Starting and Stopping BIEE from command line

BIEE11g uses now Weblogic as application server. This means we need to know some basic commands such as how to start and stop Weblogic server (WLS). In addition to this from the previous post we know that BIEE11g does not only require WLS but also other additional processes. All this plus the need to interact with these components by means of a script in a development / test environment led us to the conclusion that we need to know how we can start or stop BIEE (or even its processes) from a command line. So let us get in this:

Starting BIEE:

1. First, read and understand the BIEE11g architecture. This is discussed in a previous post (it can be found here).
2. So now, you know we need to start / stop basically the Java and System components respectively:
   
   a. The Java Components:
   

   i. Admin Server
   ii. Managed Server
   

   b. System Components (OPMN Processes)
   

   i. BI Server
   ii. BI Presentation Services
   iii. BI Java Host
   iv. BI Cluster Controller
   v. BI Scheduler

Fortunately we do not need to create scripts for each of the components from scratch since during BIEE11g installation some of them were already created for us. We will make use of some of them: ( Note: In our examples our Fusion Middleware home is C:\fusionMW )

1. Start NodeManager:
This process starts automatically in Windows as a service (everytime the OS is restarted). Additional reference for this component can be found here

2. Start Admin Server:
Command: startWeblogic.cmd
Path: C:\fusionMW\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin

You will be prompted for the admin user and password. You either enter these values everytime you start/stop the services or alternatively you can set these values in boot.properties file.

The WLS will have started when you see these messages:

OPTIONAL:
File Name: boot.properties

Content:
username=enter your user name here
password=enter your password here

For WLS place this file in:
C:\fusionMW\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\security

For Managed Server place this file in:
C:\fusionMW\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\bi_server1\security

The next time you restart WLS the password in the boot.properties will be encrypted.

3. Start Managed Server:
Instance: bi_server1
URL: http://hostname:7001
Command: startManagedWeblogic.cmd bi_server1 http://hostname:7001
Path: C:\fusionMW\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin

The Managed Server will be up when you see the following lines:

4. Start All OPMN processes

Finally, you need to start all OPMN processes: BI Server, BI Presentation Services, BI Java Host, BI Cluster Controller, BI Scheduler.

Start OPMN services:
Command: opmnctl.cmd startall
Path: C:\fusionMW\instances\instance1\bin

Monitor Progress:
To monitor the progress of this task simply put the following command in a similar window (from the same directory):
Command: opmnctl.cmd status -l
Path: C:\fusionMW\instances\instance1\bin

Once all processes are "Alive" then you will get this screen:



Stopping BIEE:

This process is almost the same but in reverse order. To stop all BIEE services you will have to perform the following commands in the respective order in the same directories where each of them started

1. Stop OPMN processes:
> opmnctl stopall

2. Stop Managed Server (bi_server1)
> stopManagedWeblogic.cmd bi_server1 t3://hostname:7001 username password

3. Stop WLS (Admin Server)
> stopWebLogic.sh username password t3://host.domain:7001

This is all you need to know about it to get started. If you already installed BIEE11g then you should be familiar with the Start/Stop BIEE services script that the installer produces. Well, that script uses a series of ANT commands to produce the same effect we have here described. In a future post I will explain about ANT and take such script as example.

Until next time