Siebel 8.2.2 – First Impressions

November 4, 2011 By 4 Comments

Well, I’ve downloaded 8.2.2 Public Sector from eDelivery and unzipped all I need. Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve found so far!

ImageCreator – no more!

Unzipping all the JAR files into a single location left me a bit confused. Where’s ImageCreator.exe? No more, from what I can see! There’s a wee batch file called ‘snic.bat’ that does the job instead. Simply open a command prompt, set JAVA_HOME and run snic.bat. Behold, the new face of ImageCreator:

ImageCreator – but not as you know it

First thing to note – it works great in Windows 7 64-bit! WOO HOO! Thank you Oracle! :)

All the familiar options are there, so I opt to create installers for the Siebel Enterprise, Tools, Web Client and SWE. English language picked, it creates the installers. Simple, awesome, it works. Hurrah!

Installation

That done, I have two freshly created Windows 2008 R2 VMs ready to roll – one for the App Server / SWE and one for the database. I’ve taken the liberty of installing Oracle 11g in preparation – I hope you don’t mind! I’ve also set aside a Windows 7 64-bit VM for Siebel Client and Tools installations, with the 11g client already installed.

So, the installations. Are they now supported on Windows Server 2008? Well… Yes! The installation process for Server components now follows the OUI method of the Client and Tools installers for 8.1:

Familiar installer

Cool! Much better than the old 8.1 installers. Working great in 64-bit 2008 R2 too – no complaints about incompatibility!

Configuration

Launching the config shortcuts reveals a make over of the configuration wizards, in keeping with the installer look and feel. Everything works as before but it’s much cleaner and much more compatible.

Clean and compatible configuration

Initial Gateway Configuration failed and I don’t know why. You’ll notice that the file system structure of the installation looks very ‘Oracle’ like and far less ‘Siebel’ like – the configuration log files reside in a ‘cfgtools’ folder though I could find no error to speak of in any of the files. I was unable to uninstall the Gateway too – again, no trace of an error in the log files but the configuration wizard refused to complete successfully. Enterprise configuration ran without a hitch.

It’s at this point I will mention that the ODBC datasource for the Enterprise was created in the 32-bit subsystem. That is, checking in the registry (or through the SysWOW version of odbcad32.exe), you’ll see the ODBC entries in the WOW (Windows in Windows – the 32-bit subsystem supporting 32-bit apps in 64-bit Windows) area. This is a disappointment and certainly suggests no native 64-bit support. Checking the binaries in starting the Siebel Server and Gateway, I can see quite clearly that they are running in the 32-bit subsystem so are most certainly not native 64-bit. :(

GRANTUSR.SQL has received a well deserved make over – a far larger script prompts for more detailed information, performs more checks and is generally easier and safer to use. Excellent stuff.

SWE installation still does not support IIS 7.5 natively and requires the IIS 6 metabase compatibility to be enabled.

The rest of the configuration of the Database Server, Siebel Server and SWE are much the same as before.

Tools and Web Client

Familiar installation dialogs for Tools and Web Client. The only addition is the ability to sign up for Oracle updates, in line with newer Oracle product installations. Windows 7 is now seen as a supported OS, so no compatibility problems this time around. Nice!

Finally, support for Windows 7

 No problems with regsrvr hanging on the Client installation but the installer has crashed at 100% – ‘Updating registry key … AutoStartOnDisconnect’. I’ve had to kill it. :( Running again ‘As Administator’ seemed to get around this – still not great, thought. I want to be able to install client software without faffing around with UAC.

I’ve had to stop here – the ‘All Inclusive’ keys on the the Oracle License Key page are yet to include 8.2.2 keys, so I can’t go any further.

I’ll post again when I get chance to investigate some of the functional and technical changes present in 8.2.2.

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Filed Under: Installation, Public Sector, Siebel, Technology, Windows 2008, Windows 7 Tagged With: , , ,

Siebel 8.1.1.x and BIP – JRE Version

November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

More BIP fun today as I discovered yet another ‘gotcha’ while upgrading to Siebel 8.1.1.5.

