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This question is unanswered since Oracle 18c has been released. Except Ubuntu Linux platform, most of the other Linux platform supports Oracle 18c installation. I, myself, tested this on CentOS 7 and oracle 18c got installed without any glitch!

It is unfortunate that Oracle Corporation has not documented the installation procedure particularly for Ubuntu Linux platform, nevertheless one good thing is that the image file db_home.zip is a generic one, installable across all Linux platforms.

So how can I install Oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition) on Ubuntu 18.04?

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6 Answers 6

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Let us begin with Part-I of the answer session.

1. Pre-requisite:

1.1. Storage Space Required

  • Oracle download file is db_home.zip whose size is 4.3 GB. If you don't have that much storage space either in $HOME directory or /tmp, you can use a Pendrive of atleast 8GB capacity to hold the downloaded file db_home.zip until the extraction is done.
  • As we are going to install Oracle on directory /opt, it should be having unused free space of atleast 13 GB because oracle extraction itself will consume around 9.3 GB of storage space. Use the following command to verify /opt partition storage space:

$ df -h /opt enter image description here Figure-1: Amount of free space available under "/opt" partition.

1.2. JDK-11 is installed in your computer.

$ echo $JAVA_HOME enter image description here Figure-2: Installation of JDK-11 is already done.

1.3. Enable Multi-Arch Support (32-bit support).

Before enabling 32-bit support for 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04, let us verify that you have 64-bit kernel architecture:

$ dpkg --print-architecture enter image description here Figure-3: This Computer system has 64-bit Kernel Architecture.

Multi-arch support allows you to use 32-bit libraries alongside 64-bit libraries.

$ dpkg --print-foreign-architectures enter image description here Figure-4: This Computer system also supports i386 Architecture (i.e. supports 32-bit Libraries too).

If you get an output like figure-4, then you should break this step and move on to next step-1.4.

Enable multi-arch support by typing:

$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
$ sudo apt-get update

It starts downloading the update and running. After that you give the following command:

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Now verify about support to i386 by typing the following and you should get an output like figure-4:

$ dpkg --print-foreign-architectures

1.4. Install Dependancy Packages required for Oracle Installation.

Issue the following commands to install dependant packages:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential libaio1 libaio-dev rpm rpm-common ndctl

1.5. Create Symlinks.

Create the required soft links so that the installation can find the files it needs at the places it expects them to be:

$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib64

$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/rpm /bin/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/basename /bin/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread_nonshared.a /usr/lib64/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc_nonshared.a /usr/lib64/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libndctl.so.6.10.1 /usr/lib64/libndctl.so
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnuma.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib64/libnuma.so

Find out to whom is /bin/sh pointing to:

$ ls -l /bin/sh enter image description here Figure-5: '/bin/sh' points towards 'dash' shell

If /bin/sh is pointing to dash shell (refer above figure-5), then you are good! Now, you break this step and move ahead to next step-1.6.

enter image description here Figure-6: /bin/sh points towards 'bash' shell

If it is bash shell as seen in Figure-6, then create the following symlinks:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/crti.o /usr/lib64/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/crtn.o /usr/lib64/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/crt1.o /usr/lib64/

1.6. Configure kernel parameters with /etc/sysctl.conf:

To configure Kernel parameters, just follow the below procedure:

$ sudo cp /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.conf.back

$ sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf

Copy and paste the below contents into the file.

#  ------------------------------------------------
# kernel parameter configuration for 18c installation
# 1. Configure kernel shared memory segment
# Calculate shmmax and shmall based on your Computer system RAM (physical memory).
# shmmax = (half the size of RAM in bytes) = (16 GB / 2) * 1024*1024*1024 = 8589934592 bytes
#  (or)         = (one quarter of RAM in bytes) = 4294967296 bytes
# shmall = shmmax/pagesize = 8589934592 / 4096 = 2097152 pages
# 2. Configure kernel semaphore parameters which are semmsl, semmns, semopm and semmni respectively.
# kernel.sem = semmsl  semmns  semopm  semmni = 250 32000 100 128
#
# to display all kernel parameters, issue this command: sysctl -a
# to display current kernel parameters, issue this command: sysctl -p
# -------------------------------------------------------
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 8589934592
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
kernel.panic_on_oops = 1
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048576
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1

Save and exit from vi editor.

Run the following command to display the current kernel parameters.

$ sudo sysctl -p enter image description here Figure-7: The list of Kernel Parameters configured in "/etc/sysctl.conf" file.

1.7. Configure shell limits for user oracle

Historically, resource limits for processes are defined in /etc/security/limits.conf. This file is read at login time for users logging in with PAM (via file pam_limits.so). However, system services that are started via systemd do not use PAM for login, so the limits in /etc/security/limits.conf are ignored.

Make a GUI login and open up a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T and issue the following command:

$ ulimit -n -s -u -l enter image description here Figure-8: Limits for a GUI login with empty '/etc/systemsd/user.conf' file.

Make a non-GUI login by the command su <username> and then issue ulimit command:

$ su krishna
$ ulimit -n -s -u -l

enter image description here Figure-9: Limits for a non-GUI login with empty '/etc/security/limits.conf' file.

1.7.1. Configure limits parameters for GUI logins with /etc/systemd/user.conf file:

To configure limits parameters system.conf, just follow the below procedure:

$ sudo cp /etc/systemd/system.conf /etc/systemd/system.conf.back
$ sudo vi /etc/systemd/system.conf

Copy and paste the below lines into the file.

DefaultLimitNOFILE=65535
DefaultLimitNPROC=65535

Save and exit from vi editor.

To configure limits parameters in user.conf, just follow the below procedure:

$ sudo cp /etc/systemd/user.conf /etc/systemd/user.conf.back
$ sudo vi /etc/systemd/user.conf

Copy and paste the below lines into the file.

DefaultLimitNOFILE=65000
DefaultLimitNPROC=65000

Save and exit from vi editor.

Reboot the computer in order to effect the changes.

Observation: When I attempted to change DefaultLimitSTACK parameter to various values in both '/etc/systemd/system.conf' and '/etc/systemd/user.conf', the system either froze or crashed up on reboot. Though I successfully restored the system most of the time but twice I had to re-install Ubuntu operating system from scratch and it was really a hard time!

Make a GUI login and open up a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T and issue the following command:

$ ulimit -n -s -u -l enter image description here Figure-10: Limits for a GUI login with parameters configured in '/etc/systemsd/user.conf' file.

Make a non-GUI login by the command su <username> and then issue ulimit command:

$ su krishna
$ ulimit -n -s -u -l

enter image description here Figure-11: Limits for a non-GUI login with empty '/etc/security/limits.conf' file.

1.7.2. Configure limits parameters for non-GUI logins with /etc/security/limits.conf file:

To configure limits parameters in limits.conf, just follow the below procedure:

$ sudo cp /etc/security/limits.conf /etc/security/limits.conf.back
$ sudo vi /etc/security/limits.conf

Copy and paste the below contents into the file.

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# shell limits for users of oracle 18c
# [domain] is either username or group or the wildcard *, for default entry or 
# the wildcard %, can be also used with %group syntax, for maxlogin limit
# [type] is either soft (enforcing soft limits) or hard (enforcing hard limits)
# [item] is among core, data, fsize, memlock, nofile, rss, stack, cpu, nproc, as,
# maxlogin, maxsyslogins, priority, locks, sigpending, msgqueue, nice, rtprio
#[domain][type]  [item]  [value]
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
krishna   soft   nofile   60000
krishna   hard   nofile   65535
krishna   soft   nproc    60000
krishna   hard   nproc    65535
krishna   soft   stack    30000
krishna   hard   stack    32768
krishna   soft   memlock  3000000
krishna   hard   memlock  3145728

Save and exit from vi editor.

Reboot the computer in order to effect the changes. Make a GUI login and open up a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T and issue the following command:

$ ulimit -n -s -u -l enter image description here Figure-12: Limits for a GUI login with parameters configured in '/etc/systemsd/user.conf' file.

Make a non-GUI login by the command su <username> and then issue ulimit command:

$ su krishna
$ ulimit -n -s -u -l

enter image description here Figure-13: Limits for a non-GUI login with parameters configured in '/etc/security/limits.conf' file.

Use vi editor and edit /etc/security/limits.conf in order to change "krishna" to "oracle" because username krishna was used to generate screenshots and to explain the concepts. The following is the desired settings for Oracle installation:

oracle   soft   nofile   60000
oracle   hard   nofile   65535
oracle   soft   nproc    60000
oracle   hard   nproc    65535
oracle   soft   stack    30000
oracle   hard   stack    32768
oracle   soft   memlock  3000000
oracle   hard   memlock  3145728

1.7.3. How to display the limits of a user process?

To display the limits of a user process, all you have do is simply "cat" the limits file like this:

$ sudo cat /proc/PID/limits

Where PID can be find out using ps command.

$ ps -a | grep -v tty2 | grep gnome-shell enter image description here Figure-14: PID for gnome-shell.

$ sudo cat /proc/1202/limits enter image description here Figure-15: Soft limits for gnome-shell (marked in red).

MaxStackSize is 8,192 KB (8388608 % 1024), MaxProcess is 63,077, MaxOpenFile is 1,024 and MaxLockedMemory is 16,384 KB (16777216 % 1024). Compare these values with figure-11.

$ ps -a | grep -v tty2 | grep bash enter image description here Figure-16: PID for 'bash'.

$ sudo cat /proc/2697/limits enter image description here Figure-17: Soft limits for 'bash' (marked in red).

MaxStackSize is 30,000 KB (30720000 % 1024), MaxProcess is 60,000, MaxOpenFile is 60,000 and MaxLockedMemory is 3,000,000 KB (3072000000 % 1024). Compare these values with figure-13.

