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Oracle® Application Server Installation Guide
10g Release 2 (10.1.2) for hp HP-UX Itanium, and Linux Itanium
Part No. B15870-01
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3 Things You Should Know Before Starting the Installation

This chapter contains the following topics:

3.1 Oracle Home Directory

The directory in which you install Oracle Application Server is called the Oracle home. During installation, you specify the full path to this directory and a name for this Oracle home.

/opt/oracle/OraHome_j2ee_10_1_2

Names of Oracle homes must be 128 characters or fewer, and can contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores.


Notes:

Spaces are not allowed anywhere in the Oracle home directory path. For example, you cannot install in "/opt/oracle/app server/j2ee10_1_2" because of the space character in "app server". The installer does not check for this until several screens after you have entered the path.

You cannot install Oracle Application Server in an existing Oracle home.

3.1.1 Installing in a Non-Empty Oracle Home

You cannot install Oracle Application Server in a directory that already contains some files. For example, if you cancel an installation, or if an installation failed, then you have to clean the directory before you can reinstall Oracle Application Server in it. Also, the installer cannot repair an installation.


See Also:

For instructions on how to clean up the directory, refer to Section F.3.3, "Message About Installing in a Non-Empty Directory".

3.2 Oracle Home Name

One of the screens in the installer prompts you for the Oracle home directory (which is the destination directory) and also an Oracle home name. This Oracle home name does not need to be the same as the directory name.

The Oracle home name can consist of alphanumeric and the underscore (_) characters, and cannot be longer than 128 characters.

3.3 First-Time Installation of Any Oracle Product

If Oracle Application Server is the first Oracle product to be installed on a computer, the installer displays a screen where you specify an "inventory" directory (also called the "oraInventory" directory). This inventory directory is used by the installer to keep track of all Oracle products installed on the computer.

The inventory directory is separate from the Oracle home directory for Oracle Application Server.

To ensure other users in the oinstall group have access to the inventory directory (so that they can install Oracle products), do not use the oracle user's home directory as the inventory directory because home directories might not have the proper permissions set up for the oinstall group. Instead, you can put the inventory directory in the /opt/oracle directory (for example, /opt/oracle/oraInventory).

If you have installed an Oracle product previously on the computer, the installer uses the existing inventory directory. Ensure that you have write permissions on that directory. The best way of ensuring this is to run the installer as the same operating system user who installed the existing Oracle products.

Oracle recommends creating an operating system user to perform all tasks related to installation of Oracle products. See Section 2.6, "Operating System User".

3.4 Installing Additional Languages

By default, the installer installs Oracle Application Server with text in English and in the operating system language. If you need additional languages, then click the Product Languages button in the Select a Product to Install screen.

When you select additional languages to install, the installer installs text in the selected languages. It also installs fonts required to display the languages.

For some components, languages are installed only if you select them during installation. In this case, if you access the application in a language that is not available, then it will fall back on the server locale language.

For other components, available languages are installed regardless of what you select during installation. In this case, however, fonts are installed only for the languages that are explicitly selected. When you access the application, it uses text in your language because the language was installed. However, if you do not have the appropriate fonts to render the text, then the text appears as square boxes. This usually applies to the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages. You can install fonts after installation.

You must install all languages that you need during installation. If you run Oracle Application Server in an environment that uses a language that you did not install, then the user interface can display text in that language and/or in English, or it can display square boxes (caused by missing fonts) instead of text.


Note:

Note that you cannot install additional languages after installation.

3.5 The ias_admin User and Restrictions on its Password

The installer prompts you to specify the password for the ias_admin user. The ias_admin user is the administrative user for Oracle Application Server instance. To manage Oracle Application Server instances using Application Server Control, log in as ias_admin.

Password for the ias_admin User

The password for the ias_admin user has the following restrictions:


Note:

When entering your password, check that the state of the Caps Lock key is what you want it to be. Passwords are case-sensitive.

You must remember the password because you need to enter it when you log on to Application Server Control as the ias_admin user, to manage Oracle Application Server.


See Also:

For details about resetting the password if you forget it, refer to Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide.

3.6 Comparing Installing Components against Configuring Components

When you select components on the Select Configuration Options screen, the installer installs and configures the selected components. For the unselected components, the installer still installs them, but does not configure them.

In most cases, you can configure components that you did not select on the Select Configuration Options screen after installation using the Application Server Control.


