Get Oracle 8i Running on Your Linux Server Straight Away! Roger Schrag Database Specialists, Inc. Oracle Open World 2000 Paper #276

Today’s Presentation Oracle products available on Linux Differences and limitations of Oracle’s offerings for Linux Getting Linux-specific information about Oracle Installing Oracle on Linux

Today's Goals Learn how Oracle 8i on Linux differs from Oracle 8i on other platforms Learn how to install Oracle 8i correctly on Linux Gain familiarity with database setup best practices

Related Material Available 50 page workbook from LinuxWorld Expo Accompanying 87 slide presentation 15 page step-by-step guide to installing Oracle 8i Release 2 (8.1.6) on Red Hat 6.2 Linux Today’s presentation is based on a half-day training session I led at LinuxWorld Expo in The material has been condensed to fit a one hour timeslot and has been thoroughly updated to cover Oracle 8i Release 2. At

Oracle Products Available on Linux Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition Oracle 8i Standard Edition WebDB Oracle Application Server In this presentation we will only be looking at Oracle 8i.

Oracle 8i Versions Available on Linux

Oracle 8i on Linux: Differences Operating system release and patch requirements Method for setting kernel parameters Location of oratab file Oracle 8i on Linux is extremely similar to Oracle 8i on Solaris. A few areas of difference are:

Operating System Release and Patch Requirements Oracle 8i Release 2 is certified on the following Linux distributions:

Notes on Operating System Requirements Some users have also found that Oracle 8i Release 2 works properly on Mandrake 7.1 (complete). You should be able to use the GNOME or KDE window manager without problems. I installed Oracle 8i Release 2 in a Red Hat 6.2 environment with GNOME. Out of the box, everything ran smoothly. No operating system patches or additional RPMs were necessary.

Setting Linux Kernel Parameters Oracle 8i on Linux requires the same kernel parameter settings as Oracle 8i on Solaris for SPARC. However, the default kernel parameter settings and how you go about changing them are very, very different. Default kernel settings on Red Hat 6.2 will work, but SEMOPM should be increased to meet the documented minimum requirement. Adjust kernel parameter settings by editing two files and rebuilding the kernel: /usr/src/linux/include/asm/shmparam.h /usr/src/linux/include/linux/sem.h

Location of oratab file /etc/oratab instead of /var/opt/oracle/oratab

Oracle 8i on Linux: Limitations The following features and options are not available with the Linux release of Oracle 8i: Oracle Parallel Server Legato Storage Manager Internet Directory Server JDBC drivers for JDK 1.2 In addition, the Oracle Data Migration Assistant on Linux is not capable of upgrading an Oracle database to Oracle 8i Release 2

Oracle 8i Information Specific to the Linux Platform Documentation provided by Oracle Corporation -Oracle 8i Release 2 for Linux Intel Installation Guide -Oracle 8i Release 2 for Linux Intel Administrator's Reference -Oracle 8i Release Notes for Linux Intel Text files in $ORACLE_HOME/relnotes -Actually, these seem to be more specific to Solaris than Linux!

Oracle 8i Information Specific to the Linux Platform (continued) Oracle Technology Network -Technical discussion forums -Technical papers (Be careful! Some are quite out of date!)

Prepare the server Install the Oracle software and create a simple database Create a scalable Oracle database (optional) Complete the server configuration Installing Oracle on Linux

Prepare the Server 1. Meet the software requirements 2. Meet the hardware requirements 3. Meet the kernel parameter requirements 4. Get access to an X environment 5. Create a Linux group for DBAs 6. Create a software owner Linux account 7. Create mount points

Prepare the Server (continued) 8. Choose a local bin directory 9. Mount the CD ROM 10. Create the /etc/oratab file

Install the Oracle Software and Create a Simple Database 1. Edit software owner’s login script 2. Log in using X environment 3. Verify that TCP/IP is working 4. Ensure there is enough storage space available

Install the Oracle Software (continued) 5. Start the Oracle Universal Installer

Install the Oracle Software (continued) 6. Choose the DBA group

Install the Oracle Software (continued) 7. Choose to perform a “typical” install of Oracle 8i

Install the Oracle Software (continued) 8. Specify a name for the database

Install the Oracle Software (continued) 9. Specify a mount point for the database. Resolve permissions problems on the mount point if needed.

Install the Oracle Software (continued) 10. Launch the installation

Install the Oracle Software (continued) 11. Run root.sh 12. Deinstall products that were part of the “typical” install but you are not licensed to use 13. Perform a “custom” install if necessary to install products that are not part of the “typical” install 14. Add enhancements to the oraenv script 15. Fix a bug in the dbstart script 16. Add enhancements to the dbshut script

Create a Scalable Oracle Database The simple database created during a “typical” Oracle software installation is suitable for playing around, but not much more. Follow these optional steps if you wish to replace the simple database with a scalable one. 1. Remove the simple database 2. Choose a block size for the scalable database 3. Log in using X environment 4. Ensure there is enough storage space available

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 5. Run the Database Configuration Assistant

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 6. Choose to perform a “custom” database creation

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 7. Select options to be configured

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 8. Specify a name for the database

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 9. Specify locations for the control files. Note that the defaults provided are not OFA compliant!

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 10. Specify locations, sizes, default storage for the six data files. Again, the defaults are not OFA compliant. Also, make sure the system tablespace is big enough or auto-extend remains enabled!

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 11. Specify locations and sizes for the online redo logs

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 12. Specify SGA sizing parameters

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 13. Choose to create the database now or build a set of shell scripts you can run later. If you choose to create the database now, be prepared to wait!

Create a Scalable Oracle Database (continued) 14. Configure the Net8 listener 15. Prepare a tnsnames.ora file 16. Improve the parameter file 17. Configure the temporary tablespace 18. Configure rollback segments 19. Create application tablespaces 20. Create application schemas and roles

Complete the Server Configuration 1. Update the /etc/oratab file 2. Remove hardcoding from software owner’s login script 3. Create separate Linux accounts for database users 4. Configure automatic database start on server reboot

Wrapping Up Oracle 8i Release 2 installs easily on Linux Oracle 8i Release 2 runs solidly on Linux Linux is an excellent choice as a stable, reliable, low cost platform for running Oracle 8i

Contact Information Roger Schrag Database Specialists, Inc. 388 Market Street, Suite 400 San Francisco, CA