Oracle Database 18c Installation On Oracle Linux 8 (OL8)

This article describes the installation of Oracle Database 18c 64-bit on Oracle Linux 8 (OL8) 64-bit. The article is based on a server installation with a minimum of 2G swap and secure Linux set to permissive.

◉ Download Software

Download the Oracle software from OTN or MOS depending on your support status.

◉ OTN: Oracle Database 18c (18.3) Software (64-bit).
◉ edelivery: Oracle Database 18c (18.3) Software (64-bit)

◉ Hosts File

The "/etc/hosts" file must contain a fully qualified name for the server.

<IP-address>  <fully-qualified-machine-name>  <machine-name>

For example.

127.0.0.1       localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
192.168.56.107  ol8-183.localdomain  ol8-183

Set the correct hostname in the "/etc/hostname" file.

ol8-183.localdomain

◉ Oracle Installation Prerequisites

The automatic setup is not available for Oracle Linux 8 yet, so perform the Manual Setup and Additional Setup.

     ◉ Manual Setup

Add the following lines to the "/etc/sysctl.conf" file, or in a file called "/etc/sysctl.d/98-oracle.conf".

fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.shmall = 1073741824
kernel.shmmax = 4398046511104
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.conf.all.rp_filter = 2
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 2
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500

Run one of the following commands to change the current kernel parameters, depending on which file you edited.

/sbin/sysctl -p
# Or
/sbin/sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/98-oracle.conf

Add the following lines to a file called "/etc/security/limits.d/oracle-database-preinstall-18c.conf" file.

oracle   soft   nofile    1024
oracle   hard   nofile    65536
oracle   soft   nproc    16384
oracle   hard   nproc    16384
oracle   soft   stack    10240
oracle   hard   stack    32768
oracle   hard   memlock    134217728
oracle   soft   memlock    134217728

The following packages are listed as required, including the 32-bit version of some of the packages. Many of the packages should be installed already.

dnf install -y bc 
dnf install -y binutils
#dnf install -y compat-libcap1
dnf install -y compat-libstdc++-33
#dnf install -y dtrace-modules
#dnf install -y dtrace-modules-headers
#dnf install -y dtrace-modules-provider-headers
#dnf install -y dtrace-utils
dnf install -y elfutils-libelf
dnf install -y elfutils-libelf-devel
dnf install -y fontconfig-devel
dnf install -y glibc
dnf install -y glibc-devel
dnf install -y ksh
dnf install -y libaio
dnf install -y libaio-devel
#dnf install -y libdtrace-ctf-devel
dnf install -y libXrender
dnf install -y libXrender-devel
dnf install -y libX11
dnf install -y libXau
dnf install -y libXi
dnf install -y libXtst
dnf install -y libgcc
dnf install -y librdmacm-devel
dnf install -y libstdc++
dnf install -y libstdc++-devel
dnf install -y libxcb
dnf install -y make
dnf install -y net-tools # Clusterware
dnf install -y nfs-utils # ACFS
dnf install -y python # ACFS
dnf install -y python-configshell # ACFS
dnf install -y python-rtslib # ACFS
dnf install -y python-six # ACFS
dnf install -y targetcli # ACFS
dnf install -y smartmontools
dnf install -y sysstat

# Added by me.
dnf install -y unixODBC

# New for OL8
dnf install -y libnsl
dnf install -y libnsl.i686
dnf install -y libnsl2
dnf install -y libnsl2.i686

Create the new groups and users.

groupadd -g 54321 oinstall
groupadd -g 54322 dba
groupadd -g 54323 oper
#groupadd -g 54324 backupdba
#groupadd -g 54325 dgdba
#groupadd -g 54326 kmdba
#groupadd -g 54327 asmdba
#groupadd -g 54328 asmoper
#groupadd -g 54329 asmadmin
#groupadd -g 54330 racdba

useradd -u 54321 -g oinstall -G dba,oper oracle

Uncomment the extra groups you require.

     ◉ Additional Setup

Set the password for the "oracle" user.

passwd oracle

Set secure Linux to permissive by editing the "/etc/selinux/config" file, making sure the SELINUX flag is set as follows.

SELINUX=permissive

Once the change is complete, restart the server or run the following command.

# setenforce Permissive

If you have the Linux firewall enabled, you will need to disable or configure it, as shown here or here. To disable it, do the following.

# systemctl stop firewalld
# systemctl disable firewalld

If you are not using Oracle Linux and UEK, you will need to manually disable transparent huge pages.

Create the directories in which the Oracle software will be installed.

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
mkdir -p /u02/oradata
chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01 /u02
chmod -R 775 /u01 /u02

Putting mount points directly under root without mounting separate disks to them is typically a bad idea. It's done here for simplicity, but for a real installation "/" storage should be reserved for the OS.

Unless you are working from the console, or using SSH tunnelling, login as root and issue the following command.

xhost +<machine-name>

The scripts are created using the cat command, with all the "$" characters escaped. If you want to manually create these files, rather than using the cat command, remember to remove the "\" characters before the "$" characters.

