Is this a record !

I've finally installed 9.0.1 on my HP-9000 - and it only took 4 days ! Is this a record.

Day 1

    Upgrade hardware
    Clone critical disk
    Get Clone working

Day 2

    Replace operating system with 64-bit O/S     Discover that firmware needs upgrading for 64-bit     Spend day finding firmware patch
    Upgrade firmware
    Install 64-bit O/S

Day 3

    Rebuild logical volumes to allow for 6GB of disk     space apparently required by Oracle 9.0.1 install.     Install Oracle 9.0.1 - first attempt 85% successful

(but someone switched on the toasted sandwich

        maker - which tripped the house electric supply.
        The server was on a UPS of course, but the
        X-station that you need to run the install wasn't)


    Install Oracle 9.0.1  - second attempt 90% successful.


        (I hadn't installed the 64-bit O/S, but Oracle didn't

        discover this until it tried to relink something)

    Install HP-UX 64-bit properly.

Day 4

    Install Oracle 9.0.1 - 95% successful

    Find that the HP UX patch listed by Oracle in May 2001     was not actually present in the HP-UX O/S June distribution     (it will be in the Sept distribution, but in fact has already been     superseded by a different patch).

    Locate the new patch that superseded the patch, download     the 17MB from the Internet and install - luckily didn't need     to reboot the box and restart the Oracle install from scratch.     Check the other patches Oracle requires - they are all pre-installed     except for one - search HP for the one patch - it doesn't exist.     TAR to Oracle about requirement of non-existent patch. Rapid     response - see August release note: patch has silently disappeared.

    Continue install - fails to locate libXm libraries - quick check on     Metalink shows SRN listing this as a known bug in HP install.     with resolution. Continue install
    It's IN !!!

    Now to let DBCA build the database -

    It fails - it doesn't like my choice of national character set.

    Solution - the installation document has advised me     to set

        NLS_LANG=AMERICAN-AMERICA.UTF8
    that should be been

        NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8     One underscore = 2 hours of angst. (actually there     were half a dozen errors in the HP setup notes     supplied as the 'quick installation' note - like the     one which said set various tunable parameters to     values which the HP rejected as illegal !!

    DBCA has a number of minor glitches in it anyway -     e.g. it quoted the suggested file sizes for DRSYS as     20 GB - it couldn't cope with the fact that some files     were supplied in MB, and some in KB. In fact the 20GB     files generated a script item for 20 MB.

Suggestion:

    Either use a pre-defined template database (the install     will copy 600MB of templates onto your disc, even if     you don't want them).

    Or use the DBCA to generate a script, but don't     bother to run the scripts until you have read them     and edited them to your own satisfaction.

    The full monty of install scripts took about 3 hours to     run on my system.

    Allow

        3 GB for the software install (600MB will be
        two template databases - 60MB is the oracle executable)
        50MB in your oracle home directory
        1.2 GB for your database mount point
        1.5 GB if you want to copy the 3 CDs to the hard
        disk before starting
        500MB of a directory you can set up as the TEMP
        or TMPDIR for the java machine to run from.

Job completed (on autopilot) at midnight:30 Friday.

--
Jonathan Lewis

Host to The Co-Operative Oracle Users' FAQ
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html

Author of:
Practical Oracle 8i: Building Efficient Databases
See http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/book_rev.html

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