Oracle Database 12c: Binary installation

In this blog posting, I will show you the Oracle 12c Binary installation, including some of the preinstallation tasks. I will also present you some of the new Oracle 12c Binary features - such as a more detailed segregation of duties.

 

1. Oracle Database preinstallation tasks

1.1 Checking the hardware requirements

The system must fulfill the following minimum hardware requirements in terms of:

• Memory requirement
• System architecture
• Disk space requirements
• Display requirements

 

Memory requirement

To determine the RAM size, enter the following command:

 

grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo

 

To determine the size of the configured swap space, enter the following command:

 

grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo

The following table describes the relationship between the installed RAM and the configured swap space recommendation:

RAM	SWAP SPACE
Between 1 GB and 2 GB	1.5 times the size of the RAM
Between 2 GB and 16 GB	Equal to the size of the RAM
More than 16 GB	16 GB

 

System architecture

To determine if the system architecture can run the software, enter the following command:

 

name –m

 

Disk space requirements

These are the disk space requirements for installing Oracle Database 12c Release 1 as well as Oracle 12g Release 2 and 1 on a Linux x86-64 architecture:

Insallation Type	12.1c - Requirement for Software Files (GB)	11.2g - Requirement for Software Files (GB)	11.1g - Requirement for Software Files (GB)
Enterprise Edition	6.4	4.35	4.35
Standard Edition	6.1	4.22	3.73

 

Installation Type	12.1c Disk Space for Data Files (GB)	11.2g - Disk Space for Data Files (GB)	11.1g - Disk Space for Data Files (GB)
Enterprise Edition	1.7	1.7	1.68
Standard Edition	1.5	1.5	1.48

 

Display Requirements

The minimum resolution for Oracle Database 12c is 1024x768 or higher

 

1.2 Checking the Software Requirements

 

Depending on the products you are installing, verify that the following software is installed on you system:

• Operating System Requirements
• Kernel Requirements
• Package Requirements
• Compiler Requirements
• Additional Software Requirements

 

Operating System Requirements

The following operating system versions (or later) are required for Oracle Database 12c.

On linux x86-64:

• Oracle Linux 5 Update 6
• Oracle Linux 5 Update 6 (with Red Hat Compatible Kernel)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 6
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 6 (with Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Linux)

To determine the Linux distribution and version installed, enter the following command:

 

cat /proc/version

 

Kernel Requirements

These are the kernel requirements for Oracle Database 12c on Linux x86-64:

Distribution	Kernel
Oracle Linux 5.6	2.6.32-100.0.19 or later
Oracle Linux 5.6 with red hat compatible kernel	2.6.18 or later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6	2.6.18 or later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 with unbreakable Enterprise Kernel	2.6.32-100.0.19 or later

 

To determine if the required kernel is installed, enter the following command:

 

uname -r

 

Package Requirements

In order to check the package requirements, simply install oracle-validated package with the following command:

 

yum install oracle-validated

Once the package is installed, simply launch the oracle validated script as root:

 

oracle-validated-verify

 

Additional Software Requirements

Depending on the components you want to use, you must ensure that the following software is installed:

• Oracle ODBC Drivers
• Oracle JDBC/OCI Drivers
• Linux-PAM Library
• Oracle Messaging Gateway
• Programming Languages
• Browsee Requirements

 

1.3 Creating Required Operating System Groups and Users

With Oracle 12c Release 1 (12.1), new and more task specific administrative privileges can be created. These privileges allow to perform administrative operation such as backup or Data Guard monitoring.

During the installation, you are prompted to provide operating system groups whose members are granted access to these system privileges. Indeed, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to specify the name of the OSDBA, OSOPER, OSBACKUPDBA, OSDGDBA and OSKMDBA groups.

 

Creating Oracle Groups and users

On the root level, create the following groups:

 

groupadd -g 54323 oper
groupadd -g 54324 backupdba
groupadd -g 54325 dgdba
groupadd -g 54326 kmdba
groupadd -g 54327 asmdba
groupadd -g 54328 asmoper
groupadd -g 54329 asmadmin

1.4 Software Directories Creation

You must identifiy or create the following directories for the Oracle Software:

• Oracle Base Directory
• Oracle Inventory Directory
• Oracle Home Directory

 

Oracle Base Directory

The Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines (as well as the dbi services best practices) recommend that you use a path similar to the following for the Oracle base directory:

 

mkdir /u00/app/oracle
chown –R oracle:oinstall /u00/app/oracle
chmod –R 775 /00/app/oracle

 

Oracle Inventory Directory

The Oracle Inventory directory (oraInventory) stores an inventory of all software installed on the system. It is required and shared by all Oracle software installations on a single system. If you have an existing Oracle Inventory path, Oracle Universal Installer will continue to use that Oracle Inventory.

 

mkdir /u00/app/oraInventory

 

Oracle Home Directory

Oracle as well as dbi services OFA standards recommend that you specify a path similar to the following for the Oracle home directory:

 

mkdir /u00/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/db_0_1 -p
mkdir /u00/app/12.1.0/grid_1_0

1.5 Creating data and recovery area directories

You can either store your data and recovery area in ASM or in a file system. In both cases you need 2GB of space for data and 2.4GB of space for Recovery files.

In case you decide to store you data in a filesystem, dbi services recommends to create the following directories:

 

mkdir /u01/oradata -p
chown oracle:oinstall /u01/oradata
chmod 755 /u01/oradata

 

Regarding the recovery area file directory, dbi services recommends to create the following directory:

 

mkdir /u99/fast_recovery_area -p
chown oracle:oinstall /u99/fast_recovery_area
chmod 775 /u99/fast_recovery_area

 

The default fast recovery area is $ORACLE_BASE/fast_recovery_area. Oracle recommends that you keep the fast recovery area on a separate physical disk other than the database file directory. This method enables you to use the fast recovery area to retrieve data if the disk containing oradata is unusable for any reason.

Configuring storage for Oracle Database Files Using Block Devices

If you decide to use ASM to store your database files, you have to proceed to the following steps:

1. Use fdisk to create disk partitions on block devices for database files

 

fdisk /dev/sdb

 

2. Create or modify the rules file in /etc/uded/rules.d/99-oracle.rules. If grid user is used OWNER=grid otherwise use oracle as owner.

 

/etc/udev/rules.d/99-oracle.rules

 

2. Database Software Installation

2.1 Running Oracle Universal Installer

1. Logon as the Oracle software owner user (Oracle):

 

su – oracle

 

2. Locate the runInstaller binary and start it. To start Oracle Universal Installer to download the updates, you can provide the parameter “-downloadUpdates”

 

./runInstaller

Configure Security Updates:

 

Select Installation Options:

  

 

Grid Installation Options:

 

 

Select Product Languages:

 

 

Select Database Edition:

 

 

Specify Installation Location:

 

 

Privileges Operating System Groups:

 

 

Perform Prerequisites Checks:

 

 

Summary:

 

 

Install Product:

 

Install product

 

 

 

Conclusion

This new ORACLE release is easy to install and introduces some new features such as a more detailed segregation of duties (screen "Privileged Operating System Groups). Despite this specific screen, the installation process looks very much like the Oracle 11gR2. Currently, in reference to the actual documentation, this Oracle release is supported starting from Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.6.