Oracle(R) Universal Installer Concepts Guide
Release 1.7


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Using Multiple Oracle Homes

Introduction

The Oracle Universal Installer supports the installation of several active Oracle homes on the same machine. An Oracle home is the system context in which Oracle products run. This context consists of the directory location where the products are installed, the corresponding system path setup, and where applicable, the program groups associated with the products installed in that home, and the services running from that home.

Multiple Oracle Homes

The Oracle Universal Installer supports the installation of several active Oracle homes on the same machine as long as the products support this at runtime. You can have multiple versions of the same product or different products running from different Oracle homes concurrently. Products installed in one home will not conflict or interact with products installed in another home. You can update software in any home at any time, assuming all Oracle applications/services/processes installed on the target home are shut down. Processes from other homes may still be running.

Target Home

The Oracle home currently accessed by the Oracle Universal Installer for installation or deinstallation is the target home. In order to upgrade or remove products from the target homes, those products must be shut down/stopped.

Product Types

Different levels of support are available with multiple Oracle homes for the following product types:


Note:

The installation guide of your products will specify what type they are and whether they can be installed once in a home or multiple times.  


Home Selector (Available on Win32 Platforms)

If your application is not installed in one of the Oracle homes, you need to ensure it uses the right product version, by pointing it to the right home. That specific (target) home must take precedence over the other homes in your path when you launch your application. The Home Selector enables you to easily change your primary Oracle home (the one that appears first in the PATH environment variable).

Oracle Home Directory Structure for Windows Platform

A typical Oracle home on Windows platforms contains the following files and directories.

Table 2-1 Oracle Home Directory for Windows Platforms
Oracle Home Directory  Contents 

\BIN  

Product executables and DLLs  

\DBS  

Common message files  

\PROD1  

PROD1 product files  

\PROD2  

PROD2 product files  

Optimal Flexible Architecture Directory Structure (on Solaris)

The Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) standard is a set of configuration guidelines for fast, reliable Oracle databases that require little maintenance.

OFA is designed to:

The OFA directory structure is described below.

ORACLE_BASE Directory

ORACLE_BASE specifies the BASE of the Oracle directory structure for OFA-compliant databases. ORACLE_BASE directory structure is described in Table 2-2. When installing an OFA-compliant database using the Oracle Installer, ORACLE_BASE is by default set to /pm/app/oracle.

Table 2-2 ORACLE_BASE Directory Structure and Content

admin  

administrative files  

doc  

online documentation  

local  

subtree for local Oracle software  

product  

Oracle software  

ORACLE_HOME Directory

The following is an example of an Oracle Server Install.

If you install an OFA-compliant Oracle Server, the ORACLE_HOME directory is /mount_point/app/oracle/product/release_number. ORACLE_HOME directory structure and content are described in Table 2-3. Under UNIX, the ORACLE_HOME directory contains the following subdirectories, as well as a subdirectory for each Oracle product selected.


Note:

These may appear depending upon whether the corresponding products are installed.  


Table 2-3 ORACLE_HOME Directory Structure and Content

assistants  

configuration Assistants  

bin  

binaries for all products  

ctx  

interMedia Text cartridge  

dbs  

initsid.ora, lksid  

install  

install related files  

lib  

Oracle product libraries  

jlib  

Java classes  

md  

Spatial cartridge  

mlx  

Xerox Stemmer (for interMedia Text cartridge)  

network  

Net8  

nlsrtl  

NLS runtime loadable data  

ocommon  

common files for all products  

odg  

data gatherer  

opsm  

Parallel Server Manager Components  

oracore  

core libraries  

ord  

data cartridges  

otrace  

Oracle TRACE  

plsql  

PL/SQL  

precomp  

precompilers  

rdbms  

server files and libraries required for the database  

slax  

SLAX parser  

sqlplus  

SQL*Plus  

Creating an Oracle Home

To create an Oracle home, follow the steps below.

  1. Run the Oracle Universal Installer.

  1. In the File Locations page, enter the Oracle home settings for the installation session under Destination.


Note:

The Name field only appears in Windows platforms.  


Table 2-4 Oracle Installation Settings in Destination
Settings  Functions 

Name  

For Windows platforms, Oracle homes are identified by name, and the Oracle home name identifies the program group associated with a particular Oracle home, and the Oracle services installed on the associated home. The Oracle home name must be 1 to 16 characters long and can only include alphanumeric characters and underscores.  

Path  

Enter an Oracle home and its full path or select an Oracle home from a drop down list of existing Oracle Homes. The Oracle home location is the directory where products are installed.

