Hyperion EPM System Installer Pre-configuration check failed – Hostname resolved to an IP address

Well, the good thing about errors in software is that it shows you the baling wire that is used to hold together our software. Hyperion EPM for example is now a bundle of Weblogic, JavaScript, Java and databases held together by a technology that was theoretically created for designing a fault tolerant system to handle a nuclear war. 

So, there I was trying to install Hyperion on my good old laptop when my install failed in the first step itself. Below are the snapshots of the install and where it failed.

 

The error is a pre-requisite check failure saying that “The hostname resolved to an IP address – x.x.x.x Please provide a host name”

Now, the error is good because of a few things. One, this is not my first Hyperion install and I never got this error before so learning opportunity rang out loud and clear.

Second, the error is generally a network error and this is something that is generally done by the networking guys and we just crack on with the Hyperion install. So, it reminded me that the next time I performed an install successfully, I should thank a faceless, unknown network guy for ensuring that my install went smoothly.

Now, the fix to ensure the error is as follows…

The hostname resolution is generally handled by a small file called hosts that is generally present at the following path:-

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\

You just need to add an entry in the hosts file and give a name to the IP address as shown in the below screenshot.

So, if the error gave an IP address, say 10.25.24.205, I would create an entry in the hosts file that would look as follows:-

10.25.24.205 hyperionserver1

Once the hosts file is updated, all you need to do is save the hosts file and run the install again, and you will see the pre-requisite checker passing successfully as shown in the below snapshot.

Now generally this kind of error would not happen in the usual scenario since most of installs happen on well-managed server that will have the hostnames mapped to proper IP address. Another thing is that I was connected to a Wi-Fi network when I was running this install and it sure messed things up for me..

But, I managed to figure it out but more on this later…