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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> Re: runInstaller - ruinInstaller? RUINstaller?
There have been times when I would have paid extra for (1) a character-mode
installer and/or (2) a reliable and consistent way to create a listing of
EXACTLY what was installed (e.g. the long-defunct "instver").
I think I've installed Oracle with just about every mechanism they've had since Oracle 5 came out - cpio from tape, custom platform-specific scripts, a few dozen floppy disks (Xenix & DOS), orainst /c, orainst /m, and runInstaller. The java-infested runInstaller is one of the worst pieces of junk that Oracle has ever forced upon the user community. I've made it a point to express this opinion to several rather senior people at Oracle. A few - from the technical ranks - have even agreed (off the record of course). For one thing, "making it easy to install Oracle" makes it far too easy for the clueless to install it poorly!
Some of the comments like "Any machine that's need to run a production database should be strong enough to run Java ok" miss the point entirely. For one thing, not all Oracle installations are on production servers. More importantly, the vast majority of Oracle installs are NOT done at the system console. At my last two jobs, we used Exceed Hummingbird - which had quite a few problems with runInstaller. At my current job, we use Reflection-X. It seems a bit better - once you learn the quirks. (Hmmm... The first screen is chopped off at the bottom so the buttons are invisible... Hit return to go to next screen... Still invisible... Minimize... Click the minimized icon on taskbar to restore... OK The buttons at the bottom are visible now...). If you think that sounds like fun, try it over a dial-up connection.
However, if you really want to experience ruinInstaller (pun intended) in all its glory, try a cluster install sometime. I spent at least a couple of man-weeks over the last five years fighting it, trying to diagnose problems, trying to get it to work correctly - and have NEVER seen it actually work. A typical cluster-based install with ruinInstaller usually goes something like this:
loop until entirely sick of it
end loop
Then... (optional)
Call somebody deep inside the mothership at Oracle and ask them about this
nightmare - and find out that it actually is a known, but largely
unadmitted, problem! Once someone on the OPS development team even supplied
a convoluted deep-geek hack to make it (almost, 99.2%-ish) work.
Finally...
Give up on the cluster install and just install the software individually on
each node. The problem here, on a complex install at least, is in trying to
determine exactly what options were selected everywhere so that you actually
have the same executables on every node. [Checking it with a file dump of
the "Installed Software" isn't very helpful since it seems to generate the
list in pseudo-random order as a hierarchical tree ("diff" doesn't work very
well).]
After the first dozen or so attempts (on several different platforms, with several different versions of Oracle8 & 8i), I simply decided that I wouldn't bother attempting another cluster install with ruinInstaller again.
Don Granaman
[OraSaurus and command line curmudgeon]
What I wouldn't give for "./orainst /c" right now.
<RANT>
Where is the productivity and ease of use of the #$%^#@ OUI when it takes hours and hours just to load up all the java crap! Piece of garbage is enough to make me want to go back to 7.3.4 - and shoot the idiot who thought up java...
</RANT>
Thankyou. I feel better about hating 9iAS now.
Scott Shafer
San Antonio, TX
210-581-6217
-- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: INET: Scott.Shafer_at_dcpds.cpms.osd.mil Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-LReceived on Thu Jul 11 2002 - 03:43:18 CDT
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Don Granaman INET: granaman_at_cox.net Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
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