Notes for installing Oracle Database 19c / 21c...

Download Oracle Database

Oracle Database can be found at https://edelivery.oracle.com.

On the checkout page, Oracle provides a handy script for downloading the binaries with 'wget'.

The trick to using the wget script is to realize that after entering your password and *nothing* happens, it's actually working and downloading the files.

Unzip the Database

As the 'oracle' user, create software installation directory:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/oracle/database/21c
sudo chown -R oracle:oinstall /opt/oracle

Unzip the downloaded file to that directory:

unzip LINUX.X64_213000_db_home.zip -d /opt/oracle/database/21c

Create Environment Variables

Create the following environment variables and add them to your shell startup scripts:

# File: ~/.bash_profile
# User specific environment and startup programs

export ORACLE_BASE=/opt/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/database/21c
export ORACLE_SID=oemcc21
export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch

Workaround for Oracle 19.3 Installer

Oracle 19.3 has an odd bug which causes the installer to complain OEL 8.x is not a compatible operating system. This is no big deal, but for some reason the installer will hang for a very, very long time before fully starting up. To remedy this problem, we will trick it into thinking we are installing on OEL 8.1.

Edit the file $ORACLE_HOME/cv/admin/cvu_config

# File: $ORACLE_HOME/cv/admin/cvu_config

CV_ASSUME_DISTID=OEL8.1

Install Software

You may run the installer from $ORACLE_HOME:

./runInstaller

Choose, "install software only" and follow the prompts.

Before clicking 'install', make sure to save the response file "db.rsp" for future use if you plan to do a 'silent' install.

GUI Problems

If you're having problems running the graphical installer, check that X11 forwarding is turned on:

sudo cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep -i X11Forwarding

If no, set it to yes and restart sshd:

sudo service sshd restart

If using Windows 'putty' to SSH into the database server, install the Windows program 'Xming' and configure putty to work with it... How?

Create Database

The next step is to create a database...