1.7.4. Add pam_limits to your PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) Configuration.

/etc/security/limits.conf allows setting resource limits for users logged in via PAM. This is a useful way of preventing, for example, fork-bombs from using up all system resources. Since /etc/security/limits.conf is read by pam_limits.so, you need to check that this module is enabled in the files: login, common-session, common-session-noninteractive, su. Take backups before making changes:

$ sudo cp /etc/pam.d/login /etc/pam.d/login.back
$ sudo cp /etc/pam.d/common-session /etc/pam.d/common-session.back
$ sudo cp /etc/pam.d/common-session-noninteractive /etc/pam.d/common-session-noninteractive.back
$ sudo cp /etc/pam.d/su /etc/pam.d/su.back

Issue the following commands:

$ echo 'session    required     pam_limits.so' | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/login
$ echo 'session    required     pam_limits.so' | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/common-session
$ echo 'session    required     pam_limits.so' | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/common-session-noninteractive
$ echo 'session    required     pam_limits.so' | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/su

Note: Refer /var/log/auth.log file for any limits-related errors.

1.8. Configure secure Linux. To ascertain that the computer has configured for secured linux, type the command:

$ sestatus enter image description here Figure-18: Output confirms that secured linux is not installed which is good.

If you get an output like above Figure-18, then you are good! Now, you break this step and move ahead to next step-1.9.

Had you installed the package policycoreutils and if you get an output like in Figure-19 below, then you are good too! You break this step and go to next step-1.9.

$ sudo sestatus

enter image description here Figure-19: Output of 'sestatus' command.

As you have already configured secured Linux, so change SELINUX flag to permissive by editing /etc/selinux/config file:

$ sudo cp /etc/selinux/config /etc/selinux/config.back
$ sudo vi /etc/selinux/config

Now, set the SELINUX flag to permissive:

SELINUX=permissive

Save and exit from vi editor.

To confirm your change, issue the following command:

$ sudo sestatus

Note: Since my computer was not configured for secure linux, I could not produce a screenshot for the above command!

1.9. Disable Transparent Huge Pages.

Transparent Huge Pages (THP) is a Linux memory management system that reduces the overhead of Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) lookups on machines with large amounts of memory by using larger memory pages.

However, database workloads often perform poorly with THP, because they tend to have sparse rather than contiguous memory access patterns. The overall recommendation for MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle, etc is to disable THP on Linux machines to ensure best performance.

You can check to see if THP is enabled or not by running:

$ cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled enter image description here Figure-20: The output shows THP 'enabled' is set to default value '[madvise]' in this computer at present.

$ cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag enter image description here Figure-21: The output shows THP 'defrag' is set to default value '[madvise]' in this computer at present.

If figure-20 and figure-21 show output like [never], then THP is neither enabled nor running.

How to turn off THP during entire current session?

Now, issue the following commands:

$ su -
# echo never > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled
# exit
$ cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled

enter image description here Figure-22: The output shows THP enabled is stopped from this computer as indicated by the value '[never]'.

$ su -
# echo never > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag
# exit
$ cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag

enter image description here Figure-23: The output shows THP 'defrag' is stopped from this computer as indicated by the value '[never]'.

How to turn off THP persistently and permanently for ever?

However, once the system reboots, it will go back to its default value again. To make the setting persistent on Ubuntu 18.04, you can disable THP on system startup by making a systemd unit file:

$ sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/disable-thp.service

Copy and paste the following in to the file /etc/systemd/system/disable-thp.service:

# ---------------------------------------------------
# Disable THP in Ubuntu 18.04:
# ---------------------------------------------------
[Unit]
Description=Disable Transparent Huge Pages (THP)
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "echo 'never' > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled && echo 'never' > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

To enable and run /etc/systemd/system/disable-thp.service file at start up, type the following commands:

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl start disable-thp
$ sudo systemctl enable disable-thp

enter image description here Figure-24: The THP disable service is enabled to start up at boot time.

$ sudo systemctl status disable-thp enter image description here Figure-25: The THP disable service has started successfully.

Now, to verify THP is turned off permanently, type the following command:

$ cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled enter image description here Figure-26: The output shows THP 'enabled' is turned off persistently as indicated by the value '[never]'.

$ cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag enter image description here Figure-27: The output shows THP 'defrag' is turned off persistently as indicated by the value '[never]'.

1.10. Final Check Points relevant to Oracle installation.

1.10.1. Use the following command to determine physical RAM size on the server:

$ grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo enter image description here Figure-28: Abundant Physical RAM is available (16 GB).

Note: If the size of the physical RAM installed in the system is less than the required size (2 GB), then you must install more memory before continuing.

1.10.2. Determine the size of the configured swap space:

$ grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo enter image description here Figure-29: Abundant Memory is available for swap partition (16 GB).

Note: If the size of swap memory in the system is less than the required size (see below table which is recommended by oracle), then you must configure more memory before continuing.

RAM                         Swap Space
Between 1 GB and 2 GB       1.5 times the size of RAM
Between 2 GB and 16 GB      Equal to the size of RAM
More than 16 GB             16 GB

1.10.3. Determine the size of the configured /tmp space:

$ df -h /tmp enter image description here Figure-30: Abundant Memory is available for '/tmp' partition (16 GB).

Note: If the size of /tmp memory in the system is less than the required size (400 MB), then complete one of the following steps:

  • Delete unnecessary files from the /tmp directory to meet the disk space requirement.
  • When you set the Oracle user's environment, also set the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables to the directory you want to use instead of /tmp.

1.10.4. Determine the amount of free RAM and disk swap space on the system:

$ free -h enter image description here Figure-31: A glance of Free RAM (physical) and swap (disk space) available on the system.

1.10.5. Determine if the system architecture can run the software:

Verify that the processor architecture matches the Oracle software release to install. For example, you should see the following for a x86-64 bit system.

$ uname -m enter image description here Figure-32: The output shows that the computer system has 64-bit architecture.

If you do not see the expected output, then you cannot install the software on this system

1.10.6. Sample Partition Table for 120 GB SSD suitable to Oracle Installation:

I have a 120 GB SSD where Ubuntu was installed. Here, is my partition details:

Sl.No:  Partition  File System           Device         Allocated Size   Partition Type
1       efi        FAT32                /dev/sda1       0.5 GB           Primary
2       swap       Swap area            /dev/sda2       16 GB            Primary
3       /          ext4 with journaling /dev/sda3       6 GB             Primary
4       /usr       ext4 with journaling /dev/sda4       16 GB            Primary
5       /opt       ext4 with journaling /dev/sda5       44 GB            Primary
6       /tmp       ext2                 /dev/sda6       16 GB            Primary
7       /var       ext4 with journaling /dev/sda7       8 GB             Primary
8       /home      ext4 with journaling /dev/sda8       13.5 GB          Primary

I arranged this partition setup particularly with Oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition) in mind

1.10.7. Verify that shared memory (/dev/shm) is mounted properly with sufficient size:

Issue the following command to check shared memory availability and its total size:

$ df -h /dev/shm enter image description here Figure-33: The tmpfs filesystem mounted on '/dev/shm' and has 7.8 GB of total shared memory.

To reduce the limit from 7.8 GB to 7.0 GB, issue the following command:

$ sudo mount -o remount,size=7G /dev/shm
$ df -h /dev/shm

enter image description here Figure-34: The '/dev/shm' shared memory size has changed from 7.8 GB to 7 GB.

To restrict any modification on the size of /dev/shm permanently and to ensure that the in-memory file system is mounted when the system restarts, put this entry into /etc/fstab file as follows:

First take a backup:

$ sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.back

Modify size parameter to 8GB:

$ echo '# To restrict any modification on the size of /dev/shm permanently' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
$ echo '# To ensure that the in-memory file system is mounted when the system restarts' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
$ echo 'tmpfs     /dev/shm        tmpfs   defaults,size=8G        0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

$ grep tmpfs /etc/fstab enter image description here Figure-35: Entry of 'tmpfs' filesystem in '/etc/fstab' file mounted on '/dev/shm' with 8 GB shared memory.

In order to effect our changes done on /etc/fstab immediately remount /dev/shm:

$ sudo mount -o remount /dev/shm
$ df -h /dev/shm

enter image description here Figure-36: The '/dev/shm' shared memory size is 8 GB.

1.11. Network Configuration.

1.11.1. Configure /etc/hosts file.

To find out the contents of /etc/hosts file, issue this command:

$ cat /etc/hosts enter image description here Figure-37: Contents of /etc/hosts file.

Contents of figure-37 screenshot is reproduced below, so that any one who needs can copy & paste.

# <IP-address> <fully-qualified-machine-name> <machine-name>
127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain
::1         localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain

Well, the order of name resolution is actually defined in /etc/nsswitch.conf, and you should see an entry like this:

hosts:          files dns

Type the following command to see the actual record corresponding to hosts:

$ cat /etc/nsswitch.conf | grep hosts: enter image description here Figure-38: Hosts record in '/etc/nsswich.conf' where 'files' precedes dns in order which is good.

warning: if /etc/hosts file is not configured properly, then Oracle installer will fail at some point of time!

1.11.2. Configure /etc/resolv.conf file.

To display what network interfaces are available in the system, issue the following command:

$ ip link show enter image description here Figure-39: The WiFi network adapter wlp5s0 is active, up and running.

Network configuration file netplan/.yaml should be checked for configuration details. To display the contents of the file, issue the following command:

$ cat /etc/netplan/01-network-manager-all.yaml enter image description here Figure-40: Network Manager file '01-network-manager-all.yaml' is not configured.

Find out whether /etc/resolv.conf is a static file or symlink by the following command:

$ ls -l /etc/resolv.conf enter image description here Figure-41: File '/etc/resolv.conf' is a symlink pointing to stub file 'stub-resolv.conf'.

Display contents of /etc/resolv.conf by the command: cat /etc/resolv.conf enter image description here Figure-42: The contents of symlink '/etc/resolv.conf' having 127.0.0.53 as nameserver.

