to act as a standalone product, a company may license WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition solely to service their internally developed application (typically, Java/JEE) deployment needs. Here are a few items that often get overlooked:

• As mentioned previously, after the default Oracle BI installation, a default set of users and groups is created in the WLS-embedded LDAP. The users and groups established by default here are a mix of users and groups for Oracle BI and the WebLogic Server application itself. Looking at the list of groups within the groups table, you see a group named Administrators, but also a group named BIAdministrators.

• The Administrators group is specific to the WLS application. That is to say that a WLS user belonging...

Using WLST

Every Oracle BI Administrator should know the WLST. Eventually, the need will arise to use some advanced features against the application server - WLS - that hosts Oracle BI in order to automate or make short work of repetitive functions. In Oracle BI 12c, it's the lifecycle-management tools where administrators will make the most use of WLST. WLST is one of the ways in which you can interface with the application server. WLST is fairly straightforward to use. Its command-line interface is launched from a directory underneath the ORACLE_HOME installation root of Oracle BI 12c; typically, on the server for which the installation resides. However, WLST, when located on a networked server, may communicate with any another WebLogic Server located on the network.

Let's conduct a quick exercise that will show you how to launch the WLST interface. In addition, you'll run a few quick commands to return some simple data from the WLS server.

1. Launch WLST from a Terminal or command-prompt window...

Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control

The WebLogic Administration Console's complementary web-based console, rounding out the System Management GUI tools, is the Fusion Middleware Control (Fusion Control). First introduced in Oracle BI 11g for OBIEE, it still exists in a similar capacity for Oracle BI 12c. It is the main interface to configure advanced Oracle BI options and to monitor and troubleshoot the Oracle BI system.

Presentation Catalog is a term introduced in Oracle BI 11g that continues to get used in version Oracle BI 12c. It is synonymous with the legacy term Web Catalog, referring to the Oracle BI Presentation Services' artifacts file repository for dashboards, reports, and so on.

This section will guide you through the Fusion Control console and explain each section as you navigate through it. Let's start by logging in to the EM console to have a look around.

Getting around in EM

The Fusion Control console is not WLS. It is a completely separate JEE application that is deployed...

Oracle BI 12c Lifecycle Management

Lifecycle Management (LCM) is a fairly new concept for many administrators and developers of Oracle BI. All core transferable objects in a software application such as Oracle BI are defined as artifacts. Artifacts for Oracle BI 12c are items such as the RPD, Presentation (Web) Catalog, and so on. Since these are a few of the most critical artifacts to the operation of Oracle BI, this section discusses how they are managed in Oracle BI 12c.

LCM includes the many different areas of patching, backup, and recovery, and the general migration of Oracle BI artifacts from one environment to another. In Oracle BI 12c, there has been a concentrated effort to increase the ability to deliver a consistent, manageable Oracle BI application through the use of programmatic capability. In Oracle BI 12c, there are now several options to do so: Application Programming Interface Web Services via SOAP and REST, and Command Line Interfaces (CLI) through the Oracle BI 12c BI...

Creating users, roles, and associations

In the previous section, you've briefly reviewed the embedded WebLogic LDAP Server, and also completed an exercise using WLST to create a new user via scripting. There is one other operation that is integral to managing users and groups within Oracle BI - Application Roles.

Application Roles provide a means to associate universal privileges to users and groups, regardless of which identity provider (for example, MS Active Directory, Oracle OID, and so on) they may stem from. That is to say, we can assign an embedded WLS LDAP user and a user from our Active Directory LDAP to a single application role. We could then assign certain privileges within the Oracle BI application to that specific application role. In addition, you can assign application roles to another application role in order to provide a hierarchy of authorization. Oracle BI 12c comes with three broad-range core application roles out-of-the-box that should not be deleted or modified: BIServiceAdministrator...

