Re: can Oracle 9i be installed in a non-top level directory

From: Mark Bole <makbo_at_pacbell.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 00:58:39 GMT
Message-ID: <3FHdc.20448$1o6.3813@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com>

Joel Garry wrote:
> thick_guy_9_at_yahoo.com (AMIT) wrote in message news:<7e127df6.0404091018.658cebc1_at_posting.google.com>...
>

>>hi
>>I am thinking of installing Oracle 9i on Red Hat Linux 8.0 on x86.
>>Due to some constraints with my existing linux partition scheme (all 4
>>primary partitions are used up), I will not be able to allicate a top
>>level partition to Oracle - i.e I can't create /u01,/u02,/u03,/u04
>>partitions.
>>
>>I do have space on /home. Can i create /home/u01,... and install? Or
>>will creating a symbolic link from /u01 (under /) to /home/u01 be a
>>better alternative?
>>
>>Thanks

>
>
> That u0x stuff is merely a suggestion. It has advantages of
> administration in that people who are familiar with OFA will know
> where things are. It is not necessarily the default and not required.
> You should be able to establish oracle environment variables that
> point whereever you wish.
>
> Nothing wrong with links, although I've seen people mess up on
> restores and copies because they don't understand subtleties.
>
> jg
> --
> @home.com is bogus.
> http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50811,00.html?tw=wn_story_related

If you are going to install the same version of Oracle on more than a few servers in your organization (for example, version 8.1.7, 9.2.0, etc), it would behoove you to standardize on one location, such as:

        /opt/oracle/product/9.2.0

        /u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0

        d:\oracle\oracle92 [Windows]

These are just examples, YMMV.

When you install Oracle using the installer, the ORACLE_HOME is hard-coded in several locations, and difficult to change by hand after the fact (and definitely not supported by Oracle Corp). Under Unix, soft links work fine for meeting a standard such as this. I also recall a "soft link" utility available under W2K server....

The reason for choosing a standard location is that for any scripts, LISTENER.ORA files, and so on that reference the ORACLE_HOME setting, you can much more easily migrate or fail-over or what-have-you to different servers, without breaking your existing configuration.

Where you put your database datafiles is a completely different issue, although the OFA standard also addresses that. Once again, a standard that allows for different servers and more than one database per server is a good idea.

--Mark Bole Received on Fri Apr 09 2004 - 19:58:39 CDT