The dns shown by /etc/resolv.conf, is 127.0.0.53 but not the default nameserver configured for dhcp. Issue the following command to find out the default dns server:

$ systemd-resolve --status wlp5s0 enter image description here Figure-43: The default DNS server for WiFi network adapter is 192.168.43.1.

Display contents of /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf, by the command:

$ cat /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf enter image description here Figure-44: The contents of '/run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf' indicating default nameserver. Compare with figure-43

From figure-44, you can observe that /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf is the one which really is carrying the default name server 192.168.43.1.

Issue the following command to change the symlink /etc/resolv.conf to point default dns server 192.168.43.1 instead of 127.0.0.53.

$ sudo ln -sf /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
$ ls -l /etc/resolv.conf

enter image description here Figure-45: File /etc/resolv.conf is a symlink pointing to default nameserver which is good.

After setting up sysmlink as shown in figure-45, you must make sure that your Wi-Fi is connected, up and running, by issuing the following command:

$ nmcli device

enter image description here Figure-45-a: Wi-Fi network interface adapter 'wlp5s0' is connected, up and running.

1.12. Disable Linux Firewall.

If you have the Linux Firewall enabled, you will need to disable it, so do as given below:

$ sudo ufw disable
$ sudo ufw status

enter image description here Figure-46: Disable Firewall before Oracle installation.

Note: Don’t forget to enable firewall after installation is over using the command: $ sudo ufw enable

Part-I ends here and Part-II of the answer session will begin which deals with:

1) Create oracle User, and Groups.
2) Creation of Oracle Mount, Base and Home directories.
3) Tips for Oracle account creation to download installable image file.
4) Extraction of image file.
5) Manipulation and altering of make files required for building binaries on Ubuntu Linux platform.
2
8

Part-III of the answer session begins now.

3. Installation of Oracle 18.c using runInstaller.

3.1. Cleanup directory /tmp: Issue the following command to clean up /tmp directory as a first step before installation begins:

$ cd /tmp
$ sudo rm -rf *

3.2. Begin Installation:

Run runInstaller command from the Oracle home directory only. Do not use the runInstaller command that resides at $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin/, or any other location, to install Oracle Database, Oracle Database Client, or Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

From the Oracle home directory, run the runInstaller command to start the Oracle Database Setup Wizard.

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
$ ./runInstaller

enter image description here Figure-64: Execute 'runInstaller' from '/oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/' directory.

enter image description here Figure-65: Launching Oracle Database 18c Installer.

enter image description here Figure-66: Hit button Yes and go ahead with installation.

enter image description here Figure-67: Select 'Set up Software Only' option and press Next.

enter image description here Figure-68: Select 'Single instance database installation' option and press Next.

enter image description here Figure-69: Select 'Enterprise edition' option and press Next.

enter image description here Figure-70: Accept the default 'Intallation Location' and press Next.

enter image description here Figure-71: Accept the default Oracle Inventor directory/oracle18c/app/oralInventory and hit Next.

enter image description here Figure-72: Select Operating System Groups and press Next.

enter image description here Figure-73: This is Summary screen and Click button 'Save Response File' to take a copy of 'db.rsp' file.

enter image description here Figure-74: Double-click "Documents" folder and then save a copy of 'db.rsp' file by clicking "Save" button.

Please save the response file db.rsp in ~/Documents directory. This is for your reference.

enter image description here Figure-75: Now click Install button on the Summary Screen to proceed further.

enter image description here Figure-76: Now Install Product is under progress…...

enter image description here Figure-77: Execute both the scripts one after another with "root" login.

Open up a 2nd Terminal by typing Ctrl+AlT+T. Login into command line as root user by typing su –:

$ su -

Copy the entire path of first script orainstRoot.sh and paste it on the terminal (prefix command with ". ")

# . /oracle18c/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh

enter image description here Figure-78: Execution of first script orainstRoot.sh with "root" login.

Now, copy the entire path of the second script root.sh and paste it on the terminal (prefix command with ". ") and hit <CR>.

# . /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/root.sh

During execution of this script, you will be asked "Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: /usr/local/bin:". You simply accept this "default bin directory" path by pressing the <return> key.

There will be another question subsequently asked, "Do you want to setup Oracle Trace File Analyzer (TFA) now ? yes [no] : " for which you type "y" and get it installed.

enter image description here Figure-79: Execution of second script root.sh with "root" login.

After completion of the execution of both scripts with "root" login, you should go back to installer and hit OK button in order to go ahead with the installation (refer screenshot below figure-80).

enter image description here Figure-80: After the execution of scripts hit OK button and proceed further.

enter image description here Figure-81: Click Close button to finish Database software Installation.

enter image description here Figure-82: Congratulations! You have successfully installed database software using runInstaller interactively!!

3.3 . LISTENER Installation:

Open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and type the following command:

$ cp /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/network/install/netca_typ.rsp ~/Documents/.

Type cat netca_typ.rsp command to list contents of netca_typ.rsp file:

$ cat ~/Documents/netca_typ.rsp enter image description here Figure-83: The contents of typical 'netca_typ.rsp' capable of generating 'listener.ora' and 'sqlnet.ora'

The response file is although capable of creating listener.ora and sqlnet.ora but not tnsnames.ora. So, let us wise up netca_typ.rsp to turn into"custom" type in order to generate TNS alias!

First take a copy from netca_typ.rsp to netca.rsp and then issue commands subsequently:

$ cp ~/Documents/netca_typ.rsp ~/Documents/netca.rsp
$ sed -i 's/TYPICAL/CUSTOM/' ~/Documents/netca.rsp
$ sed -i 's/typical/custom/' ~/Documents/netca.rsp

Using vi editor, copy & append the following contents to netca.rsp:

#---------------------------------------------------------
# Instructions to create tnsnames.ora having TNS alias list
#----------------------------------------------------------
NSN_NUMBER=1
NSN_NAMES={"orcl"}
NSN_SERVICE={"orcl"}
NSN_PROTOCOLS={"TCP;UBUNTU-H170N-WIFI;1521"}

Warning: Please don't forget to replace UBUNTU-H170N-WIFI with your Computer Hostname.
Note-1: To print your computer hostname, issue this command: $ hostname
Note-2: To print your computer FQDN, issue this command: $ hostname -f or $ hostname -A

Save and exit from vi editor.

The contents of wised up netca.rsp who is now capable of generating tnsnames.ora is shown below:

$ cat ~/Documents/netca.rsp enter image description here Figure-84: The wised up 'netca.rsp' now generates not only 'listener.ora' and 'sqlnet.ora' but also 'tnsnames.ora'.

Run network configuration assistance tool netca:

$ /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/netca -silent -responseFile ~/Documents/netca.rsp

enter image description here Figure-85: NETCA has configured Listener as well as Net Services successfully executed in silent mode.

Check Listener status by typing these commands:

$ export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
$ /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/lsnrctl status

enter image description here Figure-86: Output of 'lsnrctl status' command.

The Trace Level is set off as seen in the above figure-86. The permitted values for trace level are off, user, admin and support. Use vi editor and copy & paste the below contents into listener.ora.

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/network/admin
$ vi listener.ora

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# To prevent "Warning: Subscription for node down event still pending"
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBSCRIBE_FOR_NODE_DOWN_EVENT_LISTENER=off
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Permitted values for trace level are "off", "user", "admin" and "support".
#   OFF (equivalent to 0) provides no tracing.
#   USER (equivalent to 4) traces to identify user-induced error conditions.
#   ADMIN (equivalent to 6) traces to identify installation-specific problems.
#   SUPPORT (equivalent to 16) provides trace information for troubleshooting
#            information for support.
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIAG_ADR_ENABLED_LISTENER=off
TRACE_TIMESTAMP_LISTENER=true
TRACE_LEVEL_LISTENER=support
TRACE_DIRECTORY_LISTENER=/tmp
TRACE_FILE_LISTENER=listener.trc
LOG_DIRECTORY_LISTENER=/tmp
LOG_FILE_LISTENER=listener.log

Save and exit from vi editor.

Issue the following commands to display the contents of listener.ora file:

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/network/admin
$ cat listener.ora

enter image description here Figure-87: 'listener.ora' contains the server-side network configuration parameters.

Use vi editor and open up sqlnet.ora and copy & paste the below contents into the file:

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/network/admin
$ vi sqlnet.ora

#----------------------------------------
# set trace and log parameters for client
#----------------------------------------
DIAG_ADR_ENABLED=off
TRACE_UNIQUE_CLIENT=off
TRACE_TIMESTAMP_CLIENT=true
TRACE_FILELEN_CLIENT=100
TRACE_LEVEL_CLIENT=support
TRACE_DIRECTORY_CLIENT=/tmp
TRACE_FILE_CLIENT=sqlnet_client.trc
LOG_DIRECTORY_CLIENT=/tmp
LOG_FILE_CLIENT=sqlnet_client.log
#----------------------------------------
# set trace and log parameters for server
#----------------------------------------
TRACE_TIMESTAMP_SERVER=true
TRACE_FILELEN_SERVER=100
TRACE_LEVEL_SERVER=support
TRACE_DIRECTORY_SERVER=/tmp
TRACE_FILE_SERVER=sqlnet_server.trc
LOG_DIRECTORY_SERVER=/tmp
LOG_FILE_SERVER=sqlnet_server.log 
#----------------------------------------
# set TNSPING Diagnostic Parameters
#----------------------------------------
TNSPING.TRACE_LEVEL=support
TNSPING.TRACE_DIRECTORY=/tmp

Save and exit from vi editor.

Issue the following commands to display the contents of sqlnet.ora file:

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/network/admin
$ cat sqlnet.ora

enter image description here Figure-88: 'sqlnet.ora' is a profile configuration file that contain parameters used by both client and server.

