PreInstall RPM Makes Oracle Database Installation Easy
Last week I had to build an Oracle 11gR2 database in the lab. Usually this process involves selecting one of several VirtualBox VM images for an appropriate Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) build and then several hours of effort. I selected a basic OEL6 image then instead decided to try out Oracle’s preinstall RPM package for Oracle database installations. I had heard about these packages that automate several of the more tedious pre-installation tasks such as modifying kernel parameters and installing and resolving required software packages.
The RPMs respectively are named:
-
oracle-rdbms-server-11gR2-preinstall -
oracle-rdbms-server-12cR1-preinstall
The result was that it worked and I was surprised how easy it was. Starting with a basic OEL6 image I followed the blog post referenced below. The first attempt resulted in strange errors deep into the install which when researched proved to be only the result of running out of file system space. I had opted to run the yum update prior to running the database install. Evidently this sufficiently filled my root file system to force errors. I trashed the VirtualBox image and selected a new OEL6 image with more space, ran the preinstall 11gR2 RPM and then let the database install program run before going off to a meeting. When I got back, my database was installed and running.
Overall for the lab this worked well, but for a production environment I would recommend validating all configuration steps performed by the preinstall RPM.
If you have questions, please contact us at info@integrigy.com
-Michael Miller, CISSP-ISSMP
