Installing and Setting Up BI Server on ALT Linux

The page contains an example of installing, setting up and deleting BI server on ALT Linux 7. The supported versions of Linux are given in the Supported Versions of Linux OS article.

On working in ALT Linux 8, it is required to preset the distribution file version in the /etc/lsb-release file, for example:

DISTRIB_RELEASE="8.1"

The specified version will be used for verification on package installation. If the package is not supposed to be used in the specified version, the installation will be aborted.

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

In this article:

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. To do it, copy RPM packages and install them with the following command:

sudo yum localinstall oracle-instantclient*

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 yum install postgresql

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/lib64/libpq.so.5 /usr/lib64/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 in Foresight Analytics Platform requires installation of third-party packages that can be downloaded from the internet or from DVD repository if the internet is not available, or from ready RPM packages. If an internet connection is provided via the proxy server, determine settings required for connection.

Setting Up User

This section is relevant if during or after OS installation an additional user is created in the system. If installation is executed under the root user (not safe), the su and sudo utilities need not to be used.

To add the user who can execute the commands using root super user permissions (root password was entered during installation of the distribution file), execute the following operations:

Log in to the system under the account created during installation.
Open the terminal by selecting the main menu item Programs > Standard > Terminal. In the dialog box that opens execute the command of console login under root user:

Enter root user password.

Edit /etc/sudoers file:

vi /etc/sudoers

After the strings:

## Allow root to run any commands anywhere

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

Add a string:

<user name> ALL=(ALL) ALL

Enter the working account name instead of the <user name>. Press F2 to confirm changes.

su <user name>

Or just close console window and reopen it.

Installing BI Server

The BI server RPM package installation requires access to the repository with dependent packages: glibc, glib2, libgomp, libjpeg, libXi, libXrandr, libXrender, libXcursor, libXinerama, fontconfig, findutils, bash, sed, openssl-libs >= 1, libglvnd-opengl, libstdc++, redhat-lsb-core, httpd, xorg-x11-server-Xvfb, libpng, mesa-libGL, mesa-libGLU, openldap, liberation-sans-fonts, qt5-qtbase, qt5-qtbase-gui, qt5-qtimageformats, openssl-libs >= 1, libglvnd-opengl, xorg-xvfb.

To install packages, execute the commands in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install glibc

sudo apt-get install lsb-core

sudo apt-get install xorg-xvfb

To install Apache, execute the command:

sudo apt-get install apache

After the required packages have been installed, install BI server:

Copy an RPM package of the "Foresight-fp9.2-biserver-9.2.*.rpm" type to the home directory. Hereinafter, 9.2 is a version of Foresight Analytics Platform release version, for example, for Foresight Analytics Platform 9.2 the RPM package has the following name: Foresight-fp9.2-biserver-9.2.*.rpm.
Install BI server package (other utility can be used for package installation):

rpm -ihv Foresight-fp9.2-biserver.*.rpm

The following is executed during the setup: a new Apache2 configuration instance is created fort 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, the files of Foresight Analytics Platform are installed, the Foresight-xvfb service is registered and added to 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:

systemctl start httpd2-fp9.2.service

After installing to monitor BI server work and detecting various errors the user can enable logging of system messages. To do this, add and uncomment the following strings in the file /etc/opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver/envvars:

## Uncomment line below to export extended log

# PP_LOG=1

Add the following strings in the files /etc/httpd2-fp9.0/conf/mods-avaible and /etc/httpd2-fp9.0/conf/mods-enabled:

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 apache:apache /opt/Foresight/fp9.2-biserver

After determining settings and granting permissions restart BI server service:

sudo systemctl restart httpd2-fp9.2

NOTE. In ALT Linux, commands may differ depending on the systemd or SysVinit initialization manager in use (systemctl or service).

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 the Foresight Analytics Platform release version.

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