Installing and Configuring Oracle9i on the Solaris Platform
Roger Schrag, Database Specialists, Inc.

Introduction

This paper will walk you through the steps of installing Oracle9i release 2 (Oracle version 9.2.0) in a Sun Solaris SPARC environment. About 90% of the material presented here applies to other platforms as well. Everything you read in this paper is hands on, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-busy material for Oracle users who want to get an Oracle database up and running quickly without reading hundreds of pages of documentation and “readme” files.

These steps are meant to get you up and running as fast as possible, while leveraging best practices in order to set up a scalable, robust database environment that offers high performance. In order to keep the steps reasonably simple this paper does not cover Real Application Clusters (RAC), nor does it cover Oracle Internet Directory or Oracle Management Server installation.

There are four phases to getting Oracle up and running on your server:

  1. Prepare the server
  2. Install the Oracle software and create a starter database
  3. Fine tune the starter database (optional)
  4. Complete the server configuration
We will walk through these phases one at a time, detailing all the steps involved. The end result will be a very usable database that can be scaled up quite large. Of course, every implementation is unique, and you will need to evaluate each step carefully against your particular requirements. However, this paper will get you off to a very solid start.

Prepare the Server

These steps configure your database server so that it will be ready to accept the Oracle software and database. In this section, we will make sure your server meets Oracle’s minimum requirements, create a Unix user and group to “own” the software, and create some directories that will be used by the Oracle software and database. All of the steps in this section are run as the root user.

  1. Make sure that your Solaris system has all of the required operating system patches installed. You must have Solaris 2.6 or Solaris 7 (32 bit) or Solaris 8 (32 or 64 bit) to run Oracle9i release 2. If you are running Solaris 2.6 or Solaris 7, the patch requirements are as follows:

     
    Patches for Solaris 2.6 (32 bit) Status
    106040-11 X Input and Output Method patch Required
    105181-15 Kernel patch Required
    105284-25 Motif Runtime Library Patch Recommended
    105490-07 Dynamic linker patch Recommended
    105633-21 OpenWindows 3.6: Xsun patch Recommended
    105568-13 Libthread patch Recommended
    105210-19 LibC patch Recommended
    105669-07 CDE 1.2: libDTSvc patch (dtmail) Recommended
    106409-01 Chinese TrueType fonts patch Recommended

     
    Patches for Solaris 7 (32 bit) Status
    107636-01 X Input and Output Method patch Required
    106980-05 Libthread patch Recommended
    107607-01 Motif fontlist, fontset, libxm Recommended
    107078-10 Open Windows 3.6.1 Xsun patch Recommended

    You can verify your operating system version and see which patches are installed with the following commands: 

          $ uname -a
      $ showrev -p
    If you are running Solaris 8, no specific patches are required. However, if you are running the 64 bit version of Solaris 8, you should be using the 07/01 release of the operating system. (I am running Oracle9i release 2 on the 04/01 release of 64 bit Solaris 8 without problems, but Oracle Corporation recommends the 07/01 release.) You can check which release of Solaris you are running with the following command: 
          $ cat /etc/release
  2. Make sure that the following software packages have been installed.

     
    Required Packages
    SUNWarc
    SUNWbtool
    SUNWhea
    SUNWlibm
    SUNWlibms
    SUNWsprot
    SUNWtoo
    SUNWi1of
    SUNWxwfnt

    You can use the following command to verify that a package has been installed: 

          $ pkginfo -i <package name>
  3. You will need to perform the installation from an X window environment. You cannot perform the installation from a character mode environment such as a telnet or ssh session. There is a facility for performing non-interactive installations (“silent” installs), but we won’t be covering that technique here. Besides, it appears that even the silent install still needs access to X libraries. Your X environment can be the console on the database server, but it does not need to be. You can also use a Windows X emulator like Hummingbird Exceed, but see page 1-15 of the Oracle9i Installation Guide for UNIX for possible issues with Hummingbird Exceed. I ran the installation from the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) on my Solaris 8 desktop and had no problems, but when I tried to use the X environment on my Linux workstations running older versions of Red Hat, I ran into trouble with missing fonts.

     

  4. The following executables must be present somewhere on your path: make, ar, ld, nm.

     

  5. Make sure that your hardware is sufficient. You’ll need at least 512 Mb RAM, a swap space of at least 1 Gb or equal to the amount RAM (whichever is larger), and a bare minimum of 4 Gb of disk space. This will let you perform a typical Standard Edition software installation and create a starter database. A production implementation will almost always require more RAM and more disk space. My server has 1 Gb RAM, and it was swapping heavily during the installation. The following commands will allow you to check RAM and swap space: 
          $ /usr/sbin/prtconf | grep size
      $ /usr/sbin/swap -l
  6. Make sure that the Solaris kernel has parameters set sufficiently high for Oracle. The Oracle architecture makes extensive use of shared memory segments for sharing data among multiple processes and semaphores for handling locking. Many operating systems, including Solaris, do not by default offer sufficient shared memory or semaphores for maintaining an Oracle database. Happily, you can change kernel parameters in Solaris simply by editing the /etc/system file and rebooting the server.

