Oracle installation on more than 1 system

Question

Hi All,
Is there any way to install oracle on more than 1 systems simultaneously? Please let me know if there is any.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I am assuming what you want to do is "clone" your ORACLE_HOME on one server to all the others.
Have been doing this since 9i to make an exact copy of ORACLE_HOME in prod for use in test, uat or devt.
The advantage is even you patches get carried over exactly as-is.
From what you have said, this is the first-time install on all servers so it will be a bit easier.
Some prerequisites for this to work easily and smoothly on all hosts you want to install on:
1. Set the oracle user and its dba, oinstall groups to use the same uid and gid respectively.
2. Configure Solaris packages, kernel parameters and oracle user permissions/limits as stated in the installation guide.
3. Setup a common directory structure for ORACLE_BASE (which should not be the same as the login /home/oracle directory)
such as /u00/app/oracle and ORACLE_HOME such as /u00/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1
4. Configure a common inventory directory (usually $ORACLE_BASE/oraInventory)
- this will be copied over also from the first to the other nodes.
5. Configure the .profile of the Oracle user as needed by the install docs (and customize as you wish)
6. Configure a common way of transferring files across the nodes either by:
a. setting up rsh/rcp or ssh/scp equivalence - e.g. you can copy a file as oracle on one server to the other with no password
prompt and the permissions are easily preserved - I use ssh usually and the steps are:
a) generate a key: ssh-keygen - t rsa (just press enter for prompts)
b) copy the $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to a new file authorized_keys
c) you will later copy authorized_keys to each other node other than the first so that the first server can "push" a file
to them from the first server
b. configure a NAS for NFS or simply setup the first server as a NFS server
7. Configure a directory readable/writable for Oracle to contain files to push to other servers such as /u00/tmp
First, proceed with installation of the software on the first node and apply patches, if any, that you want.
Create a test database if you want to confirm that it works and maybe run netca if needed to make a prototype tnsnames.ora
(you need to setup a listener independently per server).
Then, do a tar cvzf /u00/tmp/ohome.gz $ORACLE_HOME. Also copy into /u00/tmp $ORACLE_BASE/oraInventory, /etc/oraInst.loc
(this may be /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc for Solaris) and and /etc/oratab (if any).
Then, on each server other than the first:
1. Copy over the .profile from the first server
2. Copy over ohome.gz either from NFS or else by doing scp from the first server
3. Extract the ORACLE_HOME by tar xvzf /u00/tmp/ohome/gz
4. Copy oraInventory to $ORACLE_BASE/oraInventory
5. Copy /etc/oraInst.loc and /etc/oratab
You should now be able to run everything on the new server when you login as oracle.
As a post install, you can also relink the executables such as the Oracle binary by:
1. cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
2. make -f ins_rdbms.mk ioracle
You can also refer to Metalink note 559304.1 and 565009.1
By using same oracle user id and group across nodes, you avoid the complication and need for Metalink note 558478.1.
Hope this helps!
Raffy Ramirez