When seeking to upgrade one must assess first the current version of applications that they are on.  There is an immediate path for Siebel Analyics 7.5.x (specifically 7.5.3), Siebel Business Analytics 7.7.x and 7.8.x, Siebel Life Sciences 7.8.x and of course OBIA 7.9.x.  But more important than determining if your current version of Siebel Apps or OBIA has a direct upgrade path is to consider why you would conduct a migration/upgrade to the latest verion in the first place.  This really, in my opinion, boils down to a business decision. But as Oracle states in its OBIA upgrade documentation perhaps one of the following reasons are compelling enough for your organization:

1. You are already upgrading your ERP system
2. A desire to rock n’ roll with Oracle BI 11g’s platform latest and greatest features
3. There is a need for OBIA’s latest db support, language support, and other features
4. Cost savings due to end-of-life support maintenance to support your existing legacy in-place ERP, DB, or ETL (Informatica) versions.
5. The business requirements just demand the best, latest, and greatest version and all that it can offer.  The future is for the taking.

Really Dude, What are my options?

I think it boils down to an executive decision.  Either conduct the upgrade of OBIA and go full bore and get all of the benefits or conduct the platform upgrade to Oracle BI 11.1.1.5 (or the latest version) just to ensure that your team gets the new platform features.  Either of those decisions get your team on the latest version of Oracle BI to leverage and learn Fusion Middleware and all that surrounds Oracles roadmap for integration.  It’s a good train, get on it.

Of course, there are implications to both.  The former option is clearly more resource and time intensive.  You’ll be setting up the latest Oracle BI foundation/platform infrastructure in either case.  However, if your team does not have solid Oracle BI (OBIEE) resources in house, I highly recommend getting some outside assistance from a Oracle partner that specializes in BI.  I think of a Oracle BI novice resource as one that has not yet implemented Oracle BI Apps although there are some clear levels of skill here which can vary that opinion.

Upgrading Oracle BI Applications with either approach should not be taken lightly.  Proper planning should take place but again it is highly recommended to bring in an Oracle BI partner for this process.  Because you don’t know what you don’t know and there are many hindering or costly factors which can affect an OBI upgrade which could be mitigated by bringing in that helping hand and guidance of a partner.

A platform upgrade for Oracle BI Apps or a simple Oracle BI platform/custom built solution have about the same level of difficulty regarding installation and configuration.  Clearly, depending on the complexity of a custom built OBIEE solution (i,e,: number of data sources, subject areas, and dashboards/reports), factors such as re-modeling, post-configuration updates, regression testing, etc. can take just as long as a platform update of your Oracle BI Apps implementation.  The benefit of doing a platform upgrade for OBIA is that you get a quicker win than doing a full OBIA implementation upgrade which would include installation of the DAC and Informatica toolsets, and the process that goes along with full loading and testing the ETL and custom modeling work.

Technically Speaking

Oracle’s upgrade document goes into some detail on the technical changes from upgrading OBI Applications.  I won’t do so here as the main point to draw on is that Fusion Middleware changes everything.  So, get a resource, stick him/her in the basement with a few books, the Oracle product docs, a few VM Images, and access to Oracle E-Delivery and let em rip into FMW.  You’ll need someone on your team that at least has begun to understand the basics of FMW or be prepared to get some outside help.

In the End – Parallel Test ’til the Cows Come Home

I’ve seen clients wanting to run OBI 11g over there existing OBI 10g environment infrastructure on the same servers.  This makes parallel testing tough but still possible.  But, no matter the challenge, parallel running of the OBI 10g and 11g environments (dev, UA, prod, etc.) to compare and contrast a stable previous version environment against the newly upgraded environment is paramount to the project’s success.  This process alone can take multiple weeks to complete.  Start the buy-in from the business/end-users early on in the project to ensure they have set time aside for this invaluable and crucial part of the project.  Without regression testing or without the end-user/business interaction it will be difficult to truly state that the migration/upgrade was a success.  And, yes, automated regression testing does have a place here but many are still leery of that when it comes to BI, just remember that.

Summary

So, to wrap it up, I feel better having written this post as experience with several upgrades has shown me what works and what doesn’t.  There is a lot more detail than what I have shared, clearly.  But the above should give you some indication to the right approach to upgrading and a few reasons why to upgrade and even then options in which type of OBIA upgrades are possible.  Key buzzwords to recap are planning, partner assistance, and parallel testing.

Resources

• http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E20490_01/bia.7963/e19040/upgr_overview.htm#sthref16
• Patching FMW
  • http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E21764_01/doc.1111/e16793/patch_set_installer.htm#PATCH788

It is possible to install Oracle BI Apps 7.9.6.3 on the Oracle BI 11g platform which has been installed using the “Simple” installation feature.  Although this is in no way recommended for a production or even a real development or testing environment it can be helpful if setting up a simple demonstration environment.

When attempting this type of configuration, the Oracle BI Apps installer will hesitate during the installation process if the WebLogic Node Manager has not been started.  So, before kicking off an Oracle BI Apps installation on a “Simple” installation Oracle BI 11g environment, make sure the Node Manager  Windows service has been started and you’ll be good to go.

The Oracle BI 11g the Administration Tool is still available, of course but beware of your method in launching said application.  In OBI 10g, one could quickly locate the admintool.exe file in the folder directory or make a shortcut from the programs menu and place it onto the desktop for quick reference.  But, in OBI 11g this is not quite as easy.

The OBI 11g version of the Administration Tool requires a few checks and environment variable settings before it can launch correctly.  When the AdminTool launches correctly you should notice that a command prompt window also launches and will remain open on the desktop.

Closing either of the windows (adminTool or command prompt) will close the application. If you don’t see both of these windows when the adminTool is launched, you are doing something wrong.  Take a look at the properties of the program from the program menu for Oracle Business Intelligence.  You’ll see that the Target syntax is quite loaded.  Compare it to its 10g predecessor (see image comparisons below) and you can see what I am talking about.

10g

11g

Here is what the 11g Target syntax contains:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe "/cC:\Oracle\Middleware\OBI11g\instances\instance2\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\coreapplication\setup\bi-init.cmd coreapplication_obis1 2 && C:\Oracle\Middleware\OBI11g\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin\AdminTool.exe"

I bring this up mainly because, I have been using the shortcut of installing just the client tools (see my workaround blog post) using the software only install (Thanks a lot  Oracle for not providing a client only install : ) ).  This installs the binaries of OBI 11g including the adminTool.exe file but lacks configuration for one of the files that the simple/enterprise install would install, bi-init.cmd.  Of course, this is the one that is required for full “official” launch of the adminTool.  So, am I still able to use the AdminTool with the software only install (no post-configuration) method? Yes, I am.  But that has limitations. The main limitation I have seen so far is an inability to connect with Essbase or HFM but other RDBMS data sources, etc. seem to be no problem.  I am still working through that, but for now, I know if I conduct a client install without a post-configuration using the “software only” installation, I have limitations.  ‘Nuf said.

In closing, if in OBI 11g you are using a desktop shortcut to launch the AdminTool or if you are trying to launch it direction from the /server/bin/adminTool.exe location, stop it right now, and save yourself the certain headache of this new process.  Clearly one could batch script out the launch if so inclined.  I just thought I would give y’all a heads up.