Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Linux: 03 Oracle Database 10g installation

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Go to the Oracle home page and download your copy of Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition, because Oracle Data Guard is available only as a feature of Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.
After I've downloaded the Oracle Database 10g R2 software, I unzipped the file in my home directory, so I type:

/home/oracle/database/runInstaller

to start the Oracle Universal Installer. On the Select Installation Method screen choose Advanced Installation and then click the NEXT button (see the figure below).


At the Specify Inventory directory and credentials screen enter the full path of the inventory directory (/u01/app/oracle/oraInventory) and specify the Operating System group name (oinstall) and click NEXT.
Select Enterprise Edition for Installation Type and click NEXT.
The OUI should read your Oracle environment and suggest a name and a path for Home Details (see the figure below) and click NEXT.


OUI will perform the prerequisite checks: it will suggest to improve our RAM, but we can ignore this warning.
At the Select Configuration Option choose Create a Database and click NEXT; the option Install database Software only will be used when I will begin to setup the standby database running on the other virtual machine (EnterpriseLinux_Guard).
On the Select Database Configuration choose Advanced which allows you to customize the configuration of your starter database and click NEXT.
At the Summary screen click INSTALL and the installation process will start (see the figure below).


When dbca will show to you its first step select General Purpose as template for your database and then click NEXT.
At the step two type a global database name (primary.dataguard.com) and a SID (primary) (see the figure below). Then click NEXT.


At the step three accept the default options (see the figure below) and then click next.


At the step four give a password to be used for All Accounts and then click next.
At the step five select File System as storage mechanism and then click next.
At the step six select Use Oracle-Managed Files as locations for the database files and then click next.
At the step seven check Specify Flash Recovery Area and Enable Archiving: then click next.
At the step eight uncheck the Sample Schemas and then click next. Accept clicking OK the dbca info about the memory requirement.
At the step nine simply click NEXT.
At the step ten select the Redo Log Groups number 3 and click on DELETE button. When asked click YES (see the figure below).


Press the OK button at the summary screen and dbca will finally begin to copy the database files (see the figure below).


When dbca finish to create the database files it will show to you another summary window (see the figure below); click the EXIT button to proceed ahead.


The OUI will continue te setup process. Wait for the "Execute Configuration scripts" window; open a terminal, log in as root, run the scripts (/u01/ap/oracle/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh and /u01/ap/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/root.sh). The second script will ask you the location of the local bin directory. Press ENTER button on your keyboard.
After you have executed these scripts return on the "Execute Configuration scripts" window and click OK.
At the end of installation process click the EXIT button and then the YES button.


Type into your Mozilla Firefox window the Enterprise Manager address (http://data.dataguard.com:1158/em), accept the License
and then log in as sysdba. Your database and Enterprise Manager are working!!!


In the next step I will introduce some Data Guard concepts and later I will configure a Data Guard environment with our two virtual machine.

Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Linux and Oracle Database 10g : 02 System Requirements

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Let's continue setting up the system requirement for our Oracle Database 10g installation.
First of all we have to edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file, so type

vi /etc/sysctl.conf

and then add the following lines:

kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
# semaphores: semmsl, semmns, semopm, semmni
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 65536
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000
net.core.rmem_default=262144
net.core.rmem_max=262144
net.core.wmem_default=262144
net.core.wmem_max=262144

Now we have to permanently change the current kernel parameters so we have to issue the following command:

/sbin/sysctl -p

Add the following lines to the /etc/security/limits.conf file:

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

Add the following line to the /etc/pam.d/login file, if it does not already exist:

session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so

Some packages are required for Oracle Database 10g setup. Issue the following commands to see which versions of these packages are installed on our system:

rpm -q binutils compat-db control-center gcc gcc-c++ glibc glibc-common gnome-libs libstdc++ libstdc++-devel make pdksh sysstat xscreensaver openmotif21 libaio

Mount Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc3.iso into vmWare's CDROM device and then type:

cd /media/cdrom/Enterprise/RPMS
rpm -Uvh libaio-0*
rpm -Uvh openmotif21*

Issue the following commands as root user to create the Linux groups and user account that will be used to install and maintain the Oracle Database 10g software. The user account will be called oracle, and the groups will be oinstall and dba.