Create a "scripts" directory.

mkdir /home/oracle/scripts

Create an environment file called "setEnv.sh".

cat > /home/oracle/scripts/setEnv.sh <<EOF
# Oracle Settings
export TMP=/tmp
export TMPDIR=\$TMP

export ORACLE_HOSTNAME=ol8-183.localdomain
export ORACLE_UNQNAME=cdb1
export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=\$ORACLE_BASE/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
export ORA_INVENTORY=/u01/app/oraInventory
export ORACLE_SID=cdb1
export PDB_NAME=pdb1
export DATA_DIR=/u02/oradata

export PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:\$PATH
export PATH=\$ORACLE_HOME/bin:\$PATH

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib
export CLASSPATH=\$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:\$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib
EOF

Add a reference to the "setEnv.sh" file at the end of the "/home/oracle/.bash_profile" file.

echo ". /home/oracle/scripts/setEnv.sh" >> /home/oracle/.bash_profile

Create a "start_all.sh" and "stop_all.sh" script that can be called from a startup/shutdown service. Make sure the ownership and permissions are correct.

cat > /home/oracle/scripts/start_all.sh <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
. /home/oracle/scripts/setEnv.sh

export ORAENV_ASK=NO
. oraenv
export ORAENV_ASK=YES

dbstart \$ORACLE_HOME
EOF

cat > /home/oracle/scripts/stop_all.sh <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
. /home/oracle/scripts/setEnv.sh

export ORAENV_ASK=NO
. oraenv
export ORAENV_ASK=YES

dbshut \$ORACLE_HOME
EOF

chown -R oracle:oinstall /home/oracle/scripts
chmod u+x /home/oracle/scripts/*.sh

Once the installation is complete and you've edited the "/etc/oratab", you should be able to start/stop the database with the following scripts run from the "oracle" user.

~/scripts/start_all.sh
~/scripts/stop_all.sh

◉ Installation

Log into the oracle user. If you are using X emulation then set the DISPLAY environmental variable.

DISPLAY=<machine-name>:0.0; export DISPLAY

Switch to the ORACLE_HOME directory, unzip the software directly into this path and start the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) by issuing one of the following commands in the ORACLE_HOME directory. The interactive mode will display GUI installer screens to allow user input, while the silent mode will install the software without displaying any screens, as all required options are already specified on the command line.

# Unzip software.
cd $ORACLE_HOME
unzip -oq /path/to/software/LINUX.X64_180000_db_home.zip

# Fake Oracle Linux 7.
export CV_ASSUME_DISTID=OEL7.6

# Interactive mode.
./runInstaller

# Silent mode.
./runInstaller -ignorePrereq -waitforcompletion -silent                        \
    -responseFile ${ORACLE_HOME}/install/response/db_install.rsp               \
    oracle.install.option=INSTALL_DB_SWONLY                                    \
    ORACLE_HOSTNAME=${ORACLE_HOSTNAME}                                         \
    UNIX_GROUP_NAME=oinstall                                                   \
    INVENTORY_LOCATION=${ORA_INVENTORY}                                        \
    SELECTED_LANGUAGES=en,en_GB                                                \
    ORACLE_HOME=${ORACLE_HOME}                                                 \
    ORACLE_BASE=${ORACLE_BASE}                                                 \
    oracle.install.db.InstallEdition=EE                                        \
    oracle.install.db.OSDBA_GROUP=dba                                          \
    oracle.install.db.OSBACKUPDBA_GROUP=dba                                    \
    oracle.install.db.OSDGDBA_GROUP=dba                                        \
    oracle.install.db.OSKMDBA_GROUP=dba                                        \
    oracle.install.db.OSRACDBA_GROUP=dba                                       \
    SECURITY_UPDATES_VIA_MYORACLESUPPORT=false                                 \
    DECLINE_SECURITY_UPDATES=true

Run the root scripts when prompted.

As a root user, execute the following script(s):
        1. /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh
        2. /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1/root.sh

You are now ready to create a database.

◉ Database Creation

You create a database using the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA). The interactive mode will display GUI screens to allow user input, while the silent mode will create the database without displaying any screens, as all required options are already specified on the command line.

# Start the listener.
lsnrctl start

# Interactive mode.
dbca

# Silent mode.
dbca -silent -createDatabase                                                   \
     -templateName General_Purpose.dbc                                         \
     -gdbname ${ORACLE_SID} -sid  ${ORACLE_SID} -responseFile NO_VALUE         \
     -characterSet AL32UTF8                                                    \
     -sysPassword SysPassword1                                                 \
     -systemPassword SysPassword1                                              \
     -createAsContainerDatabase true                                           \
     -numberOfPDBs 1                                                           \
     -pdbName ${PDB_NAME}                                                      \
     -pdbAdminPassword PdbPassword1                                            \
     -databaseType MULTIPURPOSE                                                \
     -automaticMemoryManagement false                                          \
     -totalMemory 2000                                                         \
     -storageType FS                                                           \
     -datafileDestination "${DATA_DIR}"                                        \
     -redoLogFileSize 50                                                       \
     -emConfiguration NONE                                                     \
     -ignorePreReqs

◉ Post Installation

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

cdb1:/u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/db_1:Y

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