Installing Oracle 11g on Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

Note: Installing Oracle 11gR1 on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is now published.

After many requests from readers, I’ve put together new, revised version of the Oracle 11g on Ubuntu recipe. This new version is a little different than the first one published: it’s based on a bare-bones install of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) server version instead of the desktop version. As an improvement, I’ve tried to pare down dependencies to a minimal set.

Your feedback is more than welcome — it’s the main reason why I wrote a new version of this HOWTO. I’ve also tested and repeated this procedure twice. Even so, it might still have problems, so please let me know so we can improve it ¹.

We start with a freshly installed Ubuntu 7.10 server. The only modification made on the base installation was installing an sshd ² server and a nfs client ³ to use the distribution files on another box in the office. Change 192.168.x.y to the IP address of your new server.

bott@mybox:~$ xhost +192.168.x.y
192.168.x.y being added to access control list

After that, almost all we need to do can be done via a single SSH session. This first part must be executed as root, so we execute sudo -s to gain super-user access. After that, we proceed to update our mirrors so we can upgrade the installed base packages:

root@idlebox:~# uname -a
Linux idlebox 2.6.22-14-server #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:34:23 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
root@idlebox:~# apt-get update
(...)
root@idlebox:~# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libssl0.9.8 tzdata
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3479kB of archives.
After unpacking 262kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Afterwards, we install some package dependencies. This is the smallest number of packages I’ve been able to test so far (the first version of this HOWTO required 18 extra packages). Since I had the Ubuntu distribution CD-ROM available, very few packages must be downloaded from the network:

root@idlebox:~# apt-get install gcc make binutils libaio1 gawk ksh libc6-dev rpm libmotif3 alien lsb-rpm libtool
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  autotools-dev cpp cpp-4.1 debhelper dpkg-dev gcc-4.1 gcc-4.1-base gettext html2text intltool-debian libbeecrypt6 libice6 libneon25 librpm4 libsm6
  libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxdmcp6 libxext6 libxml2 libxmu6 libxp6 libxt6 linux-libc-dev patch po-debconf x11-common
Suggested packages:
  lintian binutils-doc cpp-doc gcc-4.1-locales dh-make debian-keyring gcc-multilib manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 flex bison gdb gcc-doc
  gcc-4.1-multilib gcc-4.1-doc cvs gettext-doc glibc-doc libtool-doc automaken g77 fortran77-compiler gcj make-doc diff-doc
Recommended packages:
  libmudflap0-dev libltdl3-dev xml-core libmail-sendmail-perl libcompress-zlib-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  alien autotools-dev binutils cpp cpp-4.1 debhelper dpkg-dev gawk gcc gcc-4.1 gcc-4.1-base gettext html2text intltool-debian ksh libaio1 libbeecrypt6
  libc6-dev libice6 libmotif3 libneon25 librpm4 libsm6 libtool libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxdmcp6 libxext6 libxml2 libxmu6 libxp6 libxt6 linux-libc-dev
  lsb-rpm make patch po-debconf rpm x11-common
0 upgraded, 40 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 5355kB/21.2MB of archives.
After unpacking 69.8MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

After the necessary packages are installed, we change the default replacement for sh from dash to bash so we don’t have surprises from scripts depending on bash-like behavior.

root@idlebox:~# cd /bin
root@idlebox:~# ls -l /bin/sh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2007-11-04 15:29 /bin/sh -> dash
root@idlebox:/bin# ln -sf bash /bin/sh
root@idlebox:/bin# ls -l /bin/sh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 2007-11-05 10:42 /bin/sh -> bash

We make some modifications to our base system (line numbers added for clarity):

01 root@idlebox:~# addgroup oinstall
   Adding group `oinstall' (GID 1001) ...
   Done.
02 root@idlebox:~# addgroup dba
   Adding group `dba' (GID 1002) ...
   Done.
03 root@idlebox:~# addgroup nobody
   Adding group `nobody' (GID 1003) ...
   Done.
04 root@idlebox:~# usermod -g nobody nobody
05 root@idlebox:~# useradd -g oinstall -G dba -p password -d /home/oracle -s /bin/bash oracle
06 root@idlebox:~# passwd -l oracle
   Password changed.
07 root@idlebox:~# mkdir /home/oracle
08 root@idlebox:~# chown -R oracle:dba /home/oracle
09 root@idlebox:~# ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/awk
10 root@idlebox:~# ln -s /usr/bin/rpm /bin/rpm
11 root@idlebox:~# ln -s /usr/bin/basename /bin/basename
12 root@idlebox:~# mkdir /etc/rc.d
13 root@idlebox:~# for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 S ; do ln -s /etc/rc$i.d /etc/rc.d/rc$i.d ; done
14 root@idlebox:~# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle
15 root@idlebox:~# chown -R oracle:dba /u01

