Troubleshooting Oracle HTTP Server Missing in EPM On-Premise Configuration

Have you been in the middle of an EPM on premise configuration, and chosen “Configure HTTP Server” only to find Oracle HTTP Server was not listed as an option?

This recently happened to me while installing the EPM 11.2.15 distribution on a new project. I was able to run the installer, which reported everything was successful. Then after configuring all the other components, I usually configure OHS last, the config tool only prompted me with the option of “Embedded HTTP Server” when it came time for the OHS config.

The first thing I did was launch the installer and try a “Reinstall” option. The Oracle HTTP Server was greyed out. Same behavior if I chose “New Install”. I was now going into full troubleshooting mode. 

The logs found in …\user_projects\epmsystem1\diagnostics\logs\config were as helpful as always. Almost no useful error message and the only hint was the well known warning about ...\null\win64. Google searches and Oracle KB searches gave me a few paths, which I explored, but all my efforts met with zero success. Oracle HTTP Server did not want to install on the server. 

My environment was distributed and I had a second server where OHS was going to run, so I looked there next. On the second server, supposedly the exact same windows image as the first server, OHS installed without issue. I was able to run the config tool and get OHS started no problem. Yeah Microsoft Windows!

While certainly frustrated, I was determined to fix it.

Since OHS worked on server 2, I zipped the ohs directory, and copied it to server1, where I deleted the original directory and unzipped the working directory. Unfortunately this had no effect on the config tool, I was still not given the option to configure “Oracle HTTP Server.” I thought maybe I could “reinstall” now, since I had a working folder, but now the installTool did not list Oracle HTTP server in the “Reinstall” options, and still would not install as “New.”

I had to figure out how the configuration tool knows what pieces of EPM are installed on a specific server so I started looking at files related to the Oracle Universal Installer. I checked several related files but found what I was looking for in the file .oracle.products file located in …\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1. When I compared this file between server2, which worked, and server1, which was broken, I found an entry for OHS on server2, which was NOT on server 1:

<installableItem installType="NEW" location="products" uid="ohs">

<version maintenance="15" major="11" minor="2" serviceFix="0" servicePack="0">11.2.15.0.0</version>

</installableItem>

In my file these were lines 32-34.

On server1, I edited the file, inserting the lines above in the same location of the .oracle.products file and saved. I was then able to launch the config tool and was able to choose “Oracle HTTP Server” when selecting the “Configure HTTP Server” task.

Once configured I was able to start OHS and validate it was working as expected.