Re: Oracle 10g Server on Windows XP Pro

"Howard J. Rogers" <hjr_at_dizwell.com> wrote in message news:<40b43600$0$8989$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au>...
> "Ian Smith" <ian.smith_at_irascian.com> wrote in message
> news:de616ff6.0405252155.330addc0_at_posting.google.com...
> > "Howard J. Rogers" <hjr_at_dizwell.com> wrote in message
> news:<40b3d86b$0$3035$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au>...

OK. Let's start again....

>
> Not sure what all the exclamation marks are trying to say.

Oh I think you are! ;-)

I was hoping someone would have a "known problem, quick fix" answer. OK, so I'm incredibly naive, bite me!

This problem looked to me initially to be pretty straightforward (I'm not the only one at work having the same problem - our DBA is struggling with it as I type). As I saw it the problem was/is easy to reproduce: Take an XP Pro system. Install Oracle Database. Watch it work. Reboot. Marvel at how it's broken.

If I've learnt anything in 20+ years in IT (OK, so maybe I've learnt very little) it's taught me that detailing every last bit of information on a first posting means that (a) your posting is so long people run away because it looks so complicated and (b) it's a waste of time anyway there's often a "Yeah. I know what that is. Everyone hits that on first install" solution that can be given straight off the bat of describing just the basic symptoms (which I felt was what I did!).

So the facts are these:

It's a laptop with 1GB memory running XP Pro SP1. The uninstall of Oracle 9i was done following the process documented here: http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian/oracle/howto_uninstall_oracle8i.htm

I was running the PC as a workgroup configuration. The first install was away from my home network. The second install was connected to my home network. The network connectivity or lack of it doesn't seem to make any difference.

The uninstall of Oracle 10g 10.0.1 was done following section 6.3 of their install guide. I couldn't follow all the steps because it has you uninstall Oracle using the Universal Installer and then tells you to manually uninstall other bits by running SqlPlus - uhm the uninstaller just deleted SqlPlus.exe. Doh! Is it me, or has nobody ever tested this (I'm sensing a theme here).

Another individual installing on a clean machine has exactly the same problem. Everything works fine until a reboot is performed. Maybe my incompetence is rubbing off on him?

If you try to
> install SQL Server on Linux, what do you think would happen? Oracle has a
> set of platforms its certified for (and XP Pro is one of them), but if you
> try putting it on one that's not certified, you can't expect everything to
> work perfectly. The response you seem to think is a bit odd therefore
> strikes me as being perfectly legitimate.

Ah, I think you're saying we agree on this.

> I can only say again, a basic installation isn't!

What's your definition of "a basic installation". I would say one that goes with all the defaults. I had the problem going with all the defaults (an ORCL database). Admittedly since the first failure I have tried to initialise my own database as part of the install process because I don't want two databases and I want to write script code I can use on the "real" database (called 'NCCF') if our DBA can ever get past the same problems I'm getting.

By the way the database gets created. And I can add users. And build tables. And connect. Lots of good stuff ---- until of course I do a reboot!  

> The installation process will not create an ORACLE_SID for you (the name of
> your instance, effectively, which will, if you have any sense, also be the
> name of your database). That is what the database creation assistant will do
> for you when you finally get around to creating a database (and again if you
> have any sense you will make installation and database creation two separate
> steps. I've never gotten on with the business of creating a database as part
> of the installation, but simply do a software only install, and then run
> DBCA as a separate exercise).

Well I got around to creating a database instance. The install process advised me to (I don't think it lets you NOT create a database instance actually) and I concurred. Seemingly, my bad! It even worked. My first install I also used the DBCA to create a second database (the NCCF one I really wanted) but realised that I was ending up with two instances one of which (ORCL I think it was called) I had no interest in - hence the switch at install to set up just the NCCF one. The DBCA made no difference. It worked .... until I did a reboot when both ORCL and NCCF were both broken with the same symptoms (em running on two different ports for the two different instances) so while I can see you do things differently and you no doubt have your reasons, they do not follow the recommended install process and don't appear to resolve the specifics of my problem anyway. Since the install process sets up an instance it should surely have set up the ORACLE_SID. My point is I had a database I could use so why should I then be told "You haven't set your ORACLE_SID environment variable"? Install set up the instance, it should have left things in a consistent state to be able to run utilities etc against that instance.

>
> You will also find things run a lot smoother when you install onto a clean
> Windows box. ORACLE_SID is a registry setting, and it can get rather
> confused when 10g finds itself being installed onto box previously used for
> a 9i database, because the registry can get messy over time.

A colleague installing onto a clean box has the same "failure after reboot" problem. A "clean machine" is not a luxury I can afford at the moment.

