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Installation Guide

# Preparing to Install BEA AquaLogic Data Services Platform

Before you install BEA AquaLogic Data Services Platform (DSP), you need to verify that your system meets minimum requirements. This chapter provides information about supported platforms, system hardware and software requirements, and describes installation prerequisites. The chapter also provides an overview of what is installed.

The following sections are included:

- Supported Platforms, Databases and JDBC Drivers
- Installation Prerequisites
- What Gets Installed

Note: Data Services Platform was initially named Liquid Data. Some artifacts of the original name remain in the product, installation path, and components.

# Installation Overview

This section provides a high level overview of the steps required to install DSP, illustrated in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 Overview of Installation Process

To install DSP:

1. Prepare to install the software.

Preparing to install DSP involves checking the supported platforms and databases, and verifying that you have the installation prerequisites in place. You can also familiarize yourself with a description of what gets installed on your system. To prepare to install the software, complete the remaining sections of this chapter.

2. Install the DSP software.

You can install DSP either in GUI mode, featuring an easy to use graphical installer application, or in interactive Console mode, suitable on UNIX systems without a graphics (windowing) workstation. Alternatively, you can choose to install DSP on Windows and UNIX systems using Silent mode, which reads an installer properties file to determine the install options.

For more information about using GUI mode, see Installing Data Services Platform Using GUI Mode. For more information about using Console mode and Silent mode, see Installing Data Services Platform Using Console or Silent Mode.

3. Perform post-installation tasks.

Following installation, you can verify that the installation was successful, and explore Windows shortcuts and UNIX paths to key components. For more information, see Post-Installation Tasks.

# Supported Platforms, Databases and JDBC Drivers

As a WebLogic Workshop application, DSP generally supports the same platforms, operating systems, processor architecture, SDKs, and RDBMS systems as WebLogic Platform 8.1 SP4. In general any thread-safe, transaction-callable DBMS accessible through JDBC should be available to DSP. For complete details see Supported Configurations for WebLogic Platforms.

Note: The minimum RAM recommendations are for one instance of WebLogic Server on which DSP is running. You may need more memory if you run two or more instances of WebLogic Server and DSP. Some systems use disk space as virtual RAM. Performance when running in virtual RAM may be markedly slower than when running in physical RAM.

## Supported Operating Systems and Hardware

The following operating systems and/or hardware that has been specifically tested with DSP under BEA Platform 8.1 SP4:

- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server on x86
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter on x86
- Microsoft Windows XP on x86
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 AS, ES on x86
- Sun Solaris 8 on SPARC
- Sun Solaris 9 on SPARC
- HP-UX 11i on PA-RISC

## Supported Databases

The following databases have been specifically tested with DSP under BEA Platform 8.1 SP4:

- Oracle 9.2.0
- Oracle 10g
- IBM DB2 8.1
- Sybase 12.5.2
- Microsoft SQL Server 2000
- Informix 9.3
- Pointbase 4.4 (sample development only)

## Supported Database-JDBC Driver Matrices

The following table describes results of testing DSP against various databases under different JDBC drivers. Both the BEA and native drivers were tested in XA and non-XA modes. Limitation encountered are noted as CR numbers in the Comments column.

Details related to those numbers can be found in the DSP Release Notes.

Table 1-1 Matrices of Databases and JDBC Drivers Supported by DSP

Database | JDBC Driver Type | Data Source Type | Comments
--- | --- | --- | ---
Oracle | BEA non-XA | tables | CR199675
|  | stored procedures | CR202963, CR212515
| BEA XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| Native non-XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures | CR212515, CR202962
| Native XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
DB2 | BEA non-XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures | CR227440
| BEA XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| Native non-XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures | CR227440
| Native XA | tables | CR227486
|  | stored procedures |
Sybase | BEA non-XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| BEA XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| Native non-XA | tables | CR223429
|  | stored procedures |
| Native XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
Informix | BEA non-XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| BEA XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| Native non-XA | tables | CR223486, CR226171
|  | stored procedures | CR230264
| Native XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures | CR230264
MS-SQL Server | BEA non-XA | tables | CR211701
|  | stored procedures | CR202041
| BEA XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| Native non-XA | tables | CR214730
|  | stored procedures | CR202041
| Native XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |
| BEA non-XA | tables |
|  | stored procedures |

## Configuring the DSP JDBC Driver for Reporting Applications

The following table describes the matrices for configuring the Data Services Platform JDBC driver for supported reporting applications.

Table 1-2 Matrices of Required Connectivity Software for Reporting Applications Supported by the Data Services Platform JDBC Driver

Application | Connectivity Software
--- | ---
|  | ODBC
| JDBC Native | EasySoft ODBC/JDBC Gateway | OpenLink ODBC/JDBC Lite Bridge
Crystal Reports 10 via ODBC | n/a | Yes | Yes
Crystal Reports 10 via JDBC plug-in | Yes | n/a | n/a
Business Objects 6.1 | No | Yes | No
MS Access 2000 | No | No | Yes
DBVisualizer | Yes | n/a | n/a

# Installation Prerequisites

You must have the following software installed on the system where you plan to install DSP:

- WebLogic Server or WebLogic Platform 8.1 SP4

WebLogic Platform 8.1 is available as a Web download from the BEA Download Center at http://commerce.bea.com/downloads/products.jsp. See the WebLogic Platform Installation Guide in the WebLogic Platform documentation for instructions on installing WebLogic Platform.

- WebLogic Workshop

You need to have WebLogic Workshop available to access DSP extensions to the development environment.

Note: If you are running Windows 2000, the maximum classpath size can be exceeded. For this reason it is recommended that when you install DSP, you install it into <`BEAHOME`> directory with a directory name of four characters or less such as <`BEA`>.

# What Gets Installed

The complete installation of Data Services Platform results in the installation of the following principal components on the system:

- Data Services Platform (running as a component in WebLogic Platform).
- BEA AquaLogic Data Services Platform configuration and monitoring pages added to the WebLogic Administration Console.
- Data service control
- Data Services Platform Console
- Sample domain
- RTLApp sample application

The following documents contain information that is useful to refer to after installing DSP:

- Data Services Platform Concepts Guide

Data Services Platform Administration Guide
When you install DSP, a valid evaluation license is automatically included with the installation.

## Preconfigured Samples Domain

The full Data Services Platform with Samples option provides a preconfigured samples domain as shown in the following table.

Table 1-3 DSP Samples Preconfigured Domain and Start Commands for Samples Server

Platform | Windows and UNIX Paths to Start in Each Domain | Description
--- | --- | ---
Windows | Start Æ Programs Æ BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 Æ BEA AquaLogic Data Services Platform 2.0 Æ Examples Æ RTL Demo or `<WL_HOME>/samples/domains/liquiddata/ \ startWeblogic.cmd` `<WL_HOME>/samples/domains/ldplatform/ \ startWeblogic.cmd` | Starts the DSP RTL Demo on Windows
UNIX | `<WL_HOME>/samples/domains/liquiddata/ \ startWeblogic.sh` or `<WL_HOME>/samples/domains/ldplatform/ \ startWeblogic.sh` | Starts the DSP samples server on UNIX

Note: `<WL_HOME>` is the home location of your WebLogic installation. By default, `<WL_HOME>` is `c:/bea/weblogic81`.

For a detailed explanation of domains, see Creating WebLogic Configurations Using the Domain Control Wizard in the WebLogic Platform documentation.

## Internationalization Support

DSP is internationalized and supports multi-byte data from the underlying data sources. Specifically, DSP works with Japanese character sets, where the underlying databases are running in Japanese locales.