4 Installing Oracle Database

4.1.1 Performing Multiple Oracle Database Installations in Response File or Silent Mode

If you must perform multiple installations of Oracle Database, you may want to use silent mode or response file mode. In response file mode, at each node, you run Oracle Universal Installer from the command line using a response file. The response file is a text file that contains the settings you typically enter in the Oracle Universal Installer GUI dialog boxes.

4.2.1 Selecting the Database Character Set

Oracle Database uses the database character set for:

• Data stored in SQL character datatypes (CHAR, VARCHAR2, CLOB, and LONG).

• Identifiers such as table names, column names, and PL/SQL variables.

• Stored SQL and PL/SQL source code, including text literals embedded in this code.

After a database is created, changing its character set is usually very expensive in terms of time and resources. Such operations may require converting all character data by exporting the whole database and importing it back. Therefore, it is important that you carefully select the database character set at installation time.

Oracle recommends Unicode AL32UTF8 as the database character set. Unicode is the universal character set that supports most of the currently spoken languages of the world. It also supports many historical scripts (alphabets). Unicode is the native encoding of many technologies, including Java, XML, XHTML, ECMAScript, and LDAP. Unicode is ideally suited for databases supporting the Internet and the global economy.

Because AL32UTF8 is a multibyte character set, database operations on character data may be slightly slower when compared to single-byte database character sets, such as WE8MSWIN1252. Storage space requirements for text in most languages that use characters outside of the ASCII repertoire are higher in AL32UTF8 compared to legacy character sets supporting the language. Note that the increase in storage space concerns only character data and only data that is not in English. The universality and flexibility of Unicode usually outweighs these additional costs.

Consider legacy character sets when compatibility, storage requirements, or performance of text processing is critical and the database will support only a single group of languages. The database character set to be selected in this case is the character set of most clients connecting to this database.

The default character set suggested or used by Oracle Universal Installer and Database Configuration Assistant in this release is based on the language configuration of the operating system.

For most languages, the default character set is one of the Microsoft Windows character sets, for example WE8MSWIN1252, even though the database is not installed on Windows. This results from the assumption that most clients connecting to the database run under the Microsoft Windows operating system. Because the database should be able to store all characters coming from the clients and Microsoft Windows character sets have a richer character repertoire than the corresponding ISO 8859 character sets, the Microsoft Windows character sets are usually the better choice. For example, the EE8MSWIN1250 character set supports the Euro currency symbol and various smart quote characters, while the corresponding EE8ISO8859P2 character set does not support them. Oracle Database converts the data between the database character set and the client character sets, which are declared by the NLS_LANG settings.

The list of database character sets that is presented to you for selection by Oracle Universal Installer contains only the recommended character sets. Even though Oracle Database supports many more character sets, they are either deprecated or they are binary subsets of another recommended character set. For example, WE8DEC is a deprecated character set and US7ASCII and WE8ISO8859P1 are both binary subsets of WE8MSWIN1252.

If, for compatibility reasons, you must create a database in one of the character sets that was not recommended, select the Advanced database configuration option. Database Configuration Assistant in the interactive mode gives you the opportunity to select any of the database character sets supported on HP-UX.

4.2.2 Using an Oracle Automatic Storage Management Disk Group

This section is optional and describes how to identify disk groups and determine the free disk space that they contain. You can store either database or recovery files in an existing Oracle ASM disk group that you created during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

To determine if an existing Oracle ASM disk group exists or to determine if there is sufficient disk space in a disk group, use the following procedure:

1. View the contents of the oratab file to determine if an Oracle ASM instance is configured on the system:

   # more /var/opt/oracle/oratab
   

   If an Oracle ASM instance is configured on the system, then the oratab file contains a line similar to the following:

   +ASM:oracle_home_path:N
   

   In this example, +ASM is the system identifier (SID) of the Oracle ASM instance and oracle_home_path is the Oracle home directory where Oracle ASM is installed. By convention, the SID for an Oracle ASM instance should be +ASM.

2. Open a shell prompt and temporarily set the ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME environment variables to specify the appropriate values for the Oracle ASM instance that you want to use.

   For example, if the Oracle ASM SID is named +ASM and is located in the grid subdirectory of the ORACLE_BASE directory, then enter the following commands to create the required settings:

   • Bourne, Bash, or Korn shell:

     $ ORACLE_SID=+ASM
     $ export ORACLE_SID
     $ ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/grid/
     $ export ORACLE_HOME
     

   • C shell:

     % setenv ORACLE_SID +ASM
     % setenv ORACLE_HOME /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/grid
     

3. Using SQL*Plus, connect to the Oracle ASM instance as the SYS user with SYSASM privilege and start the instance if necessary:

   # $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus /nolog
   SQL> CONNECT SYS as SYSASM
   Enter password: SYS_password 
   SQL> STARTUP
   

4. Enter the following command to view the existing disk groups, their redundancy level, and the amount of free disk space in each one:

   SQL> SELECT NAME,TYPE,TOTAL_MB,FREE_MB FROM V$ASM_DISKGROUP;
   

5. From the output, identify a disk group with the appropriate redundancy level, and note the free space that it contains.

