Installing and Setting Up BI Server in Debian-based Distribution Files

The page contains an example of installing, setting up and deleting BI server based on Debian OS, Ubuntu OS and Astra Linux OS. The supported versions of Linux are given in the Supported Versions of Linux OS article.

NOTE. BI server functionality is limited by the set of available operations and their implementation.

In this article:

Preparation

Installing Apache HTTP Server with the MPM Coworker Module

The video tutorial how to install BI server to Ubuntu 16.04 is available on YouTube:

BI server installation to Ubuntu 16.04.

Preparation

Execute preparatory actions before BI server installation:

Make sure that the operating system is set up and hardware and software requirements are met for correct installation and full-functional work of Foresight Analytics Platform web application.
Set up DBMS back end.

Create metadata repository by one of the following ways:

On testing environment with Windows OS create a metadata repository, service user of the security subsystem and set up repository connection using Foresight Analytics Platform desktop application.

Before creating the repository, study the Installing Foresight Analytics Platform Desktop Application section.

On testing environment with Linux OS family create a metadata repository and set up repository connection.

After executing one of the operations, transfer repository and connection setting to production environment by DBMS means.

Install DBMS front end:

Oracle PostgreSQL SQLite Microsoft SQL Server

Download Oracle client from the official website (the basic, devel, sqlplus packages in the RPM format are required).

Consider installation using the example of the Oracle 12.1 client. Execute the following operations:

Convert the RPM packages into the DEB format by means of the alien utility:

sudo apt-get install alien
sudo alien oracle-instantclient12.1-basic-12.1.0.2.0-1.x86_64.rpm
sudo alien oracle-instantclient12.1-devel-12.1.0.2.0-1.x86_64.rpm
sudo alien oracle-instantclient12.1-sqlplus-12.1.0.2.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Install the obtained DEB packages (in the terminal using the dpkg utility or a similar utility) and the libaio auxiliary package:

sudo apt-get install libaio1
sudo dpkg -i oracle-instantclient12.1*.deb

After the installation add a path to the Oracle client libraries using the ldconfig utility to the list of dependent library search and update cache:

echo "/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/lib" > ~/oracle.conf
sudo cp ~/oracle.conf /etc/ld.so.conf.d/
sudo ldconfig

After BI server is installed, it is required to add export of the TNS_ADMIN variable with specifying the directory containing the tnsnames.ora file to the /etc/opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver/envvars environment variables file for Apache2 instance. The Apache2 instance should have access to the file, the www-data:www-data owner can be set for the tnsnames.ora file.

For details about creating a repository database see the Preparing Oracle Server subsection.

To install PostgreSQL client from repository, execute the following command:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

Alternatively, Postgres Pro client can be installed. The installation guide is available at the manufacturer's site.

For details on creating a database for repository see the Preparing PostgreSQL Server subsection.

If BI server is installed manually from archive or DBMS front end is installed after BI server installation, the symbolic link is to be created:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpq.so.5 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpq.so

Setup is not required. Copy a file with repository database to the server, grant access permissions of BI server to the file and add an SQLite repository and specify the database file.

If a repository is based on Microsoft SQL Server DBMS, it can be worked via ODBC driver. For details see the Preparing ODBC Driver to Connect to Microsoft SQL Server article.

NOTE. The possible problems that can occur after installing DBMS front end on connecting to DBMS server, are given in the sections describing the solving of possible problems on installation, update and on working with Foresight Analytics Platform.

Working with BI server of Foresight Analytics Platform requires installation of third-party packages that can be downloaded from the internet or from DVD repository or from ready DEB packages. If internet connection is provided via proxy server, determine settings required for connection.

Before installation of any packages, update package information in repository. To do this, execute the command:

sudo apt-get update

If the work is executed in Astra Linux SE OS, go to the section below about Apache HTTP Server with the coworker module installation. When working with other distribution files, including Astra Linux SE, this setting is not required.

Installing Apache HTTP Server with the MPM Coworker Module

On installing BI server DEB package on Astra Linux SE OS, first, install the Apache HTTP Server (httpd) build with the MPM coworker module and provide access to the repository (OS installation disk is suitable) containing the libc6 libstdc++6 libssl1.0.0 libglib2.0-0 libx11-6 libglu1-mesa libgomp1 xvfb packages.

