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Oracle® Application Server Installation Guide
10g (10.1.4.0.1) for Microsoft Windows

Part Number B28192-01
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3 Things You Should Know Before Starting the Installation

Contents:

3.1 Oracle Home Directory

The directory in which you install Oracle Application Server is called the Oracle home. During installation, you specify the full path to this directory and a name for this Oracle home.

For example, you can install OracleAS Infrastructure in C:\oracle\OraHome_Infra, and you can name it "Infra".


Notes:

  • Spaces are not allowed anywhere in the Oracle home directory path. For example, you cannot install in "C:\program files\oracle\Infra" because of the space character in "program files". The installer does not check for this until several screens after you have entered the path.

  • You cannot install on another computer by mapping to a drive on that computer. If you want to install on another computer, you can do it through remote control software. See Section 2.8.9, "Installing on Remote Computers Through Remote Control Software" for details.


See also the next section, Section 3.2, "Oracle Home Name", which describes how the name is used.

If you plan to install a middle tier and an infrastructure on the same computer, you must install them in different Oracle home directories. The installer does not allow you to install a middle tier and an infrastructure in the same Oracle home.


Tip:

If you install multiple Oracle Application Server instances (for example, an OracleAS Infrastructure and a middle tier) on the same computer, create scripts for setting the environment for each instance. This is to ensure that you run the binaries from the proper Oracle home. Environment variables that you need to set include ORACLE_HOME and PATH.

3.1.1 Installing in an Existing Oracle Home

Generally, you cannot install Oracle Application Server in an existing Oracle home. See "Oracle home directory" for a list of combinations that are not allowed.

3.1.2 Installing in a Non-Empty Oracle Home

You cannot install Oracle Application Server in a directory that already contains some files, except for the cases mentioned in Section 3.1.1, "Installing in an Existing Oracle Home". For example, if you cancel an installation, or if an installation failed, you have to clean up the directory before you can reinstall Oracle Application Server in it. Also, the installer cannot "repair" an installation. See Section F.3.2, "Message About Installing in a Non-Empty Directory" for instructions on how to clean up the directory.

3.2 Oracle Home Name

One of the screens in the installer prompts you for the Oracle home directory (which is the destination directory) and also an Oracle home name. This Oracle home name does not need to be the same as the directory name.

The Oracle home name can consist of alphanumeric and the underscore (_) characters, and cannot be longer than 128 characters.

The Oracle home name is used in the following ways:

If You Are Installing OracleAS Infrastructure and Middle Tier on the Same Computer

Because middle tiers depend on OracleAS Infrastructure services, you need to ensure that the OracleAS Infrastructure services are started first, followed by middle-tier services. You can do this in the following ways:

3.3 Installing Additional Languages

By default, the installer installs Oracle Application Server with text in English and in the operating system language. If you need additional languages, click the Product Languages button in the "Select a Product to Install" screen.

When you select additional languages to install, the installer installs text in the selected languages. It also installs fonts required to display the languages.

For some components, languages are installed only if you select them during installation. In this case, if you access the application in a language that is not available, it will fall back on the server locale language.

For other components, available languages are installed regardless of what you select during installation. In this case, however, fonts are installed only for the languages that are explicitly selected. When you access the application, it uses text in your language because the language was installed. However, if you do not have the appropriate fonts to render the text, the text appears as square boxes. This usually applies to the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages.

You can install fonts after installation. See Section F.3.7, "User Interface Does Not Display in the Desired Language, or Does Not Display Properly".

Note that you cannot install additional languages after installation. You must install all languages that you need during installation. If you run Oracle Application Server in an environment that uses a language that you did not install, the user interface can display text in that language and/or in English, or it can display square boxes (caused by missing fonts) instead of text.

3.4 Oracle Application Server Instances and Instance Names

When you install the infrastructure, what you get is an Oracle Application Server instance. The installer prompts you to provide a name for the Oracle Application Server instance you are installing. For example, you can name an instance "infra". This name can be different from the Oracle home name.

You cannot change this name after installation.

Oracle Application Server appends the hostname and domain name to the given instance name to form a complete instance name. For example, if you are installing an instance on a computer named c1, and you name the instance infra1, then the full name of the instance is infra1.c1.mydomain.com, assuming the domain name is mydomain.com.

