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II.3.2.1 Install Oracle 8.1.7

By Vinod Kurup

OpenACS docs are written by the named authors, and may be edited by OpenACS documentation staff.

If you are installing PostGreSQL instead of Oracle, skip this section.

OpenACS 5.2.3rc1 will install with Oracle 9i but has not been extensively tested so may still have bugs or tuning issues. See Andrew Piskorski's Oracle 9i notes for guidance.

This installation guide attempts to present all of the information necessary to complete an OpenACS installation. We try hard to make all of the steps possible in one pass, rather than having a step which amounts to "go away and develop a profound understanding of software X and then come back and, in 99% of all cases, type these two lines." The exception to our rule is Oracle production systems. This page describes a set of steps to get a working Oracle development server, but it is unsuitable for production systems. If you will be using OpenACS on Oracle in a production environment, you will experience many problems unless you develop a basic understanding of Oracle which is outside the scope of this document. T

This document assumes that you'll be installing Oracle on the same box as AOLserver. For more details on a remote Oracle installation, see Daryl Biberdorf's document.

Useful links to find help on how to set up Oracle under Linux are:

Production Oracle systems should run on certified platforms. Follow the metalink note 223718.1to find certified platforms. If you don't have metalink access, take a look at the Oracle on Linux FAQ: Which Linux Distributions Are Directly Supported By Oracle?. In summary, free and inexpensive Linux distributions are not certified.

If you don't have an account at OTN get one: you can download the Oracle software from the Oracle Downloads page. It is also get the CDs shipped to you for a nominal fee from the Oracle Store.

Each Oracle release comes with extensive and usually quite well-written documentation. Your first step should be to thoroughly read the release notes for your operating system and your Oracle version. Find the docs here:

It is generally useful to run a particular Oracle version with its latest patchset. At the time of writing these were 8.1.7.4 and 9.2.0.5, both of which are considered to be very stable.

To be able to download a patchset, you need a (to-pay-for) account on Metalink. You may find the appropriate patchset by following Andrew's suggestion.

Oracle is very well-documented software, the online documentation comes with printable PDFs and full-text search. Altogether there is more than 20.000 pages of documentation, so do not expect to understand Oracle within in a few hours. The best starting pointing into Oracle is the Concepts book. Here's the 8i version and the 9.2 version.

To give you an idea of how configurable Oracle is and how much thought you may need to put into buying the proper hardware and creating a sane setup, you should thoroughly read Cary Millsap's Configuring Oracle Server for VLDB and the Optimal Flexible Architecture standard.

Throughout these instructions, we will refer to a number of configurable settings and advise certain defaults. With the exception of passwords, we advise you to follow these defaults unless you know what you are doing. Subsequent documents will expect that you used the defaults, so a change made here will necessitate further changes later. For a guide to the defaults, please see the section called “Defaults”.

In order for OpenACS to work properly you need to set the environment appropriately. 

export ORACLE_BASE=/ora8/m01/app/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/8.1.7
export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib
export ORACLE_SID=ora8
export ORACLE_TERM=vt100
export ORA_NLS33=$ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data

umask 022
open_cursors = 500
nls_date_format = "YYYY-MM-DD"

For additional resources/documentation, please see this thread and Andrew Piskorski's mini-guide.

Though Oracle 8.1.7 has an automated installer, we still need to perform several manual, administrative tasks before we can launch it. You must perform all of these steps as the root user. We recommend entering the X window system as a normal user and then doing a su -. This command gives you full root access.

  • Login as a non-root user and start X by typing startx 

    [joeuser ~]$ startx

  • Open a terminal window type and login as root 

    [joeuser ~]$ su -
Password: ***********
[root ~]#

  • Create and setup the oracle group and oracle account

    We need to create a user oracle, which is used to install the product, as well as starting and stopping the database. 

