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Preinstallation

This chapter describes the preinstallation procedures for eMail Server.

This chapter contains these topics:

• Installation Overview

• Requirements

• Preinstallation Tasks

Installation Overview

eMail Server is a highly scalable messaging framework that provides complete messaging services. Prior to installation, you should plan your implementation strategy and be familiar with eMail Server system components, concepts, and terminology.

The installation process is composed of the following steps:

1. Plan an implementation strategy, considering the following factors:
   • Anticipated usage of the e-mail system (total number of users, anticipated number of concurrent users at peak load, how much e-mail you expect to transmit and receive each day, and how much e-mail you expect to store)

   • Domain requirements (acme.com as opposed to us.acme.com and uk.acme.com, for instance)

   • E-mail clients you plan to use

   • Security concerns

   • Network topology and bandwidth

   • Performance and availability requirements

2. Complete the required preinstallation tasks, including backing up an existing system, configuring the UNIX environment, and preparing related processes and products for the installation.

3. Use the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) on the Oracle software CD to install or upgrade eMail Server and related software products, including running the root.sh script.

4. Complete the required postinstallation tasks and verify the installation by starting processes and checking process logs.

Once you have verified the installation, refer to the Oracle eMail Server Administration Guide for instructions on how to configure, maintain, and optimize eMail Server.

Requirements

You must have the following items to install eMail Server:

• An OFA-compliant Oracle8i Database Server installed

• A CD-ROM drive supported by Solaris (Oracle uses High Sierra or ISO 9660 format CD-ROM disks with RockRidge extension)

• The eMail Server Release 5.2 software CD-ROM

This section describes the following:

• Hardware Requirements

• Software Requirements

Hardware Requirements

For each server identified in your implementation strategy (node, dedicated protocol server, LDAP server, test system), you must determine the following hardware requirements:

• CPU Requirements

• Memory Requirements

• Disk Space Requirements

• Network Bandwidth Requirements

  Note: To make support easier, it is often best to choose a single hardware provider for all of your hardware and to have the same or similar hardware configurations. Please contact Oracle Sales for more information.

CPU Requirements

The metric for CPU usage is the number of SPECint_rate95 points used during steady state activity. SPECint_rate95 is a benchmark designed to measure the possible throughput of integer calculations for a given system and is applicable for this database application.

See Also: For more detailed discussion on SPECint_rate95 and a list of systems and their SPECint_rate95 ratings, refer to http://www.spec.org/osg/cpu95/results/rint95.html

The following rates are the SPECint_rate95 demands needed for the different eMail Server processes for 1000 users at sample light, medium, and heavy workloads.

Process	Corporate	ISP
Oracle8i Database Server	260	120
IMAP4	80	40
POP3	20	12
SMTP/MIME Gateway processes	80	45
Total demands	440	217

Memory Requirements

The memory required for the background processes for Oracle8i Database Server and the eMail Server depend on the configuration of the database, features selected for eMail Server, and the number of concurrent users to be supported. The following table illustrates the memory usage for the base installation and the incremental memory demands as the work load increases.

Process	Base Memory Demand (MB)	Incremental Memory Demand Per User (MB)
UNIX OS	30 MB	5 MB per 1000 connected IMAP4 clients
X Windows Manager (if launched)	15 MB	0
Oracle8i Database Server + static IM background processes	50 MB	0
Database buffer Cache	20 MB	10 MB per 1000 usersFoot 1
SGA	10 MB	4.5 MB per 1000 users
Database connections	0	15 MB per 1000 usersFoot 2
Postman processes	4 MB	2 MB per 1000 users
IMAP4 process	10 MB	120 MB per 1000 usersFoot 3
POP3 process	10 MB	5 MB per 1000 usersFoot 4
Sendmail and ofcuto	2 MB	23 MB per 1000 users connectedFoot 5
SMTP/MIME Gateway process	10 MB	3.5 MB per 250 users