I have been getting these errors while trying to upload report definitions:

SBL-EAI-05010: Class name incorrect or does not extend SiebelBusinessService

Okay, all very standard – just a typo in my CLASSPATH parameter for the Java Subsystem, right? Wrong! And here’s why:

Exception:java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/siebel/data/SiebelPropertySet (Unsupported major.minor version 50.0)

A quick MOS search reveals a new article:

JRE version 1.6 required for all Siebel versions from Fix Pack 8.1.1.4 onward [ID 1285062.1]

Now, I saw no mention of this in the Siebel Reports Guide. I’ve always used the JRE that comes installed as part of BIP and most other configurators that I know do the same. Not so with 8.1.1.5! As usual, there is very little detail in the article other than ‘install JRE 6′.

Here is what I did to resolve. Now, I’m not sure all of this is required but I’m so fed up of messing around with BIP that I’ve just gone ahead and done the lot. Feel free to experiment:

  1. Download JRE 6
  2. Install on the Siebel Server – I put the JDK in D:\Java\ and the JRE in the same location
  3. Update your Java Subsystem with the path to the JVM. (For example, if you’ve install Java in D:\Java\jdk1.6.0_27)

    4. change param DLL=D:\Java\jdk1.6.0_27\jre\bin\client\jvm.dll for named subsystem XMLPJvmSubsys

  4. (For Windows) Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable (For example: D:\Java\jdk1.6.0_27)
  5. (For *NIX) export JAVA_HOME (For example: export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_27/
  6. For good measure, I added JAVA_HOME\bin to my PATH

Rumour is that Siebel 8.1.1.6 is out and about – here’s hoping that some stability will be introduced into the BIP integration, not yet more problems!

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Filed Under: BI Publisher, Installation, Reporting, Siebel Tagged With: , , ,

OBIEE 11g and OBIA 7.9.6.3

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Been a while since my last post – parenthood is a full time job during which I still need to do my full time job! ;)

I’ve been installing OBIEE11g and OBI Applications 7.9.6.3 recently. I built a 64-bit Windows 2008 VM, stuck Oracle 11g R2 on there and went about installing:

  • OBIEE 11g
  • Informatica 9.0.1
  • DAC 10g

I’m posting about this because I found an amazing site that I used almost exclusively to do the installation:

http://gerardnico.com/wiki/obia/obia

It documents, in huge detail, the steps to perform a complete install on both Windows and Linux platforms. I’d highly recommend visiting this site and going through the steps yourself – the set up is lengthy and there are a number of manual tasks to complete. It took me almost 2 days to get everything up and working – really neat now it’s done though!

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Filed Under: Installation, OBIEE, Public Sector, Reporting, Siebel Tagged With: , , ,

Siebel and Windows 7 – UPDATED

June 29, 2011 By 14 Comments

I’ve recently rebuilt my laptop and a number of VMs, all running Siebel 7.8 and 8.1 on Windows 7. Once again, I was faced with the horror of getting ImageCreator, Universal Installer and Siebel running in a Windows 7 environment. I threw in Windows 7 64-bit as well, just to make things interesting.

As a result, I’ve discovered a few shortcuts to getting everything installed and working with minimal fuss – I’d like to share this with you. By the way, the photo in the screenshot below is of our beautiful daughter Emily – I couldn’t resist including it! :)

Don’t forget to check out MOS Article ID 796015.1 and make sure you’re using the version that Oracle has certified on Internet Explorer 8 – Windows 7 comes with IE8 hotwired in and no support for IE7.

ImageCreator

ImageCreator STILL does not work properly in Windows 7, even with the latest Siebel builds (8.1.1.5). To work around this in Windows 7, follow this excellent post from @lex in his Siebel Essentials Blog:

  1. Run: Windows_ImageCreator.exe -is:javaconsole -console
  2. Follow the prompts to build your installers

Install Siebel

The Siebel installers, surprisingly, STILL don’t support Windows 7. Who would have thought.

  1. First up, enable the Administrator account in Windows 7 by clicking Start, type CMD and right click CMD.EXE and ‘Run As Administrator’
  2. Run the following command: net user administrator /active:yes
  3. Restart your machine
  4. Login as user ‘Administrator’
  5. Run the installation via setup.bat as this user and you’ll get none and the grief that you had before. You’ll have to ‘ignore’ the checks on OS version that OUI tells you about
  6. This should work for both Tools and Web Client

Running Siebel Tools

Bless my barnacles, Siebel Tools almost kind of works out of the box with Windows 7! ODBC specific stuff below applies, though.