    [root ~]# groupadd dba
[root ~]# groupadd oinstall
[root ~]# groupadd oracle
[root ~]# useradd -g dba -G oinstall,oracle -m oracle
[root ~]# passwd oracle

    You will be prompted for the New Password and Confirmation of that password.

  • Setup the installation location for Oracle. While Oracle can reside in a variety of places in the file system, OpenACS has adopted /ora8 as the base directory.

    Note: the Oracle install needs about 1 GB free on /ora8 to install successfully. 

    [root ~]# mkdir /ora8
root:/ora8# cd /ora8
root:/ora8# mkdir -p m01 m02 m03/oradata/ora8
root:/ora8# chown -R oracle.dba /ora8
root:/ora8# exit

  • Set up the oracle user's environment

    • Log in as the user oracle by typing the following: 

      [joeuser ~]$ su - oracle
Password: ********

    • Use a text editor to edit the .bash_profile file in the oracle account home directory. 

      [oracle ~]$ emacs .bash_profile

      You may get this error trying to start emacs: 

      Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: Client is not authorized to connect to Server
emacs: Cannot connect to X server :0.
Check the DISPLAY environment variable or use `-d'.
Also use the `xhost' program to verify that it is set to permit
connections from your machine.

      If so, open a new terminal window and do the following: 

      [joeuser ~]$ xhost +localhost

      Now, back in the oracle terminal: 

      [oracle ~]$ export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0
[oracle ~]$ emacs .bash_profile

      Try this procedure anytime you get an Xlib connection refused error.

    • Add the following lines (substituting your Oracle version number as needed) to .bash_profile: 

      export ORACLE_BASE=/ora8/m01/app/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/8.1.7
export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib
export ORACLE_SID=ora8
export ORACLE_TERM=vt100
export ORA_NLS33=$ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data

umask 022

      Save the file by typing CTRL-X CTRL-S and then exit by typing CTRL-X CTRL-C. Alternatively, use the menus.

    Make sure that you do not add any lines like the following 

    # NLS_LANG=american
# export NLS_LANG

    These lines will change the Oracle date settings and will break OpenACS since OpenACS depends on the ANSI date format, YYYY-MM-DD dates.

  • Log out as oracle 

    [oracle ~]$ exit

  • Log back in as oracle and double check that your environment variables are as intended. The env command lists all of the variables that are set in your environment, and grep shows you just the lines you want (those with ORA in it). 

    [joeuser ~]$ su - oracle
[oracle ~]$ env | grep ORA

    If it worked, you should see: 

    ORACLE_SID=ora8
ORACLE_BASE=/ora8/m01/app/oracle
ORACLE_TERM=vt100
ORACLE_HOME=/ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7
ORA_NLS33=/ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/ocommon/nls/admin/data

    If not, try adding the files to ~/.bashrc instead of .bash_profile. Then logout and log back in again. Also, be certain you are doing su - oracle and not just su oracle. The - means that .bashrc and .bash_profile will be evaluated.

    Make sure that /bin, /usr/bin, and /usr/local/bin are in your path by typing: 

    [oracle ~]$ echo $PATH
/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/oracle/bin:/ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin

    If they are not, then add them to the .bash_profile by changing the PATH statement above to PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin

  • Log in as oracle and start X if not already running. Start a new terminal: 

    [joeuser ~]$ xhost +localhost
[joeuser ~]$ su - oracle
Password: **********
[oracle ~]$ export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

  • Find the runInstaller script

    • If you are installing Oracle from a CD-ROM, it is located in the install/linux path from the cd-rom mount point 

      [oracle ~]$ su - root
[root ~]# mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
[root ~]# exit
[oracle ~]$ cd /mnt/cdrom

    • If you are installing from the tarball, the install script is located in the Oracle8iR2 directory that was created when you expanded the archive. 

      [oracle ~]$ cd /where/oracle/Disk1

    Check to make sure the file is there. 

    oracle:/where/oracle/Disk1$ ls
doc  index.htm  install  runInstaller  stage  starterdb

    If you don't see runInstaller, you are in the wrong directory.