1 The database buffer cache can be tuned to hold database blocks and reduce disk I/O and improve response times. Refer to the documentation provided with the Oracle database for tuning of this memory parameter. The number provided is a generic prescription to handle most messaging workloads. 2 The SPS architecture has many different requests being handled by a few static database connections. Given the high volume of traffic over these few connections, the Oracle multi-threaded Server Option should not be used. The number of database connections needed to sustain a user population depends upon the rate of incoming requests and the rate in which the requests are handled. If the incoming rate is very high and the server is handling each request slowly the required number of database connections will go up. 3 This memory requirement is for the number of IMAP4 clients actually holding a socket with the server. Netscape and other IMAP4 clients close their socket with the server if no activity is determined after a preset amount of time. Netscape closes the socket after two uneventful get mail cycles. The user is not aware of being "disconnected" as the client automatically reconnects upon the next user action. 4 A thread is launched to handle the incoming POP3 request. The thread is only in existence during the get mail cycle, therefore the total memory consumption at any given time is quite low. 5 When a message comes in via SMTP, a new sendmail process is launched to handle the message. Sendmail writes the message to the sendmail queue directory and then either sends the message to outside the intranet or hands it off for local delivery. If there is a bottleneck in the system such as insufficient disk I/O capacity the number of resident processes can grow. If there is insufficient physical memory to handle the necessary processes, the resulting paging disk I/O will slow down the system and increase the number of resident processes.

Disk Space Requirements

Consider the following factors when determining the disk requirements for an eMail Server:

• Disk space required by the operating system and other applications

• The mailbox quota will affect the disk space requirements for the servers

• Swap space required by the operating system

• Space required for archiving, backup, and disk mirroring

• Space for Oracle software, such as Oracle8i Database Server, SQL*Plus, and eMail Server

• Space for the Oracle database objects

• Number of separate disk drives to handle I/O requests

See your operating system, application, and system maintenance documentation for information on the first three factors.

Space for Oracle Software

eMail Server Release 5.2 with Oracle 8.1.7	750 MB
Oracle SPS Tier	255 MB
Oracle Email Administration	44 MB

Space for the Oracle Database Objects

The following tablespaces are required for an eMail Server system. Sizing information is based on a configuration where eMail Server is the only application.

System Tablespaces

SYSTEM	40 MB minimum
TOOLS	default
USERS	default
RBS (rollback)	20 MB minimum
TEMP	5 MB + (100Kb * number of users)

eMail Server Tablespaces

OFC_MAIN	10 MB (minimum)
OFC_INDS	(size of OFC_MAIN) * 0.4
OFC_MESG	5 MB + (quota * number of users)
OFC_INDB	(size of OFC_MESG) * 0.1

Number of Separate Disk Drives to Handle I/O Requests per 1000 Users

The number of disk I/O operations per second that a device can handle is highly dependent upon the types of disks, number of controllers, if RAID is used or any other striping strategy and the mix of I/O requests on the device. In general a modern single SCSI II drive can handle 40 disk I/O operations per second.

The following estimates show the number of disk I/O operations per second. Add disks to the hardware configuration to reduce the disk I/O operations per second on each disk.

Process	Corporate	ISP
Oracle8i Database Server	105	45
IMAP4	2	2
POP3	2	2
SMTP/MIME Gateway processes	60	20
Total I/O's per second	169	69

Network Bandwidth Requirements

The following estimates show average network bandwidth requirements for 100 users. These numbers should be added to the values for the existing network usage.

User profile	Bandwidth on Middle Tier	Bandwidth on Database Tier
ISP	2.9 Mbps	1.2 Mbps
Corporate	4	1.8

Note: The middle tier is composed of the IMAP4, POP3, and Sendmail processes.

Software Requirements

eMail Server requires the following software components and associated versions:

Software Requirements	Version	Comments	State During eMail Server Installation
eMail Server	5.2
Network Listener	8.1.7		Running
Net8	8.1.7		Installed
Oracle8i Database Server	8.1.7		Installed and Running
PL/SQL	8.1.7		Installed
SQL*Plus	8.1.7		Installed
JRE	1.1.8		Installed
JSP engine (iAS)	3.0		Installed and Running
JSDK	2.0 and above		Installed
Oracle JDBC	8.0.4 and above		Installed

Note: Oracle eMail Server's protocol servers require an installation of iAS.

