2
Setting the Environment

Use this chapter to help you prepare your environment for installing Oracle8i, after you have verified the system meets the requirements described in Chapter 1, "System Requirements".

• UNIX Environment Summary

• Setup Tasks to Perform as the root User

• Setup Tasks to Perform as the oracle User

• Setup Tasks for Oracle Products

UNIX Environment Summary

Table 2-1 summarizes the requirements for installing the Oracle8i Server. If your system fails to satisfy any listed requirement, perform the tasks listed as necessary to set up your environment to meet these requirements.

Table 2-1 UNIX Environment Summary

Environmental Factor	Requirement for Oracle8i
UNIX Kernel Parameters: Shared Memory	SHMMAX 0.5 *(physical memory present in machine) This setting does not affect how much shared memory is needed or used by Oracle8i or the operating system. It is used only to indicate the maximum allowable size. This setting also does not impact operating system kernel resources. SHMMIN 1 SHMMNI 100 SHMSEG 10
Semaphores	SEMMNI 100 SEMMSL Set to 10 plus the largest initsid.ora PROCESSES parameter of an Oracle database on the system. The PROCESSES parameter can be found in each initsid.ora file, located in the ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory. The default value of PROCESSES for the Release 8.1.5 prebuilt database is 50. SEMMNS Set to the sum of the PROCESSES parameter for each Oracle database except the largest one, plus 2 times the largest PROCESSES value, plus 10 times the number of Oracle databases. See "Configure the UNIX Kernel for Oracle8i" for an example of this formula. SEMOPM 100 SEMVMX 32767
Note: If any of the kernel parameters above are less than your current values, continue to use the current value. These are the requirements for Oracle8i only. If you have other programs which use shared memory and semaphores, you will need to adjust the values accordingly. Take into account that a system reboot is necessary for kernel changes to take affect when planning for current and future database requirements.
Mount Points (Storage Devices)	The Oracle Universal Installer requires only two mount points: one for the software, and one for the database files. An OFA-compliant database requires at least four mount points, all at the same level of the directory structure. One is for the software, three are for database files.
UNIX Groups for Oracle Roles	A UNIX group is required for the OSDBA role. This book assumes that the group is named dba. The OSOPER role may belong to the same group as the OSDBA or to a different group.
Special UNIX Group for the OUI oraInventory	All users installing Oracle in any ORACLE_HOME must belong to the same UNIX group. The OUI inventory is shared by all ORACLE_HOMEs on a machine, and is group writable. Oracle recommends installing with oinstall as the current primary group.
UNIX Accounts	A UNIX account that is dedicated solely to installing and upgrading the Oracle8i system. The account must be a member of oinstall group. This book assumes the account is called oracle.
Permissions for File Creation	Set umask to 022 for the oracle account.
ORACLE_BASE	Not required, but recommended as part of an OFA-compliant installation. See "ORACLE_BASE" for further information.

Setup Tasks to Perform as the root User

Log in as the root user and perform the following tasks set up your environment for Oracle8i:

Configure the UNIX Kernel for Oracle8i

Create Mount Points

Create UNIX Groups for Database Administrators

Create a UNIX Group for the OUI Inventory

Create a UNIX Account to Own Oracle Software

Configure the UNIX Kernel for Oracle8i

Configure the UNIX kernel Interprocess Communication (IPC) parameters to accommodate the Shared Global Area (SGA) structure of the Oracle8i Server. You will not be able to start up the database if the system does not have adequate shared memory to accommodate the SGA.

1. Use the ipcs command to obtain a list of the system's current shared memory and semaphore segments, and their identification number and owner.

   Because the shared memory in Solaris is dynamically loaded, when you run ipcs you may receive a message that the shared memory facility is not in the system. The shared memory driver is loaded after the Oracle8i instance is started. You can check the /etc/system file to verify that the system has been configured with enough shared memory.