  • Run the installer 

    oracle:/where/oracle/Disk1$ ./runInstaller

    A window will open that welcomes you to the 'Oracle Universal Installer' (OUI). Click on "Next"

    Note

    Some people have had trouble with this step on RedHat 7.3 and 8.0. If so, try the following steps before calling ./runInstaller:

    1. Execute the following command: /usr/i386-glibc21-linux/bin/i386-glibc21-linux-env.sh

    2. Type export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5

  • The "File Locations" screen in the OUI:

    • "Source" path should have been prefilled with "(wherever you mounted the CDROM)/stage/products.jar"

    • "destination" path says "/ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7"

      If the destination is not correct it is because your environment variables are not set properly. Make sure you logged on as oracle using su - oracle. If so, edit the ~/.bash_profile as you did in the section called “Pre-Installation Tasks”

    • Click "Next" (a pop up window will display Loading Product information).

  • The "Unix Group Name" screen in the OUI:

    • The Unix Group name needs to be set to 'oinstall' ( we made this Unix group earlier ).

    • Click "Next"

    • A popup window appears instantly, requesting you to run a script as root:

      • Debian users need to link /bin/awk to /usr/bin/awk before running the script below 

        [joueser ~]$ su -
[root ~]# ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/awk

    • Open a new terminal window, then type: 

      [joeuser ~]$ su -
[root ~]# cd /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7
[root ~]# ./orainstRoot.sh  
; You should see:
Creating Oracle Inventory pointer file (/etc/oraInst.loc)
Changing groupname of /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oraInventory to oinstall.
[root ~]# mkdir -p /usr/local/java
[root ~]# exit
[joeuser ~]$ exit

    • Click "Retry"

  • The "Available Products" screen in the OUI:

    • Select "Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition 8.1.7.1.0"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Installation Types" screen

    • Select the "Custom" installation type.

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Available Product Components" screen

    • In addition to the defaults, make sure that "Oracle SQLJ 8.1.7.0," "Oracle Protocol Support 8.1.7.0.0," and "Linux Documentation 8.1.7.0.0" are also checked.

    • Click "Next"

    • A progress bar will appear for about 1 minute.

  • The "Component Locations" screen in the OUI

    • Click on the "Java Runtime Environment 1.1.8" It should have the path "/ora8/m01/app/oracle/jre/1.1.8"

    • Click "Next"

    • A progress bar will appear for about 1 minute.

  • The "Privileged Operation System Groups" screen in the OUI

    • Enter "dba" for "Database Administrator (OSDBA) Group"

    • Enter "dba" for the "Database Operator (OSOPER) Group"

    • Click "Next"

    • A progress bar will appear for about 1 minute.

  • The "Authentication Methods" screen

    • Click "Next"

  • The next screen is "Choose JDK home directory"

    • Keep the default path: /usr/local/java

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Create a Database" screen in the OUI

    • Select "No" as we will do this later, after some important configuration changes.

    • Click "Next"

  • The next screen is "Oracle Product Support"

    • TCP should be checked with "Status" listed as Required

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Summary" screen in the OUI

    • Check the "Space Requirements" section to verify you have enough disk space for the install.

    • Check that "(144 products)" is in the "New Installations" section title.

    • Click "Install"

    • A progress bar will appear for about 20 - 30 minutes. Now is a good time to take a break.

    • A "Setup Privileges" window will popup towards the end of the installation asking you to run a script as root

    • Run the script. Switch to the oracle user first to set the environment appropriately and then do su to get root privileges, while keeping the oracle user's enviroment. 

      [joeuser ~]$ su - oracle
Password: *********
[oracle ~]$ su
Password: *********
[root ~]# /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/root.sh
; You should see the following.   