Preinstallation Tasks

Perform the following preinstallation tasks described in this section to prepare for eMail Server installations and upgrades:

• Task 1: Back Up Existing Database and Log Files

• Task 2: Configure the Oracle Database Server

• Task 3: Configure the UNIX Environment

• Task 4: Start the Database

• Task 5: Configure Net8 and Check the LISTENER.ORA and TNSNAMES.ORA Files

• Task 6: Configure the Net8 SQLNET.ORA File

Task 1: Back Up Existing Database and Log Files

Perform a full backup of your existing Oracle8i Database Server before you perform any new installation or upgrade. A full backup ensures that you can recover from errors encountered during new installation or upgrade processes.

This backup should be performed with the database shut down cleanly. If you use SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE or SHUTDOWN ABORT to force users off the system, be sure to restart the database in restricted mode, and then shut it down with normal priority.

See Also: Oracle8i Administrator's Guide or Oracle8i Backup and Recovery for more information

For upgrades, also back up:

• $ORACLE_HOME/office/ds/incoming/*

• $ORACLE_HOME/office/ds/outgoing/*

• $ORACLE_HOME/office/admin/*.cfg

Task 2: Configure the Oracle Database Server

eMail Server requires reconfiguration of specific database parameters. Before starting this configuration, shut down the network listener and the database, and configure the init.ora file located in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory.

1. To shut down the network listener:

   % lsnrctl stop
   
   

2. To shut down the database:

   % sqlplus
   Enter user-name: internal 
   Connected.
   SQL> shutdown
   SQL> exit
   
   

3. To configure the init.ora file, use the text editor to add or enable the following entry:

   utl_file_dir = $ORACLE_HOME/office/log
   

   Note: Set this file to where $ORACLE_HOME should be replaced by an absolute path to the $ORACLE_HOME mount point.

Use the text editor to edit the initsid.ora file located in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory to reflect the following minimum values for the following parameters.

Parameter	Minimum Settings
DB_FILES	40
DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS	300
SHARED_POOL_SIZE	15 MB
PROCESSES	200
DML_LOCKS	200
LOG_BUFFER	32768
OPEN_CURSORS	255
OPEN_LINKS	4
GLOBAL_NAMES	false
COMPATIBLE	current database version
ROLLBACK SEGMENTS	At least one rollback segment must be available in addition to the System rollback segment
OPTIMIZER_MODE	Choose the default value

Task 3: Configure the UNIX Environment

Set the UNIX environment variables required to install and run eMail Server components. Add these settings to a .cshrc (C shell) or .profile (Bourne or Korn shell) for the eMail Server database owner.

1. Log in as the root user. Use the text editor to add the following two lines to the end of the system file located in the /etc directory if they do not already exist:

   set rlim_fd_max=1024
   set rlim_fd_cur=1024
   

   This increases the file descriptor limit, which increases the maximum number of clients associated with each server.

2. Reboot the machine.

3. Set ulimit (Bourne or Korn shell) or limit (C shell) to unlimited to allow the root.sh postinstallation script to complete without errors. Run the command appropriate for your shell environment to set the maximum file size that can be created on your machine.

   See the UNIX man pages for more information on ulimit and limit.

   Define the $ORACLE_HOME environment variable in the .login file (for the C shell) or the .profile file (for the Bourne or Korn shell):

   .login	setenv $ORACLE_HOME directory_name
   .profile	$ORACLE_HOME=directory_name export $ORACLE_HOME

   Execute the .profile or .login file.

   Define the $ORACLE_BASE environment variable in the .login file or the .profile file as the parent directory of the Java runtime environment that is shipped with the $ORACLE_HOME database.

   .login	setenv $ORACLE_BASE directory_name
   .profile	$ORACLE_BASE=directory_name export $ORACLE_BASE

4. Ensure that the DISPLAY environment variable is set to your display address.

   In C shell, set DISPLAY as follows:

   % setenv DISPLAY hostname:0.0
   

   In Bourne or Korn shell, set DISPLAY as follows:

   $ DISPLAY=hostname:0.0;export DISPLAY
   

5. Ensure that xhost, while physically located on the host machine, is set to enable access to the X server on your machine. Use the following command:

   % /usr/openwin/bin/xhost + 
   access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
   

   See the UNIX man pages for more information on xhost.

