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RE: Copying Oracle software between Unix servers

From: Mark W. Farnham <mwf_at_rsiz.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 13:45:06 -0500
Message-ID: <KNEIIDHFLNJDHOOCFCDKMEOFGDAA.mwf@rsiz.com>


If you're talking about the core Oracle database technology, the software is pretty clean and relocatable. Boring, actually. As long as you manage a few details such as making sure users and groups have the same user and group ids, not much can go wrong other than inadvertantly changing ownership or permissions as you make the copy.

If you're cloing the e-Business suite, Oracle decided to allow creativity in the location of embedded strings that vary from installation to installation, so instead of simply making a tar or cpio preserving permission and ownership bits the cloning process requires significant planning, tool support and effort. The noxious weed of the "C: has everything" culture that spawned the mixing of software and data seems as unavoidable as long mixed case variable identifiers and pagelong listings for individual jobs in a process status listing.

SighIHopeIDidNotSoundTooMuchLikeADinosaurRegards

mwf

-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org]On Behalf Of Robyn Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 1:25 PM
To: spatenau_at_gmail.com
Cc: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Re: Copying Oracle software between Unix servers

I've done this with 9i installations, so I'd like to hear if there are drawbacks. If you're installations are very consistent, and you are installing the same options from server to server, I think it can work well. AFAIK, a relink all should let you know if there are problems with the installation.

In one sense, if each installation is done via the installer, then testing a patch application on the development environment is not a true test of what you will encounter when you apply the patch on production. Right now, I'm patching servers and every one was done slightly differently; different paths and different options. I've had an easier time 'fixing' Oracle inventories for installations built from cloning than from installations.

If I could be missing a hidden problem, someone please let me know ...

Robyn

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:39:15 -0600, jungwolf <spatenau_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:19:06 -0500, Luc Demanche <lucdemanche_at_gmail.com>
wrote:
> > A friend of mine was telling me that in his shop, they don't install
> > Oracle software by the Installer anymore. They 'tar' one ORACLE_HOME
> > from a unix server and copy it to the new server. It seem to work
> > properly.
> >
> > Do you have some bad stories about that?
>
> I was in a shop that did this all the time in the v7 and v8 days. We
> had one box that we kept "legit" and then would copy its ORACLE_HOMEs
> out to the other servers as needed. This was for both DEV and PROD.
>
> I haven't tried it for 9i and I don't have any plans to. If pressed I
> might try it for DEV but I'd keep all the PROD servers legit,
> especially now that RAC is on the scene.
>
> Steven
> --
> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>

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Received on Thu Mar 31 2005 - 13:51:42 CST

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