Installing Oracle AI Database

About Installing Oracle AI Database

Oracle AI Database and Oracle Grid Infrastructure are distributed as image-based ZIP files and can be installed through Oracle Universal Installer, silent or response-file methods, or Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning. Software is available from Oracle download portals and may also be provided on installation media. Oracle ASM requires a prior Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server installation, and earlier-release installers cannot install this release.

About Image-Based Oracle AI Database Installation

Image-based installation creates an Oracle home, extracts the database image into it, and runs the setup wizard to register and configure the product. It supports single-instance and clustered installations, upgrades, automation, customized patched images, and enables all database options by default. The image must be extracted directly into an Oracle Optimal Flexible Architecture-compliant Oracle home before starting the wizard.

About Deploying Oracle AI Database Using Oracle FPP

Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning uses centrally managed gold images of Oracle homes to provision, patch, and upgrade database software. It supports single-instance databases on Oracle Restart, clusters, or standalone nodes, regardless of whether Oracle Grid Infrastructure is installed, across data-center and cloud environments. Rapid Home Provisioning has used the Oracle FPP name since Oracle Database 19c.

Downloading Oracle Software

Oracle AI Database software can be downloaded from the Oracle website or Oracle Software Delivery Cloud, subject to the applicable license terms. Downloads should be stored in adequately sized product directories, verified against published file sizes and checksums, and extracted after download. Software Delivery Cloud requires account sign-in, product and platform selection, license acceptance, and digest verification.

About Character Set Selection During Installation

The database character set should be selected carefully before creation because changing it later can require extensive data conversion. Oracle recommends the Unicode AL32UTF8 default, which supports broad language and technology compatibility and allows PDBs using most supported character sets to plug into the container database. Non-AL32UTF8 container databases generally permit only PDBs with the same character set; legacy-character-set PDBs can instead be created temporarily and plugged into an AL32UTF8 container.

About Automatic Memory Management Installation Options

Typical installations generally enable automatic memory management, while Advanced installations allow manual allocation or automatic management. Automatic memory management assigns a target and dynamically balances memory between the SGA and instance PGA, but it cannot be selected when database instance memory exceeds 4 GB; automatic shared memory management should be used instead. The feature can also be enabled after installation, which requires a database restart.

Running the Installer in a Different Language

The installer language is determined by the operating system locale. Supported languages include Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese. If the session locale is unsupported, the installer runs in English.

Installing the Oracle AI Database Software

Oracle AI Database can be installed through the graphical setup wizard or command-line and response-file methods, with Oracle Grid Infrastructure required beforehand for Oracle Restart or ASM use. Image-based installations extract db_home.zip into an OFA-compliant, non-symlinked Oracle home and start runInstaller from that directory; Release Updates can be applied with -applyRU, and root scripts can be automated or run manually. The setup supports database creation, gold-image generation, and command-line configuration, and non-CDB databases are no longer supported; EM Express is desupported in Oracle AI Database 26ai.

Installing Oracle AI Database Using RPM Packages

RPM-based installation provides automated prerequisite checks, software extraction, ownership and inventory management, root configuration, and Oracle home creation for supported single-instance Enterprise Edition deployments. Software can be installed through yum or manually after installing the preinstallation RPM, then configured with DBCA or the provided service script, which creates a default container database, pluggable database, and listener. RPM patching and RPM-based upgrades are unsupported, Standard Edition 2 is unavailable, and multiple software versions may coexist in separate homes.

Single-Server Rolling Database Maintenance

Oracle AI Database 26ai supports rolling patches and local maintenance for Oracle RAC or RAC One Node databases on a single-node Grid Infrastructure cluster. A conventional single-instance database must first be converted to RAC or RAC One Node, after which a new database home and instance can be started and the database transferred with minimal interruption. Readiness can be checked with cluvfy, and the process can be orchestrated manually or through Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning.