In this article:

Installing and Setting Up BI Server in RedHat-Based Distributions

This article contains the example of installing, setting up and removing BI server in RedHat-based distributions. Supported versions of Linux OS 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.

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.
Install DBMS front end:

Oracle PostgreSQL SQLite Microsoft SQL Server

To install Oracle front end, download the 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 this, 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 in the /opt/foresight/fp10.x-biserver/etc/envvars environment variables file, it is required to add export of the TNS_ADMIN variable for the Apache2 instance and specify the directory where the tnsnames.ora file is located. 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 website.

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 should be created:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/libpq.so.5 /usr/lib64/libpq.so

SQLite setup is not necessary for front end installation. 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 may 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 unavailable, or from ready RPM packages. If an internet connection is provided via proxy server, determine settings required for connection.

If there are modules or packages not compatible with MPM Worker (for example, php), they must be disconnected in the BI server instance, or removed if they conflict with BI server installation.

After preparation, proceed to BI server installation.

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, httpd. If there are modules or packages not compatible with MPM Worker (for example, php), they should be disconnected in the BI server instance or removed if they conflict with BI server installation.

Copy the foresight-fp10.x-biserver-10.4.*.rpm RPM package to the home directory.
Install the BI server package (other utility can be used for package installation, yum installs all dependent packages during installation process):

sudo yum localinstall foresight-fp10.x-biserver*"

During installation, a new configuration instance httpd is created (hereinafter, names httpd, Apache HTTP Server and Apache2 are equal, that is, they describe the product: https://httpd.apache.org, that is not connected to Apache Tomcat web server, Java servlet container), MPM worker is enabled, the fp10.x-biserver module is enabled to load mod_axis2, links of the apachectl-fp10.4 type are created in the directory /usr/sbin to manage the instance, the httpd-fp9.x service is registered and added to autorun, Foresight Analytics Platform are installed, the foresight-xvfb service is registered and added to autorun to start the virtual graphic display No. 987. The foresight-xvfb service will be started automatically, and httpd-fp10.x will require to be started by the command (it is required to disable or set up SELinux and restart operating system beforehand):

sudo systemctl start httpd-fp10.x

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.

After installing, to monitor BI server work and detecting various errors the user can enable logging of system messages. To do this, add the following string in the file /opt/foresight/fp10.x-biserver/etc/envvars:

# PP_LOG=1

Add the following strings to the file /etc/httpd-fp10.x/conf.d/fp10.x-biserver.conf:

Axis2LogFile "/opt/foresight/fp10.x-biserver/var/log/axis2.log"

Axis2LogLevel info

After the installation return to the basic steps and continue web application installation.

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/fp10.x-biserver

After determining settings and granting permissions restart BI server service:

sudo systemctl restart httpd-fp10.x

Check BI server performance.

The installed BI server will work in background mode as a separate Linux service. The Apache2 instance with BI server starts on the 80xx port, where xx corresponds to the major version of Foresight Analytics Platform release.

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

Creating a Metadata Repository

A metadata repository can be created in two ways:

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

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

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

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

Removing BI Server

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

sudo yum remove fp10.x-biserver

All files in the folders /etc/httpd-10.x and /opt/foresight/fp10.x-biserver, and also the new files that are not included in the installation package will be saved and can be used on next package installation.