General Outlines for Installing & Configuring an Oracle Software on Unix/Linux OS

Dear Friends,

Following are the general outlines (not the commands and statements) which I followed whenever there is a requirement to Install and Configure an Oracle Server on Unix/Linux Operating Systems.

I would like to share them in my blog as a reference for the same.

Pre-Installation Tasks:

* Prepare the stage area for Oracle Software on the Serve
----- Choose the mount point where software needs to be staged.
----- Create the stage directories
----- Copy the software in the stage area
* Performing the pre-installation tasks
----- Check the size of physical RAM
----- Check the size of SWAP space
----- Check the free disk space in “/tmp” directory
----- Check the free space available on the system
* Checking the Software Requirements
----- The version of Unix/Linux is installed
----- The require packages are installed.
----- Install the missing packages or rpms.
* Creating Required Operating System Groups and Users
----- Check and Create OINSTALL group
----- Check and create DBA group
----- Check and create ORACLE user
----- Assign oracle user to the OINSTALL and DBA groups
----- Set the password of the ORACLE user
* Configuring Kernel Parameters
----- Check the current parameters and values in /etc/system or /etc/sysctl.conf file
----- Change the parameters according to the instruction document.
----- Reboot the machine for the effect.
----- Make sure that the parameters and values in /etc/system file are set properly
* Create Required Directories
----- The Oracle Base Directory and Oracle Home Directories
----- Chang the owner and group of the directories
----- Change the permissions of the directories
* Configuring the Oracle User’s Environment
----- Check and change the contents of .profile or .lgoin files.
----- Remove the oracle environment variables set already.
----- Check the DISPLAY variable is set, if not, then set the variable.
----- Make sure that xclock command is running

Installation of Oracle Software:

* Login as oracle on the server
* Go the directory where Oracle software is staged.
* Unzip the software file
* Extract the files
* Run/Launch the runinstaller
* Answer to the subsequent wizards or screens options with the proper information

Post-Installation tasks:

* Login as oracle user on the server
* Set the following variables in the .profile or .login files
---- ORACLE_BASE
---- ORACLE_SID
---- ORACLE_HOME
---- PATH
---- TNS_ADMIN
---- LD_LIBRARY_PATH
* Check the Oracle availability
* Check the listener availability
* Connect to sqlplus and check the users connections
* Tnsping the services
* Check the OEM access
* Any other post-installation required as per the project requirement.

Methods for creating a Database:

The database can be created in many possible ways

* Choose the basic installation with create starter database option when the Oracle Software is being installed
In this method, an Oracle Software will be installed, a starter database with default configuration will be created, and TNS Listner and TNS names will be set up for you.

* Choose the advanced installation option with install software only option.
Only the oracle software will be installed, and no database will be created, and no TNS listenr and tnsnames will be configured for you.

* You will need to create the database in two ways.
Using DBCA by choosing the options and parameters values needed for your requirement.

Other method for creating the database is manual database creation with CREATE DATABASE command.

Configure the listener with Net Configuration Assistant.

Steps for Manual database creation:

* Decide the ORACLE_SID value (i..e PROD, TEST, DEV, etc.)
* Create the password file using ORAPWD command
* Create the service using ORADIM command (Only on Windows)
* Prepare the initialization parameter file with required configuration settings.
* Create the appropriate pre-directories for dump destinations i..e USER_DUMP_DEST, BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST, CORE_DUMP_DEST etc.
* Prepare the user’s environment profile file with Oracle variables i.e. ORACLE_SID, ORACLE_HOME, TNS_ADMIN, PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH etc.
* Login to sqlplus with SQLPLUS \nolog
* Connect as sysdba
* Startup the instance in no mount state
* Run the CREATE DATABASE command or launch the sql script which you have already prepared for database creation.
* Monitor for any errors during the database creation.
* At the end of successful database creation run the following two important scripts which will populate all Performance & Dynamic system views, and System PL/SQL objects.
* ?/rdbms/admin/catalog.sql
* ?/rdbms/admin/catproc.sql
* Optional (?/sqlplus/admin/pupbld.sql)
* Create required tablespaces manually.

Conclusion: The outlines in this article are genric for any Unix/Linux flavor, but I would suggest one to follow the complete document for installation on their specific OS, you can download this from the Oracle official website.

Any comments on this article are welcomed.

-- Regards,
Sabdar Syed,
http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/