OAS Upgrade Question

We are planning on updating our tools release from 8.96.2.2 to the current release of 8.97 sometime in the next month or so. Our developers have requested that we install it only for our DV path code first so they can do some initial testing before putting it to PY for user testing. Our DV and PY path codes run on the same web server.

Seeing as we are running OAS 10gR2 for 8.96 can we install a parralel instance of OAS 10gR3 for 8.97 on the same server to run DV without affecting PY? What does that do for the HTTP default ports, etc. and accessing them? When we're ready to upgrade PY to 8.97 can we just uninstall OAS 10gR2 after the update and then install the Web Cache portion from it again? Not sure if it's that's simple and I don't have a spare server to test it on.

This question may have been asked before but I did a search and could not find anything.

[ QUOTE ]
Seeing as we are running OAS 10gR2 for 8.96 can we install a parralel instance of OAS 10gR3 for 8.97 on the same server to run DV without affecting PY?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think not. Installing 10.1.3.x would overright 10.1.2.x. It certainly would be a nightware keeping the ports from clashing. I would install it on different hardware or put it on a vm-ware session. Do you have servers that you can borrow? Our infrastructure guys do that sometimes, if we have a server purchased but not in use yet, we'll "loan it out" to a different project.

Gregg

[ QUOTE ]
I think not. Installing 10.1.3.x would overright 10.1.2.x. It certainly would be a nightware keeping the ports from clashing.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is wrong. Oracle figured this out a long time ago with Oracle Database and the "Oracle Homes" feature.

OAS 10.1.3 does not upgrade 10.1.2. It is a standalone, limited feature release. You can have as many instances of 10.1.2 or 10.1.3 running together on the same hardware as you have resources to support.

If you install 10.1.3 on the same server as 10.1.2, provided 10.1.2 is running at the time, the OAS install routine (Oracle Universal Installer, or "OUI") is smart enough to pick different port numbers, generally incrementing by a value of 1 for each port configured.

10.1.3 is not a full OAS release, it is the SOA Suite, J2EE and Oracle OHS (Apache) HTML server. For a basic JAS install you would pick the latter 2 and install to a new Oracle home.

You can even consider putting both 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 instances behind a WebCache (which is running within an OAS 10.1.2 instance), either sharing an "Oracle Home" with JAS or a different Oracle Home, either on the same box or another box. In this way you could more easily migrate your users (developers, analysts, business users) from one instance to another using virtual hosts and a temporary stage/test virtual host for the migration. Once testing is completed for a particular environment, you would change the origin host for a WebCache site from the 10.1.2 instance running 8.96 to a 10.1.3 instance running 8.97.

Based on the posters question, I would recommend leaving the WebCache instance running on the same box, and once testing has been completed for both DV and PY, and 8.96 is no longer valid for those environments, deactivate the OC4J containers for those instances after pointing the WebCache origin servers to the 8.97 JAS instances, which would now be running in the 10.1.3 OAS instance installed on the same server.

Charles,

I stand corrected. Score one for OAS. Lets see Websphere do that trick.

What do you mean by let "WebSphere do that trick"?

Do you mean detect port numbers and automatically select a different range? If so then yes it does this.


Colin

not that trick, that's easy. the trick I was refering to was politely letting two different versions of websphere cohabitate and cooperate on the same piece of hardware.

thinking about Charle's post reminded me that 10.1.3.x does not have a webcache. so one of the ways to configure it is to have co-existance between the two releases and use 10.1.2 as the webcache.

strange product. 10.1.3 is a "partial" release that came out after 10.1.4. It is still dependent on 10.1.2 for webcache. You don't here Oracle talk much about 10.1.4 because it is a HIGHLY speacialized version. lots to learn and absorb. I figure that by the time I have this version figured out, OAS 11 will come out with the weblogic components baked in so I have to learn it all over again.

Of course you can have multiple version of WebSphere cohabitate on the same piece of hardware.

Okay, so they don't cooperate and act more as independant islands but you can install as many different instances of Websphere that you want. You can have the any version and even several copies of the same version.

The only (soft) rule is that you install the older version of WebSphere first. Not a big problem if you don't since you just edit the serverindex.xml or the virtualhosts.xml documents with the port numbers you want.


