Informatica no longer supporting 8.6.1, I have completed a test upgrade on one of our internal development systems. This system is an installation of Oracle BI Applications 7.9.6.2 on Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 (64-bit) with the data warehouse and repositories being stored in an Oracle 11.1.0.6 database.
In case of any doubt Informatica 9.0.1 is now certified with BI Applications 7.9.6.0, 7.9.6.1 and 7.9.6.2 and 7.9.6.3. Details can be found in the ‘System Requirements and Support Platforms for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications version 7.9.6, Rev. N’ which was released in December 2011.
The upgrade ran smoothly and quite painlessly and this post will breifly cover the steps I took to perform the upgrade.
Source Information
The details of the steps to take can be found in the word document attached to note 1346738.1 on Oracle’s My Oracle Support site. This covers details for upgrading any BI Applications install from version 7.9.0 up to 7.9.6.2. (7.9.6.3 already uses Informatica 9.0.1 so no need to upgrade if you are on that version).
This document in 1346738.1 defers the bulk of the actual Informatica steps to the Informatica Upgrade guide. Getting access to this is the first hurdle…
The guide is contained in the Informatica 9.0.1 client software files that you can obtain from E-Delivery. These are located in the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Media Pack and comprise of 2 zip files (V26112-01_1of2.zip and V26112-01_2of2.zip). I had trouble extracting these with 7-zip, and the only way I could find to uncompress them was to use WinZip (I used the trial version from the WinZip website). Use WinZip to unzip all the parts as the supplied zip files uncompress to a 2 part zip file which itself requires unzipping, but if you have unzipped the original files with 7-zip the 2 part zip file won’t unzip!
Once you have the 2 zip files completely unzipped the actual document you need is in yet another zip file – Infa901Docs.zip. This can be unzipped with other zip programs fine, and actual pdf you need is:
Disk1\InstData\Documentation\en\PowerCenter\PC_901HF1_Upgrade85×86x_en.pdf
The only other document I used for reference was my initial install document just to check settings at the time.
Pre-Upgrade Steps
There are a few things you need to do before upgrading Informatica and here are the ones that applied to me (these and other later steps in the upgrade depend on your configuration – BI Apps version, database vendor etc so always refer to the official documentation).
- Backup the system. As we use virtualisation I took a snapshot of the virtual server before doing anything
- Verify file descriptors. Check that the max files is greater than 3000 with the command:
more /proc/sys/fs/file-max
- Check the $DISPLAY is set suitably
- Check $JRE_HOME,$PATH, $INFA_HOME,$INFA_DOMAINS_FILE are all as per documentation
- Backup the Informatica Domain with the infasetup.sh BackupDomain command
- Backup required metadata files
- Check the database requirements are met (open_cursors high enough and correct privileges granted to Informatica repository database user)
- Backup the Repository
- Shutdown the Domain
Upgrade Informatica Domain
To perform the upgrade a copy of the Informatica 9.0.1 software is required. Again this is available on E-Delivery for various platforms. To start the installer use install.sh command from the location the software has been extracted. You will be prompted at the command line whether you want to install or upgrade Informatica or apply Hotfix 2 to an existing installation, and whether you you want Console or GUI mode.
Choose to install/upgrade an existing install and use GUI mode (ensure $DISPLAY is set correctly):
On the first screen select that you want to upgrade to Informatica 9.0.1. You will then go through a couple of screens to verify pre-requisites, prompt for the existing installation location (8.6.1 install) and the location you want the new 9.0.1 install to go. After this despite the Informatica Domain being shutdown you still get asked to stop it… Just click OK here.
The next screen is a summary so check this and click install. After some time the screen appears with the database connections details, supply any required information and use the test connection button to check all is correct.
The only other screen of real note is the one to select which ports you want to use. I left them as default but change if you wish. Also note that the old default port (6001) is routed to the new port (default 8001) so this won’t need changing in DAC later.
Once the wizard is complete your Informatica server is now upgraded. The next step is to upgrade the application services within the Domain.
Upgrade Application Services
Before upgrading the services there are 2 pre-requisite steps:
- Configure environment variables – Set INFA_DOMAINS_FILE and INFA_HOME to point ot the new installation
- Clear your browser cache
To upgrade the servcies use the Informatica Administration console. The new URL to access the console is:
http://<servername.domain>:8002/administrator
In the top right corner is a ‘Manage’ menu. Use this to access the Upgrade Wizard:
This will prompt for the service to upgrade. You need to select your Repository Service here and then supply the username and passowrd for the Repository. This will then upgrade the service:
After the upgrade the repository will be in Exclusive mode – this needs resetting to Normal mode. You will also need to restart the Integration Service as I found this hadn’t started correctly.
