Friday 3 January 2020

EPM 11.2 Reusing a Single RCU Repository

Edit: some news here - Oracle Support is saying that actually the RCU doesn't need to be run for each server in your environment. To paraphrase slightly:

"EPM 11.2 requires Repository Creation Utility (RCU) to create schemas to support Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Java web applications.
After running the RCU on your first server and before running EPM System Configurator on your second, the RCUschema.properties file on each EPM machine must be updated (on all your servers). There is no need to run the RCU on your other servers.
EPM Configurator "Deploy to Application Server" tasks will fail until Repository Creation Utility (RCU) has been run to create supporting Weblog schemas and EPM_ORACLE_HOME/common/config/11.1.2.0/RCUSchema.properties has been updated properly."

This appears to contradict what the documentation says, so we may have to wait for official clarification.




So the RCU is a new requirement for EPM installations with 11.2. Previously it was required for the EPMA batch client or the DRM web API deployment but now it is required for every EPM environment you wish to deploy.

One thing in the installation guide stuck out to me: "You must run RCU on each machine in your environment."

Excuse me: what?

I've had dealings with the RCU before, and never do you need to run it twice. The repository is created and then used. So I read that line with... let's say some scepticism. Once I actually went through the EPM configuration I found that, yes, the configtool will error out if you try to reuse a previously configured RCU repository. So you can't scale out without creating another prefix in the RCU for every server you have. I also found the RCU had shortcomings of its own.

What I say next is not official or supported in any way. It is of academic interest only, currently. But there is actually a reason why you can't reuse the RCU repository.

When you first run the configtool on your 2nd machine it will try to push some configuration into the tables you configured in the RCU. This configuration already exists, so that fails.

Subsequent runs of the RCU will then attempt to query the EPMSystem domain configuration to find those same tables. However the domain configuration hasn't been properly set up on that machine yet, so it will again fail. If it can find the domain configuration then it will work.

I have tested a method to get around this - it works flawlessly in my testing. The method is this:

  1. On your second machine, attempt the "Deploy to Application Server" tasks for your chosen applications. Let it run, fail and complete.
  2. Then browse to "E:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\EPMSystem\" directory and rename the "config" folder to "config_old".
  3. Next copy the "config" folder from the location above on your first server, to the same location on your second server.
  4. Finally re-run the configtool, selecting the same "Deploy to Application Server" tasks. This time it will succeed.
As I said - this is just for information. I will probably raise an SR to get Oracle to address this issue, since it seems like just a silly mistake that the configtool tries to read the domain configuration when it isn't available on that machine.

2 comments:

  1. Hi,
    Thank you so much for the info.
    So when we try to install and configure in Second Server.No need to run RCU .Just we need to update properties file ?

    After this do we need to follow this steps ?
    n your second machine, attempt the "Deploy to Application Server" tasks for your chosen applications. Let it run, fail and complete.
    Then browse to "E:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\EPMSystem\" directory and rename the "config" folder to "config_old".
    Next copy the "config" folder from the location above on your first server, to the same location on your second server.
    Finally re-run the configtool, selecting the same "Deploy to Application Server" tasks. This time it will succeed.


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  2. Hello, Thanks for the info. It works as you mentioned in the blog. Have you heard anything from Oracle yet about the Official clarification on how to use RCU in distributed install? Kind regards, BD

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