OBIEE 11g - Manually Upgrade Catalog from 10g to 11g

This allows for catalog upgrade from 10g to 11g version without having to run the GUI tool - UA. 


1. Copy 10g catalog to a temp location
2. Stop 11g BIPS
3. Update instaceconfig.xml to the 10g catalog location i.e. <CatalogPath>10g_Location</CatalogPath>
4. Add these flags to instanceconfig.xml –
<Catalog>
<UpgradeAndExit>true</UpgradeAndExit>
</Catalog>

5. Start BIPS – This will upgrade the catalog and shutdown automatically
6. Remove the flag true from the instanceconfig.xml
7. Start BIPS again



Sachin
Architect - Oracle Engineered Systems
Exalytics/Exalogic/Exadata
BuzzClan LLC

BuzzClan is a business consulting company collaborating to provide Oracle software advisory services & implementation services. BuzzClan LLC is committed to providing substantive business value on each and every client engagement. We do this through a combination of industry-specific business expertise, technical skills, proven project management methods and our “onsite - off site - offshore” delivery model. We strive to work in partnership with our customers to build high-performance teams and create business solutions that will last.

OBIEE 11g - RPD Upgrade issues

Sachin
JainSys Inc. These are couple of issues I have encountered so far while upgrading from 10g to 11g on the RPD side.
These are simple issues, but the error message are not very forthcoming. Hope this helps you get through.

1. All the TNS entries required in the RPD should be available in the TNS file for the server to start successfully after the conversion. If you see these errors in the log files, update the TNS entries to match the 10g server's.

[OracleBIServerComponent] 
[nQSError: 17014] Could not connect to Oracle database. 
[[[nQSError: 17001] Oracle Error code: 12154, message: ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified at OCI call OCIServerAttach.



The TNS entries should be made in this location:

MW_HOME\network\admin\


More details about the directory structure at : OBIEE 11g - Demystifying the directory structure

2. If your 10g RPD has BI Event Tables for caching, remove them before the upgrade. The upgrade process does not convert them over properly, and it will result in errors related to "invalid cache" .


[nQSError:58004] A fatal error occurred while initializing the cache.

3. If you were trying to upgrade the catalog, and the Upgrade tool froze somewhere in the middle, then there is a good chance that you will not be able to start PS anymore.
There will be all sorts of error messages in your error logs, but none of them will point to this:
Look at the instanceconfig.xml and search for the following entry:

<Catalog>
<UpgradeAndExit>true</UpgradeAndExit>
</Catalog>
OR

<ps:Catalog xmlns:ps="oracle.bi.presentation.services/config/v1.1">
         <ps:UpgradeAndExit>true</ps:UpgradeAndExit>
      </ps:Catalog>

If you see this, remove this entry and restart the services.
Some errors that will show up in the saw.log files if this is the case:

[OBIPS] [NOTIFICATION:1] [] [saw.catalog.scrubacls.scrub] [ecid: ] [tid: ] Scrubbed 0 of 661 records[[
File:scrubacls.cpp

[OBIPS] [NOTIFICATION:1] [] [saw.subsystem.catalog.initialize.upgrade] [ecid: ] [tid: ] Upgrade catalog started[[
File:initializecatalog.cpp

Multiple entries similar to this

[OBIPS] [WARNING:1] [] [saw.subsystem.catalog.initialize.upgrade] [ecid: ] [tid: ] WARNING: missing SAW_CATALOG_REGISTER_IOOBJECT_FACTORY for scorecardperspectivelist1[[
File:upgradesearchhandler.cpp


I will be updating this log with other issues I encounter!


Sachin
JainSys Inc.

WebLogic - Boot Identity File

Every time a weblogic server is started using scripts or when it is setup as a Windows service, it needs the Weblogic admin userid and password.

One way to ensure that the scripts are not waiting for the user response every time is to create and store the user credentials and save them as a file. the boot identify file starts out as a plain text file, but when the server is started for the first time after (every time a change is made to the file) the entries are encrypted and it is more secure than storing unencrypted credentials in a startup or shutdown script file.

Steps to create the boot identify file:

1. Start the Administrator server once and provide the credentials when prompted.
2. Create a text file and place the following text in it:

username=username

password=password

3. Save the file as boot.properties in the security directory of the server's root directory
D:\app\Administrator\product\11.1.0\MiddleWareHome\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\bi_server1\security
4. The server automatically uses this file at next start and stop.
5. The content of the file after the encryption looks something like this
#Sun Dec 05 17:51:49 CST 2010 password={AES}T2DxUm0Oy3kG3xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxysyJaxjpOSg5Tqw\= username={AES}IV+SFI84mucU0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxCVfWIMPOtlU8\=