     
    Kernel Parameter Setting To Get
    You Started    		 Purpose
    SHMMAX 4294967295 Maximum size of a single shared memory segment
    SHMMIN 1 Minimum size of a single shared memory segment
    SHMMNI 100 Maximum number of shared memory segments in entire system
    SHMSEG 10 Maximum number of shared memory segments one process can attach
    SEMMNS 2000 Maximum number of semaphores in entire system
    SEMMSL 1000 Maximum number of semaphores per set
    SEMMNI 100 Maximum number of semaphore sets in entire system

    The first four kernel parameters configure shared memory segments. The recommended settings shown here should be appropriate for almost any Oracle database implementation. The SHMMAX setting may seem excessive, but there is no penalty for setting SHMMAX larger than you actually need.

    The last three kernel parameters configure semaphores. Each Oracle instance requires one semaphore for each process, plus ten extras. Additionally, the largest instance requires a second semaphore for each process. If you will only be setting up one database on your server, the upshot is that you will need two semaphores for each process plus ten extras.

    The recommended settings for the first two semaphore kernel parameters, SEMMNS and SEMMSL, should be appropriate for most Oracle implementations. For systems with large numbers of concurrent database connections, you may need to increase these values. The recommended setting shown here for SEMMNI should be appropriate for just about any Oracle database implementation.

    In general, if your Solaris kernel already has any of these parameters set larger than recommended here, you should not reduce the settings. If you do change any kernel parameter settings in /etc/system, then reboot the server so that the new settings will take effect.

    I added the following lines to the end of my /etc/system file: 

          set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax=4294967295
      set shmsys:shminfo_shmmin=1
      set shmsys:shminfo_shmmni=100
      set shmsys:shminfo_shmseg=10
      set semsys:seminfo_semmns=2000
      set semsys:seminfo_semmsl=1000
      set semsys:seminfo_semmni=100
  7. Create a Unix group that will be used by the Oracle software owner and database administrators. You can call it anything you like, but the standard is “dba”. If you will be installing Oracle on multiple servers on your network, you might want to keep the groupid the same on all servers. You can use the admintool, or you can create your dba group with a command like: 
          $ groupadd -g 300 dba
  8. Create a Unix user that will be the Oracle software owner. You can call it anything you like, but the standard is “oracle”. If you will be installing Oracle on multiple servers on your network, you might want to keep the userid the same on all servers. Note that this user’s home directory will not be the ORACLE_HOME or where the actual Oracle software is installed; this user’s home directory should be in the same place as other users’ home directories. You should make dba the primary group, and the login shell should be Bourne, Korn, or C shell. You can create your oracle user with the admin tool, or with commands like: 
          $ useradd -c 'Oracle software owner' -d /home/oracle \
                -g dba -m -u 300 -s /usr/bin/ksh oracle
      $ passwd oracle
  9. Create a Unix group and user that will be used by the Apache HTTP listener integrated into the Oracle9i database. Running the Apache HTTP listener as the Oracle software owner or a member of the dba group can compromise security. You can call the group and user anything you like. At this time there seems to be no clear standard for what to call this group and user. You can create your group and user with the admin tool, or with commands like: 
          $ groupadd -g 60300 apache
      $ useradd -c 'Oracle Apache user' -d /home/apache -g apache \
                -m -u 60300 -s /usr/bin/ksh apache
      $ passwd apache
  10. Create mount points for the Oracle software and the Oracle database. Each mount point should correspond to a separate physical device or set of devices. You’ll need at least one mount point. Typically you use one mount point for the Oracle software and one or more mount points for each database. A nice convention is to call the mount points /u01, /u02, and so on. Because mount points are typically owned by root and the Oracle installer will run as the oracle user and not as root, you should create some subdirectories now to avoid permission problems later. Create an app subdirectory below the software mount point, and oradata subdirectories below the mount points to be used for database files. (You can put software and a database on the same mount point if you wish.) Make these subdirectories owned by the oracle user and dba group, and give them 755 permissions.

     

  11. Oracle supports files larger than 2 Gb, but your shell must not impose a 2 Gb file size limit for this feature to work. Note that Oracle does limit database data files to 4,194,304 Oracle blocks. You choose the Oracle block size at the tablespace level, and the options range from 2 Kb to 32 Kb. This means that Oracle data files are limited in size to a maximum of 8 Gb to 128 Gb, depending on the block size. It is also important to note that certain Oracle utilities, notably the export utility, are still limited to 2 Gb files. Use the following commands to ensure that the shell imposes no limits on file size: 
          $ ulimit -Sa
      $ ulimit -Ha
  12. If you downloaded a trial version of Oracle off of the Internet, then use cpio to unpack the distribution. If you have the software on CD ROM, then mount the first CD ROM now. Most Solaris systems will automatically mount CD ROMs, but alternatively you can use a command like: 
          $ mount -r -F hsfs device_name /cdrom
  13. Create the /var/opt/oracle directory and make it owned by the oracle user. After installation, this directory will contain a few small text files that briefly describe the Oracle software installations and databases on the server. These commands will create the directory and give it appropriate permissions: 
          $ mkdir /var/opt/oracle
      $ chown oracle:dba /var/opt/oracle
      $ chmod 755 /var/opt/oracle
Install the Oracle Software and Create a Starter Database

These steps install the Oracle software on your server and create a “starter” database. In this section, we will prepare the oracle user’s environment, run the Oracle Universal Installer, and tidy up a few minor loose ends. All of the steps in this section, except where noted, are run as the oracle user.

