Re: OFA - Optimal Flexible Architecture

C Scott Harris wrote:
>
> In article <32243F18.1851_at_santeecooper.com>,
> Tim Bower <jtbower_at_santeecooper.com> wrote:
> >
> >It seems that Oracle corp. is actually *enforcing* the OFA starting
> >w/ v7.3. The OFA is documented in Appendix B of the "Oracle7
> >Administrator's Reference for UNIX", shipped w/ the 7.3 docs.

Prior to version 7.3, Oracle recommended OFA and then made it very hard to build an OFA compliant installation. We fixed this a bit too well at 7.3, building a very specific version of OFA as a default. Lots of folks have commented pointedly that the middle letter in OFA stands for "Flexible". ;-}

At 7.3.2.2 (a patch), we have made changes: we will accept whatever you enter for Oracle_Base and Oracle_Home and work from there. (The defaults on new install stay the same as 7.3, but you can now edit Oracle_Base and Oracle_Home before the install.) While this does not allow full flexibility within the installer, you should be able to get the software installed where you want it. You will also need to finesse the mount points on the editable screen to get the database files in the /data directory. (Sorry, we won't do your sim. links for you.)

Can't speak for all of your other changes, but the 7.3 installer includes real documentation (check out the on-line help), conforms to what you used to have to pay Oracle consulting two days visit to get, and runs cleanly without having various windows obscure others with very strange key combinations needed to move from one window to another (platform dependent).

There is a good article on OFA in Oracle magazine Sept to December -- go to www.oramag.com and register, then look for the back issues. In it, Cary and Craig answer the question of "What's the justification..."

However, using the current 7.3.2.2 installer should allow most OFA varients and near OFA installations to be done either cleanly or with a modest amount of tweaking after the install. (Complex databases will still need to be built from a carefully generated custom script, using SQL*PLUS.) If you want to discuss this further, please send me email at mhjohnso_at_us.oracle.com. We are always looking for installer beta testers and feedback. Hopefully you will eventually agree with the rest of the beta testers that the 7.3.2.2 installer is a significant improvement over the 7.2 and earlier installers. Sorry about the 7.3.2 overly-agressive OFA installer.  

>
> Yep. What's the justification for doggedly adhering to this standard?
> I do something very similar to OFA, but where the 7.3 new install
> insists on /mount_point/product/oracle/stuff, I insist on
> /database/oracle/{product,data,etc}. I use symbolic links at lower
> levels to spread items across disks.
>
> Now don't get me started on how they took the useable installer for
> late 7.1* and 7.2* and deployed yet another broken, flakey installer.
> Or the elimination of sqldba which has saved my a lot typing when
> admin'ing from home. Or sending Oracle Enterprise Manager -- NT only --
> which, I think, can only manage >=7.2 servers. Or sending out SQLnet
> Network Manager as a 16-bit Windows app which, by the way, doesn't work
> under 95.
>
> I think they're just trying to annoy me.

I'm not trying to annoy you. Sorry.

>
> Scott Harris
> csharris_at_netcom.com

Mark Johnson
mhjohnso_at_us.oracle.com Received on Wed Aug 28 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST