Successful installation of 8iEE 8.1.7 on RedHat linux 7.2 but no luck with Oracle 9i

Question

Hi All,
I've successfully installed Oracle8i EE version 8.1.7 on RedHat
Linux 7.2. However, I have NOT had much luck installing Oracle
9i version 9.0.1 on RedHat Linux 7.2. I am wondering if anyone
in this forum has any luck installing Oracle 9i on RedHat Linux
7.2. I am running Linux kernel 2.4.7-10.
Now I am not trying to start a shouting match here; however, it
seems to me that a person with any common sense would not run
Oracle database on a Windows platform. Instead of running it
on Windows platform, one would be much better off running it on
Linux platform. I am currently Oracle EE 8.1.7 on an dual-Intel
processor 266MHZ with 512MB of RAM with Linux as the Operating
System. I have to say that the performance of the box is really
solid. At the same time, I am also running Oracle EE 8.1.7 on
an identical hardware system with Win2K server and I have to say
that the performance system is really pitiful on this Win2k server.
The windows box can only 1 instance at a time. If I try to have
two instances running at the same time, the windows box just comes
to a screeching halt. In contrast, the Linux box really rocks. In
a testing environment, I have 3 instances running at the same time
and the linux is barely breaking a sweat. I am getting maximum
performance out of the linux box because I recompile the linux kernel
to optimize the box to run Oracle database.
Having said that, as an Oracle DBA newbie (with less than six months
of Oracle DBA experience, the last ten years as a Cisco/Unix Engineer),
I find it fascinating that Oracle is only certified to run on SUSE (may
be I am wrong and someone can correct me on this one) when RedHat is
probably the dominant Linux distro. It took three days to get Oracle 8i
version 8.1.7 to install on RedHat Linux 7.2. Why Oracle is slowed to
support Linux RedHat is something I just don't understand.
OK, enough of venting my frustration, if anyone has successfully installed
Oracle 9i EE version 9.0.1 on RedHat Linux 7.2, please share your knowledge.
In the mean time, if anyone interested in obtaining instructions on howto
install Oracle 8i version 8.1.7 on Redhat Linux 7.1/7.2, send me an email
at [email protected] and I will send the instructions. The instructions
are written specifically for "windows dummies" so it is very to read and
follow. If you have been Unix for a long time, there will be instructions
in there that are so easy some of you may ask why put those in there in the
first place. My response would be: "windows dummies".
Regards,
Michael (david)

Answer 1

I very much agree with you Oracle is working very much better on Unix/Linux than Windows BUT in many cases you are obliged to use windows ( in Case that My company high managment enforce it ) , I have installed 9i on Windows and Linux , I am herunder including the full details :
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Installing Oracle 9i on Linux
     Linux : Redhat 7.2
     Oracle : 9i Server EE 9.0.1.0.0
     RAM Used : 256 M Ram
     Hard Disk : IDE RAID
     Linux Kernel : 2.4.4-10
     JDK : Blackdown jdk118_v3 => downloaded from www.blackdown.org
     All shell here is the Bash shell ( Bourne again shell )
1.     To run a shell script over Linux , just drag the shell file from the file manager and drop it to a shell window
     Be sure to have swap space of 400 M or more
     If the systems stop responding for some time , leave it , it will continue
     Be sure to make a stage area for the CDs # 2 , 3 only because you will start from the CD 1 but after going in the installation the CDROM freezes and refuses to open door to replace CD ,, in this case you will switch to the last 2 CDs from the stage area
     Make sure you have the following executables at /usr/bin : MAKE , AR , LD , NM , C for Unix that is installed during Linux installation from the distribution media
Steps ( Root User ) :
1.     be sure to have to have your server domain is like hostess.com.eg and you can be able to ping it
     open /etc/hosts
     add a line as follows ( for instance ) :
     192.168.0.11 hostess.com.eg hostess
     ping hostess.com.eg
     ping hostess
     ping 192.168.0.11
     be sure to have a replay for all of them
2.     install JDK inside the /usr/local directory => after downloading the JDK you can easily decompress it but just clicking at it using the GUI
3.     get to the / prompt
4.     type ln s /usr/local/jdk118_v3 /usr/local/java
5.     download binutil RBM from Redhat for version 7 of Linux to downgrade binutils for Linux 7.2 or you will encounter an error at the third CD set
6.     download it from : ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/7.0/en/os/i386/redhat/rpms/binutils-2.10.0.18-1.i386.rpm
7.     run it as follows : rpm -Uvh force nodeps binutils-2.10.0.18-1.i386.rpm
8.     change to /proc/sys/kernel
9.     type cat sem
10.     you will get : 250 32000 32 128
     250 => SEMMSL
     32000 => SEMMNS
     32 => SEMOPM
     128 => SEMMNI
11.     you need to have the SEMOPM to be 128 , to do so , locate the file called sem open it replace the value of 32 with 128
12.     type again cat sem to be sure of taking the required effect
13.     after the installation ends just re-install the 7.2 utils again as follows :
14.     rpm -Uvh force nodeps binutils-2.11.90.0.8-9.i386.rpm
15.     you can find the last RPM at the 7.2 CD set
16.     after downloading the Oracle files from the net you need to decompress it as follows (one step) :
     zcat linux9i_disk1.cpio.gz | cpio idmv
     zcat linux9i_disk2.cpio.gz | cpio idmv
     zcat linux9i_disk3.cpio.gz | cpio idmv
17.     you can decompress them at 2 steps as follows :
     gunzip linux9i_disk1.cpio.gz
     gunzip linux9i_disk2.cpio.gz
     gunzip linux9i_disk3.cpio.gz
&#61607;     cpio idmv < linux9i_disk1.cpio
&#61607;     cpio idmv < linux9i_disk2.cpio
&#61607;     cpio idmv < linux9i_disk3.cpio
18.     Now you have 3 directories , have care when Burning them to CD because you need to take care of paths
19.     if you have downloaded the files via a Windows machine and have a MKS installed over it you can easily invoke Visual Pax and decompress the files at one go using the GUI program
20.     log on to Linux as Root and run commands in the file commands.txt
21.     log on as user Oracle to be sure that its created
22.     log on as root again
23.     get to the directory of /home/oracle
24.     enable showing the system files
25.     open the file of .bash_profile
26.     add the accompanied bash file contents at the end of it to set the environment variables
27.     log on as user Oracle
28.     open shell and type set and be sure that environment variables are set correctly
29.     open shell and change to the cdrom by typing cd /mnt/cdrom => Linux 7.2 is an auto mounting OS so you at no need to mount the CD drive prior to using it and if you need to mount it just type : AS ROOT
&#61607;     mount t iso9660 /mnt/cdrom /cdrom
&#61607;     this is surly after creating a directory at / called cdrom
30.     Start the installer ( as Oracle User ) by typing ./runinstaller
31.     the installer will ask you to run a started script as root , you may open a shell and type su then open Nautilus ( if using Gnome or File manager as super user if using KDE ) and drag the noted file to the shell screen and press enter ,, after it is ended continue with the installer
32.     if asked to supply JDK home directory then it is /usr/local/java
33.     Unix group Name ( to update Oracle software ) : oinstall
34.     Oracle home is : /oracle/9.0.1
35.     base directory : /oracle/orainventory
Hisham Nagia
IT Manager / OCP DBA
Hostess Egypt / EFG-Hermes - CIIC