3 Installing Oracle Database

3.1.1 Installation Consideration on Windows Vista

The installation consideration on Windows Vista is to open a command prompt with Administrator privileges.

3.1.2 Performing Multiple Oracle Database Installations

If you need to perform multiple installations of Oracle Database, you may want to use either of the following methods to install Oracle Database:

• Response files: At each node, you run Oracle Universal Installer from the command line using silent or noninteractive mode and you supply a response file to provide information Oracle Universal Installer will need. The response file is a text file containing the settings you normally enter in the Oracle Universal Installer GUI dialog boxes.

  See Also:

  Appendix C, "Installing and Configuring Oracle Database Using Response Files"

• Cloning the Oracle home of an existing Oracle Database installation: With this method, you install one instance of Oracle Database, and then clone its Oracle home for each additional installation.

  See Also:

  "Cloning an Oracle Home"

3.1.3 Installing onto Systems That Already Have Oracle Components

Follow these steps when other components exist on your computer:

1. Log on as a member of the Administrators group for the computer on which you want to install Oracle components.

   If you are installing on a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or a Backup Domain Controller (BDC), log on as a member of the Domain Administrators group.

2. Delete the ORACLE_HOME environment variable if it exists. See the Microsoft online help for more information about deleting environment variables.

   Note:

   The ORACLE_HOME environment variable is automatically set in the registry. Manually setting this variable prevents installation.

3. Back up any databases you need to upgrade. Review "Upgrade Considerations".

4. If you are installing in an existing Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1) home, stop all Oracle services making use of this Oracle home.

   If any Oracle services (their names begin with Ora) exist and have the status Started, then stop them. In particular, ensure that all Oracle listener services are stopped.

   See Also:

   Your Microsoft online help for more information about stopping services

3.1.4 Installing with Minimum Memory Requirements

Installations of Oracle Database on computers with RAM and virtual memory lesser than the minimum required have the following limitations:

• Computers cannot run Oracle Database Upgrade Assistant, Oracle Database Configuration Assistant, or Oracle Net Services Configuration Assistant during an Oracle Universal Installer installation session.

• Depending on how many applications are running on the computer, you may need to further increase the paging file size or reduce the size of the System Global Area (SGA) if you run out of virtual memory. If temporary files and the paging file are both stored on the same physical drive, the space requirements for one may limit the size of another. If your system has limited free space, first install the Oracle Database software. After the installation is finished, create a database with Oracle Database Configuration Assistant.

Do not install the database on computer systems that barely meet the minimum memory and virtual memory requirements, 1 GB. Depending on the installation type you choose, follow these guidelines:

• Select Basic Installation and deselect Create Starter Database.

• Select Advanced Installation, select Do not create a starter database from the Select Database Configuration screen.

• Select Advanced Installation, select the Custom installation type from the Select Installation Type screen, and select No on the Create Database screen when prompted to create the database.

• Cancel Oracle Database Configuration Assistant from the Configuration Assistants screen.

After installation, run the appropriate configuration assistant for your needs:

• To create a new database, run Oracle Database Configuration Assistant. From the Start menu, select Programs, then Oracle - HOME_NAME, then Configuration and Migration Tools, then Database Configuration Assistant.

• To upgrade an existing database, run Oracle Database Upgrade Assistant. From the Start menu, select Programs, then Oracle - HOME_NAME, then Configuration and Migration Tools, then Database Upgrade Assistant.

3.2.1 Selecting the Database Character Set

Oracle Database uses the database character set for:

• Data stored in SQL character datatypes (CHAR, VARCHAR2, CLOB, and LONG).

• Identifiers such as table names, column names, and PL/SQL variables.

• Stored SQL and PL/SQL source code, including text literals embedded in this code.

Once a database is created, changing its character set is usually very expensive in terms of time and resources. Such operation may require converting all character data by exporting the whole database and importing it back. Therefore, it is important that you carefully select the database character set already at installation time.