2. Set the kernel parameters corresponding to the:
   • maximum size of a shared memory segment (SHMMAX)

   • minimum size of shared memory segment (SHMMIN)

   • maximum number of shared memory identifiers in the system (SHMMNI)

   • maximum number of shared memory segments a user process can
     attach (SHMSEG)

   • maximum number of semaphore identifiers in the system (SEMMNI)

   • maximum number of semaphores in a set (SEMMSL)

   • maximum number of semaphores in the system (SEMMNS)

   • maximum number of operations per semop call (SEMOPM)

   • semaphore maximum value (SEMVMX)

   The total allowable shared memory is determined by the formula:

   SHMMAX * SHMSEG
   

   Table 2-1 shows the recommended settings. The recommended values are optimal for one instance and are based on the default initsid.ora file. If you plan to install more than one instance, or to modify the initsid.ora file extensively, set these parameters higher.

   To set the kernel parameter for SEMMNS, use the formula in Table 2-1. For example, consider a system that has three Oracle instances with the PROCESSES parameter in their initsid.ora files set to the following values:

   ORACLE_SID=A, PROCESSES=100
   ORACLE_SID=B, PROCESSES=100
   ORACLE_SID=C, PROCESSES=200
   
   

   The value of SEMMNS is calculated as follows:

   SEMMNS = ((A=100) + (B=100)) + ((C=200) * 2) + ((# of instances=3) * 10) = 630

   Setting parameters too high for the operating system can prevent the machine from booting up. Refer to your Solaris documentation for parameter limits.

   The following lines are an examples of additions to the /etc/system file to configure the UNIX kernel with the minimum recommended values:

   set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax=4294967295
   set shmsys:shminfo_shmmin=1
   set shmsys:shminfo_shmmni=100
   set shmsys:shminfo_shmseg=10
   set semsys:seminfo_semmni=100
   set semsys:seminfo_semmsl=100
   set semsys:seminfo_semmns=200
   set semsys:seminfo_semopm=100
   set semsys:seminfo_semvmx=32767
   
   

3. Reboot the system if you have modified the kernel, shared memory, or semaphore parameters.

Create Mount Points

Oracle8i requires at least two mount points: one for the software and at least one for the database files. It requires at least four mount points when creating an Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA)-compliant installation: one for the software and at least three for database files.

All software and database mount point names used for Oracle8i should match the pattern /pm where p is a string constant and m is a fixed-length key to distinguish between mount points. Table 2-2 shows a sample naming scheme.

Table 2-2 Sample Mount Point Naming Scheme

Software Mount Point	Database Mount Points
/u01	/u02
	/u03
	/u04

Create UNIX Groups for Database Administrators

During installation, two Oracle roles are created: DBA and OPERATOR. Database administrators are granted these roles by virtue of their membership in corresponding UNIX groups. You must create the group(s) for these roles before you log in as the oracle user and start the Oracle Universal Installer. You may assign the roles to two separate UNIX groups, or to a single group.

On Solaris, use the groupadd utility to create a group named dba. You can name the group something other than dba. If you plan to assign the OPERATOR role to a separate group, create that group also.

The OUI assigns both Oracle DBA and OPERATOR privileges to the UNIX group, dba, by default. If you have not created a dba group, you will be prompted to enter the name(s) you have chosen.

(Oracle8i documentation refers to these UNIX groups as the OSDBA and OSOPER groups.)

Create a UNIX Group for the OUI Inventory

On Solaris, use the groupadd utility to create a group named oinstall. The oinstall group will own the OUI oraInventory. The user account that runs the installation must be a member of this group.

Create a UNIX Account to Own Oracle Software

The oracle account is the UNIX account that owns the Oracle8i software after installation. You must run the OUI from this account.

On Solaris, use the operating system administration utility useradd to create an oracle account with the following properties:

Sites with multiple Oracle servers may install them under the same oracle account, or separate ones. All oracle accounts must belong to the oinstall group which owns the oraInventory directory. For security purposes, it is possible to use different OSDBA groups for different systems. You can do this as long as the oracle user is not a member of the DBA group. You will be prompted to enter a non-default value for OSDBA and OSPER groups.

Setup Tasks to Perform as the oracle User

Log in to the oracle account and perform the following tasks as necessary:

Set Permissions for File Creation

Set Environment Variables

Update the Environment for Current Session

Set Permissions for File Creation

Set umask to 022 for the oracle account to ensure group and other have read and execute permissions, but not write permission, on the files the OUI creates.