  1. Edit the oracle user’s login file on the database server so that the environment will be configured automatically on login. If you are using Bourne or Korn shell, then edit .profile. You can also use C shell and edit .cshrc, but the syntax will be different from the examples you see here. For now, we will hardcode certain things. But after the Oracle software is installed we will come back and eliminate all hardcodings. Here is what I added to my .profile for the install: 
          umask 022
      # Substitute your Oracle software mount point in the line below.
      export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle 
      export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/9.2.0
      # Substitute the name of your Oracle database below.
      export ORACLE_SID=dev920
      # Fill in the following line as you wish, but make sure that
      # $ORACLE_HOME/bin, /usr/ccs/bin, /usr/bin, /etc, /usr/openwin/bin,
      # and /usr/local/bin are all in the PATH (in that order).
      # If you will be installing Pro*C/C++ then the C compiler must be
      # on your path. The usual compiler executable on Solaris is located
      # in /opt/SUNWspro/bin.
      export PATH=...
      # Ensure that TWO_TASK is not set.
      unset TWO_TASK
  2. Log out and log back in as the oracle user from an X window so that the environment is set correctly.

     

  3. Set your DISPLAY variable to the IP address of your X server plus the X server and screen numbers. If you are working from a workstation (and not the console of the database server where you are installing Oracle) do not accidentally set the DISPLAY variable to the IP address of your database server. You can set your DISPLAY variable with a command like: 
          $ export DISPLAY=myworkstation:0.0
  4. If you are not using the console of the database server, then ensure that the X server on your workstation will allow your database server to open windows on your display. The easiest way to do this is to issue an xhost command from a session on your workstation. (Don’t get confused and issue the command in a window that is logged onto your database server.) You can issue a command like: 
          $ xhost +mydatabaseserver
  5. Use ftp to transfer a small file from your database server to a remote host to prove to yourself that TCP/IP networking is installed, configured, and working properly.

     

  6. Ensure that the mount points you plan to use for the Oracle software and starter database have sufficient free space. The starter database will be created entirely on one mount point. For a Standard Edition installation, allow 2.4 Gb for the software mount point and 1.3 Gb for the database mount point as bare minimums. If you are installing the Enterprise Edition of Oracle9i, you will need more space.

     

  7. If you have an active installation of Oracle8i on the database server, then you should make a backup copy of the jre and oui directories under ORACLE_BASE. I found that installing Oracle9i overwrites the JRE and code used by the Oracle8i installer. This means that after you install Oracle9i, you might have difficulties using the Oracle8i tools (such as Database Configuration Assistant or Net8 Configuration Assistant) to manage your Oracle8i databases. After I installed Oracle9i, my Oracle8i tools continued to work properly. But according to postings on Metalink, other users were not as lucky.

     

  8. Double check that you are logged in as oracle and not root. Then change to your home directory and start the Oracle Universal Installer with these commands: 
          $ cd
      $ <full path to first CD ROM>/runInstaller
    We’ll walk through the installer prompts one at a time:

     

