1
Verifying Requirements

Before installing Oracle Portal, make sure that your system meets the necessary requirements which are presented in this chapter.

As part of a typical Oracle Portal installation, the following components are installed:

• Oracle Portal Database Objects: images, demos, content areas, common services, utilities, required support files, documentation, and Single Sign-On (SSO).

• Oracle9i Application Server Web Server: Servlets, Oracle PL/SQL Gateway (including mod_plsql), and the Oracle HTTP Server powered by Apache.

  See also: Oracle HTTP Server documentation in the Oracle9i Application Server Documentation Library for detailed information about Oracle HTTP modules (mods) and the overall Oracle9i Application Server architecture Oracle9i Application Server Installation Guide for your particular operating system

The following is an illustration of the various components packaged with the Oracle9i Application Server. Oracle Portal is packaged under Portal Services.

Figure 1-1 Oracle9i Application Server services and components

Text description of the illustration elem_web.gif

1.1 System Requirements

Before you install Oracle Portal, you must have an Oracle8i database and Oracle9i Application Server running, including the Oracle HTTP Server.

Oracle Portal is packaged and installed with the Oracle9i Application Server, in the same Oracle Home location, but in a separate Oracle Home location from the Oracle8i database.

Ensure that your system also meets the following requirements before you install Oracle Portal.

1.1.1 Operating Systems

Refer to the Oracle9i Application Server Installation Guide for details.

1.1.2 Oracle Databases

Oracle Portal can be installed in the following databases:

• Oracle8i Release 8.1.6.2.0 Enterprise Edition

• Oracle8i Release 8.1.7 Standard and Enterprise Edition

See the "Administration" section of the Oracle9iAS Portal Release Notes for more information on the required database patches.

Notes: Oracle 8.1.6.2 is required since Oracle Portal makes extensive use of Oracle8i PL/SQL features like Native Dynamic SQL, Bulk Collect, Autonomous Transactions, nested tables and objects. Additionally, some of the newer features are exposed through Java. If you are planning to enable interMedia Text in Oracle Portal on Windows NT/2000, you must have an Oracle 8.1.7 database.

Also, verify that the following conditions exist on your database before installing Oracle Portal:

• Oracle JServer Option, which includes the Enterprise JavaBeans and CORBA Tools, Java Virtual Machine, and Oracle Java Tools, are installed.

• You have the SYS user password on your database.

• Your database is up and running.

1.1.3 Oracle Home

You must install Oracle9i Application Server and its component, Oracle Portal, in a separate Oracle home directory from your Oracle8i database.

1.1.4 Web Browsers

• Netscape 4.0.8 and 4.72

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.1 with Service Pack 1 and 5.0.1

  Note: You may encounter JavaScript errors if you use a browser older than the recommended minimum.

1.1.5 Tablespace Requirements

Since Oracle Portal is installed with Oracle9i Application Server, the tablespace amounts are calculated as a whole for all Oracle9iAS components. Refer to the Oracle9i Application Server Installation Guide for your particular platform for the documented tablespace requirements.

Notes: Before installing Oracle Portal, it is a good idea to increase the sizes for your tablespaces, tables, and indexes to shorten the installation time and improve performance. See Chapter 8, "Troubleshooting" for more information. If you are using a FAT file system in your Windows NT/2000 environment, double the amount for the default tablespace (for example, 300 MB). During installation, you are prompted to select a tablespace from the database in which to install the Oracle Portal schema and database objects. The default tablespace set by the Oracle Portal Configuration Assistant is USERS. Do not allocate additional tablespace for each content area that you create since content areas are part of the Oracle Portal schema.

1.1.6 init.ora Settings

Set the init.ora parameters in the Oracle Home containing your Oracle Portal installation as follows:

MAX_ENABLED_ROLES = 25
OPEN_CURSORS = 50 
COMPATIBLE = 8.1.0 
JAVA_POOL_SIZE = 20971520 
SHARED_POOL_SIZE = 31457280 

Notes: The preceding init.ora example specifies the minimum values required with the exception of COMPATIBLE which indicates compatibility with an Oracle8i database Release 8.1.0 or above. If you are encountering error number 503 in the Oracle HTTP Server, it could be that the database is not configured with enough sessions to handle the load. Try doubling the number of database processes configured in the init.ora file.

1.1.7 Terminal Settings

On UNIX, set your terminal (using the set TERM command) to one of the following types:

3151 386 386s 386u 386x 
ansi avx3 
dec dgd2 dgd4 
hft hftc hp iris ncd 
sun sun5 tandm 
vt100 vt220 
wy150 wy50 
xsun xsun5    

1.1.8 interMedia Text Requirements

To enable interMedia Text searching in Oracle Portal, make sure that the following requirements are met:

• Install and configure the Oracle8i database with the interMedia Text option by running the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) and the Database Configuration Assistant. See the appropriate Oracle8i installation guide for more information about installing and configuring an Oracle8i database to use interMedia Text.

  Notes: If you are planning to enable interMedia Text in Oracle Portal on Windows NT/2000, the following requirements apply: Oracle Portal must be installed in an Oracle 8.1.7 database. Disable connection pooling from the Database Access Descriptor page. For more information, see Using the PL/SQL Gateway which is provided as part of the Oracle9i Application Server documentation set. interMedia Text should be installed in the same Oracle Home as your database. It is not installed if you perform a Minimal installation of the Oracle8i database.

• Install Oracle Portal according to the instructions in the Oracle9i Application Server Installation Guide.

• Set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the following before starting your database and Net8 Listener:

  $LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib
  

  See also: Chapter 6, "Setting up the Search Feature in Oracle Portal Content Areas" Net8 Administrator's Guide for more information about creating the tnsnames.ora and listener.ora configuration files

If you encounter any problems during installation, check the installation session log that describes the actions performed and the components created upon installation. The log file is located in:

ORACLE_HOME>/assistants/opca/install.log

See Also: Chapter 8, "Troubleshooting"

1.1.9 Unix Shell Settings

For Unix, you should use csh or ksh for installing Oracle Portal. The Oracle Portal Configuration Assistant uses various Oracle utilities which may not work properly in other shells. The Oracle Portal Configuration Assistant invokes sub-shells to run various utilities, including SQL*Plus, SQL*Loader, import, and loadjava. You should disable the sourcing to other Oracle homes in the shells before installing Oracle Portal. For example, if your shell sources to an old Oracle home by default, the Oracle Portal Configuration Assistant when invoked creates a sub-shell that sources to a different Oracle home. This causes the utilities to fail.