OBIEE11g using bi-init.cmd

If you did a RTFM you will have noticed that you are required to run the bi-init.cmd before executing a command line utility. Most of the time you won’t notice any difference if you omit this step. Especially if you have installed everything on a “clean” server-instance. If you have a somewhat “dirty” machine it quite handy. But what does it do?

Have a look a the script:

@echo off
set ORACLE_HOME=D:\oracle\OBI11GR1\Oracle_BI1
set ORACLE_INSTANCE=D:\oracle\OBI11GR1\instances\instance3
set ORACLE_BI_APPLICATION=coreapplication
set JAVA_HOME=D:\oracle\OBI11GR1\jrockit_160_17_R28.0.0-679
call %ORACLE_INSTANCE%\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\%ORACLE_BI_APPLICATION%\setup\user.cmd
if NOT "%1" == "" set COMPONENT_NAME=%1
set PATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\common\ODBC\Merant\5.3\Drivers;%ORACLE_HOME%\bifoundation\server\bin;%ORACLE_HOME%\bifoundation\web\bin;%ORACLE_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
if "%2" == "" start

It starts with setting your ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_INSTANCE, ORACLE_BI_APPLICATION and JAVA_HOME variables

Next it calls the user.cmd which can set some extra variable like your TNS_ADMIN

@echo off
REM This file is a placeholder for setting environment variables
REM set TNS_ADMIN=

Next it sets the PATH variable which can be overruled by adding a COMPONENT_NAME to the script execution bi-init.cmd “COMPONENT_NAME”

If no second parameter is given it will open a CMD box.

Why if this important? If you are scheduling scripts you can use this script to verify that stuff is executed against the intended enverioment.