3 Installation Tasks

The Oracle Client software is available on DVD or you can download it from the Oracle Technology Network Web site. In most cases, you use the graphical user interface (GUI) provided by Oracle Universal Installer to install the software. However, you can also use Oracle Universal Installer to complete silent-mode installations, without using the GUI.

3.1 Reviewing Installation Guidelines

Review the following guidelines before starting Oracle Universal Installer:

Oracle Universal Installer

Do not use Oracle Universal Installer from an earlier Oracle release to install components from this release.
Installations on a cluster

If Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC are already installed on the system, Oracle Universal Installer displays the Specify Hardware Cluster Installation Mode screen. You must select Local Installation on this screen.

See Also:
Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation Guide for Linux and UNIX for information on installing Oracle RAC
Reinstalling Oracle Software

3.2 Accessing the Installation Software

The Oracle Client software is available on DVD or you can download it from the Oracle Technology Network Web site. To install the software from the hard disk, you must either download it from Oracle Technology Network and unpack it, or copy it from the disk, if you have it.

You can access and install Oracle Client by using one of the following methods:

To copy the software to a hard disk, refer to the following section:

"Copying the Software to the Hard Disk"
To install the software from a DVD or from an existing hard disk location, refer to the "Installing the Oracle Client Software" section.
To download the software from Oracle Technology Network, refer to the following section.

3.2.1 Downloading Oracle Software from the Oracle Technology Network Web Site

This section describes how to download the installation archive files and extract them on your hard disk. It contains the following topics:

Downloading the Installation Archive Files
Extracting the Installation Files

3.2.1.1 Downloading the Installation Archive Files

To download the installation archive files from Oracle Technology Network:

Use any browser to access the software download page from Oracle Technology Network:
```
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/
```
Navigate to the download page for the product that you want to install.
On the download page, identify the required disk space by adding the file sizes for each required file.

The file sizes are listed next to the file names.
Select a file system with enough free space to store and expand the archive files.

In most cases, the available disk space must be at least twice the size of all of the archive files.
On the file system that you selected in step 4, create a parent directory for each product, for example OraCli11g, to hold the installation directories.
Download all of the installation archive files to the directory that you created in step 5.
Verify that the files you downloaded are the same size as the corresponding files on Oracle Technology Network.

3.2.1.2 Extracting the Installation Files

To extract the installation archive files, perform the following steps:

If necessary, change directory to the directory that contains the downloaded installation archive files.
If the downloaded file has the .zip extension, use the following command:
```
unzip file_name.zip
```
If the downloaded file has the cpio.gz extension, use the following command to extract the content:
```
$ gunzip filename.cpio.gz
```
This command creates files with names similar to the following:
```
filename.cpio
```
To extract the installation files, enter a command similar to the following:
```
$ cpio -idcmv < filename.cpio
```
Note:
Refer to the download page for information about the correct options to use with the cpio command.
Some browsers uncompress files while downloading them, but leave the .gz file extension.

For each file, this command creates a subdirectory named Diskn, where n is either 1 or the disk number identified in the file name.

When you have extracted all of the required installation files, refer to "Installing the Oracle Client Software".

3.2.2 Copying the Software to the Hard Disk

Before installing Oracle Client, you might want to copy the software to the hard disk. This enables the installation process to run a bit faster. Before copying the installation media content to the hard disk, you must mount the disk. To mount the disks and copy the content on to the hard disk, refer to the following section.

3.2.2.1 Mounting Disks

On most Linux systems, the disk mounts automatically when you insert it into the DVD drive. If the disk does not mount automatically, then follow these steps to mount it:

If necessary, enter a command similar to one of the following to eject the currently mounted disk, then remove it from the drive:
- Asianux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
```
# sudo eject /mnt/dvd
```
- SUSE:
```
# eject /media/dvd
```
In these examples, /mnt/dvd and /media/dvd are the mount point directories for the DVD drive.
Insert the appropriate disk into the DVD drive.
To verify if the disk is mounted automatically, enter one of the following commands depending on the platform:
- Asianux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
```
# ls /mnt/dvd
```
- SUSE:
```
# ls /media/dvd
```
If this command fails to display the contents of the DVD, enter a command similar to the following to mount it, depending on the platform:

Note:
Before running the following command, ensure that the /mnt/dvd directory exists on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If not, create the /mnt/dvd directory, as required, to mount the DVD.
- Asianux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
```
# mount -t iso9660 /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd
```
- SUSE:
```
# mount -t iso9660 /dev/dvd /media/dvd
```
In these examples, /mnt/dvd and /media/dvd are the mount point directories for the DVD drive.
If Oracle Universal Installer is displaying the Disk Location dialog box, enter the disk mount point directory path, for example:
```
/mnt/dvd
```

To continue, go to one of the following sections:

If you want to copy software to a hard disk, refer to the "Copying the Oracle Client Software to a Hard Disk" section.
If you want to install the software from the DVD, refer to the "Installing the Oracle Client Software" section.

3.2.2.2 Copying the Oracle Client Software to a Hard Disk

If the system does not have a DVD drive, you can copy the software from the DVD to a file system on another system, then either mount that file system using NFS, or use FTP to copy the files to the system where you want to install the software.