Names.directory_path: This parameter specifies the order of naming methods used when a client attempts a connection to a database. Possible values include: LDAP, TNSNAMES, HOSTNAME, ONAMES, and EZCONNECT.

Issue the following commands to display the contents of tnsnames.ora file:

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/network/admin
$ cat tnsnames.ora

enter image description here Figure-89: 'tnsnames.ora' file contains alias list.

To effect the changes done on listener.ora and sqlnet.ora, reload listener by the command:

$ /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/lsnrctl reload
$ /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/lsnrctl status

enter image description here Figure-90: Listener Parameters are set up successfully (compare with figure-86).

Here is the end of Part-III and the forthcoming Part-IV consists of:

1) Generate database scripts by DBCA.
2) Create Orcale 18c database by running scripts.
5
  • 1
    Navigation link to introduction of answers to "How to install oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition) on Ubuntu 18.04" in five parts.
    – Marmayogi
    Mar 10, 2019 at 3:37
  • 1
    Navigation links to parts 1-5 of the answers Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 and Part 5
    – Marmayogi
    Mar 10, 2019 at 3:37
  • just a small hint the export ist missing for the command ORACLE_HOME=/oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1 Mar 27, 2019 at 13:17
  • Thank you @Phillip Bartschinski for pointing out this error. This has been corrected.
    – Marmayogi
    Mar 27, 2019 at 15:33
  • While creating listener I'm getting an error "LISTENER:No valid IP Address returned for the host SudhirPC" do you have any idea about it (step 3.3 - listener installation) Jun 20, 2019 at 11:23
7

Part-IV of the answer session begins now.

4. DBCA Generate scripts to create database

4.1. Run DBCA :

Open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and run database configuration assistance tool dbca:

$ /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/dbca

enter image description here Figure-91: Run database configuration assistance tool 'dbca'

enter image description here Figure-92: dbca logo

enter image description here Figure-93: Select 'Create a database operation' and press 'Next'.

enter image description here Figure-94: Select 'Advanced configuration' mode and press 'Next'.

enter image description here Figure-95: Select 'Deployment type' and press 'Next'.

enter image description here Figure-96: Enter 'Global database name', 'SID', 'PDB name' then click 'Next' button.

enter image description here Figure-97: Select storage option "Use template file for database storage attributes" and click 'Next'.

enter image description here Figure-98: Select Fast Recovery Option "Specify Fast Recovery Area" and click 'Next'

enter image description here Figure-99: Choose listener to register database and click 'Next'.

enter image description here Figure-100: Configure Database Vault and Label Security and click 'Next'.

enter image description here Figure-101: Choose Memory option " Use Automatic Shared Memory Management (ASMM)" and configure "SGA" and "PGA" shared memory size and then hit menu 'Sizing'.

enter image description here Figure-102: Specify "Processes" Number then hit menu "Character Sets".

enter image description here Figure-103: Select "Unicode character" set and hit menu "Connection mode"

enter image description here Figure-104: Select Dedicated server mode and hit "Sample Schemas"

enter image description here Figure-105: Mark checkbox to "add sample schemas to the database" and then hit "Next".

enter image description here Figure-106: Select "Configure Enterprise Manager (EM) database express " and specify port. Click 'Next'

enter image description here Figure-107: Specify passwords for SYS, SYSTEM, PDBADMIN separately or select "Use the same passwords for all accounts". Click 'Next'.

enter image description here Figure-108: Uncheck "Create database" checkbox to avoid creation of a database and check "Generate database creation scripts" checkbox. Click "Next" button.

enter image description here Figure-109: Click "Save Response File " button.

enter image description here Figure-110: Double-click "Documents" folder and then save a copy of dbca.rsp file by clicking "Save" button.

Save the response file dbca.rsp in ~/Documents directory. This rsp file is needed later.

enter image description here Figure-111: After saving "dbca.rsp" file, click "Finish" button.

enter image description here Figure-112: Finish database script generation by clicking "Close" button.

4.2 . Create Oracle 18c Database by running scripts generated from DBCA:

Open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and execute the shell script orcl.sh which will prompt to enter passwords for users SYS, and SYSTEM and you choose passwords hard enough to be safe.

Scripts path is: {ORACLE_BASE}/admin/{DB_UNIQUE_NAME}/scripts

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl/scripts
$ . orcl.sh | tee ~/Documents/create_database_scripts.log

Now open up the log file create_database_scripts.log using vi editor:

$ vi ~/Documents/create_database_scripts.log

You will see the error "ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact" as shown in figure-113 given below: changes enter image description here Figure-113: "Error: ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact".

Now, we have to find out who was causing this trouble.

The shell script orcl.sh invoked orcl.sql script from where the real action began. The orcl.sql invoked a set of other sql scripts sequentially. Let us put trace statements around first sql script CloneRmanRestore.sql called by oracl.sql shown in figure-114 below:

enter image description here Figure-114: Trace statements in 'orcl.sql' file around 'CloneRmanRestore.sql' at the point of calling.

If you run orcl.sh once again, then the state of execution at the point of trace is shown below Figure-115:

enter image description here Figure-115: "Error: ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact" appears soon after entering into 'CloneRmanRestore.sql'.

So, open up CloneRmanRestore.sql file and place trace statements around CONNECT statement which is the very first one upon entry as shown in figure-116 blow:

enter image description here Figure-116: Trace statements in 'CloneRmanRestore.sql' file around 'CONNECT' Statement.

When you run shell script orcl.sh again, the moment the state of execution enters into CloneRmanRestore.sql file, the error occurs as given in figure-117 below:

enter image description here Figure-117: Trace statements around 'CONNECT' prove that error occurred while executing 'CONNECT' statement.

It is good to know about the point of origination of error and it is the CONNECT SQL statement that caused the error. Now it is time to clean up the failed installation and redo the installation until the point of invocation of orcl.sh. So, let us go ahead with next step [section 4.3] below.

4.3 . Clean up system after Failed Installation attempt.

Before attempting to install again, the system should be cleaned up first. Open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and issue the following commands:

$ su -
# rm -f /etc/oraInst.loc
# rm -f /etc/oratab
# cd /oracle18c
# rm -rf *
# cd /opt/oracle
# rm -rf *
# cd /opt
# rm -rf ORCLfmap
# cd /tmp
# rm -rf *
# exit

Now reboot the computer and and then go to the next step [section-4.4] to re-install oracle.

4.4 . Re-install Oracle after Failed Installation.

4.4.1. Extraction of Oracle db_home.zip image file.

After cleaned up the system, let us attempt to install again. Follow the below procedure:

$ mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
$ unzip /mnt/ShareMe/'Software(downloaded)'/'MySQL & Oracle'/'Oracle 18.c LINUX.X64_180000_db_home.zip' -d /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/
$ chmod -R 775 /oracle18c

Recall that in [section - 2.2.10], omkfix.sh file was created and saved under ~/scripts/ directory, now run the script:

$ . ~/scripts/omkfix.sh

4.4.2. Install Database Software.

To install database software, follow [section 3.2] from figure-64 to figure-82.

4.4.3. Install Listener.

Go back to [section-3.3], complete LISTENER Installation and return back immediately here.

To verify that the listener is active, issue this command: $ ps -ef | grep tnslsnr

enter image description here Figure-118: 'Listener' is alive and active in the background.

4.4.4. Generate Scripts to Create Database.

To generate scripts required to install database, run dbca interactively with dbca.rsp (refer figure-110 which shows that the response file dbca.rsp was saved in ~/Documents folder that we are going to use now!):

$ /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/dbca -responseFile /home/oracle/Documents/dbca.rsp

Repeat instructions in [Section 4.1] through figure-92 until figure-112 in order to generate scripts for creation of database.

Here is the end of Part-IV and the final session Part-V begins covering "Troubleshooting and Post-Installation".

2
5

The final and concluding Part-V of the answer session begins now.

5. Troubleshoot ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact error.

5.1. Create Password File.

Now, create the password file being located in "$ORACLE_HOME/dbs" whose name should be resolved as follows:

Password filename Formula: orapw + ORACLE_SID = orapw + orcl = orapworcl.

Issue command orapwd to create and add user SYS into password file 'orapworcl' along with password 'oracle18c' as shown below:

$ /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/orapwd file=/oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/dbs/orapworcl password=oracle18c ENTRIES=30 FORCE=Y IGNORECASE=Y format=12

5.2. Set Oracle Environment.

To set the oracle environment, create a file ~/scripts/oenv.sh and copy & paste contents given in this section:

$ vi ~/scripts/oenv.sh

#!/bin/sh
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
# Oracle Environment Variables Settings
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
export ORACLE_BASE=/oracle18c/app/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
export PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib
export ORACLE_LIBPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
export CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib:$CLASSPATH
export ORACLE_HOSTNAME=$HOSTNAME
export ORA_INVENTORY=/oracle18c/app/oraInventory
export DATA_DIR=$ORACLE_BASE/oradata
export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
export ADR_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/diag
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
export ORACLE_SID=orcl
export ORACLE_UNQNAME=orcl
export PDB_NAME=pdb
export NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8
#--------------------------------------------------------------------
export TMP=/tmp; export TMPDIR=$TMP; export TEMP=$TMP
#--------------------------------------------------------------------

Change the file permission:

$ chmod +x ~/scripts/oenv.sh

Add the following in ~/.bashrc by this command:

$ echo '# Environment settings for Oracle ' | tee -a ~/.bashrc
$ echo '. ~/scripts/oenv.sh' | tee -a ~/.bashrc

Now, reboot the computer and return back here to proceed further.

