Installing Oracle 10g on Linux

This Oracle 10g installation write-up is all about installing Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0) Enterprise/Standard Edition for Linux x86 on a server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 (RHEL4).

Thomas Edward, VoIP Network & Software Engineer.

Before you download, understand that Oracle 10g requires 650 MB, so find a file system with enough space. The download will also be in a zipped format. So, keep in mind that you will need to extract the files, and they will be large ones.

Make sure you disable SELinux (Security-enhanced Linux), or you may have problems with the GUI installer; that is, unless you are prepared for an installation with SELinux.

Two ways of disabling SELinux, (1) Command Line (2) Manually Disabling

(1) setsebool -P httpd_disable_trans 1
(2) Using vi edit /etc/selinux/config/

---------
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

# SETLOCALDEFS= Check local definition changes
SETLOCALDEFS=0
---------

After modifying the SELinux execute the following command to restart the deamon:

[root@ip-pbx ~]# service xinetd restart
Stopping xinetd: [ OK ]
Starting xinetd: [ OK ]

Additionally you must move "securetty off to the side:

mv /etc/securetty /etc/securetty.bak

First step: Get the free download:

10201_database_linux32.zip (Base Software)
10201_companion_linux32.zip (Companion Software)
p6810189_10204_Linux-x86.zip (Software Patch)

Right off the bat, you'll see that there are a number of minimum requirements for an Oracle 10g installation. I mentioned a couple already, but you should have at least 1GB of RAM, and 400 MB of space in your /tmp directory. For the software itself, you may need up to 3.5 GB of space, depending upon your installation type. For RHEL4, you must be running this kernel or higher 2.6.9-5.0.5.EL

uname -a

2.6.9-5.ELsmp

You will also need to make sure that the following packages are installed:

make-3.80-5
gcc-3.4.3-9.EL4
glibc-2.3.4-2
compat-db-4.1.25-9
compat-gcc-7.3-2.96.128
compat-gcc-c++-7.3-2.96.128
compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.128
compat-libstdc++-devel-7.3-2.96.128
openmotif-2.2.3-6.RHEL4.2
setarch-1.6-1

To make sure you have the above packages install, use the following command:

[oracle@ip-pbx root]$ rpm -q gcc-3.2.3-34

If the above packages are not installed use the following command:

yum install [package_name]

The first thing that you will need to do, is make sure that your X is working.

$ xterm

If it is not working, then you will need to export your display and get it working, as the Oracle installer will only work with an X session.

From a Linux perspective there are some basic things that you'll need to set-up:

Create 2 groups, oinstall & dba.
Create 2 users, oracle and nobody (you may already have this user).
You will need to make the oinstall the primary group for oracle, and the dba the secondary group.

There are also some kernel parameters you will need to set. They should be set to at least the following numbers.

Parameter Value File
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
semmsl 250 /proc/sys/kernel/sem
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
semmns 3200
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
semopm 100
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
semmni 128
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
shmall 2097152 /proc/sys/kernel/shmall
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
shmmax Half the size of /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
physical memory
(in bytes)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
shmmni 4096 /proc/sys/kernel/shmmni
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
File-max 65536 /proc/sys/fs/file-max
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ip_local_port_range min:1024; max:65000 /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
rmem_default 262144 /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
rmem_max 262144 /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
wmem_default 262144 /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
wmem_max 262144 /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

or example, to view the fs.file-max parameter, try this:

[root@ip-pbx]# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep file-max
fs.file-max = 24411

To change the parameter, you will need to vi /etc/sysctl.conf to make the change to increase the default parameters. For fs.file-max, you'll need this line:

fs.file-max = 65536

You can do this manually, but when you put the values in the sysctl file, they will stay there after a reboot.

When your kernel parameters are done, you will then have to make sure your shell limits are set-up appropriately. They should have the following values:

oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16384
oracle soft nofile 1024
oracle hard nofile 65536

At this point, you will need to make sure your permissions are set-up accordingly. For example, if your filesystem is /u01/oracle, then follow these procedures.

# mkdir -p /u01/oracle
# chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01/oracle
# chmod -R 775 /u01/oracle

Make sure your umask is also set at 022.

When this is done, and your X Is working, you are finally ready. Either change your directory to where the install exists or mount your CD.

./runInstaller
./Desktop/database/runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...
Checking installer requirements...
Checking operating system version: must be redhat-3, SuSE-9, redhat-4, UnitedLinux-1.0, asianux-1 or asianux-2
Passed
All installer requirements met.
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2005-12-05_09-36-22AM. Please wait ...

At this point the GUI will start and will do the work.

The basic install is selected by default. There are a series of checks to ensure that the groups and directories are set-up appropriately. It will also prompt you to create a starter database. You will also need to let Oracle know where you want to place your Oracle home.

Make sure that the operating system group for user oracle is oinstall, not DBA. When all the checks succeed, you can then click on install, and it will start. Depending on the speed of your system, this can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or longer. It took me 30 minutes.

When the install is completed, just click exit, and if you chose to create a test database, you should be all set.

The installation is relatively easy, if you don't have any problems with X or with any of the prerequisites. Configuration and administration of your RHEL4 and your Oracle environment is another story, and we'll have some more tips down the road on how to optimize your Oracle/Linux environment.