Re: Remote automated installation of Oracle clients

At my last place we (not the dbas!) created msi packages for desktop installations of the Oracle client. This was very error prone, especially when doing a deinstall of the previous client. We weren't able to use OUI for reasons that I never really understood/agreed with.

The Oracle client - even the instant one - is also really quite large to run unattended at logon, especially over a WAN. I'd advise against this, users really don't like waiting 10 minutes to logon/get a usable pc.

As far as a standardised tnsnames.ora goes, good luck catching all the apps that are out there including the ones people don't know about/have forgotten about. I'd be tempted to consider using AD as the single repository for your net service names, but haven't actually ever done this - it's a discussion where I am now where we have a similar situation.

On 1/10/07, Stephen Booth <stephenbooth.uk_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> We have a situation where we need to rationalise the range of
> installed Oracle clients (i.e. the bit that sits between the app and
> the network stack) we have installed. We currently have versions from
> 7.x through to 10.2 installed accross approximately 12,000 desktops
> (accross various locations in an area of around 26 square miles)
> running various apps on Windows versions from NT4 to XP (mostly
> Windows 2000). We are also introducing a standard TNSNAMES.ORA file
> (this is the impetus to standardise on a single client version as
> different locations on disk and formats of the TNSNAMES.ORA file would
> make it pretty much impossible to manage the rollout of the file
> otherwise).
>
> With the number of desktops to be updated and the area they are spread
> over it would not be possible to do this by visiting every desktop so
> management are proposing automated installation of the Oracle client
> through scripts run at logon requiring no user interaction. Has
> anyone ever tried something like this? Are there any lessons learned
> you would be willing to share?
>
> I haven't been able to find any references to this sort of work other
> than how to do a silent install using a responses file. I have looked
> at the 10g Instant Client which looks like it might be more suited to
> our needs as we just need to copy the files onto the desktop and set
> the path variable. Does anyone have any experience of using this
> client that they'd be willing to share. I have used it in test and it
> seemed fine, I'd be grateful for any comments or advice.
>
> I suggested that we look at moving applications to Citrix or other
> thin client solutions so negating the need to have the Oracle client
> on the desktop but was told that this would be too expensive to
> consider right now.
>
> Thanks
>
> Stephen
>
> --
> It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption.
>
> http://stephensorablog.blogspot.com/
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenboothuk
> --
> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
>

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.orawin.info

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