Solving Operational Business Intelligence with InfoSphere Warehouse Advanced Edition

60 Solving Operational Business Intelligence with InfoSphere Warehouse Advanced Edition

In the last section, we touch on the “black box” solutions currently supplied by

IBM as a complete system that includes both a hardware component and a

software component.

2.3.1 Scenarios for implementing InfoSphere Warehouse core

products

The components that make up a core InfoSphere Warehouse implementation

can be divided into four Installation categories as follows:

򐂰 Data Server component

This category covers the main DB2 platform, which is supported on AIX,

HP-UX, Solaris, various Linux implementations, and Windows. For a

warehouse implementation, consider only the 64-bit versions of DB2.

򐂰 Application server component

This category covers the IBM WebSphere Application server, an integral part

of the warehouse product set. This component also includes the InfoSphere

Warehouse server application that is installed within an instance of the IBM

WebSphere Application Server.

򐂰 Clients

This category covers all of the command line and GUI-based platforms that

are normally installed on a user’s personal computer or notebook. Because

the management, configuration, and use of many of the server applications

and tools is through a web browser, count this as a client tool.

However, because all modern operating systems now include a web browser

by default, no web browser is shipped with the product. Clients supported can

either be 32-bit or 64-bit, and Windows-based or Linux-based.

򐂰 Documentation

This category includes both the online and PDF versions of the product set

documentation.

Chapter 2. Overview of InfoSphere Warehouse Advanced Edition 61

The InfoSphere Warehouse components covered in the categories listed can be

installed onto a hardware platform in a range of topologies. The three most

common topologies are listed here:

򐂰 One tier - Often utilized as a development, test, and education environment,

all the major components, including the clients, are installed on a single

hardware platform. In this case, the platform can only be a server installed

with either a Windows or a Linux operating system.

A virtual machine image can be used in this type of environment, meaning a

Linux VMware image such as that supplied as part of an IBM 5070 Smart

Analytics Solution.

򐂰 Two tier - Although also primarily used in a development and test

environment, this topology can be utilized, with the proper server and storage,

for a smaller warehouse implementation.

In this topology, the client components are often installed on a single client

Intel-based hardware platform running either Windows or Linux. The server

components are then all installed on a second platform. In this topology, the

clients and servers may be on completely different operating systems, and

even on different hardware-based platforms. For example, the clients might

be on Linux on an Intel-based platform, while the servers are on AIX on a

Power-based platform. In such a case, the server components include the

DB2 database engine and a single instance of the WebSphere Application

Server, loaded with the InfoSphere Warehouse application.

򐂰 Three tier - In this topology, the client components are installed on a single

client hardware platform, the DB2 components are installed on a second

hardware platform, and the WebSphere Application Server components are

installed on the third hardware platform. For ease of administration, it is

advisable to have the operating system and hardware platform of the DB2

Installation considerations: For InfoSphere Warehouse 9.7.3 and below,

IBM WebSphere Application Server is installed as part of the installation

process if an already installed version of IBM WebSphere Application Server

was not selected to be used by the user.

With InfoSphere Warehouse 10, however, the installer requires an already

installed copy of IBM WebSphere Application Server. Thus, before running the

installer for InfoSphere Warehouse 10, a user must have installed a copy of

IBM WebSphere Application Server by using the IBM Installation Manager

application.