1. Enter the umask command to check the current setting.

2. If the umask command does not return 022, set it in the.profile or.login file of the oracle account:

   umask 022
   

Set Environment Variables

Set the environment variables listed in this section before starting the OUI.

DISPLAY

Set to the machine name or IP address, X server, and screen being used by your workstation to connect to the system where the software will be installed. Do not use the machine name or IP address of the system where the software is being installed. Use the machine name or IP of your own workstation. If you are not sure what the X server and screen should be set to, use 0 (zero) for both. If you get an Xlib error similar to "Failed to connect to server" or "Connection refused by server" or "Can't open display" when starting the OUI, run the Bourne/Korn shell or C shell commands below:

For the Bourne or Korn shells:

On the server where the Oracle database will be installed, enter the following:

$ DISPLAY=workstation_name:0.0
$ export DISPLAY

In the session on your workstation:

$ xhost +server_machine_name

For the C shell:

On the server where the Oracle database will be installed, enter the following:

$ setenv DISPLAY workstation_name:0.0

In the session on your workstation:

$ xhost +server_machine_name

ORACLE_BASE

Specifies the directory at the top of the Oracle software and administrative file structure. The OFA-recommended value is
software_mount_point/app/oracle. For example: /u01/app/oracle. If you are not using an OFA-compliant system, you do not have to set ORACLE_BASE.

ORACLE_HOME

Specifies the directory containing the Oracle software for a given release. The OFA-recommended value is: $ORACLE_BASE/product/release. For example: /u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.5.

Ensure that the value of ORACLE_HOME points to a directory that does not already contain any Oracle software.

NLS_LANG

Required to be set if installing or creating a database that uses a character set other than US7ASCII (the default). A complete list of valid character sets is available in Appendix A, "National Language Support".

ORA_NLS33

Required if creating a database with a storage character set other than US7ASCII. Set ORA_NLS33 to $ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data before starting the OUI or creating the database.

Update the Environment for Current Session

After setting environment variables in the.profile or.login file of the oracle account, update the environment in the current shell session.

For the Bourne or Korn shell:

$ . ./.profile

For the C shell:

% source .login

Setup Tasks for Oracle Products

Oracle8i Options

Pre-Installation Steps for Oracle Parallel Server Option

Complete the following steps before installing the Parallel Server Option:

1. Create raw devices.

   All files associated with an Oracle Parallel Server database must reside on raw volumes so they can be accessed by all nodes in the cluster. Control and data files are shared by all instances. Each instance has its own log files, but all instances must have access to all log files during recovery.

See Also: Creating raw devices is described in the Oracle8i Administrator's Reference.

2. Create an ASCII file with entries for each data file, control file, and redo log file.

See Also: Information and examples on creating ASCII files are described in the Oracle8i Parallel Server guide.

3. Create an environment variable named DBCA_RAW_CONFIG that points to the ASCII file.

Steps to Perform as the root User

4. Make sure you have a UNIX group defined in the /etc/group file on all nodes of the cluster that will serve as the OSDBA group. The OSDBA group name and number (and OSOPER group if you plan to designate one during installation) must be identical for all nodes of a UNIX cluster accessing a single database. The default UNIX group name for the OSDBA and OSOPER groups is dba.

5. Create a UNIX account on each node of the cluster so that:
   • the account is a member of the OSDBA group

   • the account is used only to install and update Oracle software

   • the account has write permissions on remote directories

6. Create a mount point directory on each node to serve as the top of your Oracle software directory structure so that:
   • the name of the mount point on each node is identical to that on the initial node

   • the oracle account has read, write, and execute privileges

See Also: Recommended naming conventions for Oracle mount points are discussed.

7. Apply the Sun Cluster software patch that is provided on the Oracle distribution. To install the patch, follow the directions in the ops_patch directory on your CD-ROM. This patch provides the Cluster Membership Monitor (CMM) and is required before you attempt to install Oracle Parallel Server.

8. After applying the CMM patch, restart the cluster management software:

   # cd /opt/SUNWcluster/bin 
   # scadmin startnode cluster_name
   
   

For information about cluster management software and the scadmin command, see your Solaris documentation.