I uninstalled 9i using instructions at the site http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian/windows/howto_nt_das.htm

I uninstalled 10g using Oracle's own instructions (section 6.3 of the install guide). This uses the Universal Installer to uninstall the database then has you manually deleting registry entries etc. As part of the "manual" uninstall it advises you to run SqlPlus to uninstall an ASM instance. Except of course if you've run the Universal Installer to do the uninstall as it tells you SQL Plus isn't there any more to let you do this. I'd make some tart comment about quality and testing but would hate to be accused of giving opinion instead of facts again!

The Oracle_SID error is something I got when trying to run a DOS command I found mentioned in another problem report that hinted more information might be available. There are no errors indicating this error as part of just trying to get the basic database working after a reboot. A colleague installing on a clean machine has the same problems (not sure of his exact configuration other than that it's running XP Pro SP1) so ORACLE_SID is something I need to read up on when I've got the basic database up and running and want to run that other tool.

> The fundamental problem here, though, is that you *still* haven't offered
> any real information *at all* about your system. Is it part of a network? Is
> there a network card? What other software is on it. Is it at home? Is it at
> work? Is there a domain? What IP address are you using? Is there a firewall?
> How much RAM? How much disk space?

Strewth. Shall I just post my hard disk contents as a binary? ;-) I mean, do you know how much software I have installed on this machine! All of which has installed first time and worked as expected :-P

OK, so I'm being a bit flippant and mea culpa with regards to supplying more information, but your initial response appeared to be ignoring the main problem and focussing on the business of Windows passwords. It's not an excuse but just so you know the second reply was sent out at 6am UK time as I was rushing to make sure I didn't miss a train in response to your posting which had appeared overnight (I missed the train by the way which is a bummer!)

Truth is it's over a year since I installed Windows and I've never had to enter a password until Oracle suddenly decided that me being signed in as an Administrator and then supplying SYSDEV credentials wasn't good enough. I find that odd, but that's my problem I guess. I still don't know why it doesn't like the Administrator password that my notes from a year ago say I selected as the admin password).

Anyway, the facts are these:

It's a laptop with 1GB memory running XP Pro SP1 and all critical patches, Pentium 4 processor 1GHz.

I was running the PC as a standalone workgroup PC. The first install was away from my home network. The second install I was connected to my home network which consists of other standalone workgroup boxes. The network connectivity or lack of it doesn't seem to make any difference.

There is no firewall when not on the network. I turned the firewall (ZoneAlarm Pro) off when I was on the network doing the Oracle install.

My IP address is 192.168.0.1 It is allocated by a DHCP server built into my router for access to the Internet. It has not changed in the last three months and keeps renewing itself when I connect to the network, but this should have no bearing on the "standalone" install.

Another individual installing on a clean machine has exactly the same problem. Everything works fine until a reboot is performed. Maybe my incompetence is rubbing off on him?

The log trace information is in the URL (the one I didn't post correctly) and appears to indicate a network problem. I don't think home/work or part of a network ar relevant in this case. My IP address is 192.168.0.1 - is this of interest? I can't think why! There is no firewall. It's a standalone laptop. None of this information has changed from when Oracle 10g worked (immediately after install) vs when it doesn't work (after the first reboot).

>
> Also, the link to 'an identical problem' you mentioned actually points
> merely to your original post, so doesn't throw much light on the subject.

Yup. I screwed up. What can I say? It's hard trying to cut and paste errors and URLs and log records from several different places.

> So, please don't take this the wrong way, but if you take a deep breath and
> actually tell us some actual facts, without making slip-ups like that one,
> or the password/single-user one, we may be able to help.

Mea culpa. The password/single-user one was to my mind irrelevant to the point I was making: I'm logged in as an admin, I've supplied SYSDBA credentials, why is it asking for something even XP logon doesn't ask me for directly? (that's not a question I want you to answer by the way).

> But if all we get
> is descriptive and reference errors, and opinion about what an installation
> should or should not do, or how difficult it should or should not be, we
> can't help much.

OK. But, if you'll forgive me for saying, you seem to be giving a lot of "opinion" yourself.

> If you are new to Oracle, make friends with http://tahiti.oracle.com, and at
> least read the concepts guide if you haven't already done so. You *cannot*
> be an Oracle DBA if you don't know what a SID is, what a network service
> name is, what ORACLE_SID is doing for you, and why all three are subtley
> different from each other. And much else besides.

Thanks for the link. I don't want to be an Oracle DBA. I don't pretend to be one. SQL Server has spoilt me. I know what a SID is. I provided it at install time. I know roughly what services are running but when a "Help" screen explains a network service id as "eg NY_FINANCE" that doesn't help me one bit. The Oracle documentation list would easily take up the next two months of my life if I read it all. Heck, even the "Fundamentals" guide for App Developers clocks in at over 1000 pages. Guess I've been really spoilt by SQL Server over the years :-(

> I, and many others here, are willing to help you out as much as we can, but
> we need a little more information (well, a lot more, actually) and much less
> 'froth'.

Thank you for your feedback and time. Let me know specifically what further information you'd like.

Cheers,
Ian Received on Wed May 26 2004 - 12:11:50 CDT