Ports that come in handy in the Hyperion ecosystem

Ports are very important in the use of any application, especially the complex systems such as the EPM System. For example, if you had to type in the URL to access a Workspace, you are typing in the Port as well apart from the Server where the Workspace resides. The concept of Port is even more important if you are doing an EPM installation/configuration. Because we use several different Ports during EPM deployment, knowledge about what Port the different products in the EPM family use becomes very handy.

I have provided the following information regarding the Ports in accordance to system 11.1.2.1. Even though it may hold true to other versions as well, please do refer to manuals as per the version you are using for accuracy.

WebLogic Administration Server Port     7001

Foundation Services

1. Listen Port                                  28080

1. SSL Listen Port                          28443

Web Server Ports

1. Oracle HTTP Server                  19000

1. IIS                                              80

Performance Management Architecture Web Application

1. Listen Port                 19091

1. SSL Listen Port         19047

Performance Management Architecture Server         5251
Default Web Server Port           80 (HTTP) or 443 (IIS)
Essbase Ports

1. Essbase Agent                                                 1423

1. Essbase Server Applications                            32768 - 33768

1. Essbase SSL Agent                                         6423

1. Oracle Essbase Integration Services Server      3388

Administration Services Web Application

1. Listen Port               10080

1. SSL Listen Port       10083

Provider Services

1. Listen Port              13080

1. SSL Listen Port      13083

Essbase Studio Ports

1. Listen                     5300

1. HTTP Listen Port   9080

Reporting and Analysis Framework Web Application Ports

1. Listen Port              4500

1. SSL Listen Port      4504

Reporting and Analysis Framework Agent             6860
Reporting and Analysis Framework Services         6800-6805
Financial Reporting Ports

1. Listen Port               8200

1. SSL Listen Port       8243

Financial Reporting Print Service                 8297
Financial Reporting Scheduler Service          8299
Web Analysis Ports

1. Listen Port                     16000

1. SSL Listen Port             16045

Planning Ports

1. Listen Port                   8300

1. SSL Listen Port           8343

When an application is accessible via a network it means that it is using a TCP/IP port. When a port is used by an application, it cannot be used by another one. Even during installation/deployment, we will get an error message stating that a particular port is being used by another application. Therefore, the skill to find out what port is being used by what application comes in very handy.
If you want to find out what is using a specific Port, you can open the COMMAND PROPMT and type in

"netstat -aon | more"

or if you know the Port number, you can type in something liek "netstat -aon findstr "6800""

This way you will be able to find out what is being used, whether a particular port is listening, etc. 

How to create data source in WebLogic

This a tutorial about how to create a WebLogic Data Source.

1.      Log in to WebLogic Admin console.

2.      Click “Lock & Edit” in the left pane.

3.      Under “DOMAIN STRUCTURE” on the left, Drill down and click “Services -> Data Sources”

4.      On the right, click “NEW” (it has a drop-down arrow) -> “GENERIC DATA SOURCE” 

5.      There are three things to be filled out in the next screen - Name, JNDI Name, and Database Type. Fill them out as per your requirement and click NEXT.

6.      For Database Drive, choose the one as per requirement. In my case, I have chosen “Oracle’s Driver (Thin) for Instance Connection.” Click Next. 

7.      For the “Transaction Options” look at Oracle’s documentation regarding Transactions. It depends on the company’s requirements. Leave default in this case. Click NEXT. 

8.      On the screen that follows, enter the DATABASE NAME, HOST NAME, PORT, DATABASE USER NAME, and PASSWORD. Click NEXT.

9.      We will get the following “TEST DATABASE CONNECTION” screen where we can test the configuration. 

10.  Click “TEST CONFIGURATION” to test. If it passes, it will show a green check mark. 

11.  Click FINISH.  

How to start Oracle WebLogic

This is a tutorial regarding how to start Oracle WebLogic. WebLogic installation/configuration is automatic during EPM version 11 installation configuration, and we do not need to do much about it. However, knowing how to Launch WebLogic application comes in handy at times.

In order to start WebLogic, we need to first:

1.       Start WebLogic Server

2.       Launch the Administration Console

Starting WebLogic Server

1. 1        Start COMMAND PROMPT
2. 2.       Navigate to the domain directory, BEA_HOME/user_projects/domain_name (in my case, for example, the path is D:/Oracle/Middleware/User_projects/domains/EPMSystem1)
3. 3.       Run the startup script – startWeblogic.cmd
4. 4.       The startup script displays a series of messages. Finally we will see a message that looks something like this:   

   <Feb 11, 2013 9:50:42 AM EST> <Notice> <WebLogicServer> <000360> <Server started in RUNNING mode>

1. 5.       After the server has started, we can start the WebLogic Administration Console

Launching the Administration Console

1. 1.       Open up a web browser, Internet Explorer, for example.
2. 2.       Type in the WebLogic URL: http://hostname:portname/console (for example, if my hostname is normal the URL would be http://normal:7001/console) and hit enter.
3. 3.       The WebLogic login page opens up. 
4. 4.       Type in the username and password
5. 5.       Now w are in WebLogic.

      The default ports for WebLogic server are: 7001 and 7002 for HTTP and HTTPS respectively.

Essbase application stopped by itself

It so happened one day that my colleague told me that the data forms for one of the Hyperion Planning applications do not open. “They have some kind of error message related to Substitution variable,” this is what she told me.

In order to check and see what was going on, I logged on to EAS and to my horror, I could see that the particular cube had stopped. It was supposed to start when Essbase started (for the beginners, there is an option in EAS where you can start applications automatically or manually).

Now I had to figure out how I could get the cube started. First thing I did was to try and start it manually in EAS, by “right-clicking and starting” the application, however, it would not start. I tried to see if the application had been locked, and it was not the case. Then I stopped the Essbase Server by using the MAXL command and then started it again by going to the appropriate EXE file to start the Essbase Server. Howerver, the application did not start after this step as well. I, then, stopped the EPM system and started it again. All applications started but this one. As the last resort, after after getting some suggestions from the Oracle Forums, I rebooted the Server.

When the server came up, I started the EPM and logged on to EAS and finally the application had started along with its fellow applications. What I realized after this incident was that the server might have hung during the backup process of the applications which is why the application might have crashed. So, in case the same thing happens, you can try to follow suit.