5.3. Create directories.

Open vi editor and copy & paste the following contents:

$ vi ~/scripts/ocdir.sh

#!/bin/sh
umask 0027
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl/adump
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl/dpdump
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl/pfile
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/audit
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/dbca/orcl
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/ORCL
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/pdb
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/pdbseed
mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/dbs

Change the file permission:

$ chmod +x ~/scripts/ocdir.sh

Execute the script file ocdir.sh:

$ . ~/scripts/ocdir.sh

5.4. Check listener status.

Ensure that listener is up and listening in the background with the following command:

$ ss -elpunt | grep -E "^Net|tnslsnr"

enter image description here Figure-119: Oracle listener is up and running.

If listener is not running, then start it by the following command:

$ lsnrctl start LISTENER

5.5. Meaning of ORA-12547 error.

Let us first understand "What does ORA-12547 mean". Figure out the meaning of error ORA-12547 by running oracle binary oerr which outputs a pre-recorded description.

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ./oerr ORA 12547

enter image description here Figure-120: The Meaning of error 'ORA-12547' displayed by oracle binary utility 'oerr'.

The description for error ORA-12547 by oracle utility oerr, seems to be little strange. To put it simply, ORA-12547 indicates that the communication channel has been broken. It is most often thrown because the other end of the process went away unexpectedly. This error ORA-12547 may result due to various causes. We will see one by one.

5.6. Privilege settings for oracle binary

The binary oracle should not only have 6751 privilege but also non-zero file size, as shown in figure-121 below:

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ls -l oracle

enter image description here Figure-121: oracle binary has '6751' privileges set and 'non-zero' files size which are good.

If wrong privilege is set, then issue the following command:

$ chmod 6751 oracle

If oracle file shows zero file size, then issue the following command to rebuild:

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ./relink all

5.7. Non-zero file size of config.o binary:

The object file config.o should be having non-zero file size. To verify, issue the following commands:

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
$ ls -l config.o

enter image description here Figure-122: The screen displays that 'object.o' file has non-zero file size which is good.

If there is zero file size, then issue the following command to rebuild:

$ mv config.o config.o.bad
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ./relink all

5.8. Oracle Base and Home Settings in orabasetab file:

Display the contents of the file for the verification of oracle Base and Home settings.

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/install
$ cat orabasetab

enter image description here Figure-123: Display of content of 'orabasetab' file showing the settings of oracle 'Base' and 'Home' which are good.

If there are incomplete or wrong settings found, then edit $ORACLE_HOME/install/orabasetab file using vi editor and correct Base and Home values.

5.9. Oracle Base settings:

Run the orabase binary to make sure that Oracle base directory is properly set.

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ./orabase

enter image description here Figure-124: Oracle Base directory setting is shown by binary 'orabase' which is good.

5.10. Privilege settings for /proc directory:

Make sure that correct privileges are set on /proc directory. Issue the following command:

$ ls -l / enter image description here Figure-125: The correct privilege settings 555 for /proc directory.

If there is wrong privilege settings, then correct manually by following command:

$ cd /
$ sudo chmod 555 proc

5.11. Privilege settings for /dev/null directory:

Make sure that correct privileges are set on /dev/null directory which should be 0666. Issue the following command:

$ ls -l / enter image description here Figure-126: The correct privilege settings '666' for '/dev/null' directory.

If there is wrong privilege settings, then correct manually by following command:

$ cd /
$ sudo chmod 666 /dev/null

5.12. Oracle binary related subsystem settings in /ect/fstab file:

The structure of each entry in /etc/fstab file consists of primarily the following 6 fields:

[Device] [Mount point] [Files System Type] [options] [Backup operations] [File System check order]

The oracle software has been installed in file system under /opt mount point. Locate the record in /etc/fstab file corresponding to /opt mount point and inspect 4th field which is [options]. If this field contains "nosuid" then change this to "suid".

Issue the following command, to locate the entry corresponding /opt mount point:

$ cat /etc/fstab | grep /opt enter image description here Figure-127: The 4th field '[options]' contains "defaults" corresponding to '/opt' file systems which is good.

The 4th field [options] has value "defaults" which is a shortcut and whose expansion is:

"rw,suid,dev,exec,auto,nouser,async"

So, the presence of "defaults" causes no trouble. In the absence of "defaults", if there is a presence of "nosuid" explicitly then change it to "suid" manually in /etc/fstab file using vi editor. After the change, just reboot your system.

5.13. Unset the EXTSHM Environment variable.

As oracle does not support Extended Shared Memory, the environment variable EXTSHM should be unset. Issue the following command:

$ env | grep EXTSHM enter image description here Figure-128: The output shows that the Environment variable 'EXTSHM' is undefined which is good.

If the variable EXTSHM is set then unset it with the following command:

$ unset EXTSHM

5.14. Insufficient ulimit settings for Stack:

Refer [section 1-7] "Configure shell limits for user oracle" to increase stack limits.

5.15. Simulation of "ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact" error using sqlplus binary:

It was established that ORA-12547 error occurred while trying to create Oracle 18c Database by running scripts generated from DBCA [refer section-4.2 and figure-113]. We found out that the root cause of this error was CONNECT statement. So, let us reproduce this error again by invoking CONNECT statement directly from sqlplus binary.

Issue sqlplus command as shown below:

$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus /nolog

Issue CONNECT statement at SQL prompt as follows:

SQL> connect sys/oracle18c as sysdba; enter image description here Figure-129: Simulation of "ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact" error by directly invoking 'sqlplus' binary.

Now it is established that the error is re-creatable by executing sqlplus binary. In the absence of source code, we should attack the problem with whatever weapons left in our arsenal. As a first step, let us try to generate trace information describing the sequence of events taking place within sqlplus binary.

5.16. Run strace command to generate trace information needed to dig further:

In order to generate trace file needed for further investigation into CONNECT statement, let us use strace command along with sqlplus as shown below:

$ strace -f -o /tmp/strace.log $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus /nolog

Issue CONNECT statement at SQL prompt as follows:

SQL> connect sys/oracle18c as sysdba;

enter image description here Figure-130: Use 'strace' command to investigate into 'CONNECT' statement invoked from 'sqlplus' binary.

Now, use gedit and open up /tmp/strace.log file. After tracing entire file, the problem area was identified as shown in the figure-131 below: enter image description here Figure-131: "core dump" is found recorded in the 'strace.log' file.

Before taking up analysis of "core dump" further, let us check whether core file has been generated in the default directory with the following commands:

$ pwd
$ ls

enter image description here Figure-132: The output confirms that no 'core' file was generated in '/home/oracle' directory.

Find out whether core is enabled or not with the following command:

$ ulimit -c enter image description here Figure-133: Output shows that 'core' is not enabled.

To enable core, issue the following command:

$ ulimit -c unlimited enter image description here Figure-134: Enable core file generation.

Ensure core is enabled by the following command:

$ ulimit -c

enter image description here Figure-135: Ouput shows that 'core' file generation is successfully enabled.

Again, run strace command as shown in the beginning of this section 5.16 and check that the core file has been generated successfully:

$ pwd
$ ls

enter image description here Figure-136: Output shows that 'core' file is generated successfully

Now, run debugger gdb as follows:

$ gdb -c core enter image description here Figure-137: Undefined Symbol in 'libpython3.6m.so.1.0' while invoking debugger 'gdb'.

To resolve symbol lookup error, issue the following command to inspect dependancies of gdb:

$ ldd /usr/bin/gdb enter image description here Figure-138: Output shows that only shared object 'libexpat.so.1' has been loaded wrongly from '$ORACLE_HOME/lib'.

From the about output in above figure-138, one can easily deduce that the issue is connected with LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

Firstly, issue the following command to locate the correct path of libexpat.so.1:

$ locate libexpat.so.1 enter image description here Figure-139: The correct library path for 'libexpat.so.1' is '/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/'

Determine the current value of environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH:

$ echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH enter image description here Figure-140: '$ORACLE_HOME/lib' appears as the first member in the 'value' of environment variable 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH'

As $ORACLE_HOME/lib appears to be the first member in LD_LIBRARY_PATH, so dependency library libexpat.so.1 has been loaded from $ORACLE_HOME/lib instead of from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu. This LD_LIBRARY_PATH must be unset until core dump analysis is over. Later, this environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH should be restored back to its original state.

Edit ~/scripts/oenv.sh file (refer section 5.2) and comment out the line containing LD_LIBRARY_PATH, so that this variable will be automatically unset after rebooting.

Verify that the line is commented out properly, with the following command:

$ cat ~/scripts/oenv.sh | grep LD_LIBRARY_PATH enter image description here Figure-141: The comment symbol "#" appears in front of line containing 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH'.

Reboot the system.

Find out that the value of LD_LIBRARY_PATH whether it is empty or not with the following command:

$ echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH enter image description here Figure-142: Output shows that 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH' is empty, thus properly unset which is good.

Issue the following command once again to inspect dependency list of gdb in order to make sure that libexpat.so.1 is loaded from right path:

$ ldd /usr/bin/gdb enter image description here Figure-143: Output shows that 'libexpat.so.1' is loaded correctly from '/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'.

Now, run debugger gdb and check it is working fine:

$ gdb -c core enter image description here Figure-144: Debugger 'gdb' is found to be working perfectly.

Issue bt command at gdb prompt, as shown below:

(gdb) bt enter image description here Figure-145: The screen shows the output of 'bt' command and observe that the result is too poor to analyze.

The result of bt command was too poor and we need more information for analysis. Let us attempt another method with the following command:

$ gdb --core=core --exec=/oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin/oracle

Issue bt command at gdb prompt:

(gdb) bt

enter image description here Figure-146: The result produced by the above command is more promising than in figure-145.

The tzset() function sets time conversion information used by localtime() and related functions. Moreover, localtime() is not thread-safe because it returns a pointer (struct tm *) to a static data structure (refer <time.h> header for more details) which holds the result. Let us review the /tmp/strace.log once again: enter image description here Figure-147: The file "/etc/localtime" was the last one accessed before crash (core dump).

