Re: How to install oracle on UNIX

Tom Barnes wrote:

> I don't understand why this thread got totally out of control - where
> is all this anger coming from?
>
> Howard, you have yourself written hands-on instructions for how to
> install Oracle on Linux (these are great - thanks). Here, another
> person shares some information for how to install Oracle on Solaris.
> Sure, the steps might not be 100% accurate (I wouldn't know) and it's
> all in the install guides, but so what? Why start flaming the guy? One
> person even complained about chosing bash as a shell, give me a break!

What? I didn't flame him! I explained why I thought the doco and those 'other' instructions always said to set the kernel parameters: because a lot of installations invlude the creation of a database.

And in the one sentence of mine that you choose to quote in your reply, all I am saying is that in Oracle 10g, Oracle itself checks that the kernel parameters have been set, and the installation won't proceed unless they have been. You can always switch off those checks, of course, but the point is that the direction Oracle itself is going in is 100% clear, and "practical and empirical experience" that they *don't* need to be set is therefore running behind Oracle's own products and their prerequisites, where they *do*.

If there is any personal criticism there at all, by me directed at Keg, it was perhaps the merest suggestion that he might be running one or two versions behind in his practical experience, and that the latest versions of Oracle play him false in that respect.

 > I'm getting tired of hearing "we're telling people to RTFM because
> we're tired of repeating the same thing over and over and we have work
> to do...bla...bla" - well you sure have time to flame this poor guy.

Tom: be a little careful, please. Are you addressing this to me? Or to people in general? Because if it is addressed to me, please point out to me where I am flaming the guy. And if it is addressed to others in general, then please do me the courtesy of not mentioning flaming people in a reply that is made to one of my posts.

I simply don't know where you get this stuff about "telling people to RTFM" from, because that's not my habit or style, and it's certainly not what I wrote in my reply to Keg.

> Even though I agree that the best overall advice for novices is to
> read the Concepts guide etc I think it's great that some people
> actually takes the time to try to explain some of these basic
> concepts.

This has nothing to do with concepts. This has everything to do with having a working Oracle database and installation. Oracle's *own installer*, by default, will create a database *as part of the installation*. So that is why you set kernel parameters before doing the installation.

Call that a flame if you must, but it's just plain facts and commonsense from where I'm sitting.

>> Your practical and empirical experience on this matter is as nought
>> compared with the direction Oracle itself is moving in, I would say.

First, do me a favour. Go and visit www.dizwell.com before posting this sort of comment. You might notice that things have changed a little (the bit you want is the 'Virtual Oracle' paper and the 'Installing 9i on Linux' paper).

Second, when I did write instructions for installing onto unsupported Linux platforms, they always included a section on setting kernel parameters.

This entire discussion is, IIRC, about the fact that Keg has written 'don't bother setting kernel parameters because they don't need to be set for an installation, only for a database creation'. So your comment, from which no offence has been taken btw, is not addressing the actual matter at hand. Whether or not Oracle supports distro X, my instructions for distro X would have still included instructions for setting the kernel parameters.

And you missing that point is what happens when you snip 99% of my post and leave behind just a one-liner, ripped out of context.

Third and final: go and read what I originally wrote again. Put it all back into context. There is not the whif of flame about it. I was simply trying to explain to Keg why setting kernel parameters as part of an *installation* is nevertheless a totally sensible thing to do.

HJR Received on Tue Oct 05 2004 - 23:41:34 CDT