This chapter includes the following sections:
Before installation, Oracle Universal Installer checks the environment to see whether it meets the requirements for successful installation. Early detection of problems with the system setup reduces the chances of encountering problems during installation; for instance, problems with insufficient disk space, missing patches, inappropriate hardware, and so on.
Oracle Universal Installer is required to perform all prerequisite checks defined for the installation before installing any software, whether they are Oracle Universal Installer-specific tests, or tests defined for a specific product. Specific prerequisite checks are defined for each operating system on which Oracle Universal Installer runs. All prerequisite check parameters must be defined in the oraparam.ini file (or another *.ini file that you define). All the results are logged in the install Actions<timestamp>.log file.
You can perform prerequisite checking automatically when you run the Oracle Universal Installer executable during an installation. Simply run Oracle Universal Installer to perform all predefined prerequisite checks.
Inputs to the checker are listed in the prerequisite.xml file. After running the checker, you can find the results, along with the predefined inputs, in the prerequisite_results.xml file. These files are located in the oraInventory/logs directory. You can reuse the prerequisite_results.xml file as an input file for subsequent executions of the checker.
The following sections describe how to start Oracle Universal Installer and install an Oracle product. Specifically, this section describes:
At any time while installing your product, click Help for information about the screens specific to your installation.
Oracle Universal Installer provides two kinds of online help:
Generic online help provided with every copy of Oracle Universal Installer.
These topics describe the screens and dialog boxes that all Oracle Universal Installer users see, regardless of the product they are installing.
Online help specific to a particular installation (context-sensitive help).
These topics are created by the product developer and describe the screens and dialog boxes specific to the product you are installing. For example, the help topic for the Installation Types page is often a custom help topic the installation developer creates that describes the specific installation types for the product you are installing.
After you view an online help topic, choose Navigator from the Tools menu to display the navigator pane. From the navigator pane, you can browse the table of contents, select other topics, or search for a particular word or phrase in the online help.
Note:
Only generic help topics are available in the navigator or table of contents. You can only access custom help topics by clicking the Help button on the dialogs or windows they describe.oraparam.ini FileThe oraparam.ini file is the initialization file for Oracle Universal Installer. This file includes information that defines the behavior of certain Oracle Universal Installer features. Each product installation possesses a unique oraparam.ini file.
Generally, you should not have to edit the contents of this file, but in certain situations, understanding the contents of this file can help you troubleshoot problems and understand certain aspects of the Oracle Universal Installer product.
For example, for most installations, Oracle Universal Installer provides a default value on the File Locations page that points to the location of the product's installation kit or stage. This default value is stored in the oraparam.ini file. The oraparam.ini file also identifies the location of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) required for the installation.
In the staging area, it is located in the same directory as the executable file. For example:
For UNIX systems:
cd/<Product_Shiphome_Location>/install/solaris/runInstaller cd/<Product_Shiphome_Location>/install/solaris/OraParam.ini
For Windows systems:
cd\<Product_Shiphome_Location>\install\win32\setup.exe cd\<Product_Shiphome_Location>\install\win32\OraParam.ini
In the staging area, the default OUI_LOCATION is relative to the location of the oraparam.ini file, as follows:
../../stage/
Once installed, the oraparam.ini file is located in the /oui directory.
Table 4-1 describes the parameters in the oraparam.ini file and how to use them.
Table 4-1 Parameters in the oraparam.ini Initialization File
You can use Oracle Universal Installer to install Oracle products in any of the three following modes:
Interactive: Use Oracle Universal Installer's interactive mode to use the graphical user interface to walk through the installation, providing information in the installation dialogs when prompted. This method is most useful when installing a small number of products in different setups on a small number of hosts.
Suppressed: Use Oracle Universal Installer's suppressed mode to supply the necessary information by using a combination of a response file or command line entries with certain interactive dialogs. You can choose which dialogs to suppress by supplying the information at the command line when you invoke Oracle Universal Installer. This method is most useful when an installation has a common set of parameters that can be captured in a response file, in addition to custom information that must be input by hand.
