What is really required for V10 and Oracle Retail

[Anon Anon]

I've asked 4 different people this and have received 6 different answers.

We have a Non-Production Client that is running our Dev and Test environments for Oracle RMS.

Do we install the Oracle Retail Agent on the Automic box or each of the RMS Dev and RMS Test boxes?

Same with the DB Agent. Does it get installed only on the Automic box, or also on each of the boxes running the DB we're wanting to control?

Seems like such a simple question. :)

Thanks in advance!

Brett

[Anon Anon]

I'm not a Oracle Retail expert, but it appears from the Documentation that an Agent can only connect to one database. The database is defined in the Agent definition.

I've attached the Oracle Retail RA Documentation for your reference. 

Because of the complexity of RMS, normally our GSO group needs to be involved in the implementation.

Hope the doc helps, if not, I can put you in touch with our GSO group for more info.

Attachment(s)

RA_Oracle_RMS_docu.pdf   199 KB 1 version

[Anon Anon]

Ohhh! I think I understand.

So, the retail agent and the db agent are installed on the Automic host.

And then you create a connection object that points to each RMS Server. Is that how it works?

Same with the DB Agent.. One Oracle Agent on the Automic host and you create a connection string to each database you want to connect to.

 

[Anon Anon]

It looks like the RMS Agent needs to be installed on the same server as Retail so it can access the Commandline parameter and access the Output files.

Database Agents don't have the restrictions and can be installed on any server that can connect to the database. One Agent can connect to multiple databases since the connection is defined through a Connection Object or in the Job.

[Anon Anon]

Thanks Jennifer!!!

 

[Anon Anon]

glad to help. :-)

[Anon Anon]

For future reference. The DB Agent is installed on the Automic host and it can connect to any other DB. For Oracle Retail, we had to install the Retail "Core" on each instance of RMS. The problem here is the lack of consistent terms. The Retail Agent isn't an Agent, you're installing the Retail Core. When you load all the objects (templates) for the Retail Core, that is called loading the "Retail Solution" Somehow, you're magically supposed to know all these internal terms when reading the documentation.

[Anon Anon]

It can definitely be a bit confusing, but the concept is pretty awesome (IMO). The RA Core (Agent install) is just a Generic Java Agent. The actual Solution is stored in the Database and transferred to the Agent when started. So you get flexibility of multiple application solutions without the overhead of maintaining multiple types of binaries. (If that makes sense...)

The idea is that any application can be made into a RA solution 'Rapidly'.

[Anon Anon]

Any idea why none of my line breaks work? (Using Chrome) I went back and added < br >

[Anon Anon]

Yes Jennifer, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense... just that during the implementation, when you have to get the guy who wrote the code on the phone to explain what needs to be installed, the documentation is lacking. Steve shared with us a slideshow from a conference that he presented at, that contained a nice visual of a "Typical" Oracle Retail installation. I would recommend that you have some documentation dedicated to Oracle Retail that explains the architecture instead of forcing customers to have half a dozen conference calls with various support engineers/implementation consultants to finally get a clear answer on what to install and where. :)

I think it is more terminology... we have a Unix agent, a database agent, and Oracle Retail Core..  why isn't it called an agent as well? So, when we were trying to ask questions, it was very frustrating.
And then within AE, you have an Oracle Retail Agent that connects to the Oracle Retail Core running on the server.
Everything else has a AE Agent object connecting to the Agent running on the server.

Luckily, someone on your end finally asked, "Did you install the Retail Core?" It's like we were magically supposed to know all the different "internal" terms you use for things.
But, it was a week of huge frustration as, until we got Steve on the phone, no one could tell us what we needed to do.

In the end, it all worked out and we're extremely happy with the results.

[Eric Felker]

Hi Brett,

Thought I'd mention, I just went through the same thing, and wholeheartedly agree there is something missing in the documentation. I had the solution files downloaded, but when it came time to work with the agent everyone involved was wondering where the agent files were. As you said, this took some investigating to sort out how everything gets put together and that there is a Core RA agent (yes a good idea!) that is leveraged by many possible "solutions."

Let's see how my line breaks go. Thanks for bringing this up.

Eric

[Eric Felker]

Possibly your missing linebreaks are a browser issue? I was using Firefox 27 here.

[Pete Wirfs]

I get no line breaks either.  Using IE10.  I was getting line breaks just a week or so ago.  line break test. line break test. line break test. Interesting... the line breaks are retained when I come back in under "edit", but they disapear when I post.