See Also:

Refer to Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide for details.

3.7 Where Does the Installer Write Files?

The installer writes files to the following directories:

Table 3-1 Directories Where the Installer Writes Files

Directory Description
Oracle home directory This directory contains Oracle Application Server files. You specify this directory when you install Oracle Application Server.
Inventory directory When you install the first Oracle product on a computer, you specify this directory, which the installer uses to keep track of which Oracle products are installed on the computer. In subsequent installations, the installer uses the same inventory directory.
/var/opt/oracle or /etc directory This directory contains information on locations of Oracle homes on the computer.
/tmp directory The installer writes files needed only during installation to a "temporary" directory. By default, the "temporary" directory is /tmp. To specify a different directory, set the TMP environment variable. See Section 2.7.5, "TMP and TMPDIR" for details.

3.8 Why Do I Need to be Able to Log In as Root at Certain Times During Installation?

At least once during installation, the installer prompts you to log in as the root user and run a script. You need to be root because the script edits files in the /var/opt/oracle or /etc directory.

3.9 Running root.sh During Installation

The installer prompts you to run the root.sh script in a separate window. This script creates files in the local bin directory (/usr/local/bin, by default).

If the script finds files of the same name, it prompts you if you want to override the existing files. You should back up these files (you can do this from another window), then overwrite them.

The following lines show the prompts from the root.sh script. The default values are enclosed in square brackets.

Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: [/usr/local/bin]:
The file "dbhome" already exists in /usr/local/bin.  Overwrite it? (y/n)[n]:  y
 Copying dbhome to /usr/local/bin ...
The file "oraenv" already exists in /usr/local/bin.  Overwrite it? (y/n)[n]:  y
 Copying oraenv to /usr/local/bin ...
The file "coraenv" already exists in /usr/local/bin.  Overwrite it? (y/n)[n]: y
 Copying coraenv to /usr/local/bin ...

3.10 Setting the Mount Point for the CD-ROM

The Oracle Application Server CD-ROMs are in RockRidge format. To manually mount or unmount the disk, you must have root privileges. Be sure to unmount the disk before removing it from the drive.

To mount the first disk, log in as the root user and follow the steps in one of the following sections, depending on your platform:

Mounting the First Disk on HP-UX

To mount the first disk, follow these steps:

  1. Insert Oracle Application Server disk 1 into the disk drive.

  2. Create the /SD_CDROM directory if it does not already exist:

    # /usr/bin/mkdir /SD_CDROM
    
    
  3. To mount the disk, enter a command similar to the following:

    # /usr/sbin/mount -F cdfs -o rr /dev/dsk/cxdytz /SD_CDROM
    
    

    In the preceding example, /SD_CDROM is the disk mount point directory and /dev/dsk/cxdytz is the device name for the disk device, for example /dev/dsk/c0d2t0.

Mounting the First Disk on Linux

On most Linux systems, the disk mounts automatically when you insert it into the disk drive. To mount the first disk, follow these steps:

  1. Insert Oracle Application Server disk 1 into the disk drive.

  2. To verify that the disk mounted automatically, enter the following command:

    • Red Hat:

      # ls /mnt/cdrom
      
      
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server:

      # ls /media/cdrom
      
      
  3. If the command in step 2 fails to display the contents of the disk, enter the following command:

    • Red Hat:

      # mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
      
      
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server:

      # mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
      

3.11 Starting the Oracle Universal Installer

  1. If the computer does not mount CD-ROMs automatically, you need to set the mount point manually. See Section 3.10, "Setting the Mount Point for the CD-ROM" for details.

  2. Log in as the oracle user.

  3. Insert Oracle Application Server Disk 1 into the CD-ROM drive.

  4. Run the Oracle Universal Installer using the command shown after the notes:


    Notes:

    • Be sure you are not logged in as the root user when you start the Oracle Universal Installer. If you are, then only the root user will have permissions to manage Oracle Application Server.

    • Do not start the installation inside the mount_point directory. If you do, then you may not be able to eject the installation disk. The cd command changes your current directory to your home directory.

    • The Oracle Universal Installer cannot display Korean or Chinese fonts on Linux systems because the JDK does not support these fonts.


    • For HP-UX and Linux:

      CD-ROM users:

      prompt> cd
      prompt> mount_point/runInstaller
      
      

      This launches Oracle Universal Installer, through which you can install Oracle Application Server.