Install Oracle 11g Release 2 on RHEL 5

This is a step by step guide, which will walk you through the installation of Oracle 11g Release 2 on RHEL 5.5 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5) 32-bit architecture.

Preparing for install: Pre-Installation Configurations

Check Hardware Requirements:

The first thing we need to verify is, if the hardware we have is okay for an Oracle 11g Installation.

-- Check Physical RAM.
# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:      2075424 kB
/*
 We need at least 1GB of physical RAM. 
 In my case I have 2GB.
*/

-- Check Swap Space.
# grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo
SwapTotal:     3148732 kB

/*
 RAM between 1GB and 2GB then Swap = 1.5 times the size of RAM
 RAM between 2GB and 16GB then Swap = equal to the size of RAM
 RAM more than 16GB then Swap Size = 16GB
 Since my RAM is 2GB, so I have 3GB of Swap Size.
*/

# df -h /dev/shm/
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs                1014M     0 1014M   0% /dev/shm


/*
 What ever you are going to use your Automatic Memory Management 
 Targets later on this database, you need to have shared memory 
 file system size at lease equal to those settings. In my case I 
 have plans to use memory management targets lower then 1000M 
 so 1014 M of shared memory file system is sufficient for me. 
 But if you would like to have a bigger shared memory (/dev/shm) 
 size then do the following:
*/

# mount -t tmpfs tmpfs -o size=1500m /dev/shm
# df -h /dev/shm/
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs                 1.5G     0  1.5G   0% /dev/shm

-- Check space available in /tmp
# df -h /tmp
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5             1.5G   35M  1.4G   3% /tmp

/* 
  You need to have at least 1GB of space in the /tmp directory.
  Make sure you have 1GB in the column "Avail" in the above output.
  In my case I have 1.4G space available in /tmp.
*/

-- Check space for Oracle Software and pre configured database.
-- I have created a separate partition "/u01" for Oracle Software 
-- and database files
# df -h /u01
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2              15G  166M   14G   2% /u01

-- I have 14G available space on the partition /u01.
/*
  Space requirement for Oracle 11g Release 2 Software:
     Enterprise Edition      3.95G
     Standard Edition       3.88G
  
  Space requirement for Oracle Database Files:
     1.7 G 
     (
      creating a database is always optional with oracle installation. 
      Can be done later.
     )
*/

/*
 To install Oracle 11g Release 2 your system should be running
 on at least 1024x768 screen resolution.
*/
# xdpyinfo | grep 'dimensions:'
  dimensions:    1280x720 pixels (433x244 millimeters)

/*
 To install Oracle 11g Release 2 on RHEL 5 you should be running
 a kernel version 2.6.18 or later.
*/
# uname -r
2.6.18-194.el5

Pre-Installation Configurations: Meeting the software requirements:

Once all hardware requirements are verified, we will proceed with further configuration.

Make sure that there is an entry in /etc/hosts file for your machine like this:

[IP-address]  [fully-qualified-machine-name]  [machine-name]

/* 
 Where "fully-qualified-machine-name" is your
 "machine_name"."domain_name"
*/

Next we need to adjust the Linux Kernel Parameters to support Oracle.
Open /etc/sysctl.conf and add the following lines:

# Oracle settings
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
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 262144 262144 262144
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4194304 4194304 4194304

Note: You may find the parameters mentioned above already present in the /etc/sysctl.conf file. If they have a value lower then mentioned above then make sure you change it, but if they have a larger value then perhaps its safe to leave it as is.

-- Make the kernel parameters changes effective immediately:
# /sbin/sysctl -p

-- Verify the parameters are changed or not? 
# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep name_of_kernel_parameter -- e.g. shmall

Now setup User that we will use as Oracle owner and the groups that it will need for installing and managing Oracle.

/usr/sbin/groupadd oinstall
/usr/sbin/groupadd dba
/usr/sbin/groupadd oper
/usr/sbin/useradd -g oinstall -G dba,oper oracle
/usr/bin/passwd oracle

Create directories where the Oracle Software and database will be installed.

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1
chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01
chmod -R 0775 /u01

/*
 The above directory structure is designed to comply with OFA 
 (Oracle Flexible Architecture) i.e. a directory structure to
 support multiple oracle software installations.

 ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle 
 -- Base directory for all oracle installations.

 ORACLE_HOME=ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/db_1 -- 11.2.0 installation 1.
 ORACLE_HOME=ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/db_2 -- 11.2.0 installation 2.
 ORACLE_HOME=ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0/db_1 -- 10.2.0 installation 1.

 and so on....
*/

Now set the shell limits for the user Oracle.
Open /etc/security/limits.conf and add these lines.

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

Where "nproc" is the maximum number of processes available to the user and "nofiles" is the number of open file descriptors.

Open /etc/pam.d/login and add the following line if it is already not there.

session    required     pam_limits.so

Disable secure linux by editing the /etc/selinux/config file, making sure the SELINUX flag is set as follows:

SELINUX=disabled

If you leave SELINUX=enforcing then you may get an error later while starting sqlplus:
sqlplus: error while loading shared libraries:
/usr/lib/oracle/default/client64/lib/libclntsh.so.11.1: cannot restore segment
prot after reloc: Permission denied

Now we need to make sure we have all necessary packages for Oracle. Put your Linux Media into DVD and go to the "Server" directory.

cd /dvd_mount_point/Server

For RHEL 5 (32-bit):

rpm -Uvih binutils-2*
rpm -Uvih compat-libstdc++-33*
rpm -Uvih elfutils-libelf-0*
rpm -Uvih elfutils-libelf-devel-0*
rpm -Uvih elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0*
rpm -Uvih gcc-4*
rpm -Uvih gcc-c++-4*
rpm -Uvih glibc-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih glibc-common-2*
rpm -Uvih glibc-devel-2*
rpm -Uvih glibc-headers-2*
rpm -Uvih kernel-headers-2*
rpm -Uvih ksh-20*
rpm -Uvih libaio-0*
rpm -Uvih libaio-devel-0* 
rpm -Uvih libgcc-4*
rpm -Uvih libgomp-4*
rpm -Uvih libstdc++-4* 
rpm -Uvih libstdc++-devel-4*
rpm -Uvih make-3*
rpm -Uvih numactl-devel-0*
rpm -Uvih sysstat-7*
rpm -Uvih unixODBC-2*
rpm -Uvih unixODBC-devel-2*

For RHEL 5 (64-bit):

rpm -Uvih binutils-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih compat-libstdc++-33*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih compat-libstdc++-33*i386*
rpm -Uvih elfutils-libelf-0*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih elfutils-libelf-devel-0*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih gcc-4*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih gcc-c++-4*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih glibc-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih glibc-2*i686*
rpm -Uvih glibc-common-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih glibc-devel-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih glibc-devel-2*i386*
rpm -Uvih glibc-headers-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih ksh-20*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih libaio-0*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih libaio-0*i386*
rpm -Uvih libaio-devel-0*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih libaio-devel-0*i386*
rpm -Uvih libgcc-4*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih libgcc-4*i386*
rpm -Uvih libstdc++-4*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih libstdc++-4*i386*
rpm -Uvih libstdc++-devel-4*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih make-3*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih numactl-devel-0*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih sysstat-7*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih unixODBC-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih unixODBC-2*i386*
rpm -Uvih unixODBC-devel-2*`uname -p`*
rpm -Uvih unixODBC-devel-2*i386*

NOTE: If you are using RHEL5 DVD then you should find them all in the "Server" directory in your DVD. And if you don't find one there you may download it from the Linux vendor's Web site.
If you have your Linux distribution in 3 CDs then these will be scattered on all three CDs in the Server directory on all CDs.

Allow the user oracle to use X server, which it will need to run Oracle Universal Installer.

# xhost +SI:localuser:oracle

Now switch to the user oracle.

# su - oracle

-- Let's see which shell is being used by the user Oracle.
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

If the returned shell is bash then open ~/.bash_profile and add these lines:

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

# If /tmp doesn't have 1G space free then you can workaround it by
# pointing the variables TMP AND TMPDIR to a location where you have 
# sufficient space.

