OBIEE11g Architecture

OBIEE11g is a business intelligence and analytics platform that delievers a full range of capabilities like interactive dashboards, adhoc querying, notifications and alerts etc.

OBIEE11g installation results in 2 components: An Oracle BI Domain and a BI Schema(BI schema is a repository schema that contains meta-data about 11g environment. 2 DB schemas are created: BIFOUNDATION and MDS)

The overall system is called "Oracle BI Domain" and is made up of 2 components : Java and Non-Java(System Components)

Java Components are JEE applications and are hosted on Weblogic Server11g on a Managed sever.

System components are C/C++ executables and are controlled by OPMN.

The description of various components is as follows:

Machine: Machine is a physical computer that hosts weblogic server(s).

Weblogic Domain: The basic administrative unit of weblogic server installation. It is a logically related group of weblogic server resources that you manage as a unit.

Admin server: Admin server is the central point of control for a domain. It stores the configuration information and logs for a domain. It also run the weblogic administration console. The domain configuration information is maintained in file config.xml

Managed server: Its any server in the domain which is not Admin server. There can be multiple managed servers in a domain but only 1 admin server. Typically in a production environment, managed servers are used to run business applications while admin server is used to manage resources. The failure of a admin server for a domain does not affect the operation of managed servers in the domain. If the domain admin server becomes unavailable while the server instances it manages are running, the managed servers continue to run.

In a domain with only a single weblogic server instance, that one server functions as both admin server and managed server.

Cluster:

A weblogic server cluster consists of multiple weblogic server instances running simultaneously and working together to provide increased scalability and reliability. A cluster appears to clients as 1 weblogic server instance. The weblogic server instances that constitute a cluster can run on 1 machine or on different machines. Each weblogic server cluster is managed by a single admin server.

Node Manager: It’s a java program enabling you to start and stop server instances- both admin server and managed server remotely and to monitor and automatically restart them after an unexpected failure. There will be 1 node manager on each physical machine. Node manager is usually implemented as a startup service so that if a machine restarts, the node manager is active automatically. A Node Manager process is not associated with a specific WebLogic domain but with a machine. You can use the same Node Manager process to control server instances in any WebLogic Server domain, as long as the server instances reside on the same machine as the Node Manager process. Node Manager must run on each computer that hosts WebLogic Server instances—whether Administration Server or Managed Server—that you want to control with Node Manager.

Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN) is installed and configured with every Oracle Application Server installation type and is essential for running Oracle Application Server. In OBIEE11g, OPMN is used for starting/stopping BI System components

Oracle BI Instance: A collection of system components on a single host.

Farm: All instances across Oracle BI Domain. Each EM FMW installation manages a single farm which can contain one or more instances and a single weblogic domain.

Weblogic Admin Console: It’s a browser-based GUI used to configure a domain. It enables to monitor and manage weblogic domain

Enterprise Manager: Its also a browser based tool and is used to manage, monitor and configure BI System Components.  Some of the activities done from EM are: starting/stopping BI System Components, Deploying RPD, Configuring Defaults like cache size, performing diagnostics and logging