ICS Connection Agent on Windows?

We have seen the question a number of times (such as here) regarding whether or not the ICS Connection agent or (Execurtion) Worker Agent can run on Windows. Presently when establishing an agent ICS provides a Bash shell executable (BSX) file.

We’ve not heard any suggestion this is likely to change – but when you consider that the Agent is essentially a WebLogic server with parts of ICS incorporated into it. You can see that from a production perspective, demand for Windows support isn’t going to be huge.

That said, when researching, testing, developing and testing a lot of people do use a Windows platform. So being able to use the agent is attractive.  So what options are available for a Windows environment?

Well, the simplest alternative is to utilize VirtualBox with a supported version of (e.g. OEL). As detailed by Sven Bernhardt in one of the Community.Oracle.com threads on the matter:

1. Download VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
2. Download Prebuilt Oracle Linux 6 Admin VM from OTN: Oracle Linux VM Image for Hands-On Lab
3. Import the downloaded appliance to VirtualBox
4. Start the image
5. Install a local JDK to the VM
6. Install the agent ./cloud-connectivity-agent-installer.bsx -h=<ICS-URL> -u=<USERNAME> -p=<PASSWORD> —ad=<AGENT_NAME> -au=<ADMIN_USER> -ap=<ADMIN_PASSWORD>
7. Start the agent

Network settings should be sufficient, since the VM uses NAT.

If you want to learn more, you can also reach out to the following resources:

• Oracle Integration Cloud Service Use Case: Closed Loop Order Management (Here I [Sven Bernhardt] describe, how we built a PoC for integrating a on-prem SAP with Salesforce)
• https://technology.amis.nl/2016/02/19/prepraring-to-use-the-ics-on-premises-connectivity-agent/
  
•   A-Team Article on Agent Installation

We have looked into whether it is possible to exploit the Bash (actually Bash shell on Ubuntu) Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) available for Windows 10 Anniversary Edition (guide to getting basic WSL setup here). Whilst getting the bash shell working, deploying a Linux Java and starting the installation on the BSX file. The install stopped as it identified missing resources, which appear to be related to sufficient swap space, and determining how to configure more space in a WSL context didn’t look promising, particuarly when you read statements from Microsoft advising not to use WSL for running server solutions (see here). Such an approach certainly isn’t supported by Oracle, and given Microsoft’s statement unlikely to be supported.

There is another option, potentially available, or may become available. Oracle has made a strong commitment to Docker at Open World this year (2016) including driving forward with a catalogue of Docker containers.  We are also seeing Docker coming to Windows, as of Windows 10, Docker is available natively – called Docker for Windows rather than the previous approach of  (rather than Docker Toolbox which exploited VirtualBox – but works for pre-Windows 10).  The only catch is presently there isn’t a Docker image presently available for the ICS agent, although you could start with Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) ‘image’ to run on Docker (see here), and then install the agent.

The utilization of Docker makes a lot of sense in this context, and when looked at in the light of the fact that Docker will be supportied by Microsoft Server 2016 (see here).