The file "/etc/localtime" was the last one accessed before crash (core dump). From the beginning until core dump, this file "/etc/localtime" was accessed twice. This shows a condition of deadlock because localtime() is entered recursively (for a second time) due to some signal being handled and localtime() is not reentrant or thread-safe, so it blocks on a lock.

We can conclude that Oracle kernel is crashing in various libc functions (Standard Library for C Programming Language), e.g. localtime().

What is Oracle Kernel?

On Ubuntu linux, every oracle client process such as sqlplus or Toad, connects to tnslsnr, which fork()'s and then exec()'s a binary "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle", called as oracle kernel program. This binary is also known popularly as Oracle Server Process. Refer figure-121 in [section-5.6].

Let us display the system call execve invoking oracle binary recorded by strace command in /tmp/strace.log.

enter image description here Figure-148: The Oracle Kernel binary "oracle" invoked by "execve" system call.

So, it is the Oracle kernel program who was causing core dump and to over come this issue, it is required to remove the libc* stubs and then rebuild oracle kernel binary $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle afresh.

To accomplish this task, issue the following commands:

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/lib/stubs
$ ls -l libc*
$ rm libc*
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ./relink all

enter image description here Figure-149: Rebuild oracle kernel program "$ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle" afresh by issuing "./relink all" command and observe the resulting log file.

After the rebuilt, inspect its log file $ORCALE_HOME/install/relink_2019-02-26_08-27.log to ensure that all rebuilds succeeded.

Run strace command once again and let us check that our arch-villain "ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact" still persists!

$ strace -f -o /tmp/strace.log $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus /nolog

Issue CONNECT statement at SQL prompt as follows:

SQL> connect sys/oracle18c as sysdba;

enter image description here Figure-150: Our arch-villain "ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact" has vanished at last and replaced by "an idle instance".

Bingo! Our arch-villain "ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact" has disappeared at last!

The connect statement was executed successfully and an idle instance was also generated.

5.17. Re-run the Scripts generated from DBCA to create Oracle 18c Database:

To display the list of scripts required to create database, issue these commands:

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl/scripts
$ ls -l *.sql

enter image description here Figure-151: List of scripts generated by 'DBCA' required to create oracle 18c database.

Ensure that listener is already up and running with the following command:

$ ss -elpunt | grep -E "^Net|tnslsnr" | column -t

enter image description here Figure-152: Oracle listener is running and listening on port 1521.

With reference to [refer section-4.2 and figure-113], let us attempt once again to create Oracle 18c Database by running scripts generated from DBCA and let us hope that the database will be created successfully this time!

$ cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl/scripts
$ . orcl.sh | tee ~/Documents/create_database_scripts.log

enter image description here Figure-153: Creation of oracle 18c database has successfully begun! Notice the appearance of 'idle instance' inside redbox.

Let us see the screenshot of end of database creation below: enter image description here Figure-154: Creation of oracle 18c database has come to end successfully!

Let us see the Services supported by the Listener with the following command:

$ lsnrctl status

enter image description here Figure-155: Services supported by 'listener'.

Let us verify Oracle Version with the following command:

$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> select instance_name, version from v$instance;

enter image description here Figure-156: Display of Oracle Version.

Let us display Oracle Banner with the following command:

$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> select banner from v$version;

enter image description here Figure-157: Display of Oracle Banner.

6. Post installation.

6.1. Configure /etc/oratab file.

Append "/etc/oratab" file setting the restart flag for each instance to 'Y'.

$ echo 'orcl:/oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1:Y' | sudo tee -a /etc/oratab

enter image description here Figure-158: Append "/etc/oratab" file with restart flag.

Display the contents of "/etc/oratab" file with the following command:

$ cat /etc/oratab enter image description here Figure-159: Content of "/etc/oratab" file.

6.2. Start PDB along with database instance.

The environment variables DATA_DIR and PDB_NAME needed to configure PDB are already exported through ~/scripts/oenv.sh. Issue the following command to verify:

$ env | egrep 'DATA_DIR=|PDB_NAME=' enter image description here Figure-160: Environnment variables 'PDB_NAME' and 'DATA_DIR' are already set.

Next, ensure that database instance is up and running.

If it is not, then invoke the following script file to run:

$ . ~/scripts/ora_start.sh

Note: to know about the script ora_start.sh, refer [section-6.5]

Enable Oracle Managed Files (OMF) and make sure the PDB starts when the instance starts:

$ sqlplus / as sysdba <<EOF
alter system set db_create_file_dest='${DATA_DIR}';
alter pluggable database ${PDB_NAME} save state;
exit;
EOF

enter image description here Figure-161: Pluggable database will start along with database instance.

6.3. Restore LD_LIBRARY_PATH back to original value.

Recall that LD_LIBRARY_PATH was unset (refer figures-137 and 138) in ~/scripts/oenv.sh. Now we should restore it back by removing the comment # symbol in the line contains LD_LIBRARY_PATH string using any editor. To verify the change is done, issue the following command:

$ cat ~/scripts/oenv.sh | grep LD_LIBRARY_PATH enter image description here Figure-162: Environnment variables 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH' is restored to its original value by removing comment '#' symbol (compare with figure-140).

6.4. Enable Firewall.

In section-1.12, firewall was disabled which was a pre-requisite. Now it can be restored. To enable firewall, issue the following command:

$ sudo ufw enable enter image description here Figure-163: Firewall successfully enabled.

To check the status of firewall, issue the following command:

$ sudo ufw status enter image description here Figure-164: Firewall status is active

6.5. Start/Stop scripts for database.

It is important to recall that oracle environment variables have already been set using ~/scripts/oenv.sh file and is appended in ~/.bashrc file for execution upon login. Refer section-5.2.

Create two scripts ora_start.sh and ora_stop.sh respectively that can be called like startup/shutdown service.

Now, create ora_start.sh using vi editor.

$ vi ~/scripts/ora_start.sh

Copy and paste the below contents into the file.

#!/bin/sh
lsnrctl start
dbstart $ORACLE_HOME

Save and exit from vi editor.

Now, create ora_stop.sh using vi editor.

$ vi ~/scripts/ora_stop.sh

Copy and paste the below contents into the file.

#!/bin/sh
lsnrctl stop
dbshut $ORACLE_HOME

Save and exit from vi editor.

chown -R oracle:oinstall ~/scripts
chmod +x ~/scripts/ora_start.sh
chmod +x ~/scripts/ora_stop.sh

After edited the /etc/oratab (refer section-6.1), you should be able to start/stop the database with the following scripts run after logging into system as oracle user.

To start Oracle Database Service, run ora_start.sh script:

$ . ~/scripts/ora_start.sh enter image description here Figure-165: Run script 'ora_start.sh' to start database instance

To shutdown Oracle Database Service, run ora_stop.sh script:

$ . ~/scripts/ora_stop.sh enter image description here Figure-166: Run script ora_stop.sh to shut down database instance

6.6. Create a list of aliases for oracle.

Create a list of aliases suitable for Oracle in ~/scripts/oalias.sh as follows:

$ vi ~/scripts/oalias.sh

Append the following into ~/scripts/oalias.sh file using copy-paste technique:

#----------------------------------------
# alias list of useful commands for Oracle
#----------------------------------------
alias o='cd /oracle18c'
alias op='cd /opt'
alias oo='cd /opt/oracle'
alias ob='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle'
alias oi='cd /oracle18c/app/oraInventory'
alias od='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/oraData'
alias oh='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1'
alias obin='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/bin'
alias olib='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/lib'
alias odbs='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/dbs'
alias olog='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs'
alias odlog='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/dbca'
alias otfa='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/tfa'
alias otfab='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/tfa/bin'
alias os='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl/scripts'
alias oad='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin'
alias osid='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/admin/orcl'
alias otns='cd /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/network/admin'

Save and exit from vi editor.

Change file permission by chmod command:

$ chmod +x ~/scripts/oalias.sh

Next, issue the following commands to add string ~/scripts/oalias.sh into ~/.bashrc file:

$ echo '#--------------------------------------------------------' | tee -a ~/.bashrc
$ echo '# alias list of useful commands for Oracle' | tee -a ~/.bashrc
$ echo '#--------------------------------------------------------' | tee -a ~/.bashrc
$ echo '. ~/scripts/oalias.sh' | tee -a ~/.bashrc

Now close your current terminal and open up a new terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T and issue the following command:

$ alias

enter image description here Figure-167: Very useful alias list for oracle.

You will see the list of aliases for oracle displayed on the screen.

7. Conclusion.

The jubilation and joy were not only in the successful installation of Oracle-18c (Enterprise Edition) on Ubuntu 18.04 but also in the "taming" of Oracle Software to co-exist along with all other installed software packages under /opt partition (refer figure-57)!

This completes Oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition) installation on Ubuntu 18.04! Enjoy Oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition)!!

2
4

During my attempt to install Oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition) on ubuntu 18.04, I faced hurdles at every step. You should keep resolving each hurdle as it appears and move ahead. If you don't have tenacity you will give up!

As this installation procedure for Oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition) on Ubuntu 18.04 is so long consisting of 167 screenshots with very detailed instructions (88 pages of Microsoft Word document containing both instructions and screenshots). It took me over 2 months of continuous labor to get it installed and taste success!

I am hesitating to dump entire material in this answer session in one go. I am sure that this will create confusion and may not serve the intended purpose.

My intention is that this material should reach and benefit every reader who needs it!

What I am proposing is to divide entire material into 5 answer sessions (parts) and release them one after another as follows:

1. Part-I: Pre-installation.

  • This part covers Storage Space Requirement, enable multi-arch support, packages needed to install, creation of symlinks, configure kernel parameters, configure shell limits for user oracle, configure secure linux, and disable THP (Transparent Huge Pages).
  • Find out physical RAM size, swap size, /tmp space size, and so on and compare them with Oracle recommendations.
  • Mounting of shared memory, configure /etc/hosts file, and /etc/resolv.conf file and disable firewall.
  • Warning: If you ignore this part, you can never get Oracle 18c (Enterprise Edition) installed on your system!

