Installing Oracle 9iR2 on Red Hat 9
Pages: 1, 2

Running the Installer

To install 9iR2 on Linux, Oracle recommends at least 512MB of RAM and at least 400MB of swap space. If you have less then 512MB of RAM and upgrading is not an option, you can resize your swap partition or create temporary swapping space. The later is a much more convenient option, as you will be needing this space only during the installation.

To set up a temporary Linux swap area, execute these lines as root:

% dd if=/dev/zero of=tmp_swap bs=1k count=900000
% chmod 600 tmp_swap
% mkswap tmp_swap
% swapon tmp_swap

After you finish installing, you can free this space:

% swapoff tmp_swap
% rm tmp_swap

Now that you have all the major obstacles out of the way, you can run the installer. Please remember that the Oracle installer must be run from X. You will need to allow the local oracle user to write to your X display:

$ xhost +127.0.0.1

Do not change to your CD-ROM mount directory (e.g., /mnt/cdrom), because you will not be able to unmount the first CD to insert others when asked. Start the installer from your home directory using:

$ su - oracle
$ /mnt/cdrom/install/linux/runInstaller

Installation

We will not describe the installation process in detail, as Oracle provides extensive documentation on that subject and it is way beyond the scope of this article. It is pretty much self-explanatory, but if you run into trouble, there's always a help button to assist you. If you need more help, check the docs directory on the Oracle CDs, the online Oracle Documentation, or Oracle Linux Center. During the installation, Oracle will ask you to insert other disks. When asked, open up a new console, unmount the current disk with umount /dev/cdrom (as root) and replace the disk. If Red Hat 9 does not mount it automagically, mount it yourself with mount /dev/cdrom and choose to continue with the installation wizard.

As you go along, your installation may produce three different errors:

• You may see an error dialog informing about problems with ins_oemagent.mk. Ignore this one; we will fix it in post installation.

  
  Figure 1. ins_oemagent.mk errors

• A dialog may inform you about an Error in invoking target install of makefile $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib/ins_ctx.mk.

  
  Figure 2. makefile error

  When this happens, open up a new X terminal and log in as the oracle user. Execute the following commands:

  [oracle@miniroko oracle]$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/install
  [oracle@miniroko install]$ tail make.log

  You will see a line like this:

  gcc -o ctxhx -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib/ -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/lib/
  -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/lib/stubs/  /opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib/ctxhx.o
  -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib/ -lm -lsc_ca -lsc_fa -lsc_ex -lsc_da -lsc_ut
  -lsc_ch -lsc_fi -lctxhx -lc -Wl,-rpath,/opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib -lnls9
  -lcore9 -lnls9 -lcore9 -lnls9 -lxml9 -lcore9 -lunls9 -lnls9

  
  Figure 3. The make.log

  Copy this line, add -ldl at the end, and run it in $ORACLE_HOME/bin.

  [oracle@miniroko]$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
  [oracle@miniroko bin]$ gcc -o ctxhx -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib/ 
  -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/lib/ -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/lib/stubs/  
  /opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib/ctxhx.o -L/opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib/ 
  -lm -lsc_ca -lsc_fa -lsc_ex -lsc_da -lsc_ut -lsc_ch -lsc_fi -lctxhx -lc 
  -Wl,-rpath,/opt/ora9/product/9.2/ctx/lib -lnls9 -lcore9 -lnls9 -lcore9 
  -lnls9 -lxml9 -lcore9 -lunls9 -lnls9 -ldl

  Now you have fixed the problem, so hit the ignore button on the dialog and the installation will continue.

• The installation may inform you that agent failed to start. Choose ignore on this one; we will also fix it in post installation.

Do not create a database at the end of the installation. Not all things are operational at this point, and we still need to perform some minor fixes. Click on Software only and continue. Don't worry, you will be able to create your database later using dbca, the Oracle database configuration assistant.

Figure 4. Do not create a database

Post-Installation

Let's fix the issues Oracle had with ins_ctx.mk and starting the agent. Open a new terminal and log in as the oracle user. Execute these lines:

[oracle@miniroko oracle]$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib
[oracle@miniroko lib]$ make -f ins_net_client.mk install

Now edit the $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib/ins_ctx.mk file. Change lines 13-14 from:

ctxhx: $(CTXHXOBJ)
$(LINK) $(CTXHXOBJ) $(INSO_LINK)

to

ctxhx: $(CTXHXOBJ)
$(LINK) -ldl $(CTXHXOBJ) $(INSO_LINK)

You are now ready to retry making:

[oracle@miniroko lib]$ make -f $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib/ins_ctx.mk install

Voila, you now have a fully working installation of Oracle 9iR2 database server. If you wish, you can now create your Oracle database using dbca.

Starting and Stopping the Database

svrmgrl is no longer supported by Oracle, so use sqlplus for startup and shutdown operations. To start the server:

[root@miniroko]# su - oracle
[oracle@miniroko oracle]$ lsnrctl start
[oracle@miniroko oracle]$ sqlplus /nolog
 
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production on ?et Svi 29 13:52:34 2003
 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 
SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
 
Total System Global Area   93393176 bytes
Fixed Size                   450840 bytes
Variable Size              75497472 bytes
Database Buffers           16777216 bytes
Redo Buffers                 667648 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production

To shut down the server:

[root@miniroko]# su - oracle
[oracle@miniroko oracle]$ lsnrctl stop
[oracle@miniroko oracle]$ sqlplus /nolog
 
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production on ?et Svi 29 13:55:32 2003
 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 
SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> shutdown
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production

To integrate Oracle with Red Hat's SysV init process and make startup and shutdown automatic, you can use Gurulab's Oracle9i RHL Run Package. I do not recommend Oracle's native scripts $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart and $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut, as they do not always work as advertised and require some changes.

Conclusion

You now have a fully featured Oracle installation on your computer. Please remember that Oracle 9.2 is not certified for Red Hat 9, and that this combination is not endorsed in production and deployment environments. As a workstation, however, it is perfectly stable and usable.

Roko Roic currently works at Tis.kis, developing core and user-level GSM related systems.

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