How To Install Oracle 11g R2 On Linux rhel6

Pre-requisites before installing database

• GUI Environment

Make sure you have a running GUI environment with all the packages inside group GNOME or KDE package installed.

You can do the same using

# yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment" "X Window System"

In case you want to use KDE desktop you can select the KDE group package instead of GNOME

• Memory Requirements

Minimum 1 GB of RAM

Recommended 2 GB of RAM or more

You can follow the below table which is as per the Oracle standards for installing Oracle Database 11g in a 32 bit Linux machine

RAM	Swap Space
Between 1024 MB and 2048 MB	1.5 times the size of RAM
Between 2049 MB and 16384 MB	Equal to the size of RAM
More than 16 GB	16 GB

You can check the RAM and SWAP space using this command

# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          4392       4352         39          0        149       3828
-/+ buffers/cache:        374       4018
Swap:         6399          0       6399

In case you want to change the swap size of your machine as per the default standards, Follow this link

How to increase Swap Memory size in Linux

• Disk Space Requirements

For the installation of Oracle 11g minimum of 1 GB is required for /tmp directory

You can check the same using

# dh -h /tmp

• Display Requirements

Minimum display of 1024 x 768 or higher is required for the installation of Oracle 11g

• Operating system and Kernel Requirement

Follow this link for making sure that the OS you are using is compatible with the database you are installing

Compatibility Requirement for Oracle 11gR2

• Package Requirement

binutils-2.20.51.0.2-5.11.el6.i686 
compat-libcap1-1.10-1.i686
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-69.el6.i686
gcc-4.4.4-13.el6.i686
gcc-c++-4.4.4-13.el6.i686
glibc-2.12-1.7.el6.i686
glibc-devel-2.12-1.7.el6.i686
pdksh-5.2.14-1.i386
libgcc-4.4.4-13.el6.i686
libstdc++-4.4.4-13.el6.i686
libstdc++-devel-4.4.4-13.el6.i686
libaio-0.3.107-10.el6.i686
libaio-devel-0.3.107-10.el6.i686
make-3.81-19.el6.i686
sysstat-9.0.4-11.el6.i686
unixODBC-2.2.14-11.el6.i686 or later
unixODBC-devel-2.2.14-11.el6.i686 or later

• Kernel parameters

Add the following lines at the end of sysctl.conf file

# vi /etc/sysctl.conf
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048576

Run the following command to refresh the kernel parameters just added

# sysctl -p

To view all the kernel parameters 

# sysctl -a

Set the proper upper and lower limits in your machine. Add these lines in the given file as shown below

oracle         soft    nproc     2047 
oracle         hard    nproc     16384
oracle         soft    nofile    1024
oracle         hard    nofile    65536
oracle         soft    stack     10240

• Hostname

Check your hosts file and hostname as it should be proper

# vi /etc/hosts 
127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
::1         localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
10.10.20.42     test    test.example.com

Your machine should have a proper hostname. To check use the below command

# hostname 
test.example.com

• User and Group

You have to create a different user and group who will run the database

# useradd oracle
# passwd oracle

# groupadd dba

# usermod -G dba oracle

So we have added oracle user to dba group using the above command.

• Create home directory

# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/ 
# mkdir /u01/app/oraInventory

# chown -R /u01/
# chmod -R oracle:dba /u01/

We will use the standard format for creating the oracle database. Create a directory with the name used above. 

• Specify the Display protocol

Log in to oracle user

# su - oracle
$ export $DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

• Installation

Go to the location where you have downloaded and unzipped the database setup file using oracle user

# su - oracle

$ cd /database11gr2/database/
$ ./runInstaller

NOTE: In case you get DISPLAY related errors at the installation stage follow this page

How to specify DISPLAY protocol

Put your email address in case you want recieve updates via Oracle Support. In my case I skip this part

Select the first option as this is a fresh installation

Select the database class you want to install. All the details as per the database class is mentioned along with their option.

We will go with the typical install

Browse the location as specified below accordingly as we had created while filling the pre-requisite section

Select the specified directory in your machine

Next the set up will verify all the pre-requisites. In case you are warned for any error or missing package, make sure you correct and move ahead or else you might face issues after or during the installation.

NOTE: It is recommended that all the pre-requisites should be passed successfully.

Click on Finish to start the installation

Next you will get this screen. Click on "Password management"

Next this screen will come up. Create a password for SYS and SYSTEM user and click on Ok

Click on Ok

Now Click on close. You have successfully installed Oracle 11gR2 in your machine