If you've come from a 10G / Siebel Analytics background you could be forgiven for thinking that managing your 11G environment(s) is a bit like herding cats.
There's a new file over here, another service over there and any number of utilities scattered in the 11G directory forest; the trick is bringing them all together for a smooth deployment process.
Core development activity is mostly unchanged (Catalog or Repository, some Publisher), but security administration is much more comprehensive. Firstly, it is in at least 3 places:
- policy store,
- catalog,
- repository, then
- a fourth if you've OIM / OAM installed (user to group mappings)
Industries with particular security requirements (banking, defence, security services) will welcome these added security features, but for release and deployment it means extra steps.
Recently my concentration has been on efficient deployment; scripting as many of these steps as possible to keep deployment time to a minimum, all the while keeping track of the deployed version on each of the target environments.
Venkat highlighted some 11G migration challenges a while back, while John M. put together samples of scripting with WebLogic (WLST).
Getting
deployment steps right is crucial to being nimble on large scale deployments.
Key considerations are:
When
dealing with a lot of environments get into some good practices around version
management for your components (where possible). For example:
Rough
steps for a core OBI 11G deployment process are outlined in the diagram.
N.B. Back-up of core components should be considered as part of any deployment process.These tasks are not depicted.
Midvision, for example, also think deployment shouldn't be a drag for any project and are successfully commercializing the deployment process.
What's this all got to do with front-end components?. Well, it's 'runcat', correct and efficient catalog deployment ('runcat')! We'll look briefly at 'runcat' in the next post.
Sorry this entry has been so long, unlike me...
DR. OBI
