Using Ansible to install WebLogic 12c R2 (12.2.1) and Fusion Middleware Infastructure on Oracle Linux 7.1

Before a couple of days Oracle release WebLogic 12c R2 (12.2.1). There are a lot of cool features like Java EE 7 support and Multitenancy Support for WebLogic domains. Installation of WebLogic server along with ADF runtime (Fusion Middleware Infrastructure) are not hard but requires a lot of parameters to be configured and a significant time when you need to repeat the actions in multiple virtual machines. Also Infrastructure updates are time consuming. Ansible is a great tool that help us automate this things. This article will demonstrate the creation of a WebLogic domain using Ansible. You can download code in my git hub account:

https://github.com/cvezalis/ansible-weblogic-fmw-infra-12c-R2

Fusion Middleware needs a Database repository for storing the required schemas. If you don't have a database already you can use an Ansible playbook i have create to install an Oracle Database 12c automatically. You can download the code here:

https://github.com/cvezalis/oracledb-ansible

You can configure your infrastructure variables in infa-vars.yml

You can test the playbook from the extracted folder using:

vagrant up

a virtual machine will be ready in a few minutes with no other interaction. You can access the Enterprise Manager at http://192.168.56.14:7001/em if you use the default settings.

The playbook contains several roles for do the job in a modular way:

linux-wls Role:

This role install the required libraries on Oracle Linux, disables the Security Enhanced Linux and firewall and configures some kernel parameters required for WebLogic to run smoothly. 

# ==> Configure Linux
- name: Install required libraries
 yum: name={{ item }} state=present
 with_items: packages_list
- name: Disable SELinux
 selinux: state=disabled
- name: Disable Firewall Deamon (firewalld)
 service: name=firewalld state=stopped enabled=no
- name: Change kernel parameters
 sysctl: name="{{ item.key }}" value="{{ item.value }}" state=present
 with_dict: kernel_params

role also creates the required operating system user and groups. After role fixes the oracle user limits for file and process:

# ==> Add open file and process limits for oracle user
- name: Create a shell profile with file and process limits for oracle user
 template: src=oracle-limits.sh dest=/etc/profile.d/

# ==> Add limits for oracle user
- name: Add oracle user limits
 lineinfile: dest=/etc/security/limits.conf line='{{ oracle_user }} {{ item.limit }} {{ item.type}} {{ item.value }}'
 with_items:
 - { limit: 'soft', type: nofile, value: '{{ soft_no_file }}' }
 - { limit: 'hard', type: nofile, value: '{{ hard_no_file }}' }
 - { limit: 'soft', type: nproc, value: '{{ soft_nproc }}' }
 - { limit: 'hard', type: nproc, value: '{{ hard_nproc }}' }

Then role creates the base directories for installation.

linux-jdk Role:

linux-jdk role installs the JDK on the Oracle Linux. WebLogic 12c R2 needs JDK8. Download it from Oracle Support and put it on roles/linux-jdk/files folder before you run the playbook. It also changes the device that java uses to create random numbers for overcome the slow response on default device when entropy is not enough. Lastly we create the JAVA_HOME environment variable for oracle user and add the java bin folder to user PATH.

fmw-software Role:

This role installs the Middleware Infrastructure software. You need to download from Oracle support the installer fmw_12.2.1.0.0_infrastuctrure.jar and put it in roles/fmw-software/files before running the playbook. Role generates the response file for silent installation and execute the installer

# ==> Install Fussion Middleware Infrastructure Software
- name: Create installer directory
 file: state=directory path={{ mw_installer_folder }}
- name: Copy Middleware Installer
 copy: src={{ mw_installer }} dest={{ mw_installer_folder }}
- name: Copy file for silent installation
 template: src=silent-weblogic.txt dest={{ mw_installer_folder }}
- name: Copy OraInst.loc
 template: src=oraInst.loc dest={{ mw_installer_folder }}
- name: execute Weblogic installer
 command: "{{ jdk_folder }}/bin/java -Xms1024m -Xmx1024m -jar {{ mw_installer_folder }}/{{ mw_installer }} -silent -responseFile {{ mw_installer_folder }}/silent-weblogic.txt -invPtrLoc {{ mw_installer_folder }}/oraInst.loc"

fmw-domain Role:

This role creates the repositories in database and then executes a python script with WLST to create the domain, apply the Enterprise Manager template to domain, set domain mode to production and set weblogic admin username and password and set the data sources to point to our repository.

node-manager Role:

This role configures the and start the nodemanager. Start, stop and crash recovery are enabled. You may refine this configuration on nodemanager.properties file before run the playbook.

# ==> Ansible Role for configure, start and autostart on reboot Node manager
# ==> for a WebLogic 12c R2 Domain on Oracle Linux 7.1
- name: Copy Nodemanager Properties file
 template: src=nodemanager.properties dest={{ domain_home }}/nodemanager/ owner={{ oracle_user }} group={{ oracle_group }}
 tags:
 - start-nodemanager

# ==> Create startup script for nodemanager
- name: Copy nodemanager systemd script
 template: src=nodemanager.service dest=/etc/systemd/system/ mode=0664
 tags:
 - start-nodemanager
- name: Enable nodemanager as linux service
 command: 'systemctl enable nodemanager'
 tags:
 - start-nodemanager
- name: Start Node Manager
 command: 'systemctl start nodemanager'
 tags:
 - start-nodemanager
- name: Waiting for nodemanager to come up
 wait_for: port=5556 delay=2 timeout=30
 tags:
 - start-nodemanager

start-admin-server Role:

This role creates the boot.properties file with weblogic username and password and then runs a script that connects to nodemanager and starts the AdminServer

fmw-managed-server Role:

This role creates a manged server, creates a boot.properties file and then starts the server.

# ==> Create managed server on Domain
- name: Copy create managed server script
 template: src=create-managed.py dest={{ mw_installer_folder }}
- name: Execute create managed server script
 shell: '{{ weblogic_home }}/common/bin/wlst.sh {{ mw_installer_folder }}/create-managed.py'
 
# ==> Start managed server
- name: Create security folder for managed server
 file: state=directory path={{ domains_home }}/{{ domain_name }}/servers/{{ managed_server_name }}/security
- name: Create boot properties file for managed server
 template: src=boot.properties dest={{ domain_home }}/servers/{{ managed_server_name }}/security/
- name: Copy Start Managed Server Script
 template: src=start-managed-server.py dest={{ mw_installer_folder }}
- name: Start Managed Server
 shell: "{{ weblogic_home }}/common/bin/wlst.sh {{ mw_installer_folder }}/start-managed-server.py"
- name: Wait for Managed Server to startup 
 wait_for: host={{ server_hostname }} port={{ managed_server_port }} delay=2 timeout=30