Oracle 9i in RHEL5

Process To Install Oracle9i in RHEL5. There might be a few issue while installing. Page will be updated soon for detail information ands problem faced during installation.

Assuming

· You know how to operate a Linux Box. (Navigating directories/ knowhow of basic commands)

· You know how to install software modules/libraries (Mostly rpms for RHEL5).

· You have a system installed with RHEL5 or you know how to install it.

Important tips during installation of RHEL5

· Do not install Virtualization support during RHEL5 installation. I don’t know why but my Oracle 9i Installation behaved erratically whenever this Virtualization module was present in my system. It installs a different Kernel (Xen). So skip it.

· During RHEL5 Installation disable SELinux. If you couldn’t do it in the first place then don’t worry, read ahead to know how to disable it.

1. Installing Oracle 9i on RHEL5 (Logged in as root)

· Disabling SELinux – Disable SELinux now (If you couldn’t disable it during installation).

#gedit /etc/selinux/config

And make sure to set the SELINUX Flag disabled.

SELINUX=disabled

Installing JRE – Newer version of JRE behaved badly in my Oracle installation, so Download the Java Runtime Enviroment (I used j2re-1_3_1_19-linux-i586.bin) fromhttp://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.3.1_19/index.html . Fire the command prompt and navigate to the location where you have stored the downloaded file. Most probably it will be Root’s Desktop Directory. So go there.

#cd /root/Desktop

Give the file, execute permission and then execute it. When the JRE is exracted, move the extracted directory into the “/usr/local” directory.

# chmod +x j2re-1_3_1_19-linux-i586.bin

# ./ j2re-1_3_1_19-linux-i586.bin

# mv jre1.3.1_19 /usr/local/

· Installing missing libraries – You don’t know whether you have the required packages installed or not. Right! Don’t sweat. Run following commands to check whether you have those packages or not. If they are installed, the command prompt will return you their version, else ‘Not installed’ message.

#rpm -q compat-db compat-gcc-34 compat-gcc-34-c++ compat-libgcc-296 compat-libstdc++-296

If everything is alright, then it will show the following:

[root@localhost ~]# rpm -q compat-db compat-gcc-34 compat-gcc-34-c++ compat-libgcc-296 compat-libstdc++-296

compat-db-4.2.52-5.1

compat-gcc-34-3.4.6-4

compat-gcc-34-c++-3.4.6-4

compat-libgcc-296-2.96-138

compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-138

[root@localhost ~]# rpm -q compat-libstdc++-33 gcc gcc-c++ glibc glibc-common glibc-devel glibc-headers libgcc make libXp

compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-61

gcc-4.1.1-52.el5

gcc-c++-4.1.1-52.el5

glibc-2.5-12

glibc-common-2.5-12

glibc-devel-2.5-12

glibc-headers-2.5-12

libgcc-4.1.1-52.el5

make-3.81-1.1

libXp-1.0.0-8

If you get the ‘Not installed’ message with any of the package; then load your installation media (RHEL5 Installation Disk), and run the following commands to install the necessary packages.

#cd /media/cdrom/Server

#rpm -Uvh make-3*

#rpm -Uvh glibc-2*

#rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33-3*

#rpm -Uvh compat-gcc-34-3*

#rpm -Uvh compat-gcc-34-c++-3*

#rpm -Uvh gcc-4*

#rpm -Uvh libXp-1*

#rpm -Uvh compat-db-4*

· Installing patches – You need to download two patches and install it. These patches are:

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/compat-oracle/dist/files/RedHat/compat-libcwait-2.1-1.i386.rpm

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/compat-oracle/dist/files/RedHat/compat-oracle-rhel4-1.0-5.i386.rpm

Navigate to the location where you have stored the downloaded file. Most probably it will be Root’s Desktop Directory. So go there.