Oracle recommends Unicode AL32UTF8 as the database character set. Unicode is the universal character set that supports most of the currently spoken languages of the world. It also supports many historical scripts (alphabets). Unicode is the native encoding of many technologies, including Java, XML, XHTML, ECMAScript, LDAP. Unicode is ideally suited for databases supporting the Internet and the global economy.

As AL32UTF8 is a multibyte character set, database operations on character data may be slightly slower when compared to single-byte database character sets, such as WE8MSWIN1252. Storage space requirements for text in most languages that use characters outside of the ASCII repertoire are higher in AL32UTF8 compared to legacy character sets supporting the language. Note that the increase in storage space concerns only character data and only data that is not in English. The universality and flexibility of Unicode usually outweighs these additional costs.

Legacy character sets should be considered when compatibility, storage requirements, or performance of text processing is critical and the database will ever support only a single group of languages.  The database character set to be selected in such case is the character set of most clients connecting to this database.

The default character set suggested or used by Oracle Universal Installer and Database Configuration Assistant in this release is based on the language configuration of the operating system.

For most languages, the default character set is one of the Microsoft Windows character sets, for example WE8MSWIN1252. It is noteworthy that the same default is used by the database installation process on Unix-based platforms. This results from the assumption that most clients connecting to the database run under the Microsoft Windows operating system. As the database should be able to store all characters coming from the clients and Microsoft Windows character sets have richer character repertoire than the corresponding ISO 8859 character sets, the Microsoft Windows character sets are usually the better choice. For example, the EE8MSWIN1250 character set supports the Euro currency symbol and various smart quote characters, while the corresponding EE8ISO8859P2 character set does not support them. In any case, Oracle converts the data between the database character set and the client character sets, which are declared by the NLS_LANG settings.

The list of database character sets that is presented to you for selection by Oracle Universal Installer contains only the recommended character sets. Even though Oracle Database supports many more character sets, they are either deprecated or they are binary subsets of another recommended character set. For example, WE8DEC is a deprecated character set and US7ASCII and WE8ISO8859P1 are both binary subsets of WE8MSWIN1252.

If, for compatibility reasons, you need to create a database in one of the non-recommended character sets, choose the Custom installation type or choose the Advanced database configuration option. Database Configuration Assistant in the interactive mode will give you the opportunity to select any of the database character sets supported on Windows.

3.3.1 Installing from a Remote DVD Drive

If the computer where you want to install Oracle Database does not have a DVD drive, you can perform the installation from a remote DVD drive. You will need to complete the following steps:

• Step 1: On the Remote Computer, Share the DVD Drive

• Step 2: On the Local Computer, Map the DVD Drive

3.3.2 Installing on Remote Computers Through Remote Access Software

If you want to install and run Oracle Database on a remote computer (that is, the remote computer has the hard drive and will run Oracle Database components), but you do not have physical access to the computer, you still can perform the installation on the remote computer if it is running remote access software such as VNC or Symantec pcAnywhere. You also need the remote access software running on your local computer.

You can install Oracle Database on the remote computer in one of two ways:

• If you have copied the contents of the Oracle Database DVD to a hard drive, you can install the software from the hard drive.

• You can insert the DVD into a drive on your local computer, and install the software from the DVD.

3.3.3 Downloading Oracle Software from the Oracle Technology Network Web Site

You can download the installation files from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) and extract them on your hard disk.

To download the installation files:

1. Use a browser to access the Oracle Technology Network software download page:

   http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/
   
   

2. Navigate to each of the download pages for the product that you want to install.

3. On each 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.

4. Select a file system with enough free space to store and expand the files. In most cases, the available disk space must be at least twice the size of each compressed file.

5. On the file system that you just selected, create a parent directory for each product you plan to install, for example OraDB11g, to hold the installation directories.

