Oracle8 Enterprise Edition Getting Started Release 8.0.6 for Windows NT A69518-01 |
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This chapter describes how you work with multiple Oracle homes.
Specific topics discussed are:
An Oracle home corresponds to the environment in which Oracle products run. This environment includes:
Oracle homes also have a name, and a language associated with them. You specify the name, location, and language of an Oracle home at installation.
Releases of Oracle for Windows NT and Windows 95 prior to release 8.0.4 supported single Oracle homes, allowing you to install and run Oracle products in a single Oracle home. Different releases of Oracle products could be installed in the same Oracle home provided they had different second-digit release numbers. For example, you could install release 7.2 products and release 7.3 products in the same Oracle home. However, you could not install multiple third-digit releases of the same products. For example, you could not install release 7.3.2 and release 7.3.3 releases of the same Oracle products on the same computer; one installation would overwrite the other.
The Multiple Oracle homes feature enables you to install one or more releases of Oracle products on the same computer in multiple Oracle homes. For example, with multiple Oracle homes, you can install release 8.0.6, 8.0.5, and 8.0.4 products in different Oracle homes on the same computer. You can still install different releases of Oracle products in the same Oracle home provided they have different second-digit release numbers.
The main benefit of using multiple Oracle homes is that you can run multiple releases of the same products concurrently. For example, you can test an 8.x.x database patch, before you run your production database 8.x.x against it.
When using third-party tools on your computer, if one tool is certified against release 8.x.1.x while another tool is certified against release 8.x.2.x, you may want to use the multiple Oracle homes feature so that you can install each third-party tool in a separate home.
If you have previously installed release 8.0.x software and have no reason to keep the old release, overwrite the existing release by installing the 8.0.6 products in the home used for the previous release.
If you decide to use multiple (versus single) Oracle homes, note these differences:
Element | First Oracle Home | Each Additional Oracle Home |
---|---|---|
Service Names |
OracleTNSListener80 |
Includes the Oracle home name in service names, for example: |
Program Groups |
Oracle for Windows NT |
Appends the Oracle home name to the program group, for example: Oracle for Windows NT - HOME_NAME |
Registry Entries |
Located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE |
Subkeys for each Oracle home added below the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ |
SID for starter database |
ORCL |
Only the first starter database on your computer is called ORCL. Additional starter databases use the naming convention ORCx or ORxx where x is a number appended to ensure the SID is unique. |
The products included on your CD-ROM are classified as follows:
You can install products multiple times in multiple Oracle homes. Products are multiple Oracle home enabled unless they are listed in "Multiple Oracle Home Compliant Products" or "Non-Multiple Oracle Home Products".
You can install products into any Oracle home, but only once per computer. When installing any of these products, if other releases are detected on your computer, you are prompted to:
When installing groups of products, if any of the products listed below are included in the group and already exist on the computer, they will not be installed. You must first deinstall pre-existing copies of these products (which may break other applications) before you can install them in a different home.
You can only install these products into an old-style Oracle home (pre-8.0.4 Oracle home).
All Oracle release 8.0.3 products and all Oracle7 Products are non-multiple Oracle home products.
Can I install newer releases of Oracle components into an Oracle home that contains older releases of these components?
Do not install the following components unless you are upgrading the database:
Do Not Install Release... | Into an Oracle Home Release... |
---|---|
8.0.6, 8.0.5, or 8.0.4 |
8.0.3 |
8.0.6 or 8.0.5 |
8.0.4 |
8.0.6 |
8.0.5 |
If you install these releases into older Oracle homes, Required Support Files of the newer release overwrite the Required Support Files of the previous database installation, breaking the previous database.
Instead, install release 8.0.6, 8.0.5 and 8.0.4 components into separate Oracle homes rather than a previous Oracle home if you want to maintain multiple versions. The following is an example scenario.
I am not ready to upgrade my local release 8.0.5 database yet, but I want to use Oracle Enterprise Manager 1.6 included on the Oracle8 Enterprise Edition release 8.0.6 for Windows NT CD-ROM. I installed Oracle Enterprise Manager release 1.6 into the Oracle home where release 8.0.5 resides, but now my 8.0.5 database no longer works. What is wrong?
Products that depend on Required Support Files release 8.0.6 for example, Oracle Enterprise Manager release 1.6, cannot be installed into an Oracle home where a release 8.0.5 database already exists. Required Support Files release 8.0.6 overwrite Required Support Files release 8.0.5 and break the release 8.0.5 database.
If you want to install Oracle Enterprise Manager release 1.6 in the same Oracle home as your database, you need to upgrade your release 8.0.5 database to release 8.0.6. If you do not want to upgrade your database, Oracle Corporation suggests installing Oracle Enterprise Manager into a new Oracle home to avoid the Required Support Files release 8.0.6 overwriting the Required Support Files release 8.0.5. Since Oracle Enterprise Manager can only be installed in one Oracle home, you must deinstall it first before installing into a new Oracle home.
Unless you specify otherwise at installation time, the Oracle home in which you installed products most recently is the first directory listed in your PATH (primary home). As such, it has priority over the other Oracle home entries in your PATH. If you invoke a product from the MS-DOS command prompt, the release of the product invoked will be that stored in the Oracle home listed first in your path, unless you specifically invoke a different release of the product by:
You can change the value of PATH:
To change the value of PATH using Oracle Home Selector:
Oracle Home Selector is a graphical user interface (GUI) tool that enables you to edit your environment path to make an appropriate Oracle home directory your primary home. This tool can only be used when you have multiple, active Oracle home directories on a single computer.
The Oracle Home Selector window appears.
To change the value of PATH at the system level:
On Windows NT:
The Control Panel window appears.
The System Properties window appears.
The System Variables appear.
On Windows 95:
On Windows 98:
To change the value of PATH at the command line:
At the command prompt enter:
C:\> PATH PATHNAME;%PATH%
where PATHNAME is the full path to the binary files for the products you want to use. This change is valid for the current session only. If you want to change the value of your PATH more permanently, use the Oracle Home Selector or change the value of PATH at the system level. Both methods are described above.
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