Oracle® Database

3.1 Linux-PAM Library

Install the latest Linux-PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules for Linux) library to enable the system administrator to choose how applications authenticate users.

3.2 Swap Space Guidance

Contact your operating system vendor for swap space allocation guidance for your server. The vendor guidelines supersede the swap space requirements listed in Oracle Database Installation Guide and Oracle Clusterware Installation Guide.

4.1 Latest Upgrade Information

For late-breaking updates and best practices about preupgrade, post-upgrade, compatibility, and interoperability discussions, refer to Note 601807.1 on My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink)(https://support.oracle.com/) that links to "Oracle 11g Upgrade Companion" page.

4.2 New Installation Media to Install Oracle HTTP Server

Use the Oracle Fusion Middleware Web Tier Utilities 11g (11.1.1.2.0) media to install Oracle HTTP Server.

4.3 Error in Copying Files While Upgrading Oracle Database 10g Release 2 to Oracle Database 11g

When you start upgrading second node from Oracle Database 10g Release 2 to Oracle Database 11g, an error message is displayed while copying files during the upgrade process.

Workaround: Run the upgrade session from the node on which you initially installed Oracle RAC.

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 6501871.

4.4 The /etc/oratab File Lists Multiple Automatic Storage Management Instances

If you install Oracle Clusterware on shared Oracle home, the /etc/oratab file lists multiple Automatic Storage instances.

When Automatic Storage Management Oracle home is installed in shared file system to create Automatic Storage Management instances from Oracle Universal Installer, multiple Automatic Storage Management instances are listed in the /etc/oratab file.

Workaround: Oracle Universal Installer detects this issue during the prerequisite checks. You can edit the /etc/oratab file in each node and remove the entries that are not part of that node. The alternative is to install the software, run the root.sh script on all nodes and create Automatic Storage Management instance by running Database Configuration Assistant.

The issue is tracked with Oracle bug 5942123.

4.5 The ORA-12157 Error Message is Displayed When Using Shared Oracle Home on OCFS2

When you install Oracle RAC in a shared Oracle home on OCFS2, the ORA-12157 error message is displayed for multiple files.

The health check of Oracle database instances and Automatic Storage Management instances by Oracle Clusterware (CRS) does not work correctly if the Oracle database home is installed on a file system that does not support memory mapped files, such as OCFS2 on Linux.

Workaround: Oracle Clusterware (CRS) and Oracle Enterprise Manager agent try to access the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/hc_SID.dat file and the Automatic Storage Management instance tries to access the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/ab_SID.dat file by using the mmap function. This means that the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/hc_SID.dat and $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/ab_SID.dat files must be moved to a file system that supports the mmap functions on all nodes in the cluster. Complete the following procedure to use a location on the local disk drive to store the file:

1. Use commands similar to the following on all nodes in the cluster, to copy the files to a local drive:

   cp $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/hc_SID.dat  /local_dir/hc_SID.dat
   cp $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/ab_SID.dat  /local_dir/ab_SID.dat
   

2. Use commands similar to the following to remove the file from the cluster file system:

   rm $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/hc_SID.dat
   rm $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/ab_SID.dat
   

3. Use commands similar to the following to create a symbolic link to the file in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory:

   ln -s /local_dir/hc_SID.dat  $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/hc_SID.dat
   ln -s /local_dir/ab_SID.dat  $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/ab_SID.dat
   

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 4961541.

4.6 Minimum glibc Version

The following glibc package versions or later are required for Linux x86 and Linux x86-64 systems:

4.7 Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Issues on Linux x86

The following are the Linux x86-specific issues that affect Oracle Database installation, configuration, and upgrade:

• Oracle Database Configuration Assistant Does not Respond After Specifying Backup and Recovery Options

• Oracle Universal Installer Shows Oracle Database Configuration Assistant Status as Failed

• Setting Environment Variable ORA_FPU_PRECISION for extended precision on Linux x86

4.8 Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Issues on Linux x86-64

The following are the Linux x86-64 specific issues that affect Oracle Database installation, configuration, and upgrade:

• Error When Installing Oracle Database 11g on Asianux Server 3

• Oracle Universal Installer May Alert for Incorrect Value

• The Oracle Home Directory Structure is Changed for Instant Client

5.1 Collecting CPU Usage Metric Displays an Error

If Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control is running on Oracle Linux 5 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Metric Collection Error is displayed for the CPU Usage metric. Due to this issue, the CPU usage information for the host is not displayed. Therefore, you cannot set alert threshold on the host CPU usage.

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 6316367.

5.2 Error While Loading Shared Library When SELinux is Enforcing on Oracle Linux 5.0 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0

SQL*Plus and Oracle Call Interface (OCI) program calls fail with SELinux in the Enforcing mode on Oracle Linux 5.0 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0. Refer to the My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) note 454196.1 for more details about the issue.

Workaround: Shift SELinux to Permissive mode on the system.

This issue is tracked with Oracle bugs 6140224 and 6342166.