6. Download all of the installation files to the directories that you just created.

7. Verify that the files you downloaded are the same size as the corresponding files on Oracle Technology Network.

8. Extract the files in each directory that you just created.

9. After you have extracted the required installation files, see the "Installing the Oracle Database Software" section.

3.3.4 Copying the Oracle Database Software to a Hard Disk

To copy the contents of the installation media to a hard disk:

1. Create a directory on your hard drive. For example:

   c:\> mkdir \install
   c:\> mkdir \install\database
   
   

2. Copy the contents of the installation media to the directory that you just created.

3. After you have copied all of the required installation files, see the "Installing the Oracle Database Software" section.

3.6.1 Step 1: Reviewing Automatic Storage Management Installation Considerations

When you install Automatic Storage Management, follow these guidelines:

• Before you begin the installation, make sure that you have completed the steps in "Preparing Disk Groups for an Automatic Storage Management Installation" to prepare a disk partition to use for the Automatic Storage Management disk groups.

• Oracle recommends that you install Automatic Storage Management into its own Oracle home, regardless of whether you plan to have one or multiple database instances. Installing Automatic Storage Management into its own Oracle home helps ensure higher availability and manageability.

  With separate Oracle homes, you can upgrade Automatic Storage Management and databases independently, and you can deinstall database software without impacting the Automatic Storage Management instance.

  If an Automatic Storage Management instance does not already exist and you select the Oracle Universal Installer option to install and configure Automatic Storage Management only, Oracle Universal Installer installs Automatic Storage Management in its own Oracle home.

• Each computer that has one or more Oracle Database instances that will use Automatic Storage Management must have one Automatic Storage Management instance. For example, if a computer has two Oracle Database instances that use Automatic Storage Management, you only need one Automatic Storage Management instance for that computer, to manage the two database instances that use Automatic Storage Management.

• When you install Automatic Storage Management, Oracle Database Configuration Assistant creates a separate server parameter file (SPFILE) and password file for the Automatic Storage Management instance.

3.6.2 Step 2: Creating the Automatic Storage Management Instance and Configuring Disk Groups

The following steps explain how to create an Automatic Storage Management instance and a disk group for storing the Oracle database files. You can create multiple disk groups for the Automatic Storage Management instance to manage, if you want. If you plan to use Automatic Storage Management for backup and recovery operations, Oracle recommends that you create a separate disk group for this purpose.

To install an Automatic Storage Management instance and configure its disk groups:

1. Log on as a member of the Administrators group to the computer on which to install Oracle components.

   If you are installing on a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or a Backup Domain Controller (BDC), log on as a member of the Domain Administrators group.

2. Insert Oracle Database installation media and navigate to the database directory. Alternatively, navigate to the directory where you downloaded or copied the installation files. Double-click setup.exe to start Oracle Universal Installer.

   Use the same installation media to install Oracle Database on all supported Windows platforms.

3. The Select a Product to Install screen enables you to install any one of the following products:

   • Oracle Database 11g

   • Oracle Client

   • Oracle Clusterware

   See Also:

   "Oracle Universal Installer Windows" for a detailed description of the screens used in this procedure

4. On the Select Installation Method screen, select Advanced Installation and then click Next.

5. On the Select Installation Type screen, select either Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Personal Edition, or Custom and then click Next.

6. On the Install Location screen, the Oracle base path appears by default. You can change the path based on your requirement. In the Software Location section, accept the default values or enter an Automatic Storage Management-specific name and directory location for the Automatic Storage Management instance and Click Next.

   For example, you could change name to OraDB11g+ASM and the directory location to the following:

   DRIVE LETTER:\oracle\product\11.1.0\asm
   
   

7. In the Product-Specific Prerequisite Checks screen, check that the requirements have been met and then click Next.

8. On the Select Configuration Option screen, select Configure Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and then specify and confirm the Automatic Storage Management SYS password. Then, click Next.