Colin

Actually, Greggs answer was correct in the "spirit" of the question. Oracle has JUST come out with how to configure the 10.1.2 Web Cache with 10.1.3 OAS E1 installations. And obviously, you correctly stated that the 10.1.3 is not a "complete" version in so far as it doesn't have all the capabilities for load and HA stuff.

If the original poster has a hardware based solution for what the web cache does via software...then yes, 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 OAS instance can easily exist on same servers.

[ QUOTE ]
If the original poster has a hardware based solution for what the web cache does via software...then yes, 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 OAS instance can easily exist on same servers.

[/ QUOTE ]

It will work whether or not the original poster has a hardware based solution for caching and/or load balancing.

10.1.2 and 10.1.3 can coexist on the same box. There are no external requirements. Since the original poster asked a very specific question, a very specific answer is that yes they can do that and not impact PY (and see my original reply for some of the details.)

Let me restate my position - a risk averse solution to test out 10.1.3.x would be to place it on a different server. The server could be physical or virtual. When we have that type of requirement, we request a vm-ware session from our infrastructure group, and install the software there. When done, we tear down the vm-ware session. That scenario eliminates the possibility of "mucking up" the current web server.

If that is not an availible resource, than Charle's solution is correct (and my original reply incorrect); yes it is possible to have two releases of OAS co-existant on the same server. One caveat - extreme care will be required to ensure that the new installation does not screw up the old installation. Also, I would advise the original poster to get a "get out of jail free" card from his manager. Get something in writing that acknolwedges the risk of attempting this type of installation so that he does not get hit upside the head with a two by four if something goes wrong with the installation and configuration. But hey, that's just the way I roll.

Gregg

Thanks everyone for all their responses. The one nice thing about being able to have two versions on one hardware is that it would be easy to roll back in case we uncovered a major issue after going live in Production that may not have been uncovered in our testing phase. I'll let everyone know how the dual install goes after we do some initial tests.

I like the VMWare idea too but I believe our VMWare storage space is maxed out according to our server guys. They're looking at expanding it but I don't know when that will be done.

[ QUOTE ]
I like the VMWare idea too but I believe our VMWare storage space is maxed out according to our server guys. They're looking at expanding it but I don't know when that will be done.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tell the server dudes that you don't need a very large amount of disk space, and you only need for a short term project. You will however need at least two gigs of RAM dedicated for the virtual machine. Our guys tried to pawn off a 500 MB ram virtual machine. I couldn't even launch the installation program

I speak from real world experience. It just works.

I've been running a configuration, in PROD, where multiple OAS 10.1.2.x instances exist along with multiple 10.1.3.x instances.

Some of it has been running together for almost two years, while the rest was consolidated, onto a new server along with the aforementioned components, as part of our spin-off from our former parent company.

I have in production on the same "box", actually an
IBM PowerVM DLPAR running AIX 5.3 64-bit:

[*]Oracle Identity Management - OID/SSO (OAS 10.1.2.0.2)
[*]Oracle Portal 10.1.4 (OAS 10.1.2.0.2 with Portal 10.1.4 metadata)
[*]JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Tools 8.97 JAS (OAS 10.1.3.1 integrated with Oracle Single Sign-On)
[*]Oracle BI Enterprise Edition 10.1.3.3.2 in OBIEE native security - Oracle SSO just around the corner (OAS 10.1.3.1)
[*]EMC Documentum 5.3 SP6 - both Webtop & Documentum Administrator, or "DA" (OAS 10.1.3.3)
[*]Oracle Portal Provider - JDE Tools 8.97 JAS (OAS 10.1.3.1)

I did this to keep each application on a "supported" version of OAS per the vendor, with the option to consolidate into one or two instances if/when the versions collide.

That last 10.1.3.1 instance serves as our Oracle Portal provider for JDE. It is not integrated with SSO at the OC4J or instance level. It was just easier to get it working this way.

So, six OAS instances running on the same box, each with different purposes or patch levels, and no issues to speak of...and yes I've done something similar for another company on Windows Server 2003, albeit with fewer components (minus the non-JDE stuff)....


....None of my posts have been an attempt to "one up" or "show up" anyone on this list. I composed those responses in terms of "black and white".