• Lines 01-03 add the groups we need.
• Line 04 adapts Ubuntu nobody users so the Oracle installer doesn’t get confused.
• On lines 05-08 we create the Oracle user, lock that account so no one can login with it, and create a HOME directory for the user (not the same as ORACLE_HOME).
• On lines 09-13 we create some symlinks so we can fool the Oracle installer.
• Finally, on lines 14-15 we create our ORACLE_BASE and ORACLE_HOME. Alternatively, you can copy/paste this ⁴.

We also need to change some system-wide defaults. There is some explanation for all these system modifications on the first post on installing Oracle 11g on Ubuntu.

First, add this to the end of your /etc/sysctl.conf. It extends the number of allowed file descriptors, the size of shared memory, and does some tweaking with the network subsystem.

fs.file-max = 65535
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65535
net.core.rmem_default = 1048576
net.core.rmem_max = 1048576
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 262144

Then, add this at the end of your /etc/security/limits.conf:

oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16383
oracle soft nofile 1023
oracle hard nofile 65535

Add this to /etc/pam.d/login to enforce what we added to limits.conf:

cat >> /etc/pam.d/login << EOF
session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so
session required pam_limits.so

(See footnote 5 for an alternative method to performing these last three steps.)

The last thing to do is reload the configuration on /etc/sysctl.conf so the system is affected without a reboot. It’s also a good idea to logout and login again so the limits specified above take place.

root@idlebox:~# sysctl -p
kernel.printk = 4 4 1 7
kernel.maps_protect = 1
fs.file-max = 65535
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000
net.core.rmem_default = 1048576
net.core.rmem_max = 1048576
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 262144

I’ve made the distribution files available on a NFS mount on /media/database, so we su to the oracle user and start our installation on a remote X server. Please note the -ignoreSysPrereqs flag to the Oracle installer.

root@idlebox:~# su - oracle
oracle@idlebox:~$ export DISPLAY=Xserver.IPaddress:0.0
oracle@idlebox:~$ cd /media/database/
oracle@idlebox:/media/database$ ./runInstaller -ignoreSysPrereqs
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking Temp space: must be greater than 80 MB.   Actual 6555 MB    Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB.   Actual 400 MB    Passed
Checking monitor: must be configured to display at least 256 colors
    >>> Could not execute /usr/bin/xdpyinfo    Failed <<<<

>>> Ignoring required pre-requisite failures. Continuing...

Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2007-11-04_09-39-05PM. Please wait ...

The installation should be pretty smooth. If, after some seconds, a window like this one shows up, you’re right on track. Hit Next.

I’ve changed the group to dba before hitting Next:

On this one, I left the defaults and hit Next:

Remember the -ignoreSysPrereqs option? Click on all the checkboxes on the list to change their state from “Failed” or “Warning” to “User Verified” and it will let you hit Next.

In my case, I just installed the software and created a database afterwards with dbca.

Since this is a test box, I modified the groups to be dba:

A quick summary show appear, and it’s time to hit Install:

This will take a while. The first time I run the installer, it took so long I thought it was frozen. Let it run. At some point it will reach the “linking” stage.

Let it run and you’ll be presented with a request to run two scripts as root:

They should output something like this:

root@idlebox:~# /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh
Changing permissions of /u01/app/oraInventory to 770.
Changing groupname of /u01/app/oraInventory to dba.
The execution of the script is complete
root@idlebox:~# /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/root.sh
Running Oracle 11g root.sh script...

The following environment variables are set as:
    ORACLE_OWNER= oracle
    ORACLE_HOME=  /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1

Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: [/usr/local/bin]: (hit enter)
   Copying dbhome to /usr/local/bin ...
   Copying oraenv to /usr/local/bin ...
   Copying coraenv to /usr/local/bin ...

Creating /etc/oratab file...
Entries will be added to the /etc/oratab file as needed by
Database Configuration Assistant when a database is created
Finished running generic part of root.sh script.
Now product-specific root actions will be performed.
Finished product-specific root actions.

