Installation of Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.1.0) on RedHat EL 5, (Oracle) Enteprise Linux 5 and Centos 5

This paper (HOWTO) describes step-by-step installation of Oracle 11g R2 database software on RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 or Enteprise Linux 5 shipped by Oracle Corp. This article is useful for Centos Linux release 5. Note that Centos distribution is not certified by Oracle Corporation. 
This article does not cover database creation process, and ASM Instance creation process. 

This paper covers following steps:

• Pre-Instalation Tasks
• Download & Install
• Post-Instalation Tasks
• Common Installation Errors

Pre-Instalation Tasks

1. Create oracle User Account

Login as root and create te user oracle which belongs to oinstall,dba,asmdba and asmadmin groups.

su -
# groupadd dba
# groupadd oinstall
# groupadd asmdba
# groupadd asmadmin
# useradd -g oinstall -G dba,asmdba,asmadmin oracle

Note: "#" sign means that you need execute this command as root user.
You can separate ASM and DBA roles between more users. You can create for example "asm" user as ASM administrator. 

2. Setting System parameters
Edit the /etc/sysctl.conf and add following lines:

kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 536870912
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 6815744
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
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

Note: You need reboot system or execute "sysctl -p" command to apply above settings. 

Edit the /etc/pam.d/login file and add following line:

session required pam_limits.so

Edit the /etc/security/limits.conf file and add following lines:

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

3. Creating oracle directories

# mkdir /opt/oracle
# chown -R oracle:dba /opt/oracle

4. Setting Oracle Enviroment
Edit the /home/oracle/.bash_profile file and add following lines:

ORACLE_BASE=/opt/oracle
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/112
ORACLE_SID=orcl
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin

export ORACLE_BASE ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_SID LD_LIBRARY_PATH PATH

Save the .bash_profile and execute following commands for load new enviroment:

cd /home/oracle
. .bash_profile

Check current status of SELinux:

/usr/sbin/getenforce

If output is "Enforcing" then change mode to "Permissive" using following command:

/usr/sbin/setenforce 0

To prevent Enforcing mode restore after next reboots or to disable SELinux modify the /etc/sysconfig/selinux change value of SELINUX variable to permissive or disabled:

SELINUX=permissive

Important steps/workarounds for Centos 5 only!

# cp /etc/redhat-release /etc/redhat-release.old
# echo "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5 (Tikanga)" > /etc/redhat-release
# cp /etc/issue /etc/issue.old
# echo "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5 (Tikanga)" > /etc/issue
# echo "Kernel \r on an \m" >> /etc/issue
# echo "" >> /etc/issue
# echo "redhat-release-5Server-5" > /tmp/.linux_release

Download & Install

1. Download and install required .rpm packages

Some additional packages are required for succesful instalation of Oracle software. To check wheter required packages are installed on your operating system use following command:

rpm -q binutils compat-db compat-libstdc++-33 glibc glibc-devel glibc-headers gcc gcc-c++ libstdc++ gdbm make ksh elfutils-libelf sysstat libaio libaio-devel setarch unixODBC libXp libXtst xorg-x11-utils --qf '%{name}.%{arch}\n'|sort

Output for 32 bit (i386) Linux version:

binutils.i386
compat-db.i386
compat-libstdc++-33.i386
elfutils-libelf.i386
gcc-c++.i386
gcc.i386
gdbm.i386
glibc-devel.i386
glibc-headers.i386
glibc.i386
glibc.i686
ksh.i386
libaio-devel.i386
libaio.i386
libstdc++.i386
libXp.i386
libXtst.i386
make.i386
setarch.i386
sysstat.i386
unixODBC.i386
xorg-x11-utils.i386

Output for 64 bit (x86_64) Linux version:

binutils.x86_64
compat-db.x86_64
compat-libstdc++-33.i386
compat-libstdc++-33.x86_64
elfutils-libelf.i386
elfutils-libelf.x86_64
gcc-c++.x86_64
gcc.x86_64
gdbm.x86_64
glibc-devel.i386
glibc-devel.x86_64
glibc-headers.x86_64
glibc.i686
glibc.x86_64
ksh.x86_64
libaio-devel.i386
libaio-devel.x86_64
libaio.i386
libaio.x86_64
libstdc++.i386
libstdc++.x86_64
libXp.i386
libXtst.i386
libXtst.x86_64
make.x86_64
setarch.x86_64
sysstat.x86_64
unixODBC.i386
unixODBC.x86_64
xorg-x11-utils.x86_64

If some package is not installed then install it from installation media or download it from following locations:
RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 - source packages only
CentOS Linux 5 i386
CentOS Linux 5 x86_64


This is example how to build RPM package from source package (libaio-0.3.105-2.src.rpm). Note gcc, make and rpm-build (and dependent) packages must be already installed on your system.

