Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer Architecture

14-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware High Availability Guide Oracle Discoverer is a business intelligence tool for analyzing data. It is a key component of Oracle Fusion Middleware. Discoverer provides an integrated business intelligence solution that comprises intuitive ad-hoc query, reporting, analysis, and Web publishing functionality. These tools enable non-technical users to gain immediate access to information from data marts, data warehouses, multidimensional OLAP data sources, and online transaction processing systems. Discoverer integrates seamlessly with Oracle Portal and Oracle WebCenter, enabling rapid deployment of Discoverer workbooks and worksheets to Web portals. Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer can be installed individually or collectively.

14.1.1 Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer Architecture

Figure 14–1 Illustrates a single-instance Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer deployment. Figure 14–1 Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer Architecture Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer Common Components Figure 14–1 includes the following common components: Configuring High Availability for Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer 14-3 ■ Oracle Web Cache performs two functions. Its primary function is to serve static Web content from its cache, much faster than could be achieved by the Oracle HTTP Server alone. If Oracle Web Cache does not have a cacheable page in its cache, or that page is not current, it requests the page from the attached Oracle HTTP Servers. The second function of Oracle Web Cache is used in high availability environments. It receives a request, and if it cannot service that request from its own cache, it can load balance it between several Oracle HTTP Servers. Oracle Web Cache is optional, but can be used in conjunction with Oracle Forms, Reports and Discoverer. ■ Oracle HTTP Server is responsible for assembling requested pages. Page assembly is not always straightforward. Depending on how the page is made up, the Oracle HTTP Server performs one of the following: – If the page is a simple HTML document, then the Web tier finds and returns the document. – If the Web page needs to be assembled by executing a Java EE application, the Oracle Web Tier routes the request to Oracle WebLogic Server, which, after processing the request, sends the result back to the user through the Oracle Web Tier. – If the Web page needs to be assembled by executing some other application such as PLSQL or CGI, the Oracle Web Tier routes the request to the appropriate application, and once that application has processed the request, it sends the result back to the user through the Oracle Web Tier. – If the requested page is security controlled, the Oracle Web Server invokes Oracle Identity Management to ensure that the user is authorized to view the page. The Oracle HTTP server can be used as stand-alone or in conjunction with Oracle Web Cache. In Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer deployments, the Oracle HTTP Server uses an Apache module called mod_wl_ohs to route requests to the Oracle WebLogic Managed Servers. When WebLogic Managed Servers are clustered together, mod_wl_ohs load balances requests among all Managed Servers in a given cluster. ■ Oracle WebLogic Managed Servers are the Java EE runtime containers for Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer Applications. ■ Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server OPMN is used to start, stop, and monitor Oracle Web Cache and Oracle HTTP Server. It periodically polls Oracle Web Cache and the Oracle HTTP Server to ensure that they are functioning. If they are not functioning, OPMN takes appropriate action to restart the failed component to ensure that service is maintained. ■ Oracle Node Manager is used to start, stop, and monitor Oracle WebLogic Managed Servers including the Administration Server. It periodically polls the WebLogic Managed Servers to ensure that they are functioning. If they are not functioning, the Oracle Node Manager takes appropriate action to restart the failed component to ensure that service is maintained. ■ The Oracle WebLogic Administration Server contains both the WebLogic Administration Console and the Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Manager. It is active only once within a WebLogic domain. If the server hosting the Administration Server fails, it must be manually restarted elsewhere. 14-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware High Availability Guide ■ Oracle Single Sign-On is Oracles Enterprise authentication mechanism. Oracle Single Sign-On is integrated into Oracle HTTP Server for each of the product components. When a request which requires authentication comes in to the Oracle HTTP Server, it determines whether the user has been authenticated through the Oracle Single Sign-On server. If the user has been authenticated, the request is processed. If however, the user has not been authenticated, the Oracle Single Sign-On server is contacted to gain authorization.

14.1.2 Common Log Files