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2. Installing the Oracle Software

2.1 Server Preparation

Creating an Oracle User

Unsurprisingly we require a user to hold the Oracle database. Since we have no desire to relink the Oracle kernel (more about that later) we have to accept the Oracle defaults for user name and group name. This includes the user ORACLE and the group DBA.

  1. Login as Root
  2. Create the oracle user and the group dba. 
    $ groupadd dba 
$ useradd  oracle
  3. Ensure a home directory is created for the user oracle. 
    $ mkdir /home/oracle
$ mkdir /home/oracle/7.3.3.0.0 (Version of Oracle)
$ chown -R oracle.dba /home/oracle

2.2 Installing from CDROM

Unfortunately the Oracle Installer on the SCO disc will not work. A variety of problems can be experienced, from core dumps to hangs. As a result we need to copy the files from the CDROM manually and uncompress them:

(Ensure the CDROM is mounted on the system).

  1. Log on as Oracle
  2. Change directory to /home/oracle/7.3.3.0.0.
  3. Copy all install files from CDROM 
    $ cp -a /mnt/cdrom/* .
  4. Un-compress all Oracle files on CDROM. 
    $ find . -name *_ -exec ~/7.3.3.0.0/orainst/oiuncomp {} \;

2.3 Post Installation Tasks

Tasks for Root

Add the following lines to /etc/profile or add to the .profile for each user who is going to use Oracle. 

# Oracle Specific
ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/7.3.3.0.0
ORACLE_SID=orcl
ORACLE_TERM=vt100
export ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_SID ORACLE_TERM

# Alter path for Oracle
PATH="$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin"

We also need to change the owner and permissions of the Oracle ulimit increase utility. 

$ chown root.root $ORACLE_HOME/bin/osh
$ chmod u+s $ORACLE_HOME/bin/osh

Tasks for Oracle

Change permissions for the Oracle files to ensure correct operation. 

$ chmod +x $ORACLE_HOME/bin/*
$ chmod u+s $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle

Oracle tools require the messages to be in the $ORACLE_HOME/tool_name/mesg directory. So, move the msb files from the msg_ship directories to the mesg directories. 

$ mv $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/mesg/mesg_ship/* $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/mesg/.
$ mv $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/mesg/mesg_ship/* $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/mesg/.
$ mv $ORACLE_HOME/svrmgr/mesg/mesg_ship/* $ORACLE_HOME/svrmgr/mesg/.
Create the following directories if they do not exist: 
$ mkdir $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/log
$ mkdir $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/audit
$ mkdir $ORACLE_HOME/network/log

Things you can remove

The following directories can safely be removed:

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