About the Installer Inventory

The OUI inventory is the location for OUI’s bookkeeping. This directory contains permanent and product specific files. Ensure that the files from this folder are not deleted or modified, as this would make patching or upgrading impossible.

By default, the inventory is located in a series of directories and XML files at:

SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory (Windows computers)
oracle_base/oraInventory (UNIX)

Note : You are required to have Write permissions to this folder when installing or uninstalling a product.

To find out exactly where the inventory is located, you can do the following:

On Windows computers, check the Windows registry. The inventory location is written into:
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\inst_loc
On UNIX systems, check the value of the inventory_loc parameter in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc or
/etc/oraInst.loc file, depending on your operating system.

Removing Oracle Homes

If you have removed all oracle homes and want to remove the Central Inventory, you can perform the following steps:

For UNIX:

Locate the oraInst.loc file.
/etc/oraInst.loc (Linux)
/var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc (Solaris)
Locate the inventory_loc parameter in this file. This is the Central Inventory location.
Remove the central inventory.
rm -rf <Central_Inventory_Location>
Remove the oraInst.loc file.

rm /etc/oraInst.loc (Linux)
rm /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc (Solaris)

Note: You need to have root permissions to delete these files.

For Windows:

Open the registry using regedit command.
Locate the following key:

\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Oracle

Check the location of the central inventory. This is the path given in the inst_loc key.
The default location is {System Root}\Program files\Oracle\inventory.
Navigate to that location and delete the inventory directory and all its contents.
Delete the registry key inst_loc.