List of Oracle homes on Windows platforms:all Oracle homes that are already created using the Oracle Universal Installer all homes created using the previous Oracle Installer (ORCA-based) the home that the ORACLE_HOME environment variable points to

List of Oracle homes on UNIX: all Oracle homes that are already created using the Oracle Universal Installer all homes as defined in the /var/opt/oratab file the home that the ORACLE_HOME environment variable points to

If none of these homes exists, a default home is calculated based on the disk volume with the largest amount of free space.

Datafiles may or may not be installed within an Oracle home. You may use the Browse button to choose a directory to install your product.

For Windows platforms: it must be a valid path that is not in the Windows directory. Different homes cannot share the same location.  

  1. Continue with your installation. Refer to Chapter 1, "Using the Oracle Universal Installer" for detailed information.

ORAPARAM.INI File


Note:

A typical user does not need to modify the ORAPARAM.INI file. This file is manipulated when you are building your own installation using the Oracle Universal Installer. Refer to the Oracle Software Packager User's Guide for detailed information about the ORAPARAM.INI file.  


The ORAPARAM.INI is the Oracle Universal Installer's initialization file. Edit the parameters according to sample file provided. The file provides parameters for the following:


DISTRIBUTION

Set DISTRIBUTION to TRUE if the ORAPARAM.INI file is on a distribution media. A distribution media can be a CD-ROM or the Web.


SOURCE

Location of your staging area (the products.jar file). This location is relative to the directory where oraparam.ini exists.


LICENSE_LOCATION

Location of a text file for License information. This location is relative to the directory where oraparam.ini exists.

After you click the Next button on the "Welcome" screen, the Oracle Universal Installer will ask for license acceptance. If this file exists, the Oracle Universal Installer will let the user proceed only after license is accepted.

This parameter is ignored if the file is not found.


JRE_LOCATION

Location to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which will be used by the Oracle Universal Installer


OUI_LOCATION

Location to the Oracle Universal Installer files


DEFAULT_HOME_NAME

The default name for the Oracle Home. This parameter is used only if the install takes place on a machine with no previous Oracle installations. This parameter is used only on Windows platforms.


NLS_ENABLED

Set NLS_ENABLED to FALSE to disable the installation session translations. The Oracle Universal Installer displays in English even if you run on a non-English system.


JRE_MEMORY_OPTIONS

Set these to increase the initial heap size for JRE.


NO_BROWSE

List directories which you do not want to browse. These are typically large directories which will take a long time to list. For example, =/net, /nfs.


BOOTSTRAP

In the case of installing products that span multiple CDs, a "bootstrap" occurs in which temporary copies of OUI and JRE are placed in the TEMP or TMP directory so that these applications can be launched when you change CD-ROMs.

As a user/developer of an install, you need to set BOOTSTRAP to True or False. BOOTSTRAP tells the Oracle Universal Installer to attempt a bootstrap. Set BOOTSTRAP to True before cutting CDs, but set it to False once you have copied the staging area to the hard disk.


OUI_VERSION = <1.7.0.1.0>

Set the version of the Oracle Universal Installer you are using. Note: you must set the version correctly in order for the bootstrap to work.

A sample ORAPARAM.INI file is shown below.

  
[Oracle] 
DISTRIBUTION=TRUE 
#Set DISTRIBUTION to TRUE if the ORAPARAM.INI file is on a distribution media. A 
distribution media can be a CD-ROM or the Web. 

SOURCE=../stage/products.jar 
#Location of the products.jar file. This location is relative to the directory 
where oraparam.ini exists.

LICENSE_LOCATION= 
#Location of a text file for License information. This location is relative 
to the directory where oraparam.ini exists. 
#After you click the Next button on the Welcome page, the Oracle Universal 
Installer will ask for license acceptance. If this file exists, the Oracle 
Universal Installer will let the user proceed only after license is accepted. 

JRE_LOCATION=../stage/Components/oracle/swd/jre/1.1.6.2.1o/2/DataFiles/Expanded
/ojre 
#Relative location to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which will be used by 
the Oracle Universal Installer 

OUI_LOCATION=../stage/Components/oracle/swd/oui/1.5.1.4.2/1/DataFiles/Expanded 
#Relative location to the Oracle Universal Installer files 

DEFAULT_HOME_NAME="OUIHome" 
#The default name for the Oracle Home. This parameter is used only if the 
install takes place on a machine with no previous Oracle installations. This 
parameter is used only on Windows platforms. 

HLP_LOCATION= 
#For future use only

EWT_LOCATION= 
#For future use only 

NLS_ENABLED=TRUE 
#Set NLS_ENABLED to FALSE to disable the translations. The Oracle Universal 
Installer displays in English even if you run on a non-English system. 

JRE_MEMORY_OPTIONS=-ms16m -mx32m 
#Set these to increase the initial heap size for JRE.  

NO_BROWSE= 
#list directories which you do not want to browse. These are typically 
large directories which will take a long time to list. 
# =/net, /nfs 




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