Silent: Use Oracle Universal Installer's silent installation mode to bypass the graphical user interface and supply the necessary information in a response file. This method is most useful when installing the same product multiple times on multiple hosts. By using a response file, you can automate the installation of a product for which you know the installation parameters. For more information, see Chapter 3, "Creating and Customizing a Response File," for detailed information on using response files and installing in silent mode.
Note:
You can use the-noConsole option on the Windows platform to suppress the display of messages in the console.OUI can be launched using several tools, depending on the context (pre-install or post-install) and OS platform:
Native self-extractor (native SFX)
For installation only.
Contains a bundled JRE or JDK, as required by the product to be installed.
Inherently platform-specific.
Available for a subset of the supported platforms.
Examples:
setup_wls_win32.exe setup_wls_win64.exe wls_linux64.bin
Sample invocations (Windows 64):
OUI Release 12.1 and later:
setup_wls_win64.exe -mode=console -debug -logLevel finest
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier:
unzip wls.zip cd wls/Disk1 setup.exe -debug -logLevel finest -jreLoc "%JAVA_HOME%"
Sample invocations (Linux 64):
OUI Release 12.1 and later:
wls_linux64.bin -debug -logLevel finest
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier:
unzip wls.zip cd wls/Disk1 ./launch -jreLoc $JAVA_HOME -debug -logLevel finest
Generic self-extractor (generic SFX)
For installation only.
Requires a previously installed JVM.
Usable on any supported platform.
Sample invocations:
OUI Release 12.1 and later (any platform):
java -jar wls_generic.jar -debug -logLevel finest
OUI Release 12.1 and later (to start a 64-bit installation with a JVM that supports both 32- and 64-bits):
java -d64 -jar wls_generic.jar -debug -logLevel finest
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier (UNIX):
unzip wls.zip cd wls/Disk1 ./launch -jreLoc $JAVA_HOME -debug -logLevel finest
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier (Windows):
unzip wls.zip cd wls\Disk1 setup.exe -debug -logLevel finest -jreLoc "%JAVA_HOME%"
For installation only.
Requires a previously installed JVM, specified using the -jreLoc option.
Usable on any supported platform.
Sample invocations (Windows):
OUI Release 12.1 and later
cd Disk1 install.exe -jreLoc c:\opt\jdk1.6.0_14 -debug
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier:
cd Disk1 setup.exe -jreLoc c:\opt\jdk1.6.0_14 -debug
Sample invocations (UNIX):
OUI Release 12.1 and later
cd Disk1 ./install.sh -jreLoc $JAVA_HOME -debug
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier:
cd Disk1 ./launch -jreLoc $JAVA_HOME -debug
Installed ORACLE_HOME scripts or executable
For post-installation only, from an installed ORACLE_HOME.
Requires an installed JVM, specified explicitly using the -jreLoc option.
Usable on any supported platform.
Sample invocations (Windows):
OUI Release 12.1 and later
cd %ORACLE_HOME%\oui\bin deinstall.cmd -debug
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier:
cd %ORACLE_HOME%\oracle_common\oui\bin setup.exe -deinstall -debug
Sample invocations (UNIX):
OUI Release 12.1 and later
$ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin/deinstall.sh -debug
OUI Release 11.2 and earlier:
$ORACLE_HOME/oracle_common/oui/bin/runInstaller.sh -deinstall -debug
For each of these three installation modes, you can install from three different media:
Notes:
On Windows systems, when you start the installer from a shared drive, you need to map the shared drive and then invoke the installer from the shared drive.
When you invoke the installation process, you should invoke it from the directory where this command is present, or you must specify the complete path.
While installing Oracle products contained on a single CD-ROM, start Oracle Universal Installer by running the executable file, setup.exe (Windows) or runInstaller.sh (UNIX), located in:
../install/<platform>
Where <platform> represents Win32, Win64, Oracle Solaris, Linux, and so on.
To define the invocation:
java -jar <distribution>_generic.jar
To define the invocation for self-extraction:
./<distribution>.bin
For UNIX systems, run the script by typing ./launch at the command line.
