Re: Setting up a new server

"E Sullivan" <ellie999nospam_at_nospamptd.net> wrote in message news:irGcnYYhCJtQeUvdUSdV9g_at_ptd.net...
> Hi,
>
> Can anyone recommend a good book on setting up a new Oracle 8i server on a
> WinXP.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ellie

There won't be one, for a couple of reasons. First, your choice of operating system: XP is not a server-standard O/S, so whilst it's fine for home use and Oracle learning purposes, it's not going to be something that serious authors are going to be very interested in documenting. They want to maintain their credibility (and reach their actual target audience) by describing industrial-strength installations onto "proper" operating systems. No offence to XP intended.

Second, your choice of Oracle version means that if there were any decent books on installing Oracle, they will now only be in the remainder bins. 8i is getting *very* long in the tooth, is about to be de-supported, and no-one would really be contemplating installing it these days fresh, except as some sort of disaster recovery process. Again, assuming you are wanting to do this for learning and experimental purposes, and not actually in a production environment with particular vendor requirements to adhere to, I'd strongly suggest you get hold of 9i or 10g, which are more up to date versions, and for which a lot of very current material is available, both in book stores and on the Net. (both 9i and 10g are available for free from http://technet.oracle.com)

Third, as someone else posted here not so very long ago, very few authors ever bother to document installing Oracle. For Windows installations, that almost makes sense, because there's very little to them. One inserts the CD, lets the thing autorun, and then starts clicking Next. It wouldn't be quite that plain sailing with 8i, because 8i suffers from a minor problem whereby the installer refuses to run on a Pentium 4, but there's a workaround you can search Google for, and once implemented, it really does become plain sailing again.

The only real issues with an installation on any Windows platform of any Oracle version is stuff that has been mentioned a lot (by me!) here lately in response to other posters. Make sure your machine has a fixed IP address and is not using DHCP; make sure it has a proper machine name; if it's a standalone machine, then install the Microsoft loopback adapter so it *behaves* as though it's got a network card; make sure the machine you install onto is configured as it is intended to run (ie, don't install onto a laptop undocked, then expect things to work after you dock it); make sure you keep the installation process separate from the creation of a database (ie, don't let the installer create you a starter database). That sort of stuff.

So my final suggestion to you is simply to insert the CDs, click next a few times, and if you run into any particular problems, ask here for help.

Regards
HJR Received on Mon Jun 21 2004 - 09:09:18 CDT