The Foresight-httpd2.4.41-1~AstraLinuxSE~1.6_amd64.deb DEB package with Apache HTTP Server is included in the software package of BI server for Linux OS. Copy it to the home directory and install by executing the following command:

sudo dpkg -i Foresight-httpd*

After this proceed to BI server installation.

Installing BI Server

To install deb package of BI server, the access to repository with dependent packages is required: libc6, libstdc++6, libglib2.0-0, lsb-release, libx11-6, libgl1-mesa-glx, libglu1-mesa, libgomp1, libxi6, libxrandr2, libxrender1, libxcursor1, libxinerama1, fontconfig, fonts-liberation, xvfb, libldap-2.4-2, libqt5gui5, libqt5opengl5, qt5-image-formats-plugins, libssl1.0.2, libtiff5, libjpeg62-turbo.

If there are modules or packages not compatible with MPM Worker (for example, libapache2-mod-php5), they must be disabled in the BI server instance, or removed if they conflict with BI server installation. Then execute the following operations:

Copy a DEB package of the Foresight-fp9.2-biserver_9.2.*.deb type to the home directory.
Install the copied package (other utility can be used for package installation):

sudo dpkg -i Foresight-fp9.2-biserver*

Install the required dependencies (it may require to refresh a list of packages from repositories by the command sudo apt-get update):

sudo apt-get -f install

The following is made during the installation: a new instance of Apache2 configuration is created for BI server, the mpm_worker module is enabled, the fp9.2-biserver module is enabled for loading mod_axis2, links of the apache2ctl-fp9.2 type are created in the /usr/local/sbin directory to manage the instance, the apache2-fp9.2 service is registered and added to autorun, Foresight Analytics Platform files are installed, the Foresight-xvfb service is registered and added to the autorun to start virtual graphic display No. 987. The Foresight-xvfb service is started automatically, and apache2-fp9.2 must be started by the command:

sudo service apache2-fp9.2 start

On working on Astra Linux SE, the following command executes the start:

sudo service foresight-httpd-fp9.2 start

NOTE. To change BI server version, install another package version over the previous one. Configuration files are saved if their version is not updated in the package.

Setting Up Logging

After installing to monitor BI server performance and detecting various errors, the user can enable logging of system messages:

Add and uncomment the following strings in the file /etc/opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver/envvars:

## Uncomment line below to export extended log

#export PP_LOG=1

Add the following strings to the file /etc/apache2-fp9.2/mods-available/fp9.2-biserver.conf:

Axis2LogFile "/opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver/logs/axis2.log"

Axis2LogLevel info

Setting Up BI Server

BI server uses settings specified in the settings.xml file. See its structure and make modifications if required.

NOTE. A file with settings is optional. If the file is absent, default parameter values are used.

To get information about repositories to work with, BI server uses the registry.reg or Metabases.xml file. For details about setting up these files, see the Configuration and Setup article.
Activate Foresight Analytics Platform.
All additional files used by BI server must have access permissions for an Apache HTTP Server user:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver

After determining settings and granting permissions restart BI server service:

sudo service apache2-fp9.2 restart

or on working on Astra Linux SE:

sudo service foresight-httpd-fp9.2 restart

Check BI server performance.

The installed BI server will work in background as a separate Linux service. The Apache2 instance with BI server starts on the 808x port, where xx corresponds to the minor version of Foresight Analytics Platform release.

After installing and setting up BI server, proceed to the web application back end installation.

Removing BI Server

To remove BI server files without removing configuration files, execute the command and confirm removal:

sudo apt-get remove fp9.2-biserver

All configuration files in the /etc/apache2-fp9.2 and /etc/opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver folders and also new files that are not included into installation package in these folders and /opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver will be saved and can be used on the next package installation.

To delete BI server with configuration files, execute the command and confirm deletion:

sudo apt-get purge fp9.2-biserver

In this case, new files that are not included into the setup package, are saved.