Note:
Oracle Universal Installer for Win64 functions like Oracle Universal Installer for Win32. However, the startup directory on the CD is "win64" instead of "win32." Launching Oracle Universal Installer from the Win32 directory launches Oracle Universal Installer in 32-bit mode, used for installing 32-bit software. Use win64 for installing 64-bit software.When you install both 32-bit and 64-bit Oracle Universal Installer on a 64-bit machine, two different inventories are created and maintained. However, you cannot install 64-bit software in a 32-bit home, and vice versa.
If you are creating a multiple-CD installation on UNIX, you might need to launch runInstaller in the background using the following command:
./launch &
By launching runInstaller in the background, you can change your current directory after you launch Oracle Universal Installer, enabling you to eject the CD. (It may also help to launch runInstaller as a foreground process from a different directory.)
You may want to create a shell script that launches Oracle Universal Installer in the background and then exits. If you choose to create a shell script, remember to also pass all parameters that you passed to the shell script to runInstaller in the event that you want to install silently using a response file.
On both UNIX and Windows installations, temporary copies of Oracle Universal Installer and JRE are placed in the TEMP or TMP directory in a subdirectory named /OraInstall<timestamp> so that these applications can be launched when you change CD-ROMs. Note that temporary files are created for single-CD installations as well. On both UNIX and Windows, Oracle Universal Installer looks for %TEMP% then %TMP%. If neither is set, Oracle Universal Installer defaults to /tmp on UNIX and c:\temp on Windows.
Note:
.TheTEMP/TMP directory should not be a cluster file system or a shared location.On UNIX, if you have trouble installing a product from multiple CD-ROMs, try using the following procedure to unmount the first CD-ROM and mount the second CD-ROM.
In most cases, the following procedure helps with any problems you experience while switching to a second CD-ROM while installing Oracle software. If you inadvertently run the installer while the current working directory is in the CD-ROM, follow these steps to mount the next CD-ROM:
Change to the root directory of your system and log in as the root user by using the following commands:
$ cd / $ su root
Unmount and remove the CD-ROM from the drive with the following command:
# umount cdrom_mount_point_directory
Insert and mount the next CD-ROM into the drive by using the following command:
# mount options device_name cdrom_mount_point_directory
Enter the correct mount point in the Installation dialog box.
Click OK to continue.
With Oracle Universal Installer, you can install products from the Web. You can publish your staging area from a Web server and then in the Oracle Universal Installer's Source location, specify the HTTP location for the products.xml file.
For example, you can enter:
http://www.oracle.com/product/ouiinstall/stage/products.xml
The Oracle Universal Installer recognizes a Web staging area just like a local, network, or CD-ROM stage.
System administrators of large customers who may want to deploy Oracle software to more than one target can use a combination of the Web installation and response file features:
Copy the staging area to a shared file system and make it accessible on the Intranet or a Web server.
Include predetermined response files on the same location. (Different groups of users might rely on different response files.)
Clients run Oracle Universal Installer locally and use the local response file that is mailed or downloaded so they can perform a silent installation.
The Web installation capability relies on some guidelines that must be followed at installation development time. Check the installation guide for your product to see if the installation of your product is certified for Web installation.
To test if your stage is Web-enabled, you can try the following procedure:
Copy the stage to your Web server.
Start the Oracle Universal Installer locally and point to the location of the products.xml file. For example:
http://smpweb.us.oracle.com/product/ouiinstall/stage/products.xml
The following sections describe special instructions that apply when you are installing certain products on a UNIX system:
Failed to Connect to Server Error
If you receive an Xlib error or a Failed to connect to Server error when you are running Oracle Universal Installer on the Solaris operating system:
Define the following environment variable on the host computer where you are running Oracle Universal Installer:
%setenv DISPLAY <machine name>:0.0
Where <machine name> is the name of the computer that will display Oracle Universal Installer.
On the computer that will display Oracle Universal Installer, enter the following command, which enables other computers to display information on the computer's monitor:
%xhost +
Rerun the runInstaller script after you have set the DISPLAY environment variable.
Note:
You can run Oracle Universal Installer without specifying theDISPLAY variable by running in silent mode using a response file.Providing a UNIX Installater Location with Root Privileges
You must have root privileges to perform various installation operations on the UNIX platform. For example, you must have root privileges to be able to create the Oracle Universal Installer inventory.
