Installing and Setting Up BI Server on Zircon OS 36C

The page contains an example of installing and setting up BI server based on Zircon 36C OS. The page also contains an example of setting up httpd services to work with BI server.

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

In this article:

Preparation

Setting Up User

Installing BI Server

Installing and Setting Up httpd Services to Work with BI Server

Setting Up BI Server

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 of 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 internet connection is provided via 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

To install BI server, execute the following operations:

Copy the files into the home directory:

Archive *.tar.gz with installation files of BI server of Foresight Analytics Platform.

Unpack the archive to the /opt/Foresight/9.2 directory by executing the following commands in the terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/Foresight/9.2

cd /opt/Foresight/9.2

sudo tar xvfz ~/<archive name of Foresight Analytics Platform>.tar.gz

sudo chown -R apache:apache /opt/Foresight/9.2

NOTE. If only one BI server version is installed on the server, execute the following commands to add a path to BI server files into the list of dependent library search paths.

echo "/opt/Foresight/9.2/bin" > ~/pp.so.conf

sudo cp ~/pp.so.conf /etc/ld.so.conf.d/

sudo ldconfig

Install additional packages for the BI server of Foresight Analytics Platform by executing the following command in the terminal:

sudo yum install libpng libgomp libjpeg libmng mesa-libGL mesa-libGLU fontconfig libXi libXrandr libXrender libXcursor libXinerama

Disable the firewall or set it up according to httpd port settings for access from the network:

sudo service iptables save

sudo service iptables stop

sudo chkconfig iptables off

sudo service ip6tables save

sudo service ip6tables stop

sudo chkconfig ip6tables off

After this install and set up httpd services.

Installing and Setting Up httpd Services to Work with BI Server

It is recommended to set up xvfb virtual display before the installation.

To install and set up httpd services to work with BI server, execute the following operations:

To install httpd, execute the following command in the terminal:

sudo yum install httpd

If the installation failed and the message "conflicts with file from package httpd-2.2.15-9.el6.x86_64" appears, remove the package httpd-2.2.15-9.el6.x86_64 by executing the following command:

sudo yum remove httpd

NOTE. The httpd version number that will be contained in the message depends on the installed httpd version and can differ from the specified in the example.

After that reinstall httpd:

sudo yum install httpd

Install the xorg-x11-server-Xvfb package:

sudo yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb

Then set up xvfb. The graphics setup example is given in the Outputting Graphics via xvfb Virtual Display subsection.

Determine httpd start parameters, to do this, open the httpd file by executing the following command in the terminal:

sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/httpd

Add the following strings at the end of the file:

## Foresight Analytics Platform

export WSFCPP_HOME=/opt/Foresight/9.2/bin

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$WSFCPP_HOME:/opt/Qt-4.8.7/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export TNS_ADMIN=$WSFCPP_HOME

# Uncomment line below to export extended log

#export PPLOG=1

export HTTPD_LANG=en_US.UTF-8

export DISPLAY=localhost:987.0

NOTE. The specified example uses the Qt 4.8.7 version. If OS contains another version, correct the specified strings by specifying corresponding version of Qt.

Change settings in the configuration file. Open the httpd.conf file by executing the following command in the terminal:

sudo vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Remove the <IfModule worker.c> tags with their contents from the file. Add to the end of the file:

ServerLimit 1

StartServers 1

MaxClients 64

MinSpareThreads 32

MaxSpareThreads 64

ThreadsPerChild 64

MaxRequestsPerChild 0

</IfModule>

CoreDumpDirectory /tmp

## Foresight Analytics Platform

# Uncomment line below if use httpd 2.2

LoadModule axis2_module "/opt/Foresight/9.2/bin/libmod_axis2_2_2.so"

# Uncomment line below if use htppd 2.4

#LoadModule axis2_module "/opt/Foresight/9.2/bin/libmod_axis2_2_4.so"

Axis2RepoPath "/opt/Foresight/9.2/bin"

Axis2LogFile "/opt/Foresight/9.2/bin/logs/axis2.log"

Axis2LogLevel info

Axis2ServiceURLPrefix services

SetHandler axis2_module

</Location>

Change KeepAlive Off for KeepAlive On for correct work with Java client under Tomcat.

Make the Apache user the owner of the /opt/Foresight/9.2 directory by executing the command in the terminal:

sudo chown -R apache:apache /opt/Foresight/9.2

Disable the SELinux access control system. To do this, open the selinux file by executing the command in the terminal:

sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux

In the window that opens set SELINUX to disabled. Restart the computer.

Enable the MPR worker module in the httpd file. To do this, open the file by executing the command in the terminal:

sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/httpd

Uncomment the string:

HTTPD=/usr/sbin/httpd.worker

Run httpd services by executing the command in the terminal:

sudo chkconfig httpd on
sudo service httpd start

If after executing the command the error message "Syntax error on line 1 of /etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_dnssd.conf" appears, execute in the terminal:

sudo rm -f /etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_dnssd.conf

sudo service httpd restart

Check performance of the BI server started under httpd by the URL in the browser: http://localhost:80/axis2/services/. A page with the list of BI server operations should open (see the Checking BI Server Performance section).

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/9.2-biserver

After determining settings and granting permissions restart BI server service:

sudo service httpd 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 80xx port, where xx corresponds to the minor version of Foresight Analytics Platform.

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