Creating users and groups in WebLogic Server

In this exercise, we are going to create several users and groups in the WLS embedded LDAP directory. Then we will navigate to the Enterprise Manager Fusion Control console and associate those users and groups with application roles we create from scratch:

1. Launch the WLS Administration Console by navigating to  http://<server_name>:9500/console.

2. Log in using the WebLogic administrator credentials.

3. Navigate to the Security Realm s > myrealm  > Users and Groups > Groups sub-tab.

4. In the Groups sub-tab, click the New  button to create a new group.

5. On the Create New Group page:

   • Enter in the  Name field: Sales Team

   • Select or make sure Default Authenticator is chosen from the Provider drop-down

   • Click the OK button to save the new group

6. Using the same technique as in Steps 4 and 5, create the following groups:

   • Store Manager

   • Bicycle Technician

7. Navigate to the Users and Groups > Users sub-tab.

8. On the Users sub-tab, click the New button to...

Assigning users to groups

When users and groups are created, it is straightforward to add a user to one or more of the groups to create an association in WLS LDAP:

1. On the Users sub-tab, locate, under the Name column, Greg Limon.

2. Click the Groups tab within the Settings for the Greg Limon page.

3. Assign the Sales Team group by placing a check in the checkbox of the Sales Team option in the Available box.

4. Using the middle arrows, click on the right-hand arrow so that the value of Sales Team appears in the Chosen box.

5. Click the Save button.

6. Return to the Usersand Groups > Users sub-tab by using the breadcrumb navigation at the top of the page under the Home, Log Out, Preferences menu.

7. Repeat Steps 1 to Step 5 to assign the remainder of users to groups, using the following matrix to guide you:

Users	Groups
Greg Limon	Sales Team
Binard Hinalt	Bicycle Technician
Sean Kelly	Sales Team
Eddy Merck	Bicycle Technician, Sales Team

Creating and assigning Application Roles

Once the users and groups have been created and properly associated with one another based on the matrix provided in the previous section, you have completed LDAP assignment only. This in effect emulates the LDAP directory relationship that would already be established in an organization's LDAP directory, such as Microsoft Active Directory. You've simply leveraged what is already built into WLS in order to showcase that using the embedded LDAP is a solution for managing a small number (really, up to 1,000 it is still quite functional) of users and assigning them to groups. Next, you'll associate groups you've created to the Oracle BI Application Roles used to delegate privileges for the Oracle BI system. This is done using Fusion Middleware Control Enterprise Manager as follows:

1. Navigate to Fusion Middleware Control and log in with the WebLogic administrator user's credentials.

2. Click on the WebLogic Domain drop-down icon under the bi label to the...

JMX, MBeans, Java, and interfacing Oracle BI

Similar to WLST, when there comes a time for automating processes that interface with WLS or Fusion Control EM, there is an opportunity to look at the System Management API Java programming. Again, using a handy-dandy IDE such as NetBeans or JDeveloper, putting together a custom Groovy or Java program that can be executed via command-line is a cinch for a Java programmer.

Previous versions of Oracle BI, 11g, used JMX and MBeans that are no longer used for interfacing with the Oracle BI 12c system. The legacy means interfacing with administrative functions of Oracle BI has been replaced with RESTful services, SOAP web services, and the WebLogic Management Framework.

Migrating FMW Security to other environments

In previous versions of Oracle BI, migrating all components of security and other Oracle BI artifacts took place simply by moving the RPD and/or Web Catalog from the source to target server until Fusion Middleware was introduced. Oracle BI is much broader in scope and does not come with such a luxury. This section takes a glance at the files that comprise FMW Security within the System Management tools, leveraging the WebLogic security import/export utility to aid in simplifying security migration.

Please note that this section mainly discussed the users and groups in the WLS Embedded LDAP security provider. Application Roles are migrated mainly by the BAR file concept you learned earlier.

FMW Core Security files and OPSS

In order for Oracle BI 12c to store system-specific metadata and security information that requires some level of encryption to communicate between the many interoperable areas of Fusion Middleware, it uses (OPSSOracle Platform...

FMW Security Import/Export utility

WebLogic Server provides a mechanism for exporting and/or importing a full Security Realm, that is, users, groups, identity provider configurations, and so on, for the purposes of backup or migration to another Security Realm. Remember, the Security Realm, myrealm, handles the Identity Store portion of FMW Security, but the Enterprise Manager Fusion Control handles the configuration of the Policy Store. To migrate the security-realm security-provider information from one environment to another, you'll use the export and import functionality found within the WebLogic Admin Console.

Using the Security Realm migration utility

When migrating security, there are really two scenarios proposed to artifacts on your target environment: clean or dirty. If you have already done a clean migration (that is, the first time) to your target once, then the environment is now dirty. So, subsequent migrations must take into consideration the possibility of overwriting or replacing existing items. Regarding Security Realm migration, the WLS Security Realm migration utility handles all of this for you. For example, if you export a Security Realm from Development and it contains a group named BIAdministrators that also exists in the Production environment, the import into Production will not overwrite the BIAdministrators group already existing there.

