Re: Auto-loading SQL*Net on the desktop

From: Murali Kazhipurath <murali_at_jps.net>
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 16:09:05 -0800
Message-ID: <3669cc21.0@blushng.jps.net>

In the past I have done this with the 16-bit version of SQL*Net. The 32-bit is more complicated since it requires many environment and registry settings. I feel that it can still be done, but may not be the best solution. From my experience, the Oracle installer is the best way to deploy SQL*Net. It has built in logic to handle and manage different versions of SQL*Net.

One approach I took was to customize the installer and make it easier for an end-user to install.

Steps:

Set up an install base on the network. (Basically a copy of the client software)
Edit the product file. Normally they have the extension .PRD.
Disable unwanted products.
Highlight all the required products.

This, along with good instructions will make it simpler for the user to install the software. The only additional step I had to do was to write a program to push the configuration files (*.ORA). I have set up Oracle Names Server and this helps make this process simpler or less frequent.

Currently, I am setting up a web page with instructions and a link to the setup utility. We have the install base configured on a Windows NT server and this allows us to use the UNC notation from a browser to spawn the installer. This avoids the user from having to map drives, search for the executable, etc.

In spite of all those talks by Oracle folks about Java and web based applications, it is ironic that they haven’t made the installer work this way. It will help DBAs and Network administrators a lot. Hopefully they will soon have a JAVA based client software installer.

Let me know if I can be of any help.

Murali

Murali Kazhipurath (murali_at_jps.net)
President and Lead Technical Consultant (Specializes in Oracle and MS SQL Server DB Administration) Kaustubam Systems, Inc.,
5098 Foothills Blvd., Ste 3-377, Roseville, CA 95747

Phone : (916) 773 1918
Fax   : (916) 773 8147
Mobile: (916) 508 8147
Pager : (530) 883 2300 or
        www.smartpage.net/murali/
=====================================================

hansenrd_at_cadvision.com wrote in message <366977b9.971431_at_news.cadvision.com>...
>Is there a utility or trick to automatically installing SQL*Net on the
>desktop. We'd like to perform an install of SQL*Net on about 400 PCs
>and don't want to have to go to every PC and run orainst.
>
>Thanks in advance for any help.
>
Received on Sat Dec 05 1998 - 18:09:05 CST