If you are installing Oracle Universal Installer for the first time, you are prompted to run a shell script from another terminal window before proceeding with the installation. Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to run root.sh after installation completes only if the script is required to be run as root before configuration assistants are run. Otherwise, you are prompted to run root.sh as root later.
Note:
When running Oracle Universal Installer in silent mode, ifroot.sh is required prior to configuration assistants, Oracle Universal Installer skips configuration assistants during the installation. You must run root.sh as root and then run the skipped configuration assistants after the silent installation is complete.To successfully run the required shell script:
Leave the Oracle Universal Installer window open and open another terminal window.
In the new terminal window, use the substitute user command to log in with root privileges:
su -root
Change directory to the Oracle home into which you are currently installing your Oracle software product.
Run the shell script ./root.sh.
When the script is finished and you are returned to the command prompt, exit from the new terminal window and return to Oracle Universal Installer to continue the installation.
Note:
Do not exit the installation to run the shell script. Exiting the installation removes this script.You are prompted to run the script only the first time you install.
If you are installing a product on a UNIX system, the Installer also prompts you to provide the name of the group that owns the base directory.
You must choose a UNIX group name that has permissions to update, install, and remove Oracle software. Members of this group must have write permissions to the base directory chosen.
Only users who belong to this group are able to install or remove software on this host.
A deinstall can be performed by invoking the following scripts:
For Windows systems:
NGHome\oui\bin\deinstall.cmd
For UNIX systems:
NGHome/oui/bin/deinstall.sh
The following sections describe the different ways that Oracle Universal Installer can be used after installation. Specifically, this section describes:
OUI is installed in the Oracle home and is available for both Windows and UNIX under:
<Oracle home>/oui/bin
For all platforms, the executable installation file is located in the following directory:
<oui_location>/bin
A new version of Oracle Universal Installer replaces its older version.
To start Oracle Universal Installer:
On Windows platforms, select Start, Programs, Oracle Installation Products, Oracle Universal Installer.
On UNIX, execute the ./launch script from the directory where it is installed.
For example: if the Oracle home is /u01/app/oracle/, OUI will be located at OH/oui/u01/app/oracle/oui.
A runInstaller.sh script is also available, so that you can launch Oracle Universal Installer directly from a different directory.
When Oracle Universal Installer is first installed and run, it checks for the JRE path (the location from which it runs), using the location specified in the oraparam.ini file's JRE_LOCATION parameter. If Oracle Universal Installer cannot find the JRE specified, an error is returned.
Following is the output from the runInstaller -help command, which gives you the full list of command line options and their descriptions, as well as command line variables usage:
<command> [ <option> | <option> <value> | <CommandLineVariable>=<value> ]
Table 4-2 shows the available <command> values. Table 4-3 shows the available <option> values.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
|
|
Generic installer. |
|
|
Native installer (UNIX). |
|
|
Native installer (Windows). |
|
|
Post-install utilities (UNIX). |
|
|
Post-install utilities (Windows). |
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
|
|
Use silent mode. The inputs are taken from the response file or from the command line as a list of |
|
|
Perform an installation. This is the default operation. |
|
|
Do not allocate a console, and suppress the display of messages to the console. Windows only. |
|
|
Output debug information. |
|
|
Do not wait for the user to press Enter on the console after the operation (for example, install) is complete. Windows only. |
|
|
Checks system prerequisites but ignores the results.. |
|
|
Location of the |
|
|
Display a help message showing all available commands and options. |
|
|
Log debug information about elapsed time. |
|
|
Omit log messages whose priority level is less than |
|
|
Use the specified inventory pointer file instead of the default. The inventory pointer file contains: inventory_loc=<location of central inventory> inst_group=<UNIX group name> UNIX only. |
|
|
Checks the basic prerequisites for OUI itself (called system prerequisites, as opposed to prerequisites for the product being installed). After these checks are performed, the installer exits without installing the product.. |
|
|
Log debug information about disk usage. |
|
|
Allow silent mode installation into a non-empty directory. |
|
|
Location of the response file containing input for OUI. |
|
|
Log debug information about memory usage. |
If you are starting and stopping Oracle Universal Installer programmatically (for example, by invoking Oracle Universal Installer using a response file), you may need to consider the exit codes Oracle Universal Installer generates, and perform a particular action depending on the code Oracle Universal Installer returns.
