Installing SOA Suite 11g..

In this article, we would see how to install Oracle SOA Suite 11g R1 (11.1.1.1) on a Windows XP machine.

For installing 11g, minimum 1GB RAM is required. However, it is better to have atleast 2 GB RAM available.

Major steps in the installation are :

1) Installation of Oracle Database 11g
2) Creating Oracle SOA Schemas in the database
3) Installing Weblogic Application Server
4) Installing SOA suite 11g
5) Creating Weblogic domain
6) Starting and Accessing the Weblogic server
7) Installing JDeveloper



Step1 : Installation of Oracle Database 11g

This part is not covered here since many blogs are available which detail out the database installation.
1)Download Oracle 11g database setup (11.1.0.6 or higher) from here
2)Create a folder in C:\Windows. I used folder name OracleEleven. This will be your installation directory for all the installations.
3)Create two folders in this directory. One with name as Database and one with name as Middleware.
4)Install the database in the Database directory with basic install

Step2 : Creating Oracle SOA Schemas in the database

1)In SOA 10g, the internal database could be used which was OLite. In 11g, we need to use an external database. SOA needs to store the instance metadata and other data into some tables which are created inside the SOA schemas. For this reason, these schema need to be created in the database.
Download the zip file which contains the schemas to be created.
The file is present at this location. Name of the file is "ofm_rcu_win32_11.1.1.1.0_disk1_1of1.zip"
2)Unzip the file in any location in C:
Make sure that you are unzipping the file in C: and not on desktop or my documents.
The reason for this is that if the files are unzipped in a folder say on desktop, then the absolute path for bin folder contains spaces (documents and settings) and hence the setup is unable to find the batch file.
3)Once the files are unzipped, go to the location where they are unzipped.
Go to rcuHome/bin folder and run the batch file rcu.bat.
4)In the installer window, select create repository option. Give the database credentials. Make sure that you are providing user name with SYSDBA role.
5)Repository creation utility will check for pre-requisites. If any warning for character set pops up, click ignore.
6)Once check is done, on the next page give the name of prefix to be used.
This can be any string but usually given as Dev, representing the development environment.
In the component list, select following schemas:

a) AS Common Schemas > Metadata Services
b) SOA Infrastructure > SOAInfrastructure
c) SOA Infrastructure > User Messaging services (Auto selected)

8)Again, after checking prerequisites, on the next screen, provide schema passwords.
Its better to provide same password - welcome1 - for all schemas so that its easy to remember.
9)Ignore table spaces screen and go to next.Create schemas.

Step3 : Installing Weblogic Application Server

1)Download the executable for Weblogic server. It can be downloaded from here.

2)If you have not installed anything, there won’t be any middleware home present.
Select “create a new middleware home” and middleware directory created earlier in step1 as the Middleware home directory.
3)Uncheck the update
4)Select Typical
5)Check the directories
6)Select “All users”

Installation will start. Once the installation is complete, a screen with Done button will appear.
It will also have an option of run quickstart. Unselect the option.
We create the domain using this option, but only after the installation of SOA suite.


Step4 : Installing SOA suite 11g

1)Download the zip file for the SOA suite 11g from here
2)Name of the file is: ofm_soa_generic_11.1.1.1.0_disk1_1of1.zip
3)Unzip the file and go to the folder in command prompt.
4)Run the command setup.exe –jreLoc <space > <JRE Location>
Where JRE Location is the location of the JRE installed while Weblogic installtion in Step 3 above.
The location is folder named jdk160_11 in the middleware home. Note that we need to provide the absolute path here.
The installer window will open. Specify the Middleware home. Click Install. The setup will complete on its own. Click Finish once done.


Step5 : Creating Weblogic domain

1)Open the folder wlserver_10.3/common/bin in the middleware home
2)Run the file config.cmd
3)The prompt will launch a wizard for configuring the middleware. Select ‘create new Weblogic domain’
4)Select the following products:
a) Oracle SOA Suite - 11.1.1.0 (Oracle_SOA1)
b) Oracle Enterprise Manager - 11.1.1.0 (Oracle_SOA1)
c) Oracle JRF – This gets auto-selected

5)Give domain name. Default is base_domain.
6)On the next page, give username and password
7)On next screen select Development Mode in the left pan and Sun SDK(1.6.0_11) as the JDK in right pan
8)Next screen is for configuring the JDBC component schema. We had selected the four schemas earlier. Now they appear here.
9)For each schema provide the respective details. Values are:
Vendor : Oracle (default value)
DBMS Service : orcl
Driver: Oracle's Driver (Thin) for Service connections; Versions:9.0.1,9.2.0,10,11 (Default value)
Hostname: localhost or hostname where datasbase has been installed.
Schema owner : Don’t change
Port: 1521 or the correct port where DB is listening.
Schema Password: Enter the password which was provided earlier.
10) Click Next. The wizard will test the connections. Once done, click next, next and then click Create for creating the domain. Once complete, click Done to finish.

Step6 : Starting and Accessing the Weblogic server

To start the Weblogic server, go to middleware_home directory. In this, go to user_projects/domains/<domain_name>/bin folder.
Run the file startWebLogic.cmd
To start the managed servers (SOA suite) , run the file startManagedWebLogic.cmd, which is present in the same location.
Here, note that you need to provide the name of server. For SOA suite, the name is soa_server1
This name can be found in file startManagedWebLogic_readme.txt in the domain's home directory. The command is thus startManagedWebLogic.cmd soa_server1
Once the servers are in state running, console can be opened.
So open the browser and go to console main page by going to URL. hostname:port
Weblogic Application server console can be accessed on port 7001.
Once the main page opens, console can be opened by clicking the link on left hand top side of page, which says GO To Fusion Middleware Control. Once there, access the console by entering valid username and password.
Once in, verify that in the left hand side pane, in the Farm, a folder with name SOA appears and has a node with name soa_infra

Step7 : Installing JDeveloper


Once all the above is done, remaining part is very simple. JDeveloper studio version can be downloaded from here. Name of the file is jdevstudio11111install.exe

Along with this, an extension for JDeveloper also needs to be downloaded. This extension is required for developing SOA projects and file name is soa-jdev-extension.zip. You don't need to unzip the file.

Once this is done, start the installation for JDeveloper by running the installer.
If the Weblogic server was installed on the same machine, then you already have the middleware home present.
If not, then create a new middleware home. Once installation is complete, open JDeveloper. (select default role)
Go to Help > Check for Updates.
Select ‘Install from local file’ and browse the zip file downloaded as extension.
JDeveloper will ask for restart. Let it restart on its own.
Once re-started, click new application and verify that in the list of application types "SOA Application" is present.
That is it.. we are done!


Happy learning….