# rpm -ivh libaio-0.3.105-2.src.rpm
# cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/
# rpmbuild -bb --target i386 libaio.spec
# cd ../RPMS/i386/
# rpm -ivh libaio-0.3.105-2.i386.rpm libaio-devel-0.3.105-2.i386.rpm

Install the required packages using the rpm command:

rpm -ivh <package_name>.rpm

2. Download the Oracle 11g release 2 (11.2.0.1.0) software from Oracle website.


Extract the files using following command:

For Grid (CRS) software installation:

unzip linux.x64_11gR2_grid.zip

For Database software installation:

unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_1of2.zip
unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_2of2.zip

3. Start the Oracle software installation process.

Now the system is prepared for Oracle software installation. To start the installation process execute the following commands: Now the system is prepared for Oracle software installation. To start the installation process execute the following commands: 

For Grid (CRS) software installation:

cd grid
./runInstaller

For Database software installation:

cd database
./runInstaller

Post-Instalation Tasks

1. (Optional) Auto Startup and Shutdown of Database and Listener
Login as root and modify /etc/oratab file and change last character to Y for apropriate database.

ORCL:/opt/oracle/112:Y

As root user create new file "oracle" (init script for startup and shutdown the database) in /etc/init.d/ directory with following content:

#!/bin/bash
#
# oracle Init file for starting and stopping
# Oracle Database. Script is valid for 10g and 11g versions.
#
# chkconfig: 35 80 30
# description: Oracle Database startup script

# Source function library.

. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

ORACLE_OWNER="oracle"
ORACLE_HOME="/opt/oracle/112"

case "$1" in
start)
echo -n $"Starting Oracle DB:"
su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart $ORACLE_HOME"
echo "OK"
;;
stop)
echo -n $"Stopping Oracle DB:"
su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut $ORACLE_HOME"
echo "OK"
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
esac

Execute (as root) following commands (First script change the permissions, second script is configuring execution for specific runlevels):

chmod 750 /etc/init.d/oracle
chkconfig --add oracle --level 0356

2. (Optional) Auto Startup and Shutdown of Enterprise Manager Database Control
As root user create new file "oraemctl" (init script for startup and shutdown EM DB Console) in /etc/init.d/ directory with following content:

#!/bin/bash
#
# oraemctl Starting and stopping Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control.
# Script is valid for 10g and 11g versions.
#
# chkconfig: 35 80 30
# description: Enterprise Manager DB Control startup script

# Source function library.

. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

ORACLE_OWNER="oracle"
ORACLE_HOME="/opt/oracle/112"

case "$1" in
start)
echo -n $"Starting Oracle EM DB Console:"
su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl start dbconsole"
echo "OK"
;;
stop)
echo -n $"Stopping Oracle EM DB Console:"
su - $ORACLE_OWNER -c "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl stop dbconsole"
echo "OK"
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
esac

Execute (as root) following commands (First script change the permissions, second script is configuring execution for specific runlevels):

chmod 750 /etc/init.d/oraemctl
chkconfig --add oraemctl --level 0356

3. (Optional) You may consider to use rlwrap for comfortable work with sqlplus, rman and adrci utility. RPM package for RedHat compatible distribution you can download it here:
For Redhat 32 bit (i386)
For Redhat 32 bit (x86_64)

Install downloaded packages:

su -
# rpm -ivh rlwrap-0.24-rh.i386.rpm
# exit
echo "alias sqlplus='rlwrap sqlplus'" >> /home/oracle/.bash_profile
echo "alias adrci='rlwrap rman'" >> /home/oracle/.bash_profile
echo "alias adrci='rlwrap adrci'" >> /home/oracle/.bash_profile
. /home/oracle/.bash_profile

Common Installation Errors

DISPLAY not set. Please set the DISPLAY and try again. 
Solution: Execute "export DISPLAY=:0.0" when you perform installation on local machine or "export DISPLAY=:0.0 when you perform installation on remote machine connected over SSH". Don't forget to execute "xhost +" command on client machine.

error while loading shared libraries: libaio.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 
Solution: Install libaio and libaio-devel packages. If packages already installed and error still occurs try execute "ldconfig" as root.

Check complete. The overall result of this check is: Failed <<<< 
Solution: Install missing package or set check system parameters (See reason of failure).

error while loading shared libraries: ... libclntsh.so.11.1: cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied 
Solution: SELinux is running in "Enforcing" mode. Change SELinux mode to "Permissive" using /usr/sbin/setenforce 0 and change the settings in /etc/sysconfig/selinux (See Pre-Instalation Tasks section).

ADVM/ACFS is not supported on centos-release-5.el5.centos or ADVM/ACFS is not supported on centos-release-5-1.el5.centos or ADVM/ACFS is not supported on centos-release-5-2.el5.centos or ADVM/ACFS is not supported on centos-release-5-3.el5.centos or ADVM/ACFS is not supported on centos-release-5-4.el5.centos or 
Execute "as root": echo "redhat-release-5Server-5" > /tmp/.linux_release