Creating Oracle Inventory pointer file (/etc/oraInst.loc)
Changing groupname of /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oraInventory to oinstall.
# /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/root.sh
Running Oracle8 root.sh script...
The following environment variables are set as:
    ORACLE_OWNER= oracle
    ORACLE_HOME=  /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7
    ORACLE_SID=   ora8

Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: [/usr/local/bin]: 

Press ENTER here to accept default of /usr/local/bin
      

Creating /etc/oratab file...
Entry will be added to the /etc/oratab file by
Database Configuration Assistants when a database is created
Finished running generic part of root.sh script.
Now product-specific root actions will be performed.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please delete any log and trace files previously
                created by the Oracle Enterprise Manager Intelligent
                Agent. These files may be found in the directories
                you use for storing other Net8 log and trace files.
                If such files exist, the OEM IA may not restart.

    • Do not follow the instructions on deleting trace and log files, it is not necessary. 

    [root ~]# exit
[joeuser ~]$ exit

  • Go back to the pop-up window and click "OK"

  • The "Configuration Tools" screen in the OUI

    • This window displays the config tools that will automatically be launched.

  • The "Welcome" screen in the "net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Make sure the "Perform Typical installation" is not selected.

    • Click "Next"

    • The "Directory Service Access" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Select "No"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Listener Configuration, Listener Name" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Accept the default listener name of "LISTENER"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Listener Configuration, Select Protocols" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • The only choice in "Select protocols:" should be "TCP/IP"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Listener Configuration TCP/IP Protocol" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Default Port should be 1521 and selected.

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Listener Configuration, More Listeners" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Select "No"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Listener Configuration Done" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Naming Methods Configuration" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Select "No"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Done" screen in the "Net 8 Configuration Assistant"

    • Click "Finish"

  • The "End of Installation" screen in the OUI

    • Click "Exit"

    • Click "Yes" on the confirmation pop up window.

    • The Oracle Universal Installer window should have disappeared!

Congratulations, you have just installed Oracle 8.1.7 Server! However, you still need to create a database which can take about an hour of non-interactive time, so don't quit yet.

This step will take you through the steps of creating a customized database. Be warned that this process takes about an hour on a Pentium II with 128 MB of RAM.

Note

RedHat 7.3 and 8.0 users: Before running dbassist, do the following.

  1. Download the glibc patch from Oracle Technet into /var/tmp.

  2. cd $ORACLE_HOME

  3. tar xzf /var/tmp/glibc2.1.3-stubs.tgz

  4. ./setup_stubs

  • Make sure you are running X. Open up a terminal and su to oracle and then run the dbassist program. 

    [joeuser ~]$ xhost +localhost
[joeuser ~]$ su - oracle
Password: *********
[oracle ~]$ export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0
[oracle ~]$ dbassist

  • The "Welcome" screen in the Oracle Database Configuration Agent (ODCA)

    • Select "Create a database"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Select database type" screen in the ODCA

    • Select "Custom"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "Primary Database Type" window in ODCA

    • Select "Multipurpose"

    • Click "Next"

  • The "concurrent users" screen of the ODCA

    • Select "60" concurrent users.

    • Click "Next"

  • Select "Dedicated Server Mode", click "Next"

  • Accept all of the options, and click Next Oracle Visual Information Retrieval may be grayed out. If so, you can ignore it; just make sure that everything else is checked.

  • For "Global Database Name", enter "ora8"; for "SID", also enter "ora8" (it should do this automatically). Click "Change Character Set and select UTF8. Click "Next".

  • Accept the defaults for the next screen (control file location). Click "Next"

  • Go to the "temporary" and "rollback" tabs, and change the Size (upper-right text box) to 150MB. Click "Next"

  • Increase the redo log sizes to 10000K each. Click "Next"

  • Use the default checkpoint interval & timeout. Click "Next"

  • Increase "Processes" to 100; "Block Size" to 4096 (better for small Linux boxes; use 8192 for a big Solaris machine).

