FW: LONG RANT (RE: 9ias install - automatic creation of database)

Paula -  

To quote a former President, I feel your pain.  

I have been trying to get iAS installed for *weeks* with only limited success. I installed it once, only to find out later that I needed the Portal option. To get the portal option, I had to perform a complete reinstall. Upon starting the installation, I found out that Portal would only work *if* the Infrastructure (OID and SSO) pieces were in place. Okay, fine. After applying kernel and O/S patches, the infrastructure installation worked.  

I just got the iAS software w/ portal installed. Upon going through all of the configuration assistants, I found out that the SSO config. Assistant failed. No problem, I thought. I'll just rerun the assistant later. Except I couldn't find it. Opened up a TAR with Oracle, only to find out that there was no way to re-run some of the assistants individually and, that the only installation supported by Oracle was an installation was one that finished completely without errors.  

Fine. Uninstall and reinstall. This time, the SSO config. Assistant worked, but the Net configuration assistant failed trying to start a database listener for external procedure. It failed because the exptroc file, which should have been installed in $ORACLE_HOME/bin was *missing*. Fine. Open up a TAR. Have an analyst tell me:  

".there is no easy way just to get the missing exproc. Why it didn't install correctly is hard to say. If you have a 9.0.1 Database install, you could copy it over to this install to see if that will solve the problem. Otherwise, stop the install and start over. Typically what I see is when the errors are related to the configuration assistants it is because there are missing OS patches, or your box does not have the correct Kernel parameters as specified in the installation guide. I'm not suggesting that is true in your case, but it is likely. I've done this install probably 25 times on my own box and even with the correct settings I have gotten strange errors once or twice during install, and I removed the failed install and started over and everything is fine. This install is large and with the amount of JAR files it would be impossible to tell where this file was located, and to ensure that it was install correctly."  

Wow. Technical support. Neither Technical, nor supportive. Discuss.  

Tried the installation again. Same problem. Got around the Net Config. Problem by 'faking' a copy of extproc. Now I have the OPMN config. Assistant fails, and I cannot get anyone at support to tell my why it's failing, or even where to look.  

I've had a long talk with our Oracle rep. about this piece of. crap. I'm not alone. I found 'An Open Letter to Larry Ellison', written by Sten Vesterli (author of Oracle Web Applications 101) about the same issues. I would highly recommend reading it at http://66.96.138.101/news/. To quote an excerpt:  

"Larry, in the quest to package every conceivable piece of middleware into one package, your organization has created an uninstallable monster!"  

Brian  

-----Original Message-----
Paula_Stankus_at_doh.state.fl.us
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 9:39 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L  

Guys,

I am really annoyed with the 9iasV2 install. At one point it asked where I wanted to put the database files and stated that it was not a good policy to put them in the same fs as the Oracle binaries - being a good OFA-compliant DBA I have already been following this standard and preached the gospel from place to place. At one time during the install it asked me where I wished to put the files. Then I had to basically wipe out the install and start again. When I say "wipe" that is what I mean:

-/var/opt/oracle
-/opt/oracle
-/tmp

So....why is it going ahead running a DBCA, putting the database files in the same fs as the oracle binaries and not giving me the option again. I have gotten rid of everything related to the previous installation. I supposed I can go ahead and then move the files later. But this seems a trifle annoying.

Okay, just venting about the fact that the 9ias install is not as mature as the RDBMS install.

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Author: Brian McGraw
  INET: brian.mcgraw_at_ipacc.com

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