iAS installation update

FYI, I logged a TAR with Oracle last week or so because one Metalink tech had said in passing that Forms and Reports had to go into its own, separate oracle_home. This follows from a previous TAR I had logged with them, simply asking which products work best together.

I had read the installation manual for iAS and had earlier found this:

Note: Be sure not to install Oracle9i Application Server in an Oracle_home containing other Oracle products, including the database. Such an installation could overwrite shared components, causing the products to malfunction. (on p. 3-5, 4-5, 5-5).

Now, in Oracle Reports Developer Getting Started - Release 6i for Windows, it says:

Reports Developer 6i must reside in the default oracle_home. Reports Developer 6i and the Oracle8 or Oracle8i server must reside in separate oracle_Homes, although they can reside on the same physical machine.
Similarly, in a web application deployment, Report Server and Oracle Application Server must reside in separate oracle_homes, although they can reside on the same physical machine. (p.1-16)

Forms and Reports 6i happen to require an Oracle 8.0.6. oracle_home.

This posed a dilemma: how can I install iAS in the default home, when many of its components require access to an "origin" database. I do not plan to use iAS with 8.0.6., I plan to use it with 8.1.7..

I thought I would have to install Forms and Reports 6i first, remove the tidbits that the Oracle Universal Installer installs by default, then install 8.1.7., and then install the iSuite components. Of course by the end of this tortuous process there were errors.

I had a different Metalink technician this time, who told me to ignore what the first technician had said, and to just install iAS based on the installation manual, never mind the other worries that I had.

So, I am ignoring the Oracle Reports Developer Getting Started manual, and I am installing based on the iAS installation manual.

Hopefully that will work.

/begin rant

I still wish the Oracle techs could have told me which versions of the various products are concurrent, they just keep insisting that all their products are certified to work together. All I wanted to know was which oracle_home type do the various products use? Forms and Reports 6i requires an 8.0.6. home, Developer6 used an 8.0.5 home, etc. the Metalink techs do not appear to have a list, they didn't understand my question. When I logged a TAR on this I received three e-mails telling me that my TAR had been passed to different people, in the end the last tech told me that products sometimes are released together, but that it is not all that important, because everything is certified to work together.

I can't shake the feeling that iAS is a bundle of things that were just slapped together. Seeing the old installer pop up during the installation doesn't help remove that impression. Hopefully when the next release comes out it will install in something other than an (old) Oracle 8.0.6. oracle_home. Since it's called Oracle9i iAS, maybe the Forms and Reports Servers will go into a 9i oracle_home (?).
/end rant

(this is my impression, not my employer's etc. etc.)

Sorry if this comes across as a little harsh.

Regards,
Patrice Boivin
Systems Analyst (Oracle Certified DBA)

Systems Admin & Operations | Admin. et Exploit. des systèmes
Technology Services        | Services technologiques
Informatics Branch         | Direction de l'informatique 
Maritimes Region, DFO      | Région des Maritimes, MPO

E-Mail: boivinp_at_mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca <mailto:boivinp_at_mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca>

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