Oracle Universal Installer returns one of the following exit codes:
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | All installations were successful. |
| 1 | All installations were successful, but some optional configuration tools failed. |
| 2 | Local installations were successful, but some remote operations failed. |
| 3 | All installations were successful, but some recommended configuration tools failed. |
| 6 | The installation was successful after you proceeded by disregarding a few prerequisite checks or warnings. |
| -1 | At least one installation failed. |
| -2 | The installation failed. One or more validation of variables failed. |
| -3 | The attempted installation encountered a prerequisite failure. Some of the optional prerequisites have not been met. See the logs for details.
You can ignore this code if the prerequisite is optional. |
| -4 | The installation was stopped. |
Note that:
This feature does not work if Oracle Universal Installer is running in "bootstrap" mode. In this case, the installation process launches the JRE process and returns immediately without waiting for the exit code. Oracle Universal Installer runs in "bootstrap" mode if the following line exists in the oraparam.ini file:
BOOTSTRAP=TRUE
If you exit without installing any products (for example, if you exit from the "Welcome" screen), the exit code is -1.
You can copy an existing Oracle home, then configure it for its new environment. This process is called cloning. The cloning process uses the NG OUI cloning functionality. This operation is driven by a set of scripts and add-ons that are included in the respective Oracle software. The cloning process has two phases:
Note:
Patching and deinstallation on a cloned Oracle home act the same as a regularly installed Oracle home. You can directly patch a cloned installation.See Chapter 5, "Cloning Oracle Software," for details to clone an Oracle home.
When you install or deinstall products using Oracle Universal Installer, important information about each installation is saved not only in the inventory, but also in a series of log files located in the following directory:
$ORACLE_HOME/cfgtoollogs
You can use these log files to troubleshoot installation problems. These files are also crucial for removing and configuring the various software components you install on your Windows or UNIX system. Oracle Universal Installer displays the name and location of the current session's log file on the Install page. Each installation or configuration utility provides a separate folder containing the installActions<timestamp>.log files inside the $ORACLE_HOME/cfgtoollogs folder.
Many exceptions can possibly occur and consequently appear in a log file, depending on the product, as shown in the following example:
globalVarQueries2.1.0.4.1 getGlobalVariable[[.variable = oracle.assistants.server.launchNETCA]] [2009-09-07T01:17:46.646+00:00] [OUI] [NOTIFICATION] [] [OUI] [tid: 21] [ecid: 0000IEI4dFFDScApJ^^Ayf1Ad5uS00000C,0] [[Query Exception: VariableNotFoundException Query Exception Class: class oracle.sysman.oii.oiil.OiilQueryException]]
You can ignore the exception traces in the logs if the installation has subsequently continued.
Action logs are written on a per-session basis. The installer action log is created each time a new install session is started. What each action does and whether it occurred during installation or deinstallation is logged for every action in the installer action log. Each session is saved in the installActionstime_stamp.log file, where time_stamp is of the form:
yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss[AM|PM].log
The .err and .out files also use the time stamp in their file names, making it easier to keep track of these files for each session.
Product Removal Logs vs. Action Logs
Note that the logs used to remove products are different from the installActions<timestamp>.log file generated during the installation process. The installActions<timestamp>.log is easier to read and can be used to view the operations performed during installation.
Many exceptions can possibly occur and consequently appear in a log file, depending on the product, as shown in the following example:
globalVarQueries2.1.0.4.1 getGlobalVariable[[.variable = oracle.assistants.server.launchNETCA]] [2009-09-07T01:17:46.646+00:00] [OUI] [NOTIFICATION] [] [OUI] [tid: 21] [ecid: 0000IEI4dFFDScApJ^^Ayf1Ad5uS00000C,0] [[Query Exception: VariableNotFoundException Query Exception Class: class oracle.sysman.oii.oiil.OiilQueryException]]
You do not need to take any action if the text that follows the exception message appears to ignore the exception.
yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss[AM|PM]