Peripheral Responsibilities Required for Large IDM Build Outs (Including Fusion Apps)

Complexity and delay can occur during deployments of Oracle Identity and Access Management products (including the IDM build out for Fusion Apps) due to the fact that certain tasks required for the build out can sometimes only be performed by individuals that are not a part of the core team doing the deployment.

In many organizations IT responsibilities are very siloed. Some tasks during an IAM deployment may require assistance from individuals that operate in silos that are different from the team doing the deployment itself.

It is important to identify these tasks up front. When possible it is a good idea to make as many of these tasks as possible pre-requisites to the actual onsite installation/deployment. When that is not possible, then it is important to line up the assistance that will be required from role players who are outside of the core install/deployment project team to perform tasks that require their help.

The following are examples of such tasks:

Network

1. Provisioning of virtual hosts and VIPs.

2. Configuration of load balancers.

DB

1. Provisioning of DB including install, configuration, and creation of instances.

2. Running the RCU.

3. DB backups

Machine and Storage Provisioning

Provisioning shared storage and machines required for install. Provisioning of machines themselves including the installation and patching of OS. You’d think this would go without saying, but I’ve seen enough projects get delayed due to a lack of machines and storage that I feel I have to mention it.

Root Access

Root access is required during the creation of oraInventory and at several points during the web tier, OID, and OVD install. It is also required to do environment (file system) backups if backup is done as dictated by the EDG. One possible alternative is to do the backup as the install user and then separately backup the few files that are owned by root which do not change from the early stages of the install.

Certificates – PKI Administration

People often forget about the creation of certificates needed for SSL connections and web services security until they are actually needed. The trouble is that in many organizations, the team of people that create certificates for the organization is often small and the process by which certificates are requested and granted can take time. I recommend that when possible certificates be requested and created in advance.

When the request must come from a software component that is being installed as part of the deployment, it is still a good idea to talk to your PKI administrators in advance to make sure that the procedure for issuing the request is clear and to give them a heads up that you’d like the certificate issued as quickly as possible.