Valid Characters in Instance Names

Instance names can consist only of the alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) and the _ (underscore) character.

The maximum length for an instance name is 64 characters.

Restrictions on Oracle Application Server Instance Names

Do not use the hostname of the computer when naming Oracle Application Server instances.

If you are planning to place the Oracle Application Server instance in an OracleAS Cluster, the instance name must not contain the following:

How Oracle Application Server Uses Instance Names

Instance names are important because Oracle Application Server uses them to uniquely identify instances. This means that if you install multiple Oracle Application Server instances on the same computer (for example, an OracleAS Infrastructure and a J2EE and Web Cache instance), you must give them different names.

When you administer Oracle Application Server using Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control (or Application Server Control for short), the instance name appears on the screens. You can click the instance name to see details about the instance, such as the components that are installed in that instance, if the components are running or stopped, and the log files for the components. The Application Server Control is a browser-based administration tool for Oracle Application Server. See the Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide for details about this administration tool.

The instance name also appears in menu items in the Start menu for starting and stopping components in the associated instance:

In addition, some dcmctl commands require an instance name as a parameter. dcmctl is a command-line tool for administering Oracle Application Server instances. See the Distributed Configuration Management Administrator's Guide for details about dcmctl.

3.5 The ias_admin User and Restrictions on its Password

The installer prompts you to specify the password for the ias_admin user. The ias_admin user is the administrative user for Oracle Application Server instances. To manage Oracle Application Server instances using Application Server Control, you log in as ias_admin.

On a computer, you can install multiple Oracle Application Server instances, each with its own unique instance name, but the name of the administrative user is ias_admin for all instances. The password for the ias_admin user can be different for each instance.

Password for the ias_admin User

The password for the ias_admin user must conform to Oracle Internet Directory's password policy:

In addition to the password policy defined in Oracle Internet Directory, the password for the ias_admin user has these restrictions:


Note:

When entering your password, check that the state of the Caps Lock key is what you want it to be. Passwords are case-sensitive.

You must remember the password because you need to enter it to perform the following tasks:

If you forget the password, you can reset it. See the Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide for details.

3.6 Comparing Installing Components against Configuring Components

When you select components on the Select Configuration Options screen, the installer installs and configures the selected components. For the unselected components, the installer still installs them, but does not configure them.

In most cases, you can configure components that you did not select on the Select Configuration Options screen after installation using the Application Server Control. See the Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide for details.

3.7 Where Does the Installer Write Files?

The installer writes files to the following directories:

Table 3-1 Directories Where the Installer Writes Files

Directory Description

Oracle home directory

This directory contains Oracle Application Server files. You specify this directory when you install Oracle Application Server.

Inventory directory

(system_drive:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory)

The installer uses the inventory directory to keep track of which Oracle products are installed on the computer. The inventory directory is created when you install the first Oracle product on the computer. In subsequent installations, the installer uses the same inventory directory.

TEMP directory

The installer writes files needed only during installation to a "temporary" directory. The "temporary" directory is specified by the TEMP variable. See Section 2.6.5, "TEMP" for details.


Additionally, the installer also creates entries in the Windows registry.

3.8 Can I Modify Other Oracle Application Server Instances During Installation?

During the installation of an Oracle Application Server instance, you should not change the configuration or passwords of other installations in your environment. For example, if there is an OracleAS Infrastructure installation in your environment, you should not modify it during the installation of a middle tier.

3.9 Connecting to Oracle Internet Directory Through SSL Connections

When you install OracleAS Infrastructure or middle tiers, you can specify that Oracle Application Server components connect to Oracle Internet Directory only through SSL connections. On screens where you specify the hostname and port for Oracle Internet Directory, you can select the Use Only SSL Connections With This Oracle Internet Directory option.

Note that Oracle HTTP Server is not set up for SSL connections during installation. If you need Oracle HTTP Server to use SSL, you can set it up after installation. See the Oracle HTTP Server Administrator's Guide for details.

3.10 Using an Assistive Technology with the Installer

Java Access Bridge enables assistive technologies, such as JAWS screen reader, to read Java applications running on the Windows platform. Assistive technologies can read Java-based interfaces, such as Oracle Universal Installer and Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control.

Your Oracle Application Server installation media contain the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.2, which Oracle Universal Installer uses during installation. The JRE enables use of Java Access Bridge during installation.