6. Ensure that the following environment variables are set.

   Environment Variable	Setting
   LD_LIBRARY_PATH	Place $ORACLE_HOME/lib before any other path entries. Also include any directories containing the Motif shared libraries, such as /usr/openwin/lib and /usr/dt/lib (required for motif-based products). It must also contain /usr/lib or /etc/lib if running the LDAP server. Note: If you are installing Oracle interMedia Text 8.1.6 (correct version number???), also add $ORACLE_HOME/cxt/lib.
   ORACLE_HOME	The Oracle8i Database Server home directory.
   ORACLE_SID	The Oracle8i Database Server ID.
   ORACLE_BASE	Set ORACLE_BASE to point to the JRE location.
   PATH	Include $ORACLE_HOME/bin, /bin, /opt/bin (or any valid local bin directory to which the database owner can write), /usr/bin, and /usr/ccs/bin. Also include the make utility directory. Note: If you require /usr/ucb in the search path, make sure /usr/ccs/bin is before it in the search order. Note: If you are installing Oracle interMedia Text 8.1.6, also add $ORACLE_HOME/cxt/bin.
   SRCHOME	Unset
   TMPDIR	Unset
   TWO_TASK	Unset
   TZ	Set to the timezone offset for your region. This step is required in addition to the GMT offset specified during installation.

Task 4: Start the Database

Start the database as follows:

% sqlplus
Enter user-name: internal
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> startup
SQL> exit

Start the network listener:

% lsnrctl start

Task 5: Configure Net8 and Check the LISTENER.ORA and TNSNAMES.ORA Files

Note: The following task is for installations of domain configuration nodes (DCN) or member nodes, only.

If you are installing a DCN or Member node, configure Net8 to enable the new node to connect to the host server.

The following are methods for configuring Net8:

• Configuring Net8 with an Oracle Names Server

• Configuring Net8 with a TNSNAMES.ORA Configuration File

Configuring Net8 with an Oracle Names Server

Use an Oracle Names server to simplify the setup and administration of global client/server computing networks by maintaining a central directory of service names for all the services on the network.

See Also: The Oracle Names Server or Net8 documentation for more information

Configuring Net8 with a TNSNAMES.ORA Configuration File

If you are not using an Oracle Names Server, then you must add entries to the tnsnames.ora configuration file.

1. Use a text editor to open the tnsnames.ora file in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory.

   Note: If the tnsnames.ora file does not exist, see the Net8 documentation for information on how to create this file.

2. Add the following entry for each eMail Server node to which you want to connect:

   connect_string =
       (DESCRIPTION=
           (ADDRESS=( PROTOCOL= TCP)(HOST= host_server_name)(PORT= 1521))
           (CONNECT_DATA= (SID= sid)))
   
   

   Follow these guidelines when adding entries:

   • The tnsnames.ora file must contain an entry for each eMail Server node to which you want to connect.

   • The tnsnames.ora file should be copied to each node that will be part of the network configuration.

   • The connect string for each entry must match the service name that you specified when the node was installed. You can also define additional entries that use other connect strings as aliases.

   The following is an example:

   host1,io1,host1.us.oracle.com,io1.us.oracle.com =
       (DESCRIPTION =
           (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL= TCP) (HOST=
                 iosun-test1.us.oracle.com)(PORT=1521))
           (CONNECT_DATA = (SID= io1)))
   

3. Verify the modified tnsnames.ora file:

   % tnsping host 
   
   

4. Start the network listener:

   % lsnrctl start
   
   

5. The listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files are automatically configured during the installation of an Oracle database. They are located in the
   $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory.

   Verify that the listener.ora file contains entries for an IPC key EXTPROC and a SID PLSExtProc.

   (KEY=EXTPROC)
   (SID_NAME=PLSExtProc)
   
   

   Verify that the tnsnames.ora file contains an entry for
   EXTPROC_CONNECTION_DATA which uses the IPC key EXTPROC and SID PLSExtProc.

   See Also: Net8 Administrator's Guide for more information regarding the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files

Task 6: Configure the Net8 SQLNET.ORA File

Change the BEQUETH_DETACH variable setting in the sqlnet.ora file to facilitate cleanup of defunct UNIX processes associated with eMail Server as follows:

1. Use a text editor to open the sqlnet.ora file in the
   $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory.

   Note: If the sqlnet.ora file does not exist, see the Net8 documentation for information on how to create this file.

2. In the sqlnet.ora file, ensure that there is an entry for the BEQUETH_DETACH variable and that its value is set to yes:

   BEQUETH_DETACH = yes