To understand how to migrate the default Security Realm from one environment to another, follow these steps:

1. Open the WLS Administration Console and navigate to Security Realms > myrealm.

2. Click the Migration tab.

3. Click the Export sub-tab...

Oracle BI Publisher system management

Oracle BI Publisher can be embedded within Oracle BI or stand on its own as a solo installation. Based on the initial installation and configuration you conducted earlier in the book, BI Publisher's System Management tools are primarily the same as those used for Oracle BI. The WLS Administration Console and Fusion Control Console are used to monitor, deploy, and set some data source configurations for BI Publisher.

Monitoring system performance

Ideally an application server environment will monitor itself, regulate itself to optimize performance, and resolve any issues automatically if they occur. However, this is, of course, just wishful thinking! But luckily, WLS does at least provide mechanisms to monitor the environment and perhaps programmatically integrate monitoring with some of your existing IT standards for monitoring software. The ability to monitor WLS is available from the WLS Dashboard. This can be a very helpful means of gauging request loads, most active applications, and peak load times, all of which can contribute to a better understanding of when and in which direction to optimize the server(s).

Another approach to monitoring Oracle BI is under the analytics server itself. By entering the URL, http://<bi_server>:9502/analytics/saw.dll?Perfmon, a diagnostic view is displayed. This information provides insight into current activity and peak uses within the Oracle BI System Components...

Have a backup plan!

It's hard to get out of a chapter about managing a system without discussing backing up and disaster recovery. Again, an entire chapter could be filled with content on this subject, but that would be beyond the scope and intent of this book. Let's first be aware that backing up the FMW (that is, Oracle Home) folder structure and the Oracle BI artifacts is a good thing. The frequency is up to each organization, but once a week at a minimum is a good recommendation. Back up these items daily for high-availability or critical environments. Each application delivered with the Oracle BI Suite has its own backup consideration. Although OBIEE and BI Publisher comprise the main Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition software (don't forget Essbase, RTD, and the other analytics tools such as Interactive Reporting, and so on), they have some common metadata elements and some which are sole references.

If an outage were to occur after your Oracle BI environment has been placed...

Recommendations for further learning

This chapter looked at basic-to-advanced aspects of the Oracle BI System Management components. There were a few sections limited in coverage because of the advanced nature of the topics, but a high-level review was provided. As a step in the right direction, please explore the following recommendations for a chance to further your learning:

• WebLogic Scripting Tool:

  • http://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1221/biee/BIESG/bi_wlst_cmd.htm

• Understanding Oracle BI Security:

  • http://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1221/biee/BIESC/toc.htm

• LDAP Tools: JXplorer or Apache Directory Studio:

  • http://jxplorer.org/

  • https://directory.apache.org/studio/

• LDAP Configuration:

  • http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/bi.1111/e10541/toc.htm

• Oracle BI SampleApp (OBIEE 12c):

  • http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/obiee-samples-167534.html

• System Management API:

  • https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1221/biee/BIESG/index.html

• Service Instances in Oracle...

A review - what I should know now!

For self-review and a recap of the chapter, here are a few questions. No answers are provided. These questions are for your own reflection on the chapter:

• What is the method used to deploy the Oracle BI RPD and Presentation Catalog in Oracle BI 12c?

• From what tool do you launch and execute the ExportServiceInstance command?

• How many Security Realms are configured with the default Oracle BI installation?

• What are the key files that need to be backed up for Oracle BI?

• In WLS, what is the WLS Embedded LDAP directory?

• What is the Oracle BI 12c REST API, and what is WLST?

Summary

In this chapter, we explored the System Management tools required to administer the core components of the Oracle BI environment.

We discussed each main section of the Weblogic Server Administration and the Enterprise Management consoles. We provided insight and an example on how the application interfaces (APIs) can interface with Oracle BI to manage the environment programmatically. Finally, we took a look at deploying the core Oracle BI metadata components, migrating security, and monitoring performance. These management concepts should have provided you with an above average understanding of how to administer your Oracle BI environment and speculate on future activities you may need to facilitate within your organization. Weblogic Server and Weblogic Scripting is a large subject in its own right, and therefore we encourage you to undertake further reading. There are several books from Packt Publishing covering WebLogic, for example, Getting Started with Oracle Weblogic Server...