newbie needs installation help.

Greetings from a newbie.

I'm trying to install Oracle, AND know what I've done once I finished. I can install oracle interactively, and I think it's okay.

I next have to install the Oracle Application Server. I've done this, I think it's okay.

I don't know how to check either one, but I want to take a step back and figure out what I've done.

To glean whatever I could, I went out and pillaged the response files for a "silent" or non-interactive installation.

Here's what came up--I expect I have too many questions to address, so just send me to a FAQ or whatever is appropriate. Oracle's web site is too tough for me to wade through right now--maybe the answer is there, and I simply don't know it when I read the heading.

1. The value of ORACLE_HOME. The application server wants its value to be different from the database, and there's an "infrastructure" which needs to be different still. How many are there? Can any of them live together? Is it possible to "over-separate"?
2. The value of ORACLE_HOME_NAME. What is this, anyway? Why do we need it?

The response files have five places for the value of ORACLE_HOME, and ORACLE_HOME_NAME--well, there may be more, but I'm not putting in all the pieces. I take it that these five ought to match, considering that, during the interactive installation, I only get asked once (I think I have that right). Should these match, at least up through the Application server? Because some of these are for the "infrastructure", which, later on, needs to be distinct.

3. There's a zillion cases where it talks about "SID". Also, global data base name, and instance. I'm familiar with old databases, where you could pick whatever name you wanted for your database. I gather Oracle wants the database to be the machine's name? Is that just the "master master" database, like postgres? In postgres, you can have several databases, with whatever name you want, but the "master master" is some fixed name I forget right now....

What are these things, really? I get the feeling there might be separate processes for each "non-master" database. Is that the instance?

4. The response files list an "ods" user. That's not mentioned in the installation manual. How many users and groups are there altogther? What are they used for? Ie, it looks like there's a user:group for installation, true? Does it need to be distinct from the "master master" DBA user?

5. What is the Oracle Internet Directory? (OID--I think that's what OID stands for.) It's not an LDAP server, is it? Do I want it? is it required? I can't ferret that out to my satisfaction.

During the interactive installation, I get chances to leave out various things, but I don't know what the things are, or how they fit. The appendix has a "product description" which is intriguing, but, lots of it is no help at all.

To wit:

Oracle Connection Manager	(in OID)	(in Integration server)
	(not in management server)

I don't know what any of these are. What's a connection? What's being integrated? The names are so bland I can't tell anything.

Anyway, you get my drift, I expect. I have all the kernel parameters in place, and I can make the users and groups I know about--I can do whatever it is I need to do, but I can't fight my way through the fog. I could lick the system administration part if I could only figure out what was going on.

So, what do I go get? Is there a book? A FAQ?

j.

-- 
Jay Scott		512-835-3553		gl_at_arlut.utexas.edu
Head of Sun Support, Sr. Operating Systems Specialist
Applied Research Labs, Computer Science Div.                   S224
University of Texas at Austin