ORACLE_HOSTNAME=ora11g.home.com; export ORACLE_HOSTNAME
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/db_1; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_SID=ora11g; export ORACLE_SID
ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:/usr/sbin:$PATH; export PATH

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

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

umask 022

If using C shell then open ~/.login and add these lines:

# Oracle settings
setenv TMP=/tmp
setenv TMPDIR=$TMP

# If /tmp doesn't have 1G space free then you can workaround it
# by pointing the variables TMP AND TMPDIR to a location where you
# have sufficient space. Oracle will then use this directory for 
# temporary files.

setenv ORACLE_HOSTNAME ora11g.home.com
setenv ORACLE_BASE /u01/app/oracle
setenv ORACLE_HOME $ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/db_1
setenv ORACLE_SID ora11g
setenv ORACLE_TERM xterm
setenv PATH /usr/sbin:$PATH
setenv PATH $ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH $ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib
setenv CLASSPATH $ORACLE_HOME/JRE:$ORACLE_HOME/jlib
setenv CLASSPATH $CLASSPATH:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib

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

umask 022

Now run the following command to make these changes effective in the current session of user oracle.

-- for bash shell
$ source ~/.bash_profile
-- for C shell
$ source ~/.login

Install Oracle 11g Release 2 on RHEL 5:

The environment is ready for oracle installation. Its time to prepare the oracle installation media now.
Download or Copy the oracle media to the oracle user home directory i.e. /home/oracle.
Once Download/Copy is done unzip the media as follows:

$ cd /home/oracle
$ ls
linux_11gR2_database_1of2.zip  linux_11gR2_database_2of2.zip
$ 
$ unzip linux_11gR2_database_1of2.zip
$ unzip linux_11gR2_database_2of2.zip

Once the unzip is finished go to the "database" directory unzipped in the previous step and start the Oracle Universal Installer.

$ cd /home/oracle/database/
$ ./runInstaller

The OUI (Oracle Universal Installer) should start and you should see following screens in the order given below:

1. Provide your email address and Oracle support password to get security updates from Oracle.

Configure Security Updates

2. Installation options like creating a database, installing oracle software only or upgrading the database. Select "Create and configure a database".

Installation Options

3. Choose the system class here. Select "Server Class" it provides more advanced options.

System Class

4. Choose from creating a single node installation or RAC.

Node Selection

5. Choose your installation Typical or Advanced. We will go with typical at this moment.

Install Type

6. If you choose typical install in previous screen, then you will see this page for Install Configurations. Provide Oracle software installation location, database files location and administrator password etc.

Typical Install Configurations

7. Specify the Oracle install inventory location and Operating system group "oinstall".

Create Inventory

8. Now all prerequisite checks will be performed here and if every thing is ok you will be moved to the install summary page. You can hit the "Back" button and come back to see the status of all the checks performed.

Prerequisite Checks

9. Installation Summary page. Hit "Finish" to start the Installation.

Install Summary

10. Installation Progress. This will take several minutes and it will automatically invoke Database COnfiguration Assistant to create a database.

Installation Progress

11. Database Configuration Assistant invoked by the installer.

Database Configuration Assistant

12. Once DBCA has finished creating the database, it will show a page like this. It is a summary of the database that has just been created.

Database Creation Summary

13. As a last step you will be asked to execute some configuration scripts as root.

Execute Configuration Scripts

Open another console and login as root. Execute following once logged in successfully.

# /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh
Changing permissions of /u01/app/oraInventory.
Adding read,write permissions for group.
Removing read,write,execute permissions for world.

Changing groupname of /u01/app/oraInventory to oinstall.
The execution of the script is complete.

# /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/root.sh
Running Oracle 11g root.sh script...

The following environment variables are set as:
    ORACLE_OWNER= oracle
    ORACLE_HOME=  /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1

Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: [/usr/local/bin]: 
   Copying dbhome to /usr/local/bin ...
   Copying oraenv to /usr/local/bin ...
   Copying coraenv to /usr/local/bin ...


Creating /etc/oratab file...
Entries will be added to the /etc/oratab file as needed by
Database Configuration Assistant when a database is created
Finished running generic part of root.sh script.
Now product-specific root actions will be performed.
Finished product-specific root actions.

14. When configuration scripts are executed successfully by root press OK in the installer and you will see this "Finish" page. Note down the management URL and press "Close".

Finish Page