/usr/sbin/groupadd oinstall
/usr/sbin/groupadd dba
/usr/sbin/useradd -m -g oinstall -G dba -s /bin/ksh oracle

Then set the password for the oracle account:

passwd oracle

I will use oracle/oracle :)
Issue the following commands to create the directories in which the Oracle software will be installed:

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle
chown -R oracle.oinstall /u01
chmod -R 775 /u01

Add at the end of the /etc/profile file the following command:

if [ \$USER = "oracle" ]; then
if [ \$SHELL = "/bin/ksh" ]; then
ulimit -p 16384
ulimit -n 65536
else
ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536
fi
umask 022
fi

Add at the end of the /etc/csh.login file the following command:

if ( \$USER == "oracle" ) then
limit maxproc 16384
limit descriptors 65536
umask 022
endif

Type vi /home/oracle/.profile after logged in as oracle user and add the following lines at the end of the file:

# Oracle Settings
export ORACLE_SID=primary
export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0/db_1
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:/bin:
/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
umask 022

Always as oracle user type:

mkdir -p $ORACLE_BASE/admin
mkdir -p $ORACLE_HOME

In the next step I will install the Oracle Database 10g, but before I would like to physically copy this machine to another locations.
This is useful because it is a faster way to create another Linux environments and another virtual machine that will be part of a future Data Guard configuration as standby database.

I created the primary database on the directory C:\EnterpriseLinux_Data, so create another directory (C:\EnterpriseLinux_Guard) and copy and paste all the files from C:\EnterpriseLinux_Data directory into C:\EnterpriseLinux_Guard directory

Now from your vmWare GSX server select File->Open Virtual Machine and then click on Browse button to add your future standby database (I selected the file C:\EnterpriseLinux_Guard\rhel4.vmx). Then click on Edit virtual machine settings and change the name of this "standby database" machine in guard.

At this point you will see two tabs on your vmWare GSX server, data and guard: now this time start the "standby database" machine (guard). The first time you will be asked if create a new identifier for this machine... You have to create a new identifier.
Finally you have to see a figure like this below.


You will see while your "standby database" machine is starting that a MAC address misconfiguration is detected: this is because you have to probe for new MAC address using system-config-network tool from a root terminal.
So as root user type on your terminal system-config-network and for each network device check for a new MAC address (see the figure below).


Change also your hostname from data.dataguard.com to guard.dataguard.com.

vi /etc/hosts

Save your network configuration and type

/etc/init.d/network restart

Type

hostname

to see if you have written the right hostname for your "standby database" machine (you should see guard.dataguard.com).
Login as oracle user (su - oracle) and edit your .profile file, changing the ORACLE_SID variable in standby (see the figure below).


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Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Linux

This time I will configure a vmWare virtual machine to install and setup Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Linux and Oracle Database 10g. This machine will be part of a future (coming soon) Oracle Data Guard configuration using vmWare. Available as a feature of the Enterprise Edition of the Oracle Database, Data Guard can be used in combination with other Oracle High Availability (HA) solutions such as Real Application Clusters (RAC), Oracle Flashback and Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN), to provide a very high level of data protection and data availability.

So, in particular, this machine will be referred to as the primary database of the Data Guard configuration. In a second time I will configure another virtual machine to be used as standby database, a transactionally consistent copy of the primary database. In both these machines I will use Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Linux: it's important to remember that all members of a Data Guard configuration must run an Oracle image that is built for the same platform. This means, I cannot have a primary database configured on a 32-bit Linux system and a standby database on a 32-bit Windows system.

So let's start with the new installation...

Select New Virtual Machine (see the figure below) and then click NEXT.


Select Custom as Virtual machine configuration and then click NEXT.
Select Linux as Guest operating system and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 as Version and then click NEXT.
Give a name to your virtual machine (I typed EnterpriseLinux_Data, because in a second moment this machine will be part of an Oracle Data Guard configuration, so stay tuned),
select your preferred location and then click NEXT.
Click NEXT from the Set Access Rights screen and then again, click NEXT, from Startup / Shutdown Options screen.
Specify 512 as Memory and then click NEXT.
Select Use bridged networking as Network Connection and then click NEXT.
Select SCSI Adapter LSI Logic as I/0 and then click NEXT.
Select Create a new virtual disk from Select a Disk screen and then click NEXT.
Select SCSI (Recommended) as Virtual Disk Type and then click NEXT.
Specify 9GB as Disk Size, deselect Allocate all disk space now (see the figure below) and then click NEXT.


Specify where to save your virtual files, give them a name (I used C:\EnterpriseLinux_Data\EnterpriseLinux_Data.vmdk) and then click NEXT.
From the VMware Vitrual Machine Console, click on Edit virtual machine settings and edit your CDROM configuration to read your Oracle Enterprise Unbreakable Linux iso image (Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc1.iso) during the start up. Now we are ready to start our machine and to begin the installation of the first image Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc1.iso of Oracle Enterprise Unbreakable Linux release.


At the boot screen.. simply press ENTER
Then choose Skip to skip the media test (you should have Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc1.iso, Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc2.iso, Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc3.iso and Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc4.iso image)
From the Welcome screen (see the figure below) click on the NEXT button.


Select your installation language and then click NEXT.
Select your Keyboard Configuration and then click NEXT.
Select Custom as Installation Type (see the figure below) and then click NEXT.


Select Manually partition with Disk Druid as Disk Partitioning Setup and then click NEXT.
When the Warning is showed click on the YES button.


For simplicity I will just add a root partition and a swap partition.
Select the New button, select swap as File System Type, type 1024 as Size (see the figure below) and clik OK.


Select again the New button, select ext3 as File System Type, select / as Mount Point,
check Fill to maximum allowable size (see the figure below) and clik OK.


Click NEXT from Disk Setup screen.
Click NEXT from Boot Loader Configuration screen.
Select Edit from Network Configuration screen and type your static IP (see the figure below) or if you have a DHCP, select Configure using DHCP. Then click OK.


Because I use a static IP I should select an hostname for this machine. I will use data.dataguard.com (see the figure below).


Type your Gateway and DNS settings if you have it and then click NEXT.
Disable the firewall and enable SELinux and then click NEXT.
Click on Proceed button.
Select your default language and then click NEXT.
Select your Time Zone and then click NEXT.
Type your root password and then click NEXT.
Select from the Package Group Selection:
* X Window System
* GNOME Desktop Environment
* Editors (I have selected the vi editor)
* Graphical Internet
* Sound and Video
* Server Configuration Tools
* FTP Server
* Legacy Network Server(rsh-server and telnet-server must be selected)
* Development Tools
* Legacy Software Development
* Administration Tools
* Give attention to the System Tools:
Select oracleasm-2.6.9-42.0.0.0.1EL (uniprocessor) for UP kernel or select oracleasm-2.6.9-42.0.0.0.1ELsmp for SMP (symmetric multiprocessor) kernel.
Then select sysstat because this package contains utilities to monitor system performance and usage activity such as iostat (CPU statistics and input/output statistics for devices, partitions and network filesystems) and sar (it collects, reports and saves system activity information).
and then click NEXT.
From the About to Install click NEXT and then the Continue button.
When asked, insert the disk 2 (Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc2.iso) editing your CDROM settings (see the figure below) and then click OK.


When asked, insert the disk 3 (Enterprise-R4-U4-i386-disc3.iso) editing your CDROM settings again (see the figure below) and then click OK.


When the installation is completed disconnect your CDROM (see the figure below) and then click the Reboot button.


Your machine will reboot.
On the Welcome screen click the NEXT button.
Select Yes, I agree to the License Agreement and then click the NEXT button.
Set your Time and Date and then click the NEXT button.
On the Display screen select Configure and then set the model of your monitor (see the figure below)


Then eventually change your Resolution (see the figure below) and then click the NEXT button.


I won't add a System User as suggested, so after click on the NEXT button, click also on the Continue button showed by the Warning window.
Click NEXT on Additional CDs and NEXT again on Finish Setup screen.
Login as root and next time I will start to install again the Oracle Database 10g, after have prepared the right Oracle environment.

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