2. Part-II: Creation of Oracle User and Groups.

  • This part deals with creation of Oracle user and group ids, discussion and creation of database Mount, Base and Home directories including tips to download the installable image file db_home.zip from oracle website.
  • Another important aspect of this part is that the manipulation and altering of make files (particularly linker/loader flags suitable for Ubuntu Linux platform) which are required to build binaries dynamically during database software installation process carried out by runInstaller (Oracle Universal Installer) in Part-III.
  • The altering of makefiles were done very carefully and tested thoroughly on my Ubuntu desktop so that linker/loader errors thrown during dynamic building were identified and resolved completely, thus assuring you to have a clean and pleasant build experience in forthcoming Part-III.

3. Part-III : Database Software and Listener Installation.

  • Database software installation is done using runInstaller interactively.
  • Oracle software binaries are build dynamically during this phase and this procedure assures you that you will never face any linker/loader issues on Ubuntu platform, thus providing you a clean and pleasant software installation!
  • After completion of software installation, the listener installation is taken up.
  • Listener installation is carried out on silent mode using response file. The typical oracle response file netca_typ.rsp is capable of generating listener.ora and sqlnet.ora files only but not tnsnames.ora. So ntca_typ.rsp is wised up with additional instructions to produce tnsnames.ora automatically along with other two files.
  • listener.ora file is altered to set trace and log configuration parameters. Similarly sqlnet.ora file is also altered to set trace and log configuration parameters not only for client side but also for server side.

4. Part-IV: Generation of Database scripts by DBCA and Database creation using scripts.

  • This part deals with the generation of scripts (sql files) using DBCA and creates database by running scripts manually.
  • Though you can create database automatically using DBCA either interactively or silently, the errors DBCA throws during creation phase will make you bewildered and hardly offers you any clue to resolve them!
  • Whereas doing this manually opens up an opportunity to debug errors because you have sql scripts in hand offering you an avenue to locate the point of origination of error and to dig further.

5. Part-V: Troubleshooting and Post-installation.

  • This final part debugs error thrown in Part-IV.
  • After the completion of troubleshooting successfully, creation of database is initiated by running scripts and finally the process ends by starting up of oracle database instance "orcl" and others automatically which are demonstrated as listener services.
  • The displays of Version and Banner using sqlplus are demonstrated as proof of successful installation.
  • The post-installation instructions cover preparing database instance start/stop shell scripts, configure /etc/oratab, configure PDB to start along with database instance, enabling firewall, restoring LD_LIBRARY_PATH and creation of useful oracle alias list.
  • This long Oracle18c (Enterprise Edition) installation answer session ends with a Conclusion Section containing final remarks from the author.
3
  • @Karel, when someone enters into this post, that person should see answers in the sequencial order of intro, part-1, part-2, part-3, part-4 and part-5 whose corresponding answer numbers at present are 1, 4, 1, 5, 4, and 3 respectively. But the apparent order of answer numbers is 3(part-5), 4(part-1), 5(part-3), 4(part-4), 1(intro) and 1(part-2). Is it possible to re-arrange the appearance of the answer order? Is it also possible to re-number already numbered answer? I am still not fully accustomed with the working of this website. Is there any way to acheive this? Kindly clarify.
    – Marmayogi
    Mar 8, 2019 at 10:09
  • first off wow! amasing hurculean job! and answers to match! I think you shouldn't worry too much about the order, hopfully people will start upvoting responsibly so that this part has the most upvotes, that part 1 has the second most and so on, that's what I did when I came in here.
    – tatsu
    Mar 11, 2019 at 12:09
  • @Marmayogi It's not possible to rearrange the answer order, so instead use links for navigation.
    – karel
    Mar 18, 2019 at 12:20
4

Let us begin with Part-II of the answer session.

2. Required Operating System Group and User for oracle installation.

2.1. User and Groups.

2.1.1. Create Oracle Groups.

Creating the Inventory Group oinstall.

$ sudo groupadd -g 54321 oinstall

Creating the OSDBA Group dba.

$ sudo groupadd -g 54322 dba

Other Groups: you may create the following groups based on your requirement, otherwise skip them all.

$ sudo groupadd -g 54323 oper
$ sudo groupadd -g 54324 backupdba
$ sudo groupadd -g 54325 dgdba
$ sudo groupadd -g 54326 kmdba
$ sudo groupadd -g 54327 asmdba
$ sudo groupadd -g 54328 asmoper
$ sudo groupadd -g 54329 asmadmin
$ sudo groupadd -g 54330 racdba

2.1.2. Create Oracle software owner/user oracle.

$ sudo useradd -u 54321 -m -s /bin/bash -g oinstall -G dba oracle

In this command:
•   -u option specifies the numerical value of user’s ID.
•   -m option specifies to create a home for oracle user: /home/oracle.
•   -s option specifies the shell associated with login which is /bin/bash.
•   -g option specifies the primary group oinstall.
•   -G option specifies the secondary groups dba.

Had you not created "Other Groups" [section-2.1.1], then you skip this.

Otherwise, you add them to user oracle:

$ sudo usermod -a -G oper,backupdba,dgdba,kmdba,asmdba,asmoper,asmadmin,racdba  oracle

Set the password of the oracle user:

$ sudo passwd oracle

Make sure that the oracle user and associated groups are created as expected:

$ id oracle enter image description herechanges Figure-47: User oracle and its associated groups.

Make sure that the oracle user primary group is oinstall:

$ id -gn oracle enter image description here Figure-48: User oracle primary group is 'oinstall'.

2.1.3. Add user oracle into sudoers group:

To include oracle user with sudoers group sudo, issue the following command:

$ sudo usermod -a -G sudo oracle

In order to make sure that the oracle user is associated with sudo group, type the command:

$ id oracle enter image description here Figure -49: User 'oracle' is also with group 'sudo'.

2.1.4. Verify that user nobody exists:

$ id nobody enter image description here Figure-50: Ouput shows that user 'nobody' does exist already.

If user nobody does not exist, then enter the following command to create it:

$ sudo useradd nobody

2.2. Required Software Directories for oracle installation.

2.2.1. Oracle Mount Point.

Oracle 18.c will be installed on /opt/oracle which will become automatically the mount point for oracle installation. But the problem is to give oracle user ownership for the entire /opt/oracle directory which is not acceptable because /opt directory has already housed many other software packages (see figure-51 below). I created this /opt partition with the intention of lodging as many independent software packages as possible! I don’t want to dedicate the entire /opt partition exclusively for Oracle database installation. enter image description here Figure-51: Notice that partition '/opt' contains many important software packages which have already been installed.

In order to accomplish our goal, let us devise a trick. Let us assume directory /opt/oracle, as if a device and mount this device on /oracle18c as mount point. Now, we can assign the user oracle ownership to that mount point /oracle18c and therefore, we are avoiding to meddle with this device /opt/oracle directly, with no harm done!

Now, create a mount point /oracle18c from / with the following command:

$ sudo mkdir /oracle18c
$ ls -l /

enter image description here Figure-52: Command 'ls -l /' shows that the mount point '/oracle18c' has 'root:root' ownership.

Create a folder oracle under /opt directory with the following command:

$ sudo mkdir /opt/oracle 
$ ls -l /opt 

enter image description here Figure-53: Directory 'oracle' under '/opt' has 'root:root' ownership.

From figure-53 above, notice that the folder /opt/oracle has root:root ownership.

To make changes in /etc/fstab, issue the following commands:

$ sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.back
$ echo '# Oracle 18.c installation mount point' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
$ echo '/opt/oracle /oracle18c none bind' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Make sure that /etc/fstab, has mount point entry /oracle18c properly set with following command:

$ grep /opt/oracle /etc/fstab

enter image description here Figure-54: Directory '/opt/oracle' is mounted "as if a file system" on '/oracle18c' mount point.

In order to effect our changes done on /etc/fstab, issue the following command:

$ sudo mount -a

To change ownership of mount point /oracle18c from root:root to oracle:oinstall, issue this command:

$ sudo chown -R oracle:oinstall /oracle18c
$ ls -l /

enter image description here Figure-55: The ownership of '/oracle18c' has changed from 'root:root' to 'oracle:oinstall'.

Thus, we have successfully mounted /oracle18c without compromising the ownership of /opt which still remains at root:root untouched! Of course, this is what exactly we wanted! To verify this fact, issue the following command:

$ ls -l / enter image description here Figure-56: The ownership of '/opt' partition still remains at 'root:root' untouched!

On the other hand, the ownership of oracle folder under /opt directory has automatically changed from root:root to oracle:oinstall after loading /etc/fstab changes. To verify this fact, issue the following command:

$ ls -l /opt enter image description here Figure-57: The ownership of 'oracle' folder under '/opt' partition has changed automatically from 'root:root' to 'oracle:oinstall', after loading '/etc/fstab' using 'mount -a' command.

Just compare figure-57 given above with figure-53.

Now, Oracle installation is confined and restricted within /opt/oracle sub-directory and we disallowed Oracle from taking over entire /opt partition thus conquering Oracle squarely! The trick we devised against oracle really worked!

We have not only safe guarded the programs already installed in /opt partition (refer figure-51), but also given way for future installation of new software packages as long as storage space permits. Oracle software is now forced to exist to be one among them, being completely denied any special privilege what so ever over other software packages under /opt directory.

2.2.2. Oracle Base Directory

The Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines of Oracle recommend that you use a path similar to the following for the Oracle base directory: /mount_point/app/oracle_sw_owner

Log into system as oracle user or use this command:

$ su - oracle

Create the oracle base directory (don’t use sudo) with the following command:

$ mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle
$ exit

2.2.3. Oracle Inventary Directory

The Oracle Inventory directory oraInventory stores an inventory of all software installed on the system. It is required by, and shared by, all Oracle software installations on a single system. The first time you install Oracle software on a system, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to specify the path to this directory. Oracle recommends that you choose the following path: oracle_base/oraInventory

Note-1: Oracle Universal Installer creates the directory that you specify and sets the correct owner, group, and permissions on it automatically. You do not need to create it.