    1. The Welcome window appears. Click Next.
    2. If the Unix Group Name window appears, enter the name of your dba group and click Next. You won’t see this window if you have previously installed Oracle8i or Oracle9i software on the database server, or if your dba group is called “dba”. (You won’t see this window the next time you run the installer because Oracle saves this information in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc file.)
    3. The File Locations window appears. Leave the Source field unchanged. The Destination field will show the ORACLE_HOME value you set in your environment. Give your ORACLE_HOME a name if you like, and change the mount point if you don’t like what you see. Click Next.
    4. The Available Products window appears. Choose Oracle9i Database and click Next.
    5. The Installation Types window appears. We will perform a “typical” install to get a basic set of Oracle software installed and a starter database. You can rerun the installer again later and choose Custom to install additional products individually. For now, choose Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise Edition of Oracle9i has some very sophisticated features missing from Standard Edition, and the opportunity to purchase additional options that might be valuable to a large enterprise. However, the Enterprise Edition is much more expensive than Standard Edition. It is very important that you choose the edition that matches your license, as this will be difficult to fix later. I use the Standard Edition. Click Next.
    6. The Database Configuration window appears. We will go the easy route here and choose a General Purpose database and click Next. Alternatively, you could choose Customized and tailor the starter database to your own specifications. Or you could choose Software Only and not create a starter database at all. (You can always run the Database Configuration Assistant later to create, drop, or reconfigure databases.)
    7. If you have any existing Oracle databases on your server that are at a version prior to what you are now installing, the installer will ask if you would like to run the Database Upgrade Assistant at the end of the installation to migrate or upgrade these older databases to the current version. Make your decision and click Next. (We won’t be covering the Database Upgrade Assistant here.)
    8. The Database Identification window appears. You need to specify both a global database name and an SID (instance name) for the starter database that will be created. The SID will default to the setting of the ORACLE_SID environment variable, but you can override it here if you wish. You should give your database a global name that is the same as the SID, with your domain name appended. Click Next.
    9. The Database File Location window appears. Enter the name of one of the mount points you chose for holding your database, followed by “/oradata”. For example, if your mount point is called /u02, then enter /u02/oradata. The starter database will have all of its files in one directory under this mount point. This may or may not be a good design for high performance and availability, but is fine for a starter database. Click Next.
    10. The Database Character Set window appears. Choose the Unicode character set (AL32UTF8) or another character set from the dropdown list if you prefer not to use Unicode. Note that AL32UTF8 complies with the Unicode 3.1 standard, while the UTF8 character set used in Oracle8i complies with the older Unicode 2.0 standard. Click Next.
    11. The Summary window appears. Review all of the selections you have made to confirm they are correct. Click Install.
    12. If you are installing from CD ROM, you’ll be prompted to mount the second and third CD ROMs at various points during the install. Use a separate window to eject the current CD ROM and mount the next.
    13. During the installation a Setup Privileges window will appear. (The installation process took about half an hour to get to this point on my server.) The installation will be paused at this point, waiting for you to run a script as root. The script will be called root.sh and can be found in the ORACLE_HOME directory. You should open another window, log in to the database server as root, review the root.sh script thoroughly, run the script, and click OK in the Setup Privileges window.
    14. A Configuration Tools window appears a minute later and the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant launches to configure networking so that your database will be able to accept requests from remote clients. No action is required on your part, and this step completes quickly.
    15. The Database Configuration Assistant launches to create a starter database. A progress window will show you how the database creation is going. Database creation took about five minutes on my server, but will take substantially longer if you chose a customized database configuration. When database creation is complete, a window will appear telling you that most user accounts on the database have been locked and that you must change the passwords for the SYS and SYSTEM database users. You may enter the new passwords and click OK. Alternatively, you may click the Password Management button and unlock accounts and set passwords for all database users as you wish.
    16. The Agent Configuration Assistant launches to configure Oracle’s “intelligent agent”, a monitoring and job-running agent that you control through Oracle’s Enterprise Manager tool. No action is required on your part, and this step completes quickly.
    17. The Apache HTTP listener will now start. No action is required on your part, and this step completes quickly.
    18. The End of Installation window appears. You may click Exit to exit the installer or Next Install to begin another installation. You might click Next Install, for example, to perform a custom installation to install individual products that did not get installed as part of the “typical” installation—such as Pro*C/C++.
    19. It is important to note that the default Enterprise Edition install loads certain extra cost options, such as table partitioning, onto your database server. If you are not licensed to use these options, then you should deinstall them. To deinstall products, click the Deinstall Products button on the Welcome window.
    20. Exit the installer when you have completed installations and deinstallations.

     

  9. In $ORACLE_HOME/bin you will find a shell script called oraenv. This script can be called from .profile to set up a user’s environment. Unfortunately, there are a few variables that the script does not set—some handy, some very important. Make a backup copy of the script and then edit it, adding the following lines to the very end: 
          # Begin customizations
      ORACLE_BASE=`dirname $ORACLE_HOME`
      ORACLE_BASE=`dirname $ORACLE_BASE`
      DBA=$ORACLE_BASE/admin
      # Substitute the database character set you chose in following line.
      NLS_LANG=american_america.AL32UTF8
      export ORACLE_BASE DBA NLS_LANG
      # End customizations
  10. In the same directory you’ll also find a shell script called coraenv that can be called from .cshrc. If you use C shell, you will want to back up and edit coraenv with similar changes to the oraenv script.

     

  11. The root.sh script copied oraenv and coraenv from $ORACLE_HOME/bin to your local bin directory. You just updated these scripts in $ORACLE_HOME/bin. Copy the updated versions to your local bin directory.

     

  12. In $ORACLE_HOME/bin you’ll find a script called dbstart. This is a utility that you can run to start up databases on the server. Later we will add a call to this script from /etc/rc2.d so that the databases start up automatically whenever the server reboots. Unfortunately, the dbstart script has a bug that will cause it to fail with the error message “Can’t find init file for Database” in certain situations. One way to fix this bug is to add the following line immediately after line 55: 
          SPFILE=${ORACLE_HOME}/dbs/spfile${ORACLE_SID}.ora
    and change line 117 to read: 
          if [ -f $PFILE -o -f $SPFILE ] ; then
  13. In $ORACLE_HOME/bin you’ll find a script called dbshut. This is a utility that you can run to shut down databases on the server. Unfortunately, it shuts down databases with normal priority. This means that if any users are logged into a database, the shutdown will hang until they log out. You might want to change this script to shut down databases with immediate priority. To do this, find the lines in the script that contain just the word “shutdown”. Change these to read “shutdown immediate”.