To copy the contents of the DVD to a hard disk:

Create a directory on the hard disk to hold the Oracle software:
```
$ mkdir OraCl11g
```
Change directory to the directory you created in step 1:
```
$ cd OraCl11g
```
Mount the disk, if it is not already mounted.

Some platforms automatically mount the disk when you insert it into the drive. If the disk does not mount automatically, refer to the "Mounting Disks" section for platform-specific information about mounting it.
Copy the contents of the mounted disk to the corresponding new subdirectory as follows:
```
$ cp -R /directory_path OraCl11g
```
In this example, /directory_path is the disk mount point directory, for example /mnt/dvd on Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, or the path of the client directory on the DVD. The mount point directory is /dvd.
If necessary, mount the next disk and repeat step 5.

3.3 Installing the Oracle Client Software

Use OUI to install the Oracle Database software.The following section describes how to install the Oracle software:

3.3.1 Running Oracle Universal Installer

This section describes the Basic Installation as a default setting. For any type of installation process, start Oracle Universal Installer and install the software, as follows:

Log on as a member of the Administrators group to the computer on which to install Oracle components.
If you are installing the software from DVD, mount the disk if it is not already mounted.

If the disk does not mount automatically, refer to the "Mounting Disks" section for platform-specific information about mounting it.

Some platforms automatically mount the disk when you insert the DVD into the drive.
To start Oracle Universal Installer, complete one of the following steps depending on the location of the installation files:

Note:
Start Oracle Universal Installer from the terminal session where you logged in as the oracle user and set the user's environment (described in Chapter 2).
- If the installation files are on disk, enter commands similar to the following, where directory_path is the path of the client directory on the DVD:
```
$ /directory_path/runInstaller
```
- If the installation files are on the hard disk, change directory to the client directory and enter the following command:
```
$ ./runInstaller
```
If Oracle Universal Installer is not displayed, refer to the "X Window Display Errors" section for information about troubleshooting.
In the Select a Product to Install screen, select the product that you want to install: Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Client, or Oracle Clusterware and click Next.
In the Select Installation Type screen, select the type of installation that you want: Instant Client, Administrator, Runtime, or Custom and click Next.

See Also:
"Oracle Client Installation Types" for more information on these installation types.
In the Install Location screen, enter the following details:
- Oracle base path: Enter the directory location for Oracle base. Do not include spaces in the path name.
- Name: Enter the name of the Oracle home.
  
  Install Oracle Database Client into a new Oracle home, even if you are installing onto a computer that has existing Oracle components installed.
  
  Do not install Oracle Database Client 11g release 1 (11.1) software into an existing Oracle home that contains Oracle Database 10g or earlier software. You can install Oracle Database Client into an existing Oracle home that contains Oracle Database Client 10g release 1 (10.1) or later software, so long as Oracle Database is not installed in the same home.
- Oracle home path: This field is populated by default in concurrence with Oracle base location.
Click Next.
If you selected Custom in Step 5, in the Available Product Components screen, select the components you want to install and click Next or Install.
In the Product-specific Prerequisite Checks screen, correct any errors that Oracle Universal Installer may have found, and then click Next.
In the Summary screen, check the installed components listing and click Install.
If you have selected Custom installation types, follow steps 12 to 20 to complete the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant procedure.

If you have selected the Administrator or Runtime installation type, then Net Configuration Assistant is invoked as a part of the installation. Click Next to complete the installation You should then start the Net Configuration Assistant and follow steps 12 to 20 to complete configuration process.

If you selected the Instant Client installation type, go to Step 21. After you complete the installation, you can follow the steps under "Connecting Instant Client or Instant Client Light to an Oracle Database" to configure the database connection.
In the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant: Welcome screen, either select Perform typical configuration to use a default configuration, or select the Naming Methods configuration option. Then click Next. (The remaining steps in this procedure assume you are using Naming Methods.)
In the Naming Methods Configuration, Select Naming Methods screen, select the naming method you want and then click Next.

In most cases, Local Naming is sufficient.
In the Net Service Name Configuration, Service Name screen, enter the name of the database service to which you want to connect. Click Next.

For example, to connect to a database named sales, enter sales.
In the Net Service Name Configuration, Select Protocol screen, depending on the protocol you selected, enter the appropriate information and click Next.
In the Net Service Name Configuration, TCP/IP Protocol screen, enter the host name of the computer where the Oracle database is installed. Specify the port number, then click Next.

For example, to connect to the computer shobeen, you would enter shobeen.
In the Net Service Name Configuration, Test screen, click Yes to perform a test of the connection. Then click Next.

In most cases, the test fails only because the default user name and password Oracle Universal Installer supplies in the dialog box do not match the user name and password for the target database. Click Change Login, re-enter the user name and password, and then click OK.
In the Connecting screen, click Next.
In the Net Service Name screen, enter the name of the net service name to use.
Answer the remaining prompts to complete the configuration.
In the End of Installation screen, click Exit, then click Yes to exit from Oracle Universal Installer.
Go to Chapter 4, "Postinstallation Tasks" to complete the postinstallation tasks.