Check Informatica Configuration
After upgrading the Domain and the Repository service its wise to ensure settings from the original install have been migrated, so check (and change if necessary):
- Source and Lookup files have been moved to the SrcFiles and LkpFiles directories under the new INFA_HOME directory
- ValidateDataCodePages variable is set to ‘No’ in the Integration Service configuration properties
- Custom properties (ServerPort and overrideMpltVarWithMapVar) are still set correctly as per original install
- The Repository Admin user is in the Native Security group
Configure DAC
DAC needs to know about the new installation directory so:
- Update dac_env.sh file to reflect the new INFA_HOME (this can be found in the root dac directory e.g. /u01/app/oracle/product/dac/bifoundation/dac)
- Change the InformaticaParameterFileLocation parameter under the DAC System Properties tab within the DAC client. This needs setting to the SrcFiles directory e.g.:
/u01/app/oracle/product/Informatica/PowerCenter9.0.1/server/infa_shared/
Conclusion
After following the supplied upgrade guide from Oracle I found the steps all fairly straight forward, and once finished I ran an ETL successfully with no issues. The upgrade itself is straight forward but as always it really should be performed by somebody with a good understanding of the BI Apps technology stack.
Oracle Doc
Goal
We are upgrading from informatica 8.1.1 to informatica 9.0.1(HF2).
The following note:
--> Support ending for Informatica Power Center 8.x - Action Required for Oracle BI Applications Customers (Doc ID 1346738.1)
provides guidelines on how to upgrade from informatica 8.1.1 to informatica 9.0.1(HF2).
But, 8.1.1 is installed in a 32-bit system and the requirement is to install 9.0.1 version on a 64-bit system and upgrade the existing 8.1.1 domain and the repository.
What are the steps to upgrade informatica from 8.1.1 installed on 32 bit os to 9.0.1HF2 installed on a 64-bit system?
Fix
According to Informatica in the document "HOW TO: Migrate PowerCenter 32-bit to PowerCenter 64-bit"
Here is the solution:
Note: Before you migrate, ensure that you have a 64-bit install and license.
To migrate a PowerCenter 32-bit installation to PowerCenter 64-bit installation do the following:
Disable the Services and shut down the domain.
Confirm that all PowerCenter processes have shut down.
Backup the nodemeta.xml file in the server/config directory. Backup the server.xml file in the server/tomcat/conf directory.
Install the 64-bit database client for the domain and repository.
Note: Ensure you rename the path where PowerCenter 32-bit is installed. If
you use the same path to install the PowerCenter 64-bit, some Java files
will not be updated and the following error is displayed:
ERROR: Node configuration file not accessible or invalid.
Run the PowerCenter 64-bit installer.
Continue the install until the point where the installer provides the option of creating a new domain or join an existing domain.
Terminate the install process at this point.
The PowerCenter 64-bit binaries are now installed.
Configure the PowerCenter 64-bit environment to use the 64-bit database client installed in step 5.
Restore the backup copy of nodemeta.xml file from step 3 in to the server/config directory.
Restore the backup copy of server.xml file from step 4 in to the server/tomcat/conf directory.
Start the domain using the command the following command:
Windows: infaservice.bat startup
UNIX: infaservice.sh startup
Log in to the Administration Console.
Create a new license service using the 64-bit license.
Select the old license (32-bit) and unassign the services.
Assign the services to the new license (64-bit).
Enable the services.
More Information
After migrating to Informatica 64-bit applications confirm that the database clients used with Informatica are also 64-bit.
Here is the solution:
Note: Before you migrate, ensure that you have a 64-bit install and license.
To migrate a PowerCenter 32-bit installation to PowerCenter 64-bit installation do the following:
Disable the Services and shut down the domain.
Confirm that all PowerCenter processes have shut down.
Backup the nodemeta.xml file in the server/config directory. Backup the server.xml file in the server/tomcat/conf directory.
Install the 64-bit database client for the domain and repository.
Note: Ensure you rename the path where PowerCenter 32-bit is installed. If
you use the same path to install the PowerCenter 64-bit, some Java files
will not be updated and the following error is displayed:
ERROR: Node configuration file not accessible or invalid.
Run the PowerCenter 64-bit installer.
Continue the install until the point where the installer provides the option of creating a new domain or join an existing domain.
Terminate the install process at this point.
The PowerCenter 64-bit binaries are now installed.
Configure the PowerCenter 64-bit environment to use the 64-bit database client installed in step 5.
Restore the backup copy of nodemeta.xml file from step 3 in to the server/config directory.
Restore the backup copy of server.xml file from step 4 in to the server/tomcat/conf directory.
Start the domain using the command the following command:
Windows: infaservice.bat startup
UNIX: infaservice.sh startup
Log in to the Administration Console.
Create a new license service using the 64-bit license.
Select the old license (32-bit) and unassign the services.
Assign the services to the new license (64-bit).
Enable the services.
More Information
After migrating to Informatica 64-bit applications confirm that the database clients used with Informatica are also 64-bit.
Customer used the following approach successfully and it worked for them:
1.install informatica 8.1.1 on a 32 bit system, create new domain, repository service, integration service and restore the backup repository.
2.install informatica 9.0.1 on 64bit system,created new domain
3.created new repository service with the same name as in previous installation.
4.after creating the repo services, the informatica prompted for upgrading the repository.
5.upgraded the repository,created integration services.
They were able to see all the previously developed mappings in the new client.
