Steps to install Oracle 9i in Redhat Linux

Steps to Install Oracle 9i in Red hat Linux

Hardware and Software Requirements to install Oracle 

Hardware Requirement 

    CPU              PII or K6RAM           
    RAM             512 MB
    HDD space   3.5 GB        
    Swap space   1GB or RAMx2    

Software Requirement

 Oracle requires a minimal version of the kernel and JRE software:
    Parameter       Required        Sufficient (tested)
    ---------------------------------------------------
    Kernel             2.4.7                  later is fine
    JRE                 1.1.8v3              1.1.8v3

---

First of all before installing oracle in redhat check whether all development packages are installed by the following command

rpm -q gcc cpp compat-libstdc++ glibc-devel glibc-kernheaders binutils

Install the following RPM 

su -root

rpm -ivh binutils-2.13.90.0.18-9.i386.rpm \

cpp-3.2.2-5.i386.rpm \

gcc-3.2.2-5.i386.rpm \

glibc-devel-2.3.2-5.i386.rpm \

glibc-kernelheaders-2.4-8.10.i386.rpm

Download oracle 9i Here

For Oracle9i (9.2.0) One step procedure (uses less disk space and is faster):

zcat lnx_920_disk1.cpio.gz | cpio -idmv

zcat lnx_920_disk2.cpio.gz | cpio -idmv

zcat lnx_920_disk3.cpio.gz | cpio -idmv

Now you should have 3 directories containing installation files

Disk 1

Disk 2

Disk 3

Setting Swap Space

In order to perform a typical Oracle 9i installation and to create a simple prototype database, Oracle says that you need a minimum of 512MB of RAM for the Oracle9i (9.0.1) Server, and the amount of disk space (swap space) should be equal to twice the amount of RAM or at least 400 MB, whichever is greater.

I tried to test the limits on an older PC with 256 MB of RAM and with 600 MB of swap space. I was able to install Oracle 9i (9.0.1 & 9.2.0) and Oracle's default database without any problems. But when I used less swap space on this PC (256MB RAM), I was runnig out of memory. So I definitely recommend to use more RAM and/or more swap space as specified in the Oracle installation guide.

NOTE: If you do not have enough swap space or RAM during the Oracle installation, in particular during the database creation, your Oracle server (Linux) will temporarily become unresponsive to any events for several minutes. 

To check the memory, run:

grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo

To check the swap space, run:

cat /proc/swaps

You can also add temporary swap space by creating a temporary swap file instead of using a raw device. Here is the procedure:

su -root

dd if=/dev/zero of=tmpswap bs=1k count=900000

chmod 600 tmpswap

mkswap tmpswap

swapon tmpswap

To disable the temporary swap space execute the following commands:

su -root

swapoff tmpswap

rm tmpswap

Setting Shared Memory

For Oracle 9i (9.2.0) installation I had to increase the maximum shared memory size on my Linux server for all Red Hat versions. The Oracle Database Configuration Assistant displayed the following error message on my server:

ORA-27123 : unable to attach to shared memory segment

I temporarily increased the shmmax setting for the kernel by executing the following command:

$ su -root

# cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

33554432

# echo ' expr 1024 \ * 1024 \ * 1024 ' > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

# cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

1073741824

 Checking /tmp Space

The Oracle Universal Installer requires up to 400 MB of free space in the /tmp directory.

To check the space in /tmp, run:

$ df /tmp

If you do not have enough space in the /tmp directory, you can temporarily create a tmp directory in another filesystem. Here is how you can do this:

su -root

mkdir / /tmp

chown root.root //tmp

chmod 1777 //tmp

export TEMP = / #used by Oracle

export TMPDIR = / # used by Linux Programs like the linker “ld”

When you are done with your Oracle installation, shutdown Oracle and remove the temporary directory:

su -root

rmdir /AnotherFilesystem>/tmp

unset TEMP

unset TMPDIR

Creating Oracle User Accounts

su – root

groupadd dba

groupadd oinstall

useradd -c “ Oracle Software Owner “ -g oinstall -G dba oracle

passwd oracle

Creating Oracle Directories

In this example, make sure that the /u01 filesystem is large enough. If /u01 is not on a separate filesystem, then make sure the root filesystem "/" has enough space.

su -root

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0

chown -R oracle.oinstall /u01

mkdir /var/opt/oracle

chown oracle.dba /var/opt/oracle

chmod 755 /var/opt/oracle

Setting Oracle Environment

Set the following Oracle environment variable before you start runInstaller

As the Oracle user execute the following commands:

#set the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL environment variable only for Red Hat 9

export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL = 2.4.1 # for RH 9

# Oracle Environment

export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle

export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/Product/9.2.0

export ORACLE_SID=test

export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib

export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin

Starting runInstaller

Step 1: Allow “oracleserver” to display X information to your desktop

xhost +oracleserver

Step 2: Open a new window and login to the Oracle server "oracleserver" as root. This window will be used for mounting and unmounting the Oracle CDs.

oracleserver: $ su -root

oracleserver:root# mount /mnt/cdrom

Step 3: From the console of your Oracle server "oracleserver" where you will run runInstaller, execute the following commands:

    oracleserver:$ su -oracle

    oracleserver:oracle$ export DISPLAY = yourdesktop:0.0

Step 4: Now execute runInstaller as "oracle". Do not cd to /mnt/cdrom !!

    oracleserver:oracle$ /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller

Startup and Shutdown of the Oracle 9i Database

sqlplus /nolog

connect / as sysdba

startup

shutdown immediate

To Start the Listener

cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsncrtl start

The lsnrctl utility manages the Oracle listener processes. The Oracle listener process is required for database applications to access the database through SQL *Net or Net 8. lsnrctl requires entries in the listener.ora file that specify the port for that listener.

The listener.ora file is the configuration file for the network listener. It resides on the server and defines the network listener address, the SID for the database for which it listens, and other optional parameters for tracing and logging.

The following commands are used to manage the listener:

start : Starts the listener with the name specified, otherwise LISTENER will be used. For Windows systems, the listener can also be started and stopped from the Control Panel.

stop : Stops the listener. For Windows systems, the listener can also be started and stopped from the Control Panel.

status : Provides status information about the listener, including start date, uptime, and trace level.

services : Displays each service available, along with the connection history.

version : Displays the version information of the listener.

reload : Forces a read of the configuration file in order for new settings to take effect without stopping and starting the listener.