Monday 9 December 2013

Patch Delivery System v0.2

Update: Apologies, the ZIP file was altered by anti-virus software and this is not usable. I will have to update the script after I have come back from my travelling.

Update 2: The fixed ZIP file is now available! I will soon be starting a parallel project to create a very similar script in a proper programming language like Perl, Python, Java, Jython or possibly AutoIt. I believe Perl and Jython are supported out-of-the-box by EPM and OBIEE installations so they may be preferable - although I will have to double-check.

You will have to forgive the lack of posts recently, I have embarked on an adventure and don't always have ready access to a computer!

This is to release the next version of PDS (Patch Delivery System).

This set of Windows batch scripts provide a way of streamlining the process of patching a Hyperion EPM installation. Basically with a little preparation it means you can run one script that will install the patches in the order you require, giving the operator time to read the README file for each patch before continuing to the installation. This removes some of the manual effort from patching the system.

New features for this version include OBIEE support! This is assuming that the BI_ORACLE_HOME variable has been set, and the ORACLE_INSTANCE variable should also be set up. As an aside it is highly recommended to add these 2 environment variables to OBIEE installations whether you are using PDS or not as they resolve some issues.

Also there is some more error-checking and more prompts available to check with the operator if a patch has actually applied successfully or not.

For the next versions I would like to find a reliable way of detecting if a patch has applied successfully or not to remove the need to prompt the user for information - but that would require getting deep into the inner workings of OPatch, unfortunately.

You can download v0.2 of PDS here.