Chapter 3

Installing Oracle Enterprise Linux

This chapter provides information about installing Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 (OEL 5) for x86 (64-bit).

This chapter includes the following topics:

• Installing OEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media

• Installing OEL 5 Using a PXE Network Environment

• Post OEL Installation Tasks

Installing OEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media

The following procedure describes how to boot the OEL operating system installation from local or remote media. The procedure assumes that you are booting the OEL installation media from one of the following sources:

• OEL 5.4 (or subsequent release) CD or DVD set (internal or external CD/DVD)

• OEL 5.4 (or subsequent release) ISO DVD image (network repository)

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  Note - If you are booting the installation media from a PXE environment, refer to Installing OEL 5 Using a PXE Network Environment for instructions.

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  For further details about installing OEL, refer to the OEL documentation.

Before You Begin

Prior to performing the installation, the following requirements must be met:

• All applicable installation prerequisites for installing an operating system should have been met. For further information about these prerequisites, see Chapter 2, Getting Started With Linux Operating System Installations.

• An installation method (for example: console, boot media, and install target) should have been chosen and established prior to performing the installation. For more information about these setup requirements, see Appendix A, Supported Installation Methods.

After completing this procedure, you should review and perform the required post installation tasks described later in this chapter. For more details, see Post OEL Installation Tasks.

Install OEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media

1. Ensure that the installation media is available to boot.
   • For Distribution CD/DVD. Insert the Oracle 5 Distribution media boot disc (CD labeled number 1 or the single DVD) into the local or remote USB CD/DVD-ROM drive.
   • For ISO images. Ensure that the ISO images are available and that the boot disc image (CD labeled number 1 or DVD) has been selected in the ILOM Remote Console application (Device menu --> CD-ROM Image).
   • For additional information about how to set up the installation media, see Installation Boot Media .
2. Reset the power on the server.

   For example:

   • From the ILOM web interface, select the Remote Control --> Remote Power Control, then select Reset from the Select Action list box.
   • From the local server, press the Power button (approximately 1 second) on the front panel of the server to power off the server, then press the Power button again to power on the server.
   • From the ILOM CLI on the server SP, type: reset /SYS
   • From the ILOM CLI on a CMM, type: reset /CH/BLn/SYS

     Where n is the number of server module in chassis.

   The BIOS screen appears.

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   Note - The next events occur very quickly; therefore, focused attention is needed for the following steps. Watch carefully for these messages as they appear on the screen for a brief time. You might want to enlarge the size of your screen to eliminate scroll bars.

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3. In the BIOS power-on self-test screen, press F8 to specify a temporary boot device for the OEL installation.

   The Please Select Boot Device menu appears.

4. In the Boot Device menu, select either the external or virtual CD/DVD device as the first boot device, then press Enter.

   The device strings listed on Boot Device menu are in the format of: device type, slot indicator, and product ID string.

   After a few seconds, the splash screen for the OEL 5 installation appears. The bottom half of the splash screen lists instructions, function keys, and the boot prompt.

5. In the Oracle Enterprise Linux splash screen, press Enter to continue the normal user interactive installation.

   Alternately, for text mode, enter the following command:

   boot: linux text
   
6. In the Language screen, select the appropriate language, then click Next.
   

   The Keyboard Type screen appears.

7. In the Keyboard Type screen, select the appropriate keyboard configuration, then click OK.

   The Installation Method screen appears.

8. In the Installation Method screen, select the appropriate installation method (Local CDROM or NFS Image), then click OK.

   The CD Found screen appears.

9. In the CD Found screen, click Skip.

   The Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 screen appears.

10. In the Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 screen, click Next.

    The Installation Number dialog appears.

11. In the Installation Number dialog, enter the “Installation number” or click Skip entering installation number, then click OK.

    The Disk Partition Setup screen appears.

12. In the Disk Partition Setup screen, do the following:
    1. Select the option for Remove Linux partitions on selected drives and create default layout or manually partition the disk using the Create custom layout option of Disk Druid, then click Next.
       
