Oracle database silent installation on Debian Lenny (Part 1)

This is a short write-off about only the absolutely necessary steps how to deploy Oracle 10gR2 on a box running debian lenny.

Check out the packages need to be installed here.

I usually only set up those kernel parameter that have lower default values than recommended by ORACLE.

# echo "kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
# echo "kernel.shmmax = 1073741824" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
# sysctl -p

Create dba group and oracle user (groups oper and oinstall can be safetly omitted, I've been never using them)

# useradd -m -d /home/oracle -g dba -s /bin/bash oracle
# groupadd dba

Create directories for software. In the majority of articles dealing with Oracle RDBMS installation /u01, /02, etc. are used, but I prefer to put it into somewhere in the standard directory layout.

# mkdir -p /usr/local/oracle/inventory
# mkdir -p /usr/local/oracle/network/admin
# mkdir -p /usr/local/oracle/product/rdbms102

Directories for data files, trace files and for flashback recovery area.

# mkdir -p /var/local/oracle/oradata
# mkdir -p /var/local/oracle/fra
# mkdir -p /var/local/oracle/admin

Let user oracle to take possession of the directories created above.

# chown -R oracle:dba /usr/local/oracle
# chown -R oracle:dba /var/local/oracle

Mark the location of Oracle software inventory. This step is optional universal installer will ask you to define it if you skip this step.

# cat > /etc/oraInst.loc <<EOF
inventory_loc=/usr/local/oracle/inventory
inst_group=dba
EOF
# chown oracle:dba /etc/oraInst.loc

Log in as oracle and change the working directory to that location where the installation package was extracted.
$ cd /path/to/rdbms102_install
I like silent install because this way I don't have to care for X window system.

$ vi rdbms102.rsp
RESPONSEFILE_VERSION=2.2.1.0.0
UNIX_GROUP_NAME="dba"
FROM_LOCATION="../stage/products.xml"
ORACLE_HOME="/usr/local/oracle/product/rdbms102"
ORACLE_HOME_NAME="rdbms102"
ACCEPT_LICENSE_AGREEMENT=true
INSTALL_TYPE="EE"
NEXT_SESSION=false
s_nameForDBAGrp=dba
s_nameForOPERGrp=dba
n_configurationOption=3

As a final step run the installer.

$ ./runInstaller -ignoreSysPrereqs -responseFile /path/to/rdbms102.rsp -silent

Execute the plain old root.sh.

# /usr/local/oracle/product/rdbms102/root.sh