  • Accept the defaults for the Trace File Directory. Click "Next"

  • Finally, select "Save information to a shell script" and click "Finish" (We're going to examine the contents of this file before creating our database.)

  • Click the "Save" button. Oracle will automatically save it to the correct directory and with the correct file name. This will likely be /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/assistants/dbca/jlib/sqlora8.sh

  • It will alert you that the script has been saved successfully.

  • Now we need to customize the database configuration a bit. While still logged on as oracle, edit the database initialization script (run when the db loads). The scripts are kept in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs and the name of the script is usually initSID.ora where SID is the SID of your database. Assuming your $ORACLE_HOME matches our default of /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7, the following will open the file for editing. 

    [oracle ~]$ emacs /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/dbs/initora8.ora

  • Add the following line to the end: 

    nls_date_format = "YYYY-MM-DD"

  • Now find the open_cursors line in the file. If you're using emacs scroll up to the top of the buffer and do CTRL-S and type open_cursors to find the line. The default is 100. Change it to 500. 

    open_cursors = 500

  • Save the file. In emacs, do CTRL-X CTRL-S to save followed by CTRL-X CTRL-C to exit or use the menu.

  • At this point, you are ready to initiate database creation. We recommend shutting down X to free up some RAM unless you have 256 MB of RAM or more. You can do this quickly by doing a CRTL-ALT-BACKSPACE, but make sure you have saved any files you were editing. You should now be returned to a text shell prompt. If you get sent to a graphical login screen instead, switch to a virtual console by doing CRTL-ALT-F1. Then login as oracle.

  • Change to the directory where the database creation script is and run it: 

    [oracle ~]$ cd /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/assistants/dbca/jlib
oracle:/ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/assistants/dbca/jlib$ ./sqlora8.sh

    In some instances, Oracle will save the file to /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/assistants/dbca Try running the script there if your first attempt does not succeed.

  • Your database will now be built. It will take > 1 hour - no fooling. You will see lots of errors scroll by (like: "ORA-01432: public synonym to be dropped does not exist") Fear not, this is normal.

    Eventually, you'll be returned to your shell prompt. In the meantime, relax, you've earned it.

For this step, open up a terminal and su to oracle as usual. You should be running X and Netscape (or other web browser) for this phase.

  • You need to download the "Oracle Acceptance Test" file. It's available here and at http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/oracle/acceptance-sql.txt. Save the file to /var/tmp

  • In the oracle shell, copy the file. 

    [oracle ~]$ cp /var/tmp/acceptance-sql.txt /var/tmp/acceptance.sql

  • Once you've got the acceptance test file all set, stay in your term and type the following: 

    [oracle ~]$ sqlplus system/manager

    SQL*Plus should startup. If you get an ORA-01034: Oracle not Available error, it is because your Oracle instance is not running. You can manually start it as the oracle user.

    [oracle ~]$ svrmgrl
SVRMGR> connect internal
SVRMGR> startup

  • Now that you're into SQL*Plus, change the default passwords for system, sys, and ctxsys to "alexisahunk" (or to something you'll remember): 

    SQL> alter user system identified by alexisahunk;
SQL> alter user sys identified by alexisahunk;
SQL> alter user ctxsys identified by alexisahunk;

  • Verify that your date settings are correct. 

    SQL> select sysdate from dual;

    If you don't see a date that fits the format YYYY-MM-DD, please read the section called “Troubleshooting Oracle Dates”.

  • At this point we are going to hammer your database with an intense acceptance test. This usually takes around 30 minutes. 

    SQL> @ /var/tmp/acceptance.sql

; A bunch of lines will scroll by.  You'll know if the test worked if
; you see this at the end:

SYSDATE
----------
2000-06-10

SQL>

    Many people encounter an error regarding maximum key length: 

    ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01450: maximum key length (758) exceeded

    This error occurs if your database block size is wrong and is usually suffered by people trying to load OpenACS into a pre-existing database. Unfortunately, the only solution is to create a new database with a block size of at least 4096. For instructions on how to do this, see the section called “Creating the First Database” above. You can set the parameter using the dbassist program or by setting the DB_BLOCK_SIZE parameter in your database's creation script.