#cd /root/Desktop

#rpm -Uvh compat-libcwait-2.1-1.i386.rpm

#rpm -Uvh compat-oracle-rhel4-1.0-5.i386.rpm –nodeps

· Now the Workarounds – Some libraries aren’t available for RHEL5, so you can use the substitutes available in the RHEL5 itself. All you have to do is linking. So, here you go.

1. #cd /usr/lib

#ln -s libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2

2. #cd /usr/bin

#ln -s gcc34 gcc32

3. #cd /usr/lib

#ln -s libgdbm.so.2.0.0 libdb.so.2

· User and Group Creation – Oracle installer wouldn’t run as the root user, so you need to create a user. It would be better, if you create a special group for Oracle. To do these, run the following commands in the command prompt.

#groupadd oinstall

#groupadd dba

#groupadd oper

#useradd -g oinstall -G dba oracle

#passwd oracle

· ORACLE_BASE Directory Creation -Login as root and create base directory for Oracle ($ORACLE_BASE).

# cd /opt

# mkdir oracle

# chown –R oracle.oinstall oracle

#cd oracle

#mkdir 920

· Setting Environment Variables – Now since you have created the oracle user, you need to setup its environment variables. For that, you need to update oracle’s .bash_profile file.

Open bash profile of Oracle:

#gedit /home/oracle/.bash_profile

Now add the following lines in the file –

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin; export PATH

ORACLE_BASE=/opt/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE

ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/920; export ORACLE_HOME

ORACLE_SID=orcl; export ORACLE_SID

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

ORACLE_OEM_JAVARUNTIME=/usr/local/jre1.3.1_19; export ORACLE_OEM_JAVARUNTIME

PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin; export PATH

if [ $USER = "oracle" ]; then

if [ $SHELL = "/bin/ksh" ]; then

ulimit -p 16384

ulimit -n 65536

else

ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536

fi

fi

Save and close the file.

· Setting up the kernel parameters – You also need to do a little modification in the the kernel parameters. You need to open the sysctl.conf file -

#gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

And add the following lines -

kernel.shmmni = 4096

kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

fs.file-max = 65536

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000

net.core.rmem_default=262144

net.core.wmem_default=262144

net.core.rmem_max=262144

net.core.wmem_max=262144

Save and close the file. You need to run a command to update the parameters

#sysctl –p

· Logout of root and login again as oracle user.

2. Installing Oracle 9i on RHEL5 (Logged in as oracle):

· Download Oracle 9i – Download the Oracle 9i (9.2.0.4) software from Oracle website. Store the files in oracle’s home directory. Launch the command prompt and navigate there.

$cd /home/oracle

Unzip the files -

$ gunzip ship_9204_linux_disk1.cpio.gz

$gunzip ship_9204_linux_disk2.cpio.gz

$gunzip ship_9204_linux_disk3.cpio.gz

Unpack the cpio files –

$cpio -idmv “<” ship_9204_linux_disk1.cpio

$cpio -idmv “<” ship_9204_linux_disk2.cpio

$cpio -idmv “< “ship_9204_linux_disk3.cpio

· Setting Oraparam.ini file – When all archives files are extracted you’ll have three directories Disk1, Disk2 and Disk3. Locate the oraparam.ini and update it with new information. Oraparam.ini is in Disk1/install/linux/ directory.

$gedit /home/oracle/Disk1/install/linux/oraparm.ini

Modify JRE_LOCATION variable and set it to

JRE_LOCATION=/usr/local/jre1.3.1_19

Save the file and close.

· Starting Oracle Installer – Now you are all set for Oracle installation. In the command prompt go to the Disk1 directory and run runInstaller file.

$cd /home/oracle/Disk1

$./runinstaller

–> When you see DBCA Fail, do the following :

You need to change the installer’s JRE. Launch the command prompt, and do the following –

$cd $ORACLE_HOME

$rm JRE

$ln -s $ORACLE_BASE/jre/1.3.1 JRE

$cd JRE/bin

$ln -s java jre

$cd i386/native_threads/

$ln -s java jre

When you are done, select DBCA and every failed services and click retry button, one-be-one. Your installation will succeed.