Building an OBIEE Test Lab

About 1.5 years ago I bought myself a nice little desktop. The only issues I've had with this computer over that time are the OS upgrades (Ubuntu). It has been an outstanding machine. I currently have 3 "computers" running, 2 Windows VMs and the host machine. I've had upwards of 5 running at once. That's with only 24 GB of RAM. I plan on upgrading to 48 in the near future (max of 96).

One of the motivators for buying the machine was the recent (at the time) release of OBIEE 11g, which required significantly more power. I've installed OBIEE 11g a number of times in virtual machines, but usually just put everything on a single machine (Oracle Enterprise Linux).

Now, I'd like to build out a machine for each component. Why? I have no earthly idea. Fun perhaps?

So here's my starting point:



There are no lines or anything yet, I'm just trying to get it down on paper before I start.

There are 4 distinct sets of software there:

• Oracle Database 11.2.0.2 - This will serve as the repository for OBIEE and most likely OVD/OAM (I don't know that software well enough yet).
• OBIEE 11.1.1.6
• Oracle Identity Management
• Oracle Web Tier - This is the Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle WebCache. You can find it on e-delivery

That means you can ignore the "Oracle LDAP" and replace it with Oracle Identity Management. I'll figure out later what all the components will be.

Also, you could split that up into 5 software components. You can install WebLogic by itself and then install (software only) OBIEE on top of that. Doubt I'll go that route for this first go, but we'll see. None of this includes source systems either. Somewhere around here I have a fresh install of EBS. Then I would have to install Informatica and the DAC. I'm sure I could get this up to 10 machines. I must watch out for scope creep. Bah, who am I kidding?

As I update my Visio doc I'll update the blog as well and share the progress with you.

I'll start by creating a snapshot of Oracle Enterprise Linux (5.7 I believe is the latest compatible release with OBIEE) and then use that as the base for everything else (database, web tier, etc). If I'm missing something or you think I should add something, leave a comment.