    If there were no errors, then consider yourself fortunate. Your Oracle installation is working.

You will want to automate the database startup and shutdown process. It's probably best to have Oracle spring to life when you boot up your machine.

  • Oracle includes a script called dbstart that can be used to automatically start the database. Unfortunately, the script shipped in the Linux distribution does not work out of the box. The fix is simple. Follow these directions to apply it. First, save dbstart to /var/tmp. Then, as oracle, do the following: 

    [oracle ~]$ cp /var/tmp/dbstart.txt /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin/dbstart 
[oracle ~]$ chmod 755 /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin/dbstart

  • While you're logged in as oracle, you should configure the oratab file to load your database at start. Edit the file /etc/oratab:

    • You will see this line. 

      ora8:/ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7:N

      By the way, if you changed the service name or have multiple databases, the format of this file is:

      service_name:$ORACLE_HOME:Y || N (for autoload)

    • Change the last letter from "N" to "Y". This tells Oracle that you want the database to start when the machine boots. It should look like this. 

      ora8:/ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7:Y

    • Save the file & quit the terminal.

  • You need a script to automate startup and shutdown. Save oracle8i.txt in /var/tmp. Then login as root and install the script. (Debian users: substitute /etc/init.d for /etc/rc.d/init.d throughout this section) 

    [oracle ~]$ su -
[root ~]# cp /var/tmp/oracle8i.txt /etc/rc.d/init.d/oracle8i
[root ~]# chown root.root /etc/rc.d/init.d/oracle8i
[root ~]# chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/init.d/oracle8i

  • Test the script by typing the following commands and checking the output. (Debian Users: as root, do mkdir /var/lock/subsys first) 

    [root ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/oracle8i stop
Oracle 8i auto start/stop
Shutting Oracle8i:
Oracle Server Manager Release 3.1.7.0.0 - Production

Copyright (c) 1997, 1999, Oracle Corporation.  All
Rights Reserved.

Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Release 8.1.7.0.1 -
Production
With the Partitioning option
JServer Release 8.1.7.0.1 - Production

SVRMGR> Connected.
SVRMGR> Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SVRMGR>
Server Manager complete.
Database "ora8" shut down.
      
[root ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/oracle8i start
Oracle 8i auto start/stop
Starting Oracle8i: 
SQL*Plus: Release 8.1.7.0.0 - Production on Wed Mar 6 17:56:02 2002

(c) Copyright 2000 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

SQL> Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area   84713632 bytes
Fixed Size                    73888 bytes
Variable Size              76079104 bytes
Database Buffers            8388608 bytes
Redo Buffers                 172032 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> Disconnected

Database "ora8" warm started.

Database "ora8" warm started.

  • If it worked, then run these commands to make the startup and shutdown automatic.

    • Red Hat users:

      [root ~]# cd /etc/rc.d/init.d/                      
[root ~]# chkconfig --add oracle8i
[root ~]# chkconfig --list oracle8i
; You should see:
oracle8i        0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

    • Debian users:

      [root ~]# update-rc.d oracle8i defaults
 Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/oracle8i ...
   /etc/rc0.d/K20oracle8i -> ../init.d/oracle8i
   /etc/rc1.d/K20oracle8i -> ../init.d/oracle8i
   /etc/rc6.d/K20oracle8i -> ../init.d/oracle8i
   /etc/rc2.d/S20oracle8i -> ../init.d/oracle8i
   /etc/rc3.d/S20oracle8i -> ../init.d/oracle8i
   /etc/rc4.d/S20oracle8i -> ../init.d/oracle8i
   /etc/rc5.d/S20oracle8i -> ../init.d/oracle8i

