Another day, another task that I haven't had to do for ages.
I was asked to install Oracle (Standard Edition, but that's not important) onto a unix host, so copied the files, fired up my X-windows server (I use MobaXterm, it can run off a USB), logged into the host, set the DISPLAY variable and ran ./runInstaller.
And nothing happened for a while until this:
Checking monitor: must be configured to display at least 256 colors
>>> Could not execute auto check for display colors using command /usr/bin/xdpyinfo. Check if the DISPLAY variable is set. Failed <<<<
I figured it could be the firewall rules on my PC which I don't have admin rights on.
After trying a few things I decided it wasn't going to work, so looked at running the install in silent mode with a response file, something I haven't done for a while.
There are sample response files in the directory where the software was extracted:
/comms/oracle/orabackup/software/database/response
The install one is called
db_install.rsp
I copied that as a backup and moved it to the parent directory.
The instructions are really good, although there are a couple of things that caught me out.
Edit the file and scroll through, making the appropriate changes.
These are the options I changed:
oracle.install.option=INSTALL_DB_SWONLY
ORACLE_HOSTNAME=hostname_goes_here
UNIX_GROUP_NAME=oinstall
INVENTORY_LOCATION=/comms/oracle/oraInventory
SELECTED_LANGUAGES=en
ORACLE_HOME=/comms/oracle/product/11.2.0.2/cmssse
ORACLE_BASE=/comms/oracle/product
oracle.install.db.InstallEdition=SE
oracle.install.db.EEOptionsSelection=false
oracle.install.db.DBA_GROUP=dba
oracle.install.db.config.starterdb.type=GENERAL_PURPOSE
I didn't want to create a database at the time of install, so left all the stuff about the starter database blank or default, then carried on with the changes.
MYORACLESUPPORT_USERNAME=someone@somewhere.com
MYORACLESUPPORT_PASSWORD=xxxxxxxxxxxx
The rest I left alone.
The ones that caught me out were the ORACLE_BASE - it was the same as the user home directory and the installer objected to that so I changed it in the file.
It also needs something in the MYORACLESUPPORT fields - even though the host can't connect to the outside world, the installer failed when I left it blank.
Once the file had been saved, but before I ran the installer, I backed up the existing oraInventory directory just in case things went pear-shaped.
Then I ran the command (this is all on one line):
./runInstaller -silent -noconfig -responseFile /comms/oracle/orabackup/software/database/db_install.rsp
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...
Checking Temp space: must be greater than 120 MB. Actual 3302 MB Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB. Actual 49359 MB Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2015-10-07_01-28-05AM. Please wait ...
It didn't take long, and then prompted for root.sh to be run:
As a root user, execute the following script(s):
1. /comms/oracle/product/11.2.0.2/cmssse/root.sh
Successfully Setup Software.
I checked the new ORACLE_HOME location and all the binaries were there, so it looked as if it worked OK.
Next thing I did was to create a dummy database to make sure it was all good.