     

  14. During the installation, the Agent Configuration Assistant started Oracle’s intelligent agent. If you will not be using the Enterprise Manager tool at this time, you might want to shut down the intelligent agent. On my system, the intelligent agent had a memory leak. Within a week the dbsnmp process was consuming over 1.7 Gb of memory. You can shut down the intelligent agent with the following command: 
          $ agentctl stop
Fine Tune the Starter Database

These steps modify the configuration of the starter database to tailor it to your needs and to make it better comply with industry-proven best practices. You can skip this entire section if initially you just want to work with the starter database as is. In this section we will change configured database options, adjust file locations and server parameters, create application users and tablespaces, and configure Oracle Net. All of the steps in this section are run as the oracle user.

  1. Set up your environment the same way you did when you ran the Oracle installer: Log in as the oracle user on the database server from an X window. Set your DISPLAY variable appropriately. Make sure that your ORACLE_HOME, PATH, and other variables are set correctly based on your login file.

     

  2. You may run the Database Configuration Assistant to configure database options that were not pre-configured in the starter database, or remove options that were included in the starter database which you don’t need. Launch the Database Configuration Assistant with the following commands: 
          $ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
      $ ./dbca
    Choose to configure an existing database and select your starter database from the list. You will be presented with a list of database options. The options that are checked have already been configured in the database. Add a check mark beside those options you wish to add, and uncheck those options which you wish to remove. Note that some options will be grayed out. This can happen for three reasons:

     

    1. The option has already been configured in the database and cannot be removed once configured. In this situation you could choose to delete the entire database and create a new one with only the options you wish.
    2. Software products required to support the database option have not been installed. Run the Oracle Universal Installer again and install the appropriate products before trying to configure the option in the database.
    3. The option is only available with the Enterprise Edition and you have installed the Standard Edition software.

     

  3. The starter database comes with 100 Mb online redo logs. These might be much larger than you need. You cannot resize online redo logs, but you can drop and recreate them with commands like: 
          $ sqlplus /nolog
      SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/redo01.log';
      SQL> HOST rm -i /u02/oradata/dev920/redo01.log
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE ADD LOGFILE GROUP 1 
        2  '/u02/oradata/dev920/redo01.log' SIZE 10m;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/redo02.log';
      SQL> HOST rm -i /u02/oradata/dev920/redo02.log
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE ADD LOGFILE GROUP 2 
        2  '/u02/oradata/dev920/redo02.log' SIZE 10m;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/redo03.log';
      SQL> HOST rm -i /u02/oradata/dev920/redo03.log
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE ADD LOGFILE GROUP 3 
        2  '/u02/oradata/dev920/redo03.log' SIZE 10m;
    Do not answer an rm prompt affirmative unless the corresponding ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE command completed successfully without an error message. If you get an error that a log file is in use when you try to drop it, switch the database to the next online redo log with the command: 
          SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE;
  4. The starter database has all data files and online redo logs in the same directory. If you would like to move any of these files to another directory, use commands like the following: 
          $ sqlplus /nolog
      SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
      SQL> SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE
      SQL> STARTUP MOUNT
      SQL> HOST mv -i /u02/oradata/dev920/users01.dbf /u03/oradata/dev920/users01.dbf
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE
        2  '/u02/oradata/dev920/users01.dbf' TO
        3  '/u03/oradata/dev920/users01.dbf';
      SQL> HOST mv -i /u02/oradata/dev920/redo01.log /u03/oradata/dev920/redo01.log
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE
        2  '/u02/oradata/dev920/redo01.log' TO
        3  '/u03/oradata/dev920/redo01.log';
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE OPEN;
    Note that this procedure does not work for control files. Relocating database control files will be covered in a later step.

     

  5. In the starter database, all data files have the “auto-extend” feature turned on. This means that when a data file becomes full, it will automatically grow larger as needed. The problem with this is that an application can get out of control and fill up an entire disk partition. It also means that you need to manage your free space at the operating system level. Many DBAs prefer to manage free space at the database level by pre-allocating space to data files and not using the auto-extend feature. You may resize data files and disable auto-extend with commands like: 
          $ sqlplus /nolog
      SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/system01.dbf' AUTOEXTEND OFF;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/undotbs01.dbf' AUTOEXTEND OFF;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/users01.dbf' AUTOEXTEND OFF;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/indx01.dbf' AUTOEXTEND OFF;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/tools01.dbf' AUTOEXTEND OFF;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE TEMPFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/temp01.dbf' AUTOEXTEND OFF;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/system01.dbf' RESIZE 300m;
      SQL> ALTER DATABASE TEMPFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/temp01.dbf' RESIZE 100m;
    Note that if you are using the Enterprise Edition, you should not resize the system01.dbf data file smaller than 500 Mb.

