Creating an OIA Hub Self Study Platform Part 1

I am regularly asked by students how to set up and install an OIA Hub for self-study purposes. So this post series aims to give people a guide to follow. Obviously this sort of thing is perilous because there are so many permutations and languages and settings and so forth. But hey, who dares wins, eh? Over on my other home, the Siebel Hub, the production and maintenance of these documents has proven to be extremely useful to many, so I am hoping that it will also be the case here.

It goes without saying that I will not be held responsible for anything whatsoever that might happen if you follow this guide, and it is exclusively your responsibility to respect test licenses, security, usage policy and everything and anything else. That said, let’s go – from zero to OIA Hub in under 2 hours from scratch!

Get Windows up and running

You are going to be using Windows 2008 R2 64bit. This guide was based upon it. Download an evaluation version.

You are going to be using Oracle VIRTUAL BOX. This guide was based upon it. Begin by downloading the latest version of Virtual Box and running it on your computer. We will install Windows 2008 on a new virtual machine. Here are the different steps.

Click the New button in the Virtual Box main window, choosing the options below. The name of the Virtual Machine is entirely up to you.

Memory is the Next step. Give as much as you can, whilst not going over the red line. Who knows, you might want to install other software in the Virtual Machine so choose a level for your needs.

The Virtual Machine needs a hard disk so that we can install Windows. Select to create a new disk of about 60 Gb, less if fine but 25 Gb these days seems to be the minimum to be comfortable.

Choose the default file type and carry on.

The storage options just keep the default.

The location and size is up to you, especially if you have a fast external hard drive you could put it there.

Click Create. Now we need to insert the Windows DVD image and boot the machine. Click the Settings icon and go to the Storage section.

You can see the DVD icon is “empty”. Click the DVD icon with the green plus sign.

Click the DVD icon and choose Virtual Optical Disk. Navigate to the ISO file you downloaded. Click OK and close the Settings.

Installing Pre-requisites for the OIA Hub

Our Virtual machine should now boot and we can login to Windows. Before you do that however ensure that you have network access from the Virtual Machine as you are going to do a lot of downloading now into the Virtual Machine.

In the virtual machine, download and install the latest Java SE (not JRE). Out of habit I installed it both in 32bit (x86) and 64bit (x64) but that probably wasn’t required.

All of the Java and the future MySQL and WebLogic downloads that you are about to do will require a free Oracle.com account.

You will also need to download and install Windows .NET Framework 4 before we download and install MySQL.

After downloading and installing .NET Framework 4, do not update it even if it asks you to.

Download and Install MySQL

The next stage of the plan is to get MySQL installed. We can install the latest available Community Edition ready to receive the OIA Hub database.

Find the download at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql 

If you followed the steps up to now, the installer should run without issue (it needs .NET Framework 4). Choose the Developer Default Setup Type.

Ignore the failing requirements. They will attempt to “auto fix” and should do so without any issues. Any failed components, you don’t need them anyway.

Push through these setup screens as illustrated taking defaults and clicking Next.

Execute the installation. This may take a long time, and you may receive warnings that it is taking too long. Ignore the warnings and click OK if they ask you to.

Following that phase of installation will come the configuration. Press on!

Create a root password for your MySQL server. Make a note as you will need it later.

Accept the defaults for the following steps.

Wait while the product configures. Again, you may receive time warnings. Ignore them and continue.

We’re all finished here now.

The MySQL install is finished.

Install WebLogic Server

Now we download WebLogic – I chose 12c Quick Installer for Developers

Inside the zip file there is a JAR file. We launch it like this.

C:\…..\bin\ java -jar fmw_12.2.1.0.0_wls_quick.jar (from a Command Prompt, substituting “….” with your path to the JDK. The readme file has details.

The installation is entirely without questions or steps to fulfill. Just watch and wait. When it has completed, you will need to start the configuration wizard. You can see how to do that in the window shown below.

And so we move on to part two…(this post is getting too long!)