Re: ORACLE 7.2.2.4 Installation Help

In article <4dmrds$2a32_at_news.doit.wisc.edu>, Mirwais Qader <mqader_at_students.wisc.edu> wrote:
:We have just recently purchased the ORACLE software product with Developer
:2000, Discoverer 2000. We are installing it on an HP9000 running HP-UX 9.04.
:
:What are some problems I should be aware of?
:
:1) -Do I need to bring UNIX down to a single user to Install? [So we
: can install from the main console only?]

Probably not, but don't you have an install manual? It should tell you. Most of the install should be as ORACLE_OWNER, and that assumes a multiuser state.
:
: -Is this necessary everytime an update or upgrade of some tiny
: software is made too?

No, but (again) you should have a manual that tells you what you need to do, an HP9000 isn't unsupported, is it?

:
:2) -All of my semaphores and device I/O and other 'minimum' requirements
: suggested in the installation book are already fine on the system.
: How much additional 'messing' around do I need to do to get it
: installed? I would rather not touch these until later because we
: have an installation package from ORACLE. We are mainly trying to
: 'learn' the system so that when we go to training, etc. We have a
: good idea of what we are dealing with (terminology, environment,
: etc...).

If your existing system meets the minumum requirements, you don't have to do anything. If you did have to change a kernal setting, you would have to rebuild the kernal (shut it down), and there is some danger to that if you don't know what you are doing.

:
: I am mainly concerned about the UNIX! If Oracle does not get
: installed properly - no problem, BUT if in the process, I lose UNIX,
: then BIG PROBLEM (possibly, if I can't get it back by the next day).
:
: I have also heard that you have to assign specific chunks of your
: memory to Oracle. Does this mean no other software can use it at
: all? How would one go about doing that exactly?

The instance will set up an SGA (system global area) that will take up a certain amount of memory, but you can adjust it away from the default if you need to. This is not a "rebuild" and you can't hurt the Unix system when you do it. You can find out about the SGA in your manuals.

:
:3) We are not using X-Windows, but the requirements state that Motif and
: X11R5 should be running. X11R5 is running, but no Motif. Does this
: mean we can't use our Emulators: Hummingbird and Reflection? Do we
: have to use Oracle in a command line mode environment? {Discoverer
: and Developer are both the PC-Windows based versions}

There is probably no reason to run X-Windows on the server if you don't want to; your clients (I assume) will be on other boxes, and they can run Windoz or some equally unreliable system, and just query the data base on the server. SQL*DBA will run in a character mode and so will SQL*Plus (which is what I assume you are calling the command line mode). You might want to consider running your clients in a character mode also (Forms 3.0 instead of 4.5). While Windoz forms are pretty, they are GPF prone, and what works on one box will not always work on another, Windoz being such a un-robust environment. Data entry people are usually a lot more impressed with a system that is fast and stays up than they are with "pretty". Pretty only lasts a day or so and then people start asking for such things as speed, and reliability. Also, you may have all kinds of people dial into your system and use the forms you create. GUI forms are mostly worthless on a dial up system (hey, you don't suspect I have a fixed hatred for Windows, do you?).

:
:4) I have about 320MB of HD space on one disk to assign to the server
: and its related software. Is this enough? Developer will be
:installed on a PC, Discoverer on PCs. {Client-Installation}

You may be able to install in that much space, but it is too small to do anything serious with. What kind of data could fit in 320Mb? Four 1-gig drives would be nice for a start of a serious system. If you put all your files on one drive, several processes will be writing to the same drive at one time; it will work fine during development, but will be the pits when the system is loaded. The deamon for each concurrent user takes .5 Mb of memory, so you will be doing a lot of swapping if you have 80 users, you don't want that on your database drive. Besides it is a fate worse than death to have your OS on the same drive as Oracle: if that drive goes down, you are.....does the word "toast" mean something to you? Toast it is, then. You can learn Oracle on a smaller box if the cost of the drives bothers you; a nice pentium pc running UnixWare is a good test sled, and a dual Pentium box (or four), can kick a few doors in. The PCI bus gives you decent IO, if not great.

:
:5) We also purchased Pro*C. We have the HP C compiler A.09.77. Pro*C
: requires an ANSI C compiler. The HP C can generate ANSI C Code with
: the -Aa option. Is this good enough or do we need to get another
: compiler?

It SHOULD work, but maybe you should have asked first :-((

:
:
:If anyone could help I WOULD APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH!!! Mainly I am
:concerned about UNIX. I don't want to set some parameters to something that
:I can't fix back, re-link the Kernel, reboot and get stuck needing HP
:technical support to come and fix it and lose days to a week of work!!
:
:Thanks. mqader_at_students.wisc.edu
:

On some systems, if the kernal fails, the old kernal has been saved, and you can mv it into place. Maybe you should figure that out first (maybe even try it? Nahhh, too easy).

Cheers,

Harrison

-- 
Harrison Picot      *  1995: Bill Gates asks congress to allow immigration
harrison_at_cais.com   *  of 140,000 programmers/yr.  Congress agrees; held  0 
Haymarket,VA USA    *  hearings on immigration.   Hearings on "Hillary"  99.
(I just speak for   *  Chances of programmer's pay increase (only) 3%    99.
me).                *  Chances of programmers sharing success with Gates: 0.