Note-2: If you are performing an Oracle Database installation, and you set $ORACLE_BASE for user oracle to the path /oracle18c/app/oracle before installation, and grant 755 permissions to oracle for that path, then Oracle Universal Installer (runInstaller) creates the Oracle Inventory directory one level above the $ORACLE_BASE in the path ORACLE_BASE/../oraInventory, so the Oracle Inventory path is /oracle18c/app/oraInventory (refer figure-71)

Caution: All Oracle software installations rely on this directory. Ensure that you back it up regularly. Do not delete this directory unless you have completely removed all Oracle software from the system.

2.2.4. Oracle Home Directory

The Oracle home directory is the directory in which you choose to install the software for a particular Oracle product. You must install different Oracle products, or different releases of the same Oracle product, in separate Oracle home directories. When you run Oracle Universal Installer, it prompts you to specify the path to this directory, as well as a name that identifies it. The directory that you specify must be a subdirectory of the Oracle base directory. Oracle recommends that you specify a path similar to the following for the Oracle home directory: oracle_base/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1

Log into system as oracle user or use this command:
$ su - oracle

Create the Oracle home directory as follows:

$ mkdir -p /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
$ sudo chown -R oracle:oinstall /oracle18c

2.2.5. Reboot system:

Reboot the system and then log into your computer as user oracle.

2.2.6. Configure umask and DISPLAY Parameters.

Make sure that umask and DISPLAY are set properly by issuing these commands:

$ umask enter image description here Figure-58: Set umask 022.

$ echo $DISPLAY enter image description here Figure-59: Set DISPLAY=:0.

If both umask and DISPLAY parameters are already set properly as shown in figure-58 and 59 respectively, then you are good! You move ahead to next step-2.2.7 to create your oracle account.

If the above parameters are not set properly, then issue the following commands:

$ echo "umask 022" >> ~/.bash_profile
$ echo "export DISPLAY=:0" >> ~/.bash_profile

Restart the computer and then log into computer as user oracle.

2.2.7. Create Your Oracle Account.

To download Oracle Database installation image files db_home.zip, first you should sign-up with Oracle Corporation and get a username and password. If you don’t have an account, you better sign up right now using this link: Create Oracle account enter image description here Figure-60: Create your Oracle Account

You should supply this username and password whenever you download from Oracle Website.

2.2.8. Download image file db_home.zip.

To download db_home.zip from Oracle Website, use the following link: Download Oracle Image enter image description here Figure-61: Select Accept License Agreement and then download Image file db_home.zip.

2.2.9. Extraction of image file db_home.zip.

To extract db_home.zip (suppose that you have downloaded and stored it in ~/Downloads folder) into the Oracle home directory, issue the following command:

$ unzip ~/Downloads/'Oracle 18.c LINUX.X64_180000_db_home.zip' -d /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/

Had you downloaded and stored db_home.zip in a pendrive, then to extract db_home.zip from pendrive into the Oracle home directory, issue the following command:

$ unzip /media/krishna/SANTACRUZ/'Oracle 18.c LINUX.X64_180000_db_home.zip' -d /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/

where 
       'SANTACRUZ' is name of my pendrive, so replace it with your pendrive's name.
       'krishna' is the username on this desktop, so replace it with your own username.

My system is a dual-booted desktop with a 250 GB SSD (Windows-10 installation), another 120 GB SSD (Ubuntu 18.04 installation) and 1 TB hard disk with three NTFS partitions which are mounted on Ubuntu as CodeWrite (read-only), ShareMe (read-only) and Warehouse (read-write) respectively. So, this 1 TB hard disk is sharable between Windows-10 and Ubuntu 18.04. All the copies of installable downloads not only for Windows-10 but also for Ubuntu 18.04 are kept under ShareMe. This arrangement helps to preserve storage space on both SSDs! To unzip, I issue the following command from my desktop:

$ unzip /mnt/ShareMe/'Software(downloaded)'/'MySQL & Oracle'/'Oracle 18.c LINUX.X64_180000_db_home.zip' -d /oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/

Note:Oracle recommends that the Oracle home directory path you create is in compliance with the Oracle Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) recommendations. Also, unzip the installation image files only in this Oracle home directory that you created.

Next, set proper file permission at mount point /oracle18c using chmod command:

$ chmod -R 775 /oracle18c enter image description here Figure-62: Permission for '/oracle18c' directory and its descendents is set to 775

Issue this command to verify /opt storage space after finishing extraction process:

$ df -h /opt enter image description here Figure-63: The storage space consumed by extraction process was around 9.3 GB (compare with Figure-1).

2.2.10. Alter Loader/Linker Flags in makefiles suitable for Ubuntu Linux Platform.

Manipulation and altering of make files, specifically flags, is required for building binaries on Ubuntu Linux platform successfully. If any errors thrown dynamically while building (during database software installation process initiated interactively by runInstaller) will definitely make your life miserable nevertheless it is one hundred percent assured that there will be a clean and pleasant build!

Create a script file omkfix.sh using vi editor and add the following:

$ mkdir -p ~/scripts
$ vi ~/scripts/omkfix.sh

Copy and paste the below contents into the file.

#!/bin/sh
# Change the path below to point to your installation
export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle18c/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
# make changes in orld script
sed -i 's/exec gcc "\$@"/exec gcc -no-pie "\$@"/' $ORACLE_HOME/bin/orald
# Take backup before committing changes
cp $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ins_rdbms.mk $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ins_rdbms.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib/env_network.mk $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib/env_network.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/srvm/lib/env_srvm.mk $ORACLE_HOME/srvm/lib/env_srvm.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/crs/lib/env_has.mk $ORACLE_HOME/crs/lib/env_has.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/odbc/lib/env_odbc.mk $ORACLE_HOME/odbc/lib/env_odbc.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/precomp/lib/env_precomp.mk $ORACLE_HOME/precomp/lib/env_precomp.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/ldap/lib/env_ldap.mk $ORACLE_HOME/ldap/lib/env_ldap.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/ord/im/lib/env_ordim.mk $ORACLE_HOME/ord/im/lib/env_ordim.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib/env_ctx.mk $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib/env_ctx.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/lib/env_plsql.mk $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/lib/env_plsql.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/lib/env_sqlplus.mk $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/lib/env_sqlplus.mk.back
cp $ORACLE_HOME/bin/genorasdksh $ORACLE_HOME/bin/genorasdksh.back
#
# make changes changes in .mk files
#
sed -i 's/\$(ORAPWD_LINKLINE)/\$(ORAPWD_LINKLINE) -lnnz18/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ins_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(HSOTS_LINKLINE)/\$(HSOTS_LINKLINE) -lagtsh/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ins_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(EXTPROC_LINKLINE)/\$(EXTPROC_LINKLINE) -lagtsh/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ins_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(OPT) \$(HSOTSMAI)/\$(OPT) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(HSOTSMAI)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(OPT) \$(HSDEPMAI)/\$(OPT) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(HSDEPMAI)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(OPT) \$(EXTPMAI)/\$(OPT) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(EXTPMAI)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(SPOBJS) \$(LLIBDMEXT)/\$(SPOBJS) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(LLIBDMEXT)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk

sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKRMED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKRMED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSBBDED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSBBDED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKRSED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKRSED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SKRNPT)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SKRNPT)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSTRCED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSTRCED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSTNTED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSTNTED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKFEDED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKFEDED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk

sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKFODED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKFODED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKFNDGED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKFNDGED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKFMUED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKFMUED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKFSAGED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKFSAGED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(DBGVCI)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(DBGVCI)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(DBGUCI)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(DBGUCI)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/\$(S0MAIN) \$(SSKECED)/\$(S0MAIN) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(SSKECED)/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk

sed -i 's/^\(ORACLE_LINKLINE.*\$(ORACLE_LINKER)\) \($(PL_FLAGS)\)/\1 -Wl,--no-as-needed \2/g' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/^\(TNSLSNR_LINKLINE.*\$(TNSLSNR_OFILES)\) \(\$(LINKTTLIBS)\)/\1 -Wl,--no-as-needed \2/g' $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib/env_network.mk
sed -i 's/\$LD \$1G/$LD -Wl,--no-as-needed \$LD_RUNTIME/' $ORACLE_HOME/bin/genorasdksh
sed -i 's/\$(GETCRSHOME_OBJ1) \$(OCRLIBS_DEFAULT)/\$(GETCRSHOME_OBJ1) -Wl,--no-as-needed \$(OCRLIBS_DEFAULT)/' $ORACLE_HOME/srvm/lib/env_srvm.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/env_rdbms.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/crs/lib/env_has.mk;
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/odbc/lib/env_odbc.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/precomp/lib/env_precomp.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/srvm/lib/env_srvm.mk;
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib/env_network.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/ldap/lib/env_ldap.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/ord/im/lib/env_ordim.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/lib/env_ctx.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/lib/env_plsql.mk
sed -i 's/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags/LDDISABLENEWDTAGS=-Wl,--no-as-needed,--disable-new-dtags/' $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/lib/env_sqlplus.mk

Save and exit from vi editor.

While executing this script, ORACLE_HOME will be exported as the first line of the script so that the installation directory for entire script is correctly pointed. Now run the script omkfix.sh:

$ chmod +x ~/scripts/omkfix.sh
$ . ~/scripts/omkfix.sh

This is the end of Part-II of the installation and the next Part-III will begin subsequently which consists of:

1) Installation of database software by runInstaller interactively.
2) Installation of Listener silently using response file 'rsp'.
2

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