9. On the Configure Automatic Storage Management screen, enter the following settings:

   Note:

   This screen lets you create the disk groups to use with the Automatic Storage Management instance. You must have an available partition in order to create disk groups.

   • Disk Group Name: Enter a name for the disk group.

   • Redundancy: Select one of the following choices to set the redundancy level for the disks within the disk group. If you do not specify a redundancy level, the disk group defaults to normal redundancy.

     • High: With this option, the contents of the disk group are three-way mirrored by default. To create a disk group with high redundancy, you must specify at least three failure groups (a minimum of three devices).

     • Normal: In a normal redundancy level, by default the data files of the disk group are two-way mirrored and the control files are three-way mirrored. You can choose to create certain files that are three-way mirrored or not mirrored. To create a disk group with normal redundancy, you must specify at least two failure groups (a minimum of two devices) for two-way mirroring.

     • External: : Automatic Storage Management does not mirror the contents of the disk group. Choose this redundancy level when 1) the disk group contains devices, such as RAID devices, that provide their own data protection; or 2) the use of the database does not require uninterrupted access to data, for example, in a development environment where you have a suitable backup strategy.

   • Add Disks: Click Stamp Disks to start the asmtoolg GUI tool. In the asmtool operation dialog box, select Add or change label, and then click Next. From the list, select the disks that you want to use for the disk group. To select multiple disks, hold down the Control key and click to pick individual disks, or hold down the Shift key to select disks in a group. To use a specific prefix for this disk group, select Generate stamps with this prefix and enter a name. Click Next, and in the next window, click Finish.

     After you click Finish, the Configure Automatic Storage Management window returns, with the disks you selected in the Add Disks list. From this list, select the disks you want to include in the disk group. To filter the display of disks, you can select Change Disk Discovery Path and enter a wildcard subset. For example, to list all disks ending with ORCLDISKDATA from 0 to 3, you enter \\.\ORCLDISKDATA[0–3].

10. Click Next.

11. On the Install screen, check the installed contents, and then click Install.

12. To create another disk group for this instance, run Oracle Database Configuration Assistant from the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\bin directory manually, and select the Configure Automatic Storage Management option.

At this stage, subsequent databases that you create are able to use Automatic Storage Management. If you have databases that were created before you installed Automatic Storage Management, you now can migrate them to Automatic Storage Management by using the Enterprise Manager Migrate Database wizard. This wizard is available in Enterprise Manager Grid Control or Database Control. Alternatively, you can use Oracle Database Recovery Manager (RMAN) to perform the migration.

3.6.3 Step 3: Installing Oracle Database to Use Automatic Storage Management

After you have created the Automatic Storage Management instance and Automatic Storage Management disk groups, you are ready to create a database instance that can use Automatic Storage Management.

To create a database instance to use with Automatic Storage Management:

1. Log on as a member of the Administrators group to the computer to install Oracle components.

   If you are installing on a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or a Backup Domain Controller (BDC), log on as a member of the Domain Administrators group.

2. If you are installing Oracle Database on a computer with multi-homed or multiple aliases, use System in the Control Panel to create the ORACLE_HOSTNAME system environment variable. Set this variable to point to the host name of the computer on which you are installing Oracle Database.

   See Also:

   • "Setting the ORACLE_HOSTNAME Environment Variable"

   • "Installing Oracle Database on Computers with Multiple IP Addresses"

   • "Installing Oracle Database on Computers with Multiple Aliases"

3. Start Oracle Universal Installer.

4. The Select a Product to Install screen enables you to install any one of the following products:

   • Oracle Database 11g

   • Oracle Client

   • Oracle Clusterware

5. On the Select Installation Type screen, select one of the installation types (Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Personal Edition, or Custom), and then click Next.

6. On the Install location screen, the Oracle base path appears by default. You can change the path based on your requirement. In the Software Location section, accept the default values or select a different Oracle home from the home used for Automatic Storage Management.