Tools will run just fine as long as you:

  1. Right click the Tools Shortcut and ‘Run As Administrator’ first time you use it. This lets it write some junk to the registry. After that, you’re good

Running Siebel Web Client

The Web Client – would you Adam and Eve it – doesn’t really support Windows 7. At least, you’ll have trouble with IE8 and I’d suggest putting off installing IE9 for now (and ever):

  1. Edit the Web Client .cfg file for the application you’re working with and edit as follows:

    EnableFQDN = FALSE

  2. In Internet Settings, add ‘http://localhost’ as an ‘Intranet’ site. Make sure the security settings for this zone let you do pretty much whatever with Active X controls – this lets the HIFO get in there. Refer to Article ID 1066053.1 on My Oracle Support
  3. If you’re using 64-bit Windows, add the following to your Web Client shortcut (or in the Debug properties in Tools). This ensures that the 32-bit version of IE is in use:

    /d Local /b “C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe”

  4. Finally, if you need to amend ODBC settings on 64-bit Windows, don’t forget to use the 32-bit ODBC administrator. The 32-bit Siebel executable will look here, not what you see in the 64-bit ODBC settings:

    C:\Windows\SysWoW64\odbcad32.exe

That’s it! Try it, post and let’s discuss.

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Windows Clustering in Siebel – Part 2

January 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s been a very, very busy couple of months! Our baby is due in March and we’re manically trying to get things in place! Exciting times, but I’m finding less and less time for my beloved blog.

I’m going to try to conclude my article on Siebel Clustering today – this article may be a bit shorter than usual, as I have to assemble the new baby changing unit that arrived this morning. ;)

You should have 4 servers now in your virtual environment:

  • A SAN server, exposing a folder location to act as the Quorum disk
  • A Windows 2003 DNS and AD server, so that we can maintain our clusters and they know where to find each other
  • 2 Windows 2003 Server that will run clustering, both registered on your new domain (I’ve gone for oli.com) and added as hosts to your AD

Your AD setup will look something like this:

The first thing to do is to enable clustering on the two hosts:

  1. Connect to your first cluster host
  2. Click Start > All Program > Administrative Tools > Cluster Administrator
  3. Select the File > New > Cluster… menu item
  4. Click next then enter the domain that you set up on the AD server you installed form last time. I’m using oli.com
  5. Give the cluster a name (SIEB-CLUST) and click next
  6. Enter the first node host name and click next
  7. Windows will validate your node and cluster config to make sure you have everything in place
  8. Enter an IP address for the cluster – something like 192.168.1.101
  9. Specific an Admin user within your domain (Administrator and the password you set up when configuring AD will do nicely)
  10. Click the Quorum button on the summary screen and make sure your shared SAN disk is selected
  11. Click next to finish the configuration.

You should see something like this:

Now add the second node:

  1. Select File > New > Node
  2. Add the name of your second host
  3. Windows will now do a bit of checking – enter your admin password, same as before
  4. Windows will complete the creation of the second node

You’ll have something like this:

Now to install the Siebel Gateway as a cluster service

  1. Perform a standard Siebel Gateway installation as normal
  2. When prompted, check the ‘Clustered Gateway’ option and specify the cluster name – SIEBEL-CLUSTER in the example above
  3. Install the Gateway to your shared disk resource – this would typically be a different drive to the Quorum disk, but we’ll use this in the example for simplicity
  4. Once installation is complete, create a generic service resource on your first node – we’ll use the Cluster Group for now but you should create a specific group for each application
  5. Specify the Siebel Gateway service name – gtwyns

Start it up and you’ll have something like this:

Now, fail the group over to node 2 and setup the Gateway:

  1. Right click the Cluster Group and select ‘Move Group…’
  2. You’ll see your resources come up on node 2
  3. Now, connect to node 2 as the Gateway installation disk is now hosted on this server
  4. Open a command prompt and navigate to the Gateway installation location and CD to the ADMIN folder
  5. Run the cluster configuration batch file: cluster_gtwy.bat
  6. This will set up various bits and pieces, such as ODBC entries, that will allow the Gateway to run on the second node.
  7. Fail the resource group back to node 1 and you’re done!

Hopefully this article will have given you a basic understanding of what’s involved in enabling Windows Clustering and installing Siebel components into the cluster.

As ever, please feel free to post your own experiences or ask any questions on this topic.

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