     

  6. Oracle uses a server parameter file or “spfile” to store configuration settings that affect the instance. The parameter settings in the starter database are not bad, but you will probably want to make some changes. Unfortunately, you cannot edit the spfile. Instead, you must export the contents of the spfile to a plain text file called a “pfile”. You can then edit the pfile and convert it back to an spfile for use on your starter database. (This might sound confusing, but is actually pretty straightforward.)

    Shut down the database and export the contents of the spfile into a pfile that you can edit with commands like: 

          $ sqlplus /nolog
      SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
      SQL> CREATE PFILE='/home/oracle/dev920params.txt'
        2  FROM SPFILE;
      SQL> SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE
  7. Make a backup copy of the pfile you created in the previous step and edit the pfile to change parameters as you wish, based on your needs and your server’s capabilities. You can always change parameters again in the future, so you are not locking yourself into anything right now. Here is the pfile that I ended up with: 
          *.background_dump_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/dev920/bdump'
      *.compatible='9.2.0.0.0'
      *.control_files='/u02/oradata/dev920/control01.ctl','/u02/oradata/dev920/
      control02.ctl','/u02/oradata/dev920/control03.ctl'
      *.core_dump_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/dev920/cdump'
      *.db_block_size=8192
      *.db_cache_size=24m
      *.db_domain='dbspecialists.com'
      *.db_name='dev920'
      *.instance_name='dev920'
      *.java_pool_size=0
      *.job_queue_processes=10
      *.max_dump_file_size=10240
      *.open_cursors=300
      *.os_authent_prefix=''
      *.pga_aggregate_target=24m
      *.processes=50
      *.remote_login_passwordfile='EXCLUSIVE'
      *.shared_pool_size=64m
      *.sort_area_size=1048576
      *.timed_statistics=TRUE
      *.undo_management='AUTO'
      *.undo_retention=10800
      *.undo_tablespace='UNDOTBS1'
      *.user_dump_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/dev920/udump'
    (Note that I do not use the Oracle JVM, and that is why my java_pool_size is set to 0. You will need to set your java_pool_size to 20m or more if you plan to use the Oracle JVM or other Oracle features that use the JVM.)

     

  8. The starter database has three control files. The control file is a pretty small file that contains crucial configuration and synchronization information that Oracle needs in order to locate all the files that make up the database and keep them consistent. All three copies of the control file are kept identical; whatever Oracle writes to one control file it also writes to the other two. (Think of it like software mirroring.) It is a good idea to move at least one of the control files to another location. With the database shut down, you can go ahead and move the control files around as you wish. Be sure to change the control_files entry in your pfile accordingly.

     

  9. Remove the existing spfile that the Database Configuration Assistant created, and the bogus pfile that it left behind, with the following commands: 
          $ rm -i $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora
      $ rm -i $ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID/pfile/init.ora*
  10. Create a symbolic link from the location where Oracle looks for the spfile to the location where you will actually maintain the spfile: 
          $ ln -s $ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID/pfile/spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora \
              $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora
  11. Now convert the pfile that you edited back into an spfile that Oracle can use with the following commands: 
          $ sqlplus /nolog
      SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
      SQL> CREATE SPFILE='$ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID/pfile/spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora'
        2  FROM PFILE='/home/oracle/dev920params.txt';
  12. You are now ready to restart your database using your newly created spfile. Use the following commands to start the database and view the parameters that are in effect. These settings should match what you put in your pfile a few steps back: 
          $ sqlplus /nolog
      SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
      SQL> STARTUP
      SQL> SET PAGESIZE 100
      SQL> SELECT   name, value, isdefault
        2  FROM     v$parameter
        3  ORDER BY isdefault, name;
  13. You can follow the above few steps at any time to make further changes to the parameters. However, if you only have a few changes to make, there is a much easier way than exporting the spfile into a pfile, editing the pfile, and converting back to an spfile. You can simply: 
          $ sqlplus /nolog
      SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
      SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET parameter = value
        2  SCOPE = SPFILE;
    This will update the setting in your spfile, and the change will take effect the next time you restart the database. Many parameters are dynamic, meaning that you can change them on the fly without restarting the database. For dynamic parameters, you can omit the SCOPE = line above and Oracle will change the parameter setting immediately and in the spfile.