7. If you selected the Custom installation type, then select from the products to install.

8. On the Product-Specific Prerequisite Checks screen, check that the requirements have been met and then click Next.

9. On the Select Configuration Option screen, select Create a Database.

10. On the Select Database Configuration screen, select from the database types displayed and click Next.

11. On the Specify Database Configuration Options screen, enter the following settings and then click Next.

    • Specify the Global Database Name using the following syntax:

      database_name.domain
      
      

      where:

      • database_name with no more than 30 characters (alphanumeric, underscore (_), dollar ($), and pound (#)).

      • domain name with no more than 128 characters (alphanumeric, underscore (_), and pound (#)), inclusive of all periods.

    • Specify the SID with no more than 64 characters (alphanumeric, dollar ($), and pound (#)).

12. On the Specify Database Config Details screen, enter the following configuration details, then click Next:

    • Memory

    • Character Sets

    • Security

    • Sample Schema

    See Also:

    "Oracle Universal Installer Windows" for further information about these fields.

13. On the Select Database Management Option screen, select either Use Grid Control for Database Management if you have Oracle Enterprise Manager installed, or if you do not have Enterprise Manager, select Use Database Control for Database Management. Optionally, select Enable Email Notifications and then enter the outgoing SMTP server and e-mail address. Then, click Next.

    After you complete the installation, you can use either of these utilities to manage the Automatic Storage Management instance.

14. On the Specify Database Storage Option screen, select Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and click Next.

15. On the Specify Backup and Recovery Options screen, select the following:

    • Enable Automated Backups: Select this option, and then select Automatic Storage Management.

    • Backup Job Credentials: Enter the user name and password of the person responsible for managing backups.

16. Click Next.

17. On the Select Automatic Storage Management Disk Group screen, select the Automatic Storage Management disk group that you created in "Step 2: Creating the Automatic Storage Management Instance and Configuring Disk Groups" for recovery and backups.

    If the Automatic Storage Management disks that you selected do not provide enough space, the Configure Storage Management screen is displayed so that you can select additional disks as needed. As you select the disks, the Required Storage Space area adjusts the sizes displayed. Ideally, the Additional Space Needed value should be a negative number.

18. Click Next.

19. On the Specify Database Schema Passwords screen, enter and confirm passwords for the privileged database accounts, then click Next.

20. On the Oracle Configuration Manager Registration screen, enter the Customer Identification Number, OracleMetaLink User Name, Country code, and click Next. The new screen prompts you to accept the license agreement. Click Accept license Agreement to accept the agreement. However, if you decline this agreement, then Oracle Configuration Manager is installed but not configured.

21. On the Summary screen, check that the contents to be installed are correct, and then click Install.

3.6.4 Step 4: Testing the Automatic Storage Management Installation

To test the Automatic Storage Management installation, try logging on to the Automatic Storage Management instance by using SQL*Plus.

Follow these steps:

1. In the Services Control Panel, make sure that the OracleASMService+ASM service has started.

2. Open a Windows command prompt and temporarily set the ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID to point to your Automatic Storage Management instance.

   For example, if the Automatic Storage Management SID, which is named +ASM, is located in the asm directory under the ORACLE_BASE directory, you would enter commands similar to the following:

   DRIVE_LETTER:\> set ORACLE_SID=+ASM
   DRIVE_LETTER:\> set ORACLE_HOME=ORACLE_BASE\product\11.1.0\asm
   
   

3. From the same Windows command prompt session, connect to the Automatic Storage Management instance as the SYS user with SYSASM privilege and start the instance if necessary:

   DRIVE_LETTER:\> sqlplus /nolog
   SQL> CONNECT SYS as SYSASM
   Enter password: SYS_password 
   SQL> STARTUP
   
   

4. Enter the following command to view the existing disk groups, their redundancy level, and the amount of free disk space in each one:

   SQL> SELECT NAME,TYPE,TOTAL_MB,FREE_MB FROM V$ASM_DISKGROUP;