    • SuSE users:

      [root ~]# cd /etc/rc.d/init.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/oracle8i K20oracle8i
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/oracle8i S20oracle8i
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp K20oracle8i rc0.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp S20oracle8i rc0.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp K20oracle8i rc1.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp S20oracle8i rc1.d 
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp K20oracle8i rc6.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp S20oracle8i rc6.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp K20oracle8i rc2.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp S20oracle8i rc2.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp K20oracle8i rc3.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp S20oracle8i rc3.d 
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp K20oracle8i rc4.d  
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp S20oracle8i rc4.d  
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp K20oracle8i rc5.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cp S20oracle8i rc5.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# rm K20oracle8i
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# rm S20oracle8i
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# cd
[root ~]# SuSEconfig
Started the SuSE-Configuration Tool.
Running in full featured mode.
Reading /etc/rc.config and updating the system...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.gdm...   
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.gnprint...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.groff...   
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.java...    
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.kdm...   
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.pcmcia...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.perl...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.postfix...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.sendmail...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.susehilf...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.susehilf.add...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.susewm...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.tetex...
Executing /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.ypclient...
Processing index files of all manpages...
Finished.

  • You also need some scripts to automate startup and shutdown of the Oracle8i listener. The listener is a name server that allows your Oracle programs to talk to local and remote databases using a standard naming convention. It is required for Intermedia Text and full site search.

    Download these three scripts into /var/tmp

    Now issue the following commands (still as root). 

    [root ~]# su - oracle
[oracle ~]$ cp /var/tmp/startlsnr.txt /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin/startlsnr
[oracle ~]$ cp /var/tmp/stoplsnr.txt /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin/stoplsnr    
[oracle ~]$ chmod 755 /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin/startlsnr
[oracle ~]$ chmod 755 /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin/stoplsnr
[oracle ~]$ exit
[root ~]# cp /var/tmp/listener8i.txt /etc/rc.d/init.d/listener8i
[root ~]# cd /etc/rc.d/init.d
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# chmod 755 listener8i

    Test the listener automation by running the following commands and checking the output. 

    root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# ./listener8i stop
Oracle 8i listener start/stop
Shutting down Listener for 8i: 
LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 8.1.7.0.0 - Production on 06-MAR-2002 18:28:49

(c) Copyright 1998, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=localhost.localdomain)(PORT=1521)))
The command completed successfully

    
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# ./listener8i start
Oracle 8i listener start/stop
Starting the Listener for 8i: 
LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 8.1.7.0.0 - Production on 06-MAR-2002 18:28:52

(c) Copyright 1998, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Starting /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin/tnslsnr: please wait...

TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 8.1.7.0.0 - Production
System parameter file is /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/network/admin/listener.ora
Log messages written to /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/network/log/listener.log
Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost.localdomain)(PORT=1521)))
Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC)))

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=localhost.localdomain)(PORT=1521)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 8.1.7.0.0 - Production
Start Date                06-MAR-2002 18:28:53
Uptime                    0 days 0 hr. 0 min. 0 sec
Trace Level               off
Security                  OFF
SNMP                      OFF
Listener Parameter File   /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/network/admin/listener.ora
Listener Log File         /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/network/log/listener.log
Services Summary...
  PLSExtProc        has 1 service handler(s)
  ora8      has 1 service handler(s)
The command completed successfully

    This test will verify that the listener is operating normally. Login into the database using the listener naming convention.

    sqlplususername/password/@SID 

    [root ~]# su - oracle
[oracle ~]$ sqlplus system/alexisahunk@ora8

SQL> select sysdate from dual;

SYSDATE
----------
2002-02-22

SQL> exit
[oracle ~]$ exit
[root ~]#

    • RedHat users:

      Now run chkconfig on the listener8i script. 

