Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) Installation On Oracle Linux 6

This article describes the installation of Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) (64-bit) on Oracle Linux 6 (64-bit). The article is based on a server installation with a minimum of 2G swap, with SELinux set to permissive and the firewall disabled. The following package groups were included for this installation.

Base System > Base
Base System > Client management tools
Base System > Compatibility libraries
Base System > Hardware monitoring utilities
Base System > Large Systems Performance
Base System > Network file system client
Base System > Performance Tools
Base System > Perl Support
Servers > Server Platform
Servers > System administration tools
Desktops > Desktop
Desktops > Desktop Platform
Desktops > Fonts
Desktops > General Purpose Desktop
Desktops > Graphical Administration Tools
Desktops > Input Methods
Desktops > X Window System
Development > Additional Development
Development > Development Tools
Applications > Internet Browser

An example of this type of Linux installations can be seen here. Alternative installations may require more packages to be loaded, in addition to the ones listed below.

Download Software

Download the Oracle software from OTN or MOS depending on your support status.

Unpack Files

Unzip the files.

# 11.2.0.1
unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_1of2.zip
unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_2of2.zip

#11.2.0.2
unzip p10098816_112020_Linux-x86-64_1of7.zip
unzip p10098816_112020_Linux-x86-64_2of7.zip

#11.2.0.3
unzip p10404530_112030_Linux-x86-64_1of7.zip
unzip p10404530_112030_Linux-x86-64_2of7.zip

#11.2.0.4
unzip p13390677_112040_Linux-x86-64_1of7.zip
unzip p13390677_112040_Linux-x86-64_2of7.zip

You should now have a single directory called "database" containing installation files.

Hosts File

The "/etc/hosts" file must contain a fully qualified name for the server.

For example.

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain  localhost
192.168.0.181   ol6-112.localdomain    ol6-112

Oracle Installation Prerequisites

Perform either the Automatic Setup or the Manual Setup to complete the basic prerequisites. The Additional Setup is required for all installations.

Automatic Setup

If you plan to use the "oracle-rdbms-server-11gR2-preinstall" package to perform all your prerequisite setup, follow the instructions at http://public-yum.oracle.com to setup the yum repository for OL, then perform the following command.

# yum install oracle-rdbms-server-11gR2-preinstall

All necessary prerequisites will be performed automatically.

It is probably worth doing a full update as well, but this is not strictly speaking necessary.

# yum update

Manual Setup

If you have not used the "oracle-rdbms-server-11gR2-preinstall" package to perform all prerequisites, you will need to manually perform the following setup tasks.

Oracle recommend the following minimum parameter settings.

fs.suid_dumpable = 1
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 536870912
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048586

The current values can be tested using the following command.

/sbin/sysctl -a | grep

Add or amend the following lines in the "/etc/sysctl.conf" file.

fs.suid_dumpable = 1
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 536870912
kernel.shmmni = 4096
# semaphores: semmsl, semmns, semopm, semmni
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default=262144
net.core.rmem_max=4194304
net.core.wmem_default=262144
net.core.wmem_max=1048586

Run the following command to change the current kernel parameters.

/sbin/sysctl -p

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

oracle              soft    nproc   16384
oracle              hard    nproc   16384
oracle              soft    nofile  4096
oracle              hard    nofile  65536
oracle              soft    stack   10240

Install the following packages if they are not already present.

# From Oracle Linux 6 DVD
cd /media/cdrom/Server/Packages
rpm -Uvh binutils-2*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh glibc-2*x86_64* nss-softokn-freebl-3*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh glibc-2*i686* nss-softokn-freebl-3*i686*
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh glibc-common-2*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2*i686*
rpm -Uvh glibc-headers-2*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-0*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-devel-0*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh gcc-4*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh gcc-c++-4*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh ksh-*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh libaio-0*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh libaio-devel-0*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh libaio-0*i686*
rpm -Uvh libaio-devel-0*i686*
rpm -Uvh libgcc-4*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh libgcc-4*i686*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-4*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-4*i686*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-devel-4*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh make-3.81*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh numactl-devel-2*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh sysstat-9*x86_64*
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*i686*
rpm -Uvh compat-libcap*
cd /
eject

This will install all the necessary 32-bit packages for 11.2.0.1. From 11.2.0.2 onwards many of these are unnecessary, but having them present does not cause a problem.

Create the new groups and users.

groupadd -g 501 oinstall
groupadd -g 502 dba
groupadd -g 503 oper
groupadd -g 504 asmadmin
groupadd -g 506 asmdba
groupadd -g 505 asmoper

useradd -u 502 -g oinstall -G dba,asmdba,oper oracle
passwd oracle

We are not going to use the "asm" groups, since this installation will not use ASM.

Additional Setup

Set the password for the "oracle" user.

passwd oracle

Amend the "/etc/security/limits.d/90-nproc.conf" file as described below. See MOS Note [ID 1487773.1]

# Change this
*          soft    nproc    1024

# To this
* - nproc 16384

Set secure Linux to permissive by editing the "/etc/selinux/config" file, making sure the SELINUX flag is set as follows.

SELINUX=permissive

Once the change is complete, restart the server.

If you have the Linux firewall enabled, you will need to disable or configure it, as shown here or here.

Create the directories in which the Oracle software will be installed.

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1
chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01
chmod -R 775 /u01

xhost +

# Oracle Settings
TMP=/tmp; export TMP
TMPDIR=$TMP; export TMPDIR

ORACLE_HOSTNAME=ol6-112.localdomain; export ORACLE_HOSTNAME
ORACLE_UNQNAME=DB11G; export ORACLE_UNQNAME
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/db_1; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_SID=DB11G; export ORACLE_SID

PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH; export PATH
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH; export PATH

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib; export CLASSPATH

Installation

Log into the oracle user. If you are using X emulation then set the DISPLAY environmental variable.

DISPLAY=:0.0; export DISPLAY

Start the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) by issuing the following command in the database directory.

./runInstaller

Proceed with the installation of your choice. The prerequisites checks will fail for the following version-dependent reasons:

11.2.0.1: The installer shows multiple "missing package" failures because it does not recognize several of the newer version packages that were installed. These "missing package" failures can be ignored as the packages are present. The failure for the "pdksh" package can be ignored because we installed the "ksh" package in its place.
11.2.0.2: The installer should only show a single "missing package" failure for the "pdksh" package. It can be ignored because we installed the "ksh" package in its place.
11.2.0.3: The installer shows no failures and continues normally.

You can see the type of installation I performed by clicking on the links below to see screen shots of each stage.

If you are doing an installation for an Enterprise Manager repository, remember to do an advanced installation and pick the ALT32UTF8 character set.

Post Installation

Edit the "/etc/oratab" file setting the restart flag for each instance to 'Y'.

DB11G:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1:Y

Common Errors

"error code 35" : The machine name in the "/etc/hosts" file is not correct. It needs an entry for the loopback adapter (localhost) and the machine name. If you are using DNS for name resolution, you still need the loopback adapter reference in this file.
"error code 37" : The DNS not working properly. You may also get this error is the "/etc/hosts" file is not configured correctly.
"sqlplus: error while loading shared libraries: libclntsh.so.11.1" : The prerequisites have not been met. Work through them again. Specifically, make sure the "gcc" package has been installed.
Listener fails to start - Typically this is due to incorrect name resolution. Make sure the "/etc/hosts" and/or DNS is configured correctly.
Linking errors - Almost always due to missing prerequisites. Review the setup sections.

For more information see:

Oracle DBA Centre

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Oracle Database 11gR2 Installation without ASM On Oracle Linux 6