Start the cluster software on each node of the cluster.

Set up user equivalence by adding entries for the other nodes in the cluster to the .rhosts file of the oracle account, or the /etc/hosts.equiv file.

Exit the root account when you are done.

Steps to Perform as the oracle Account

1. Verify that the Cluster Membership Monitor (CMM) is running:

   $ ps -ef | grep clustd
   
   
   

   If the CMM program does not appear in the process listing, repeat step 8.

2. Check for user equivalence for the oracle account by performing a remote login (rlogin) to each node in the cluster. If you are prompted for a password, the oracle account has not been given the same attributes on all nodes. The OUI cannot use the rcp command to copy Oracle products to the remote directories without user equivalence.

   If you have not set up user equivalence, you must perform Step 9 .

Tools and Precompilers

Complete the tasks for the following tools and precompilers before installing them.

Pre-Installation Steps for the Pro*COBOL Precompiler

1. Verify that the COBOL compiler executable is included in the PATH setting.

2. Verify that $COBLIB is in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

3. Set the COBDIR environment variable to the directory where the COBOL compiler is installed.

See Also: To determine what to set the COBDIR and COBLIB environment variables please refer to your product specific COBOL documentation.

Pre-Installation Steps for the Pro*C/C++ Precompiler

Verify that the C compiler executable is included in the PATH setting.

Pre-Installation Steps for Pro*FORTRAN Precompiler

Verify that the FORTRAN compiler executable is included in the PATH setting.

Pre-Installation Steps for the SQL*Module Ada

Verify that the Ada executable is included in the PATH setting, and that the Sun Ada 2.1 compiler configuration file has been set up.

Pre-Installation Steps for Legato Storage Manager (LSM)

The LSM installation script modifies the following system files during installation:

• /etc/rpc

• /etc/syslog.conf

Make copies of the original versions of these files before you install Legato Storage Manager.

Removing an Existing Legato Storage Manager Installation

If you want to install LSM from the Oracle8i distribution, but it is already on your system, you must first remove the installed version.

1. Log in as the root user and shut down the LSM daemons:

   # nsr_shutdown
   
   

2. Use the pkgrm command to remove individual Legato Storage Manager packages, or all of the Legato Storage Manager packages at the same time.

Caution: Some LSM software packages depend on each other. Remove packages only in the following order: ORCLman, ORCLserv, ORCLnode, ORCLclnt, ORCLdrvr. Do not remove any existing LSM index files in the /nsr directory.

The man pages, drivers, and documentation have no dependencies and can be removed in any order.

# pkgrm ORCLpackage_name

where package_name is one of the following:

ORCLclnt	NetWorker Client
ORCLdrvr	NetWorker Device Drivers
ORCLman	NetWorker Man Pages
ORCLnode	NetWorker Storage Node
ORCLserv	NetWorker Server

Networking and System Management Products

Net8 Configuration Assistant

If the Net8 Server or Net8 Client is installed, the OUI automatically launches the Net8 Configuration Assistant for initial configuration of the network.

Pre-Installation Steps for Net8

Shut down all Net8 listeners specific to the current ORACLE_HOME before installing Net8. To determine if any listeners are running, enter:

% ps -ef | grep tns

Shut down a running listener with the listener control utility:

% lsnrctl listener_name stop

Pre-Installation Steps for Oracle Names Server

If you want to use a well-known Names Server, create an alias for the machine hostname to oranamesrvr[0-4] in the /etc/hosts file. For example:

128.128.44.123   mach1.eng   oranamesrvr0

You must also create the alias for the well-known Names Server on all server and client machines in the network. (A well-known Names Server is one that uses a default name, such that clients can find it on the network, without being individually configured.)

See Also: Names Servers and well-known Names Servers are discussed in the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide.

Pre-Installation Steps for Oracle Supported Protocols

Before installing any protocol, verify that the underlying network is functioning and configured properly.

TCP/IP

The TCP/IP protocol is installed automatically with all Oracle8i Server installations.

Verify that the network is functioning properly by transferring a test file using the ftp utility.

$ ftp remote_server_name
ftp> put test_filename
ftp> get test_filename