    2. Partition the disk as appropriate by referring to the instructions presented on the Oracle disk partitioning screen.

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       Note - If the Oracle Solaris OS is preinstalled on the disk, you can choose to partition the disk to remove the preinstalled OS; or, you can choose to keep the preinstalled OS and partition the disk to support dual-boot operating systems.

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13. Continue the basic Oracle installation setup by following the on-screen instructions and Oracle documentation.
14. After completing the basic Oracle installation setup, perform the following post installation tasks:
    1. Configure your system for automatic updates.

       Refer to Oracle documentation for more information.

    2. If required, download and install the latest errata and bug fixes for OEL 5.4.

       Refer to Oracle documentation for more information.

    3. Review and, if necessary, perform the post installation tasks described later in this chapter.

       Refer to Post OEL Installation Tasks.

Installing OEL 5 Using a PXE Network Environment

This section describes how to boot the OEL 5 from a PXE network environment. It assumes that you are booting the installation media from one of the following sources:

• OEL 5.4 CD or DVD set (internal or external CD/DVD)

• OEL 5.4 ISO DVD image or KickStart image (network repository)

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  Note - KickStart is an automated installation tool. It enables a system administrator to create a single image containing the settings for some or all installation and configuration parameters that are normally provided during a typical Oracle Linux installation. Typically, a KickStart image is placed on a single network server and read by multiple systems for installation.

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Before You Begin

The following requirements must be met prior to performing the OEL PXE installation:

• If you are using a KickStart image to perform the installation, you must:

  • Create a KickStart file.

  • Create the boot media with the KickStart file or make the KickStart file available on the network.

• To use PXE to boot the installation media over the network, you must:

  • Configure the network (NFS, FTP, HTTP) server to export the installation tree.

  • Configure the files on the TFTP server necessary for PXE booting.

  • Configure the server’s MAC network port address to boot from the PXE configuration.

  • Configure the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

  For additional information, consult the PXE network installation instructions for Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 at: http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/linux/PXENetworkInstallations.php.

Install OEL 5 Using PXE Network Boot

1. Ensure that the PXE network environment is properly set up and the OEL installation media is available for PXE boot.
2. Reset the power on the server.

   For example:

   • From the ILOM web interface, select the Remote Control --> Remote Power Control, then select Reset from the Select Action list box.
   • From the local server, press the Power button (approximately 1 second) on the front panel of the server to power off the server, then press the Power button again to power on the server.
   • From the ILOM CLI on the server SP, type: reset /SYS
   • From the ILOM CLI on a CMM, type: reset /CH/BLn/SYS

     Where n is the number of server module in chassis.

   The BIOS screen appears.

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   Note - The next events occur very quickly; therefore, focused attention is needed for the following steps. Watch carefully for these messages as they appear on the screen for a brief time. You might want to enlarge the size of your screen to eliminate scroll bars.

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3. Press F8 to specify a temporary boot device.

   The Please Select Boot Device menu appears listing the available boot device.

4. In the Boot Device menu, select the network port that is configured to communicate with your PXE network install server.

   The network bootloader loads and a boot prompt appears. After a few seconds the installation kernel will begin to load.

5. To complete the installation, refer to Step 5 in the procedure Install OEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media.

Post OEL Installation Tasks

After completing the OEL installation, you should review the following post installation tasks and, if necessary, perform the tasks that are applicable to your system.

• Configure Support for TPM

• Register OEL and Activate Automatic Updates

Configure Support for TPM

If you intend to use the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) feature set that is provided in Oracle Enterprise Linux, you must configure the Sun Netra X6270 M2 server module to support this feature. For instructions, see the Sun Netra X6270 M2 Server Module Service Manual, 821-0939.

Register OEL and Activate Automatic Updates

After installing OEL, you should register your system and activate your subscription with Oracle to receive automatic updates to the software. For more details, see Oracle Linux Support at: http://www.oracle.com/support/purchase.html