6. If necessary, install or identify the additional disk devices required to meet the storage requirements listed in the previous section.

   Note:

   If you are adding devices to an existing disk group, then Oracle recommends that you use devices that have the same size and performance characteristics as the existing devices in that disk group.

4.3.1 Downloading Oracle Software

You can download the trial version of the installation files from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) or the Oracle E-Delivery Web site and extract them on your hard disk. Ensure that you review and understand the terms of the license. Most downloads include the development license. This section contains the following topics:

• Downloading the Installation Archive Files from OTN

• Downloading the Software from Oracle E-Delivery

• Extracting the Installation Files

4.3.2 Copying the Software to the Hard Disk

Before installing Oracle Database, you might want to copy the software to the hard disk to enable the installation process to run faster. Before copying the installation media content to the hard disk, you must mount the disk. The following sections describe how to mount the disk and copy its content to the hard disk.

4.5.1 Running Oracle Universal Installer

For any type of installation process, start Oracle Universal Installer and install the software, as follows:

1. Logon as the Oracle software owner user (typically, oracle) to the computer on which you want to install Oracle components.

2. If you are installing the software from installation media, mount the disk if it is not already mounted.

   If the disk does not mount automatically, see the "Mounting Disks" section for platform-specific information.

   Some platforms automatically mount the disk when you insert the installation media into the drive.

3. To start Oracle Universal Installer, complete one of the following steps depending on the location of the installation files:

   Note:

   Start Oracle Universal Installer from the terminal session where you logged in as the oracle user and set the user's environment.

   See Also:

   "Configuring the oracle User's Environment"

   • If the installation files are on installation media, enter commands similar to the following, where directory_path is the path of the database directory on the installation media:

     $ /directory_path/runInstaller
     

   • If the installation files are on the hard disk, change the directory to the database directory and enter the following command:

     $ ./runInstaller
     

   • Downloading Updates Before Installation

     Starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.2), if you plan to run the installation in a secured data center, then you can download updates before starting the installation by starting Oracle Universal Installer on a system that has Internet access in update download mode. To start Oracle Universal Installer to download the updates, enter the following command:

     $ ./runInstaller -downloadUpdates
     

     Provide the My Oracle Support user name and password, and provide proxy settings, if needed, in the Provide My Oracle Support credentials screen. Then, enter the Download location and click Download in the Download software updates screen. If updates are available, then they are downloaded in the location provided. The Finish Updates screen shows the successful download of the updates. Click Close.

     After you download the updates, transfer the update file to a directory on the server where you plan to run the installation.

     See Also:

     • Oracle Universal Installer and OPatch User's Guide for Windows and UNIX for more information about response file formats

     • "Software Updates Option"

   If Oracle Universal Installer is not displayed, see "X Window Display Errors" and "Remote Terminal Installation Error" for information about troubleshooting.

4. Use the following guidelines to complete the installation:

   • Do not install Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) software into an existing Oracle home.

   • Follow the instructions displayed on the Oracle Universal Installer screens. If you need additional information, click Help.

     See Also:

     "Reviewing Accounts and Passwords" for information about password guidelines

   • Do not modify the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) except by using a patch provided by Oracle Support Services. Oracle Universal Installer automatically installs the Oracle-supplied version of the JRE. This version is required to run Oracle Universal Installer and several Oracle assistants.

   • If errors are displayed while installing the software, see Appendix G for information about troubleshooting.

   • If you chose an installation type that runs Oracle Database Configuration Assistant and Oracle Net Configuration Assistant in interactive mode, then you must provide detailed information about configuring the database and network.

     If you need help when using the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant or Oracle Net Configuration Assistant in interactive mode, click Help on any screen.

     Note:

     If you chose a default installation, Oracle Database Configuration Assistant and Oracle Net Configuration Assistant do not run interactively.

5. When the configuration assistant tasks are complete click finish, click Exit, then click Yes to exit from Oracle Universal Installer.

6. During the database installation, when Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to run a script with root privileges, enter a command similar to the following in a terminal where you are logged in as the root user, then click OK:

   # /script_path/script_name
   

   For more information see screen "Install product" in the installation table that follows.

7. See Chapter 5 for information about tasks that you must complete after you install Oracle Database.

The following table lists the various screens displayed during an Enterprise Edition installation for Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2):

db_unique_name.db_domain

sales.us.example.com

CRS-0184: Cannot communicate with the CRS daemon.