      [root ~]# cd /etc/rc.d/init.d/
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# chkconfig --add listener8i
root:/etc/rc.d/init.d# chkconfig --list listener8i
listener8i      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

    • Debian users:

      Now run update-rc.d on the listener8i script. 

      [root ~]# update-rc.d listener8i defaults 21 19
 Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/listener8i ...
   /etc/rc0.d/K19listener8i -> ../init.d/listener8i
   /etc/rc1.d/K19listener8i -> ../init.d/listener8i
   /etc/rc6.d/K19listener8i -> ../init.d/listener8i
   /etc/rc2.d/S21listener8i -> ../init.d/listener8i
   /etc/rc3.d/S21listener8i -> ../init.d/listener8i
   /etc/rc4.d/S21listener8i -> ../init.d/listener8i
   /etc/rc5.d/S21listener8i -> ../init.d/listener8i

  • Test the automation

    As a final test, reboot your computer and make sure Oracle comes up. You can do this by typing 

    [root ~]# /sbin/shutdown -r -t 0 now

    Log back in and ensure that Oracle started automatically. 

    [joeuser ~]$ su - oracle
[oracle ~]$ sqlplus system/alexisahunk@ora8

SQL> exit

Congratulations, your installation of Oracle 8.1.7 is complete.

Oracle has an internal representation for storing the data based on the number of seconds elapsed since some date. However, for the purposes of inputing dates into Oracle and getting them back out, Oracle needs to be told to use a specific date format. By default, it uses an Oracle-specific format which isn't copacetic. You want Oracle to use the ANSI-compliant date format which is of form 'YYYY-MM-DD'.

To fix this, you should include the following line in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initSID.ora or for the default case, $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initora8.ora 

nls_date_format = "YYYY-MM-DD"

You test whether this solved the problem by firing up sqlplus and typing: 

SQL> select sysdate from dual;

You should see back a date like 2000-06-02. If some of the date is chopped off, i.e. like 2000-06-0, everything is still fine. The problem here is that sqlplus is simply truncating the output. You can fix this by typing: 

SQL> column sysdate format a15
SQL> select sysdate from dual;

If the date does not conform to this format, double-check that you included the necessary line in the init scripts. If it still isn't working, make sure that you have restarted the database since adding the line: 

[joeuser ~]$ svrmgrl
SVRMGR> connect internal
Connected.
SVRMGR> shutdown
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SVRMGR> startup
ORACLE instance started.

If you're sure that you have restarted the database since adding the line, check your initialization scripts. Make sure that the following line is not included: 

export nls_lang = american

Setting this environment variable will override the date setting. Either delete this line and login again or add the following entry to your login scripts after the nls_lang line: 

export nls_date_format = 'YYYY-MM-DD'

Log back in again. If adding the nls_date_format line doesn't help, you can ask for advice in our OpenACS forums.

  • Dropping a tablespace

    • Run sqlplus as the dba: 

      [oracle ~]$ sqlplus system/changeme

    • To drop a user and all of the tables and data owned by that user: 

      SQL> drop user oracle_user_name cascade;

    • To drop the tablespace: This will delete everything in the tablespace overriding any referential integrity constraints. Run this command only if you want to clean out your database entirely. 

      SQL> drop tablespace table_space_name including contents cascade constraints;

For more information on Oracle, please consult the documentation.

the section called “Creating an appropriate tuning and monitoring environment”

We used the following defaults while installing Oracle.

Variable Value Reason
ORACLE_HOME /ora8/m01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7 This is the default Oracle installation directory.
ORACLE_SERVICE ora8 The service name is a domain-qualified identifier for your Oracle server.
ORACLE_SID ora8 This is an identifier for your Oracle server.
ORACLE_OWNER oracle The user who owns all of the oracle files.
ORACLE_GROUP dba The special oracle group. Users in the dba group are authorized to do a connect internal within svrmgrl to gain full system access to the Oracle system.
Categories: beginner (Audience)