Quick Fix for Essbase Studio Server in UNIX

There is a flaw with how Oracle Essbase Studio Server was packaged for UNIX environments in Oracle EPM 11.1.2.3 and 11.1.2.4.  We can successfully install Essbase Studio Server, but the process won't start even when we invoke either of Oracle's pre-canned /epmsystem1/bin/start.sh or startEssbaseStudio.sh scripts.

If you are struggling with this issue, read on!  Please note this issue is specific to UNIX, so you may safely ignore this post if you're running Essbase Studio Server on a Microsoft Windows server!

The underlying root cause is certain back-end shell scripts are missing the UNIX "execute" permission.  I have not confirmed this for all flavors of UNIX that Oracle has certified for 11.1.2.3 and 11.1.2.4, but I have personally verified this issue in RedHat Enterprise Linux 64-bit server environments across multiple client firms.

The underlying issue can be quickly fixed by running the following sequence of commands on the server.

Open a terminal (or good old PuTTY) and CD to your Hyperion / Oracle EPM installation root directory.  The default location for this is /Oracle/Middleware, but your mileage may vary!

Type exactly as written below.  You will want to do this while logged in as the same account that is used to start the Oracle EPM services.

find . -name "*.sh" -exec chmod ug+rx {} ;\

This command locates all UNIX shell scripts, which Oracle fortunately named using a consistent naming pattern (*.sh).  For each file found, the "read" and "execute" privilege is granted to the user and group that owns the files.  The "read" permission should already be present, but I sometimes prefer the "dust off and nuke the site from orbit -- its the only way to be sure" approach.

Some IT professionals may disagree with me on whether the group should also be granted the execution privilege.  The more restrictive version of the above command, which limits the execution privilege to the filesystem owner's account only, is:

find . -name "*.sh" -exec chmod u+rx {} ;\

After you do this, it should now be possible to start Essbase Studio Server via the following command sequence:

    cd $EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE/BPMS/bin
    ./startServer.sh

In the above example, $EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE is typically /Oracle/Middleware/user_projects/epmsystem1 and this variable usually doesn't exist in your default UNIX ".profile" file. 

Note that $EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE/bin/start.sh will NOT start up Essbase Studio Server as Oracle originally intended unless you perform additional troubleshooting steps.  But after you apply that find -exec command I pasted above, $EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE/BPMS/bin/startServer.sh will function as needed.