Installing the Portal and Forms Middle Tier Oracle Application Server Tips by Burleson Consulting

If you are going to install the midtier on the same server as the infrastructure then there is no configuration change required.  Unlike previous versions that required you to shutdown the Enterprise Manager web site, Application Server 10g installs over the fully running infrastructure.  In fact, provided that the infrastructure installation was successful, you can exit the installer and immediately restart it for the next installation. 

If you are installing the midtier on a separate server (recommended) you must ensure that the OS is configured and is able to communicate with the infrastructure server.  Any mid-tier installation that includes components above the J2EE and Web Cache must be able to communicate with an infrastructure tier or the installation will fail. 

Before starting the midtier installation, open a browser and navigate to the instance status page shown in Figure 3-17.  Notice the link at the top of the page labeled Ports.  Select the Ports link to get a list of the ports used by the infrastructure, Figure 3-18.

Figure 18: Infrastructure Port Page of the Application Server Control

Note the Oracle Internet Directory non-SSL port number, in this case 389.  The installer tries to use the standard LDAP port 389 (non-SSL) and 636 (SSL).  If you did not remove those ports from the /etc/services file, OUI will have installed it to another open port.   The ports are also listed in the $ORACLE_HOME/install/portlist.ini file.  You will need to know the OID ports during the midteir installation. 

Start the Oracle Universal Installer the in the same manner discussed above.  If this is the first OUI install on this server you will have to identify the inventory location and OS installation group name (oinstall in the example).  Continue to the Specify File Location screen shown in Figure 3-18.

Figure 19: Specify File Location Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

Remember that the Name is the name of this installation, not the instance name.  The Path is the ORACLE_HOME for this instance.  Click Next to continue to the Select Product screen.  Select the Oracle Application Server 10g to install any of the midtier options and select Next to proceed to the Select Install Type screen, Figure 3-19.

Figure 20: Select Install Type Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

On this screen you select the installation options that your system requires.  In this example we are installing both Portal and Forms, we will need to select the Business Intelligence and Form installation.  This installation includes BI and Forms, plus Portal and Wireless, all running on the J2EE with Web Cache.  Since we do not need BI and Wireless, we will not configure those components. 

Note:  If you chose the J2EE and Web Cache installation, the new instance will not be added to an infrastructure.  To take advantage of the security, manageability and high availability features of the infrastructure (Farms, Clusters etc) you must add the J2EE instance to an infrastructure.  Another easy way to archive this is the select the Portal and Wireless installation and then choose not to configure Portal or Wireless.  This will cause the OUI to configure the new instance as part of an infrastructure. 

After making your selection, click Next to proceed to the Steps for Middle Tier Installation screen.  Read through this screen and click Next to move to the Pre-Installation Requirements screen.  You will need to have root privileges to run the script near the end of the install.  Continue to the Configuration Options screen shown in Figure 3-20.

Figure 21: Select Configuration Options Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

This is the point where we determine which of the components are to be configured.  The component will be installed, but will not be configured and will not start.  If needed, you can configure the deselected components manually at a later time.  In the example, I chose to not configure the BI components; Discover, Personalization and Reports Services.   After making you configuration choices, select Next to proceed to the Register with Oracle Internet Directory screen shown in Figure 3-21.

Figure 22:Register with Oracle Internet Directory Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

Here you are identifying which Oracle Internet Directory that this new instance will use.  Host is the server host name where the infrastructure is installed.  The Port parameter is the port on the Host that OID is listening for request.  If you select the Use Only SSL ckeckbox then you need to enter the OID SSL port, if not then use the non-SSL port.  Normally the non-SSL port is used because Secure Socket Layer provides encryption of the communication, which is normally behind a firewall and encryption is unnecessary. Continue to the Oracle Internet Directory Logon screen shown in Figure 3-23.

Figure 23:Logon for Oracle Internet Directory Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

In this page you enter the Username and Password for connecting to OID.  The default is cn=orcladmin and the password is the ias_admin password for the infrastructrure instance supporting the OID.  For additional information on OID refer to Chapter 12. 

The next screen identifies which Metadata Repository this instance will use.  Select the database connection string from the drop down list and click next to move to the Instance Name and ias_admin Password screen.  As with the installation of the infrastructure, the instance name must be unique to each server.  The administrator for the instance is called ias_admin and can not be changed.  Enter a password for the ias_admin user.  The password must contain both numbers and letters and be at least 5 characters long.  The password is unique to the ias_admin user for this instance.   

The OUI will now display the Summary screen.  Remember, do not trust the disk space requirements on this screen.  Select Install to begin the coping, linking and configuration process.  You will again be ask to run the root.sh script as the root user.  After installing the components, the OUI will start the Configuration Assistants.  Finally, the OUI will display the End of Installation screen, shown in Figure 3-24.

Figure 24: End of Installation Screen of the Oracle Universal Installer

After taking note of the ports for this instance, select Exit to leave the OUI.  Log on to the mid904 (or whatever you named you instance) instance by pointing you browser at the Welcome Page URL listed on the End of Installation screen Figure 3-25.

Figure 25: Mid904 Instance Welcome Page

Although the screen said that the URL was to the Oracle HTTP Server, in fact the URL points to the Web Cache, that in turn request uncached pages from the HTTP Serve.  You will learn more about this in coming chapters.  The Welcome page has a number of useful links and you might want to spend some time looking around them.  Select the link on the right hand side of the page to log onto the Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Control.  This link will take you to the Farm Page of the Infrastructure that supports the instance.  Select the instance link to go to the Instance Status Page shown in Figure 3-26.  Here you can see the status of all the components belonging to this Instance.

Figure 26: Mid904 Instance Status Page

At this point, we have installed the Infrastructure and a Midtier Instance and both are up and running.  A couple of quick review points:

• Ensure the server has enough resources to support the installation as per the table at the beginning of this chapter.  You cannot trust the Summary Page space requirements numbers.

• Ensure that the OS is configured.  If you are installing more than the J2EE and Web Cache you must modify the kernel parameters.  Follow the Install Guide located at DISK1/docs/index.html.

• Midtier installations of more than J2EE and Web Cache require a running Infrastructure instance.

Now that we have the Oracle Application Server installed, there are some post installation tasks the need to be preformed.

 

This is an excerpt from "Oracle 10g Application Server Administration Handbook" by Don Burleson and John Garmany.