5.3 Host Administration Tab on Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control Fails on Oracle Linux 5

When you click the Host Administration tab of the Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control on Oracle Linux 5, the following error is displayed:

This feature is only available on hosts running Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux Operating Systems.

Due to this issue, you cannot administer the host using Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control on Oracle Linux 5.

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 6316469.

5.4 Linking Applications With Oracle Client Libraries

The use of the client static library is not supported.

5.5 Pro*C Does not Support all C99 Syntax

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, standard C header files may contain symbols, such as __LDBL_REDIR1_DECL, which Pro*C parser fails to recognize.

Workaround: You can use one of the following code in the .pc files so that the header file does not get included during precompilation:

#ifndef ORA_PROC
#include <filename.h>
#endif

or

#ifdef ORA_PROC
#define _HEADERFILENAME_H__
#endif

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 6142780.

5.6 The rstora File Linking Fails

When installing Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Universal Installer removes third party library paths from the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable for security reasons. Due to this, the relinking of the rtsora file fails during installation. The rtsora file can be relinked by updating the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable with the path where Cobol libraries are available and calling an appropriate make target. You can use the following commands to make the rstora file:

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/precomp/lib
$ make -f ins_precomp.mk rtsora

5.7 The Uploading Patches Feature Crashes in Mozilla Firefox 1.5 on Linux

When uploading patches through Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control using the Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Web browser on Linux, the Web browser window crashes.

Workaround: Start the Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Web browser client from a non-Linux environment or use an alternate Web browser, such as Internet Explorer.

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 6008421.

5.8 Using Block Devices

Use the following procedure to create block device partitions:

1. Use fdisk to create disk partitions on block devices for database files

2. On each node, create or modify the permissions file in /etc/udev/permissions.d, to change the permissions of the datafiles from default root ownership. On Asianux 2, Oracle Linux 4, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, this file should be called 49-oracle.permissions, so that the kernel loads it before the 50-udev.permissions file. On Asianux Server 3, Oracle Linux 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, this file should be called 51-oracle.permissions, so that the kernel loads it after the 50-udev.permissions file.

   For each partition, use the following syntax in the xx-oracle.permissions to set access permissions:

   devicepartition:oracle_db_install_owner:OSDBA:0660
   

5.9 Using Raw Logical Volumes

You can also use raw logical volumes as shared storage media for Oracle Database files. After you have created the required partitions, you must bind the partitions to raw devices on every node. However, you must first determine what raw devices are already bound to other devices. Refer to the "5.6.4 Using Raw Logical Volumes on Linux" section of Chapter 5, "Configuring Oracle Real Application Clusters Storage" in Oracle Clusterware Installation Guide for Linux for the procedure to be followed to use raw logical volumes as shared storage media for Oracle Database files.

5.10 Regenerating Instant Client Fails With mktemp Error on Linux x86

Install the following operating system packages on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5/ /Oracle Linux 5 before regenerating Instant Client:

• redhat-rpm-config-8.0.45-24.el5.0.1 (Oracle Linux 5)

• redhat-rpm-config-8.0.45-24.el5 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5)

5.11 Known Issues on Linux x86-64

The following are the Linux x86-64 specific known issues:

• Junk Characters Displayed in the Locale Builder Screen

• Reactivate the OC4JADMIN User for Oracle Ultra Search

• Linux GLIBC Bug Causes Clusterware Instability

<user deactivated="true">
<name>oc4jadmin</name>
<display-name>OC4J Administrator</display-name>
<description>OC4J Administrator</description>

<user>
<name>oc4jadmin</name>
<display-name>OC4J Administrator</display-name>
<description>OC4J Administrator</description>

$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/searchctl stop
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/searchctl start

Oracle CSSD failure 139 
Oracle clsomon failed with fatal status 13

6.1 Incorrect Oracle ODBC Package Values

The "Oracle ODBC Drivers" section in chapter 2 of Oracle Database Installation Guide for Linux, lists the incorrect values unixODBC-2.2.11 and unixODBC-devel-2.2.11 for Oracle ODBC packages. The correct Oracle ODBC package values are unixODBC-2.2.12 and unixODBC-devel-2.2.12.

6.2 Incorrect /etc/profile Reference

In Oracle Database Installation Guide for Linux, Section 2.7, "Configure Oracle Installation Owner Shell Limits", the third list item has an incorrect reference to the /etc/profile file. Ignore the entire third list item as making changes in the /etc/profile file is not required.

6.3 Incorrect Control File Size Limits

Table H-2, "File Size Limits" of Appendix H, "Database Limits" in Oracle Database Administrator's Reference for UNIX-Based Operating Systems Guide, states incorrect value of 20000 database blocks as control file size. The correct value is 25000 control file blocks with a block size of 4096 bytes.

6.4 Oracle ASMLib Download Location

To download the Oracle ASMLib kernel driver, go to the following URL:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linux/asmlib/index-101839.html

This location supersedes any other download location listed in documentation for Oracle ASMLib.