     

  14. Adjust the configuration of the Oracle Net listener if necessary. You can edit the listener.ora file in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin to suit your needs, although you may find the default file to be totally acceptable. Depending on your network topology, you might want to change the hostname or IP. (In my case my server is multi-homed, but I only want the database to accept connections from the internal network.) You should leave the extproc settings as they are; extproc is part of the mechanism that allows PL/SQL to call out to procedures outside the database. My listener.ora file looks like this: 
          #
      # Filename: listener.ora
      # 
      LISTENER =
        (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
          (DESCRIPTION =
            (ADDRESS_LIST =
              (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC))
            )
            (ADDRESS_LIST =
              (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.1.3)(PORT = 1521))
            )
          )
        )
      
      SID_LIST_LISTENER =
        (SID_LIST =
          (SID_DESC =
            (SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)
            (ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0)
            (PROGRAM = extproc)
          )
          (SID_DESC =
            (GLOBAL_DBNAME = dev920.dbspecialists.com)
            (ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0)
            (SID_NAME = dev920)
          )
        )
  15. Prepare a tnsnames.ora file in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin on the database server and distribute it to all clients. Edit the default file to suit your needs. Change the hostname or IP if needed. My tnsnames.ora file looks like this: 
          #
      # Filename: tnsnames.ora 
      #  
      EXTPROC_CONNECTION_DATA.DBSPECIALISTS.COM =
        (DESCRIPTION =
          (ADDRESS_LIST =
            (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC))
          )
          (CONNECT_DATA =
            (SID = PLSExtProc)
            (PRESENTATION = RO)
          )
        )
      
      DEV920.DBSPECIALISTS.COM =
        (DESCRIPTION =
          (ADDRESS_LIST =
            (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.1.3)(PORT = 1521))
          )
          (CONNECT_DATA =
            (SERVICE_NAME = dev920.dbspecialists.com)
          )
        )
  16. At this point the database has two tablespaces available to hold your application tables and indexes: USERS and INDX. However, I recommend that you create new tablespaces for holding application segments instead of using these two tablespaces. Create separate tablespaces with data files on separate physical devices for tables and indexes. You may want to split your application segments into several tablespaces, based on object size, permanence, volatility, I/O volume, or any of a number of other criteria. In the past, choosing storage parameters and allocation schemes for database objects was extremely complex. Now it is quite simple because you can have Oracle do the space allocation and management automatically and it will do a pretty good job. Here is a sample tablespace creation statement: 
          CREATE TABLESPACE small_tables
      DATAFILE '/u02/oradata/dev920/small_tables01.dbf' SIZE 500m
      EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL AUTOALLOCATE 
      SEGMENT SPACE MANAGEMENT AUTO;
  17. Create application roles if desired. Alternatively, you can use the default roles CONNECT, RESOURCE, and DBA.

     

  18. Create your application users that will own the application schemas. Set the default tablespace to one of your application tablespaces designated to hold tables. Assign quotas on all of the application tablespaces where the user will need to be able to create schema objects. (You can use the keyword UNLIMITED.) You should not set any quota on the temporary tablespace. Do not plan to create any application objects in the SYS or SYSTEM schemas, or store any application objects in the SYSTEM or TEMP tablespaces. Here is a sample application user creation statement: 
          CREATE USER bob IDENTIFIED BY bob123
      DEFAULT TABLESPACE small_tables 
      QUOTA UNLIMITED ON small_tables QUOTA UNLIMITED ON large_tables
      QUOTA UNLIMITED ON small_indexes QUOTA UNLIMITED ON large_indexes;
  19. Grant roles and/or system privileges to the application users. Note that if you grant the RESOURCE role to a user, that user will also receive the UNLIMITED TABLESPACE system privilege. This will let the user create objects in any tablespace they wish, regardless of quotas. I recommend you revoke UNLIMITED TABLESPACE from all application users you create. Sample statements to grant and revoke privileges are as follows: 
          GRANT connect, resource TO bob;
      REVOKE unlimited tablespace FROM bob;
  20. Review the overall security of your database. Oracle Corporation has published a handy ten-page listing of security checks that you should perform against your database. Download from the Oracle Technology Network at http://otn.oracle.com/deploy/security/oracle9i/pdf/9iR2_checklist.pdf.
Complete the Server Configuration

These steps complete the configuration of your server for smooth Oracle operation. In this section we will change the oracle user’s login script to eliminate hardcoding, create individual operating system accounts for each database user, and configure the server to start the database and listeners automatically whenever the server is rebooted.

  1. Edit the /var/opt/oracle/oratab file to verify that the entry for your database is correct. Lines starting with a pound sign are considered comments and are ignored. Each non-comment line contains the name of one Oracle instance, its ORACLE_HOME, and a Y or N. A Y indicates that the database should be started automatically on server reboot, and an N indicates that it should not. The three fields should be separated by colons. A sample /var/opt/oracle/oratab file looks like this: 
          #
      # /var/opt/oracle/oratab
      # ======================
      #
      dev920:/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0:Y
  2. Edit the login file (.profile) for the oracle user to eliminate hardcodings and call the oraenv script to set the environment instead. The following will work with Bourne shell or Korn shell: 
          # Settings for Oracle environment
      ORACLE_SID=dev920   # Put your instance name here
      ORAENV_ASK=NO
      export ORACLE_SID ORAENV_ASK
      . oraenv
    Note that this script assumes that the /usr/local/bin directory is on your path. Also, if you use C shell then you should edit .cshrc and have it source coraenv.

