Creating Operating System Oracle Installation User Accounts

Before starting installation, create Oracle software owner user accounts, and configure their environments.

Oracle software owner user accounts require resource settings and other environment configuration. To protect against accidents, Oracle recommends that you create one software installation owner account for each Oracle software program you install.

Creating an Oracle Software Owner User

If the Oracle software owner user (oracle or grid) does not exist, or if you require a new Oracle software owner user, then create it as described in this section.

The following example shows how to create the user oracle with the user ID 54321; with the primary group oinstall; and with secondary groups dba, asmdba, backupdba, dgdba, kmdba, and racdba:

# /usr/sbin/useradd -u 54321 -g oinstall -G dba,asmdba,backupdba,dgdba,kmdba,racdba oracle

The following example shows how to create the user grid with the user ID 54331; with the primary group oinstall; and with secondary groups asmadmin, asmdba, and racdba:

# /usr/sbin/useradd -u 54331 -g oinstall -G asmadmin,asmdba,racdba grid

You must note the user ID number for installation users, because you need it during preinstallation.

Modifying Oracle Owner User Groups

If you have created an Oracle software installation owner account, but it is not a member of the groups you want to designate as the OSDBA, OSOPER, OSDBA for ASM, ASMADMIN, or other system privileges group, then modify the group settings for that user before installation.

Warning:

Each Oracle software owner must be a member of the same central inventory group. Do not modify the primary group of an existing Oracle software owner account, or designate different groups as the OINSTALL group. If Oracle software owner accounts have different groups as their primary group, then you can corrupt the central inventory.

During installation, the user who is installing the software should have the OINSTALL group as its primary group, and it must be a member of the operating system groups appropriate for your installation. For example:

# /usr/sbin/usermod -g oinstall -G dba,asmdba,backupdba,dgdba,kmdba,racdba[,oper] oracle