To set up Java Access Bridge with JRE 1.4.2, run the following batch file on Oracle installation media. If Java Access Bridge is already running on your system, you must turn off the assistive technology prior to running this batch file.

DRIVE_LETTER:\install\access_setup.bat

After the batch file has run, restart your assistive technology program.

3.11 Obtaining Software from Oracle E-Delivery

You can obtain Oracle products from Oracle E-Delivery at http://edelivery.oracle.com/. Oracle products are distributed as "E-Packs". An E-Pack is an electronic version of the software that is also available to Oracle Customers on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

3.11.1 Finding and Downloading the Oracle Application Server 10g (10.1.4.0.1) E-Pack

Refer to the CD/Media Pack description or the list of products that you purchased on your Oracle Ordering Document. Then, view the License List to help you decide which Product Pack you need to select in order to search for the appropriate E-Pack(s) to download. Prior to downloading, verify that the product you are looking for is in the License and Options section of the E-Pack README. Oracle recommends that you print the README for reference.

3.11.2 Finding Required and Optional Downloads

Refer to the README link that is on each E-Pack Download page. In addition to listing the licensable products and options contained in the pack, the README lists downloadable files that are required to run each product and which downloadable files are optional. Oracle recommends that you print the README for reference.

3.11.3 Disk Space Requirements

In addition to having the required disk space necessary to install and run your Oracle software, you'll need to have sufficient disk space to download all the required software files and have enough disk space to extract them.

After extracting the software from the Zip files, you can burn them onto CD-ROM and install from them, or install from your computer's hard drive.

3.11.4 Software Requirements for Unzipping Files

All Oracle E-Delivery files have been archived using Info-ZIP's highly portable Zip utility. After downloading one or more of the archives, you will need the UnZip utilityor the WinZip utility to extract the files.You must unzip the archive on the platform for which it was intended. For example, if you download the file for the Solaris Operating System (SPARC) version of Oracle Application Server, you must unzip the file on a Solaris Operating System (SPARC) computer. If you unzip the file on a Windows computer, and then move the stage area to a Solaris Operating System (SPARC) machine, the stage area files will be corrupted because Windows will not preserve the case sensitivity or the permission bits of UNIX file names.

3.11.5 Extracting Software from the Zip Files

Verify that the file size of your downloaded file matches the file size displayed on E-Delivery. Unzip each Zip file to its own temporary directory. For example, create a directory structure called oraAS10g on your hard drive:

c:\oraAS10g

Then create a new directory for each Zip file you downloaded:

c:\oraAS10g\Disk1
c:\oraAS10g\Disk2

etc.

If you plan burn the files on a CD-ROM, create a separate CD-ROM from the contents of each directory. Do not burn a CD-ROM containing the Zip file itself; you need the unzipped contents of the Zip files to do the installation. When you burn the files to CD-ROM, the contents of each disc must be at the root of the CD image.

To install from CD-ROM or from your hard drive, see Section 3.12, "Starting theOracle Universal Installer".

3.12 Starting the Oracle Universal Installer

  1. Log in to the computer as a user who is a member of the Windows Administrators group.

  2. If you are installing Oracle Application Server on a multihomed computer or a computer that uses multiple aliases, use the Windows System control panel to create the OUI_HOSTNAME system environment variable. Set this variable to point to the hostname of the computer on which you are installing Oracle Application Server.

  3. If you are installing from your hard drive, go to the next step.

    CD-ROM users: Insert Oracle Application Server Disk 1 into the CD-ROM drive.

    DVD-ROM users: Insert the Oracle Application Server DVD-ROM into the DVD-ROM drive.

  4. If you are installing from a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and your computer supports the auto run feature, the installer launches automatically.

    If you are installing from your hard drive or your computer does not support the auto run feature, you have to start up the installer manually:


    Note:

    If you are running the installer on a computer that is already running Oracle Database 10g, then you have to start up the installer with the following option:
    E:\> setup.exe -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true
    
    

    If you do not start up the installer with the option, then the installer may not display.


    CD-ROM users: Double-click setup.exe in the main directory of the CD.

    DVD-ROM users: Double-click setup.exe in the application_server directory.

    Hard Drive users: Double-click setup.exe in the directory where you unzipped the Disk 1 file.

This launches Oracle Universal Installer, through which you install Oracle Application Server.