     

  3. Create separate Unix accounts for DBAs and database users who will log onto the database server directly. You should only log in as oracle when installing or patching software. The Unix accounts for DBAs should be members of the dba group, and other users should not be members of the dba group. Give each of these accounts a login file like oracle’s so that their environment initializes correctly when they log in.

     

  4. The Database Configuration Assistant configured the HTTP listener that is integrated into the Oracle9i database and started it up for you. Unfortunately, the HTTP listener was started by the oracle Unix user. Running the HTTP listener as the oracle user and a member of the dba Unix group can be a big security hole. Earlier we created a separate Unix user and group to run the HTTP listener. At this time we need to stop the HTTP listener, clean up file ownership problems, and restart the HTTP listener as the apache user. The steps are as follows:

     

    1. Run the following command as the oracle user to stop the HTTP listener: 
            $ $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin/apachectl stop
    2. Review the httpd.conf file in $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf and comment out modules that you will not be using. (The default httpd.conf file includes everything under the sun.)

       

    3. Change the ownership of certain files from oracle to apache so that the apache Unix user will not get permission problems when trying to run the HTTP listener. Which files need a change of ownership depends on which modules you kept active in the httpd.conf file. In my system I use the mod PL/SQL feature, but none of the others. Here are the commands I ran to change file ownership: 
            $ cd $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache
      $ su 
      $ chown apache:apache logs logs/* 
      $ cd ../modplsql
      $ chown apache:apache log log/* cfg/wdbsvr.app
    4. Edit the login file (.profile) for the apache user to call the oraenv script at login time. (This is the same as what we did for the oracle user's login script in a previous step.) The following will work with Bourne shell or Korn shell: 
            # Settings for Oracle environment
      ORACLE_SID=dev920   # Put your instance name here
      ORAENV_ASK=NO
      export ORACLE_SID ORAENV_ASK
      . oraenv
    5. Start the HTTP listener from the apache Unix user by running the following command while logged in as the apache user: 
            $ $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin/apachectl start
  5. To make the database and listeners start up automatically when the server reboots and shut down automatically when the server shuts down, you’ll need to create a dbora file in /etc/init.d and link it to /etc/rc2.d and /etc/rc0.d. You’ll need to do this as the root user. First create a file called dbora in /etc/init.d as follows: 
          #!/bin/sh
      ORA_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0 
      ORA_OWNER=oracle
      HTTP_OWNER=apache
      if [ ! -f $ORA_HOME/bin/dbstart ]
      then
        echo "Oracle startup: cannot start"
        exit
      fi
      case "$1" in
         'start') # Start the Oracle databases and listeners
                  su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/dbstart"
                  su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/lsnrctl start"
                  su - $HTTP_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin/apachectl start"
                  ;;
         'stop')  # Stop the Oracle databases and listeners
                  su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/lsnrctl stop"
                  su - $ORA_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/bin/dbshut"
                  su - $HTTP_OWNER -c "$ORA_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin/apachectl stop"
                  ;;
      esac
    After creating the dbora file, you need to link it to /etc/rc2.d and /etc/rc0.d: 
          ln -s /etc/init.d/dbora /etc/rc2.d/S99dbora
      ln -s /etc/init.d/dbora /etc/rc0.d/K10dbora
    Note that this script starts the HTTP listener as the apache user. If you want your HTTP listener to listen on a privileged port, then you will need to have root start the HTTP listener and hand off ownership to the apache user by setting the User and Group parameters in the Apache configuration file $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf/httpd.conf.
Conclusion

This paper walks you through the intricate details of getting Oracle9i up and running on a database server running SPARC Solaris. It may look complicated, but that’s only because this paper goes down to a nitty-gritty level of detail.

Please keep in mind, though, that the requirements are different for every Oracle implementation. I am extremely confident that if you follow these steps to install Oracle9i release 2 (Oracle version 9.2.0) on a server running SPARC Solaris 2.6, 7, or 8, the process will go very smoothly for you. However, no single document can address every specific hardware configuration and every set of business needs. Please use this paper as a starting point to get Oracle up and running in your shop. To get the best performance and scalability, each system needs to be considered individually.

About the Author

Roger Schrag has been an Oracle DBA and application architect for over twelve years. He started out at Oracle Corporation on the Oracle Financials development team and moved into the roles of production DBA and database architect at various companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Roger is a frequent speaker at Oracle World and the IOUG Live! conferences. He is also vice-president of the Northern California Oracle Users Group. In 1995, Roger founded Database Specialists, Inc., (http://www.dbspecialists.com/) a consulting firm specializing in business solutions based on Oracle technology. In addition to consulting, the company offers flexible solutions including part-time DBA support and Database Rx (http://www.dbspecialists.com/database_rx.html), a web-based monitoring and alert notification service for Oracle databases. In 2001, the San Francisco Business Times named Database Specialists one of the Top 150 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the Bay Area.