And finally, the Oracle installer will congratulate you with some good news:

For the final steps of this setup, two more things must be done. First, add this to /etc/profile, so you can run dbca after login in again as the oracle user: ⁶

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1
export PATH=$PATH:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin

Also, I’ve made some adjustments to the startup script. It should be useful after creating a database and setting it to start on /etc/oratab:

#!/bin/bash
#
# /etc/init.d/oracledb
#
# Run-level Startup script for the Oracle Listener and Instances
# It relies on the information on /etc/oratab

export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1
export ORACLE_OWNR=oracle
export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin

if [ ! -f $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart -o ! -d $ORACLE_HOME ]
then
    echo "Oracle startup: cannot start"
    exit 1
fi

case "$1" in
    start)
        # Oracle listener and instance startup
        echo -n "Starting Oracle: "
        su $ORACLE_OWNR -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl start"
        su $ORACLE_OWNR -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart"
        touch /var/lock/oracle
        echo "OK"
        ;;
    stop)
        # Oracle listener and instance shutdown
        echo -n "Shutdown Oracle: "
        su $ORACLE_OWNR -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl stop"
        su $ORACLE_OWNR -c $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut
        rm -f /var/lock/oracle
        echo "OK"
        ;;
    reload|restart)
        $0 stop
        $0 start
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: `basename $0` start|stop|restart|reload"
        exit 1
esac

exit 0

After saving it as /etc/init.d/oracledb and making it owned by root, run this to make it executable:

root@idlebox:~# chmod a+x /etc/init.d/oracledb

If you want this script to be run at every boot, execute this:

root@idlebox:/bin# update-rc.d oracledb defaults 99
 Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/oracledb ...
   /etc/rc0.d/K99oracledb -> ../init.d/oracledb
   /etc/rc1.d/K99oracledb -> ../init.d/oracledb
   /etc/rc6.d/K99oracledb -> ../init.d/oracledb
   /etc/rc2.d/S99oracledb -> ../init.d/oracledb
   /etc/rc3.d/S99oracledb -> ../init.d/oracledb
   /etc/rc4.d/S99oracledb -> ../init.d/oracledb
   /etc/rc5.d/S99oracledb -> ../init.d/oracledb

It would be a good idea to add yourself to the dba group, by using usermod or by directly editing the /etc/group file. Locate the line starting with dba and add your username after the comma:

dba:x:1002:oracle,pythian

After creating a database and firing it up (either manually or with the script provided), we test our installation:

pythian@idlebox:~$ sqlplus /nolog

SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production on Mon Nov 5 12:23:20 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

SQL> connect /as sysdba
Connected.
SQL>

And now we can safely say: we’re done!
Again, please share your thoughts and your experiences with this.

Augusto Bott

So now, dear reader, we hope we have helped you figure out something you needed to know. It turns out that you can help us here at Pythian with something we need to know! If you are aware of a DBA requirement within your organization, salaried or consulting, please pop in your email address here:

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---

1. The method described here should work just fine on Gutsy desktop version since it shares a common base with the server version, so package dependencies for Oracle should be the same on both versions. back

2. The steps regarding X forwarding to another box probably can be skipped if you have a X Server on the server itself. I built this document on a server without a X Server and forwarded the output to my box. back

3. If you are want to copy the distribution files directly to the server and use them from a local filesystem, you can skip the nfs-client installation. You will need the unzip package installed to extract the contents of the download. back

4. Users and groups configuration. Paste this as root:

addgroup oinstall
addgroup dba
addgroup nobody
usermod -g nobody nobody
useradd -g oinstall -G dba -p password -d /home/oracle -s /bin/bash oracle
passwd -l oracle
mkdir /home/oracle
chown -R oracle:dba /home/oracle
ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/awk
ln -s /usr/bin/rpm /bin/rpm
ln -s /usr/bin/basename /bin/basename
mkdir /etc/rc.d
for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 S ; do ln -s /etc/rc$i.d /etc/rc.d/rc$i.d ; done
mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle
chown -R oracle:dba /u01

back

5. Paste this as root:

cat >> /etc/sysctl.conf << EOF
fs.file-max = 65535
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65535
net.core.rmem_default = 1048576
net.core.rmem_max = 1048576
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 262144
EOF
cat >> /etc/security/limits.conf << EOF
oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16383
oracle soft nofile 1023
oracle hard nofile 65535
EOF
cat >> /etc/pam.d/login << EOF
session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so
session required pam_limits.so
EOF

back

6. Paste the following, as root:

cat >> /etc/profile << EOF
export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1
export PATH=$PATH:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin
EOF

back