Chapter 2: Preparing the Database Environment

A computer can efficiently handle only a certain number of requests at a time; this number is
greatly dependent on the number of CPUs and the amount of RAM. As the number of requests
increases beyond a certain threshold, processes begin competing for scarce resources and all of
them suffer. Your goal as Oracle administrator is not simply to create a database but to be on
time, on budget, and to meet the availability and performance targets of the business. As with
any goal, careful planning is the key to success. This chapter discusses important issues that is
definitely within your circle of influence and that you cannot afford to ignore: Planning your
installation

Tasks of an Oracle Database Administrator

 Each database requires at least one database administrator (DBA). An Oracle Database
system can be large and can have many users. Therefore, database administration is
sometimes not a one-person job, but a job for a group of DBAs who share responsibility.
 The approach for designing, implementing, and maintaining an Oracle database involves
the following tasks:

1. Evaluating the database server hardware

2. Installing the Oracle software

3. Planning the database and security strategy

4. Creating and opening the database

5. Backing up the database

6. Enrolling system users

7. Implementing the database design

8. Recovering from database failure

9. Monitoring & tuning database performance

 A DBA is typically responsible for installing the Oracle software and creating the
database. You may be responsible for creating database storage structures, such as
tablespaces. In addition, you may create the schema or set of objects to hold application
data. You must ensure that the database is available for users. You accomplish this by
starting up the database, backing up the database on a regular basis, and monitoring the
performance of the database.
 As you proceed through the chapters of this course, you will learn how to perform each
of these tasks. In this chapter however, we focus on installing the Oracle software. One of
your duties as an Oracle DBA is to install and configure the Oracle software on the server

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 so that a database can be created to store application data. This chapter therefore
discusses the issues to be considered before installation and each of the steps that you
must perform in order to successfully install the Oracle software

3.1 Tools for administering an oracle database:

 The following tools are used in the installation and upgrading of the oracle software:

 Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) Installs your Oracle software and options; can
automatically launch the Database Configuration Assistant to create a database
 Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA): Creates a database from Oracle-supplied
templates, enabling you to copy a preconfigured seed database
 Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA): Guides you through the upgrade of your existing
database to a new Oracle release
 Oracle Net Manager: Configures network connectivity for your Oracle databases and
applications.

 The following tools are used for managing your oracle instance and database:

 Enterprise Manager (EM): A web-based user interface tools which provides an

integrated and comprehensive system management platform for managing oracle
products. After you have installed the oracle software, created a database and configured
the network, you can use EM as the single interface for managing your database. It also
interfaces with other oracle components (such as Recovery manager) that are used to
administer your database.

 SQL*Plus: Standard command-line interface for managing your database

 Recovery Manager (RMAN): Oracle tool that provides a complete solution for the
backup, restoration, and recovery needs of the entire database or of specific database files

 Data Pump: Enables the high-speed transfer of data from one database to another (For
example, you may want to export a table and import it into another database.)

 SQL*Loader: Enables the loading of data from an external file into an Oracle database;
one of several Oracle utilities that you can use to load data into database tables

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 3.3 Installing Oracle

The process of installing the oracle software consists of the following four step:

• Review the release documentation

• Plan the installation

• Install the software

• Perform the post-installation tasks

 Review the release documentation: Before beginning any installation of Oracle

software, you need to review several documents so that you completely understand the
installation process, requirements as well as any known associated issues. These
documents may include: The general release notes for the version of Oracle that you are
installing, the operating system–specific release notes for the version of Oracle that you
are installing, The Oracle Database Installation Guide for your operating system e.g. 12c
Release 1 (12.1.0) for Microsoft windows. The latest version of any of these release notes
is always available on Oracle Technology Network website (OTN user accounts are free).
It is located at: http: //www.oracle.com/technology/documentation

 Plan the installation: The Oracle Universal Installer, which is described in the
subsequent section, “Using the Oracle Universal Installer,” will perform a quick system
check prior to starting an installation to see if your system meets the specific
requirements for your operating system. If your system does not meet the minimum
requirements, the installer returns an error and aborts. It is easy for example, to
underestimate the amount of space you need for the database. A common mistake is not
to leave sufficient room for growth. The hardware resources your database needs depend
on a number of factors such as the characteristics of the application, the expected amount
of activity, and the performance targets (such as the response time of business-critical
transactions).

This step involves planning for your server software & hardware specifications to see if
they meet or exceed the specifications in the install documentation. Minimally, this
means that you must confirm that your server meets the installation requirements in these
four areas:

• The operating system is of the proper release level

• The server has adequate memory to perform the install and run an instance

• The server has adequate CPU resources to perform the install and run an instance

• The server has adequate disk storage space to perform the install and run a database

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 2.4 System Requirements

Memory requirements:

 Physical memory (RAM): 2 GB minimum

 Disk space requirements:

 Typical Install Type total: 10 GB

 Advanced Install Types total: 10 GB

Disk space requirements:

 Between 1.5 GB and 3.5 GB for the Oracle software

 1.2 GB for the preconfigured database (optional)

 2.4 GB for the flash recovery area (optional)

 Operating system (windows XP, Win7 professional, linux based platforms)

2.5 Environment Variables

There are many Oracle environment variables. Those mentioned here are important to the
successful installation and use of an Oracle database. None of these are required to be set, but
you can avoid future problems by setting them before the installation.

 ORACLE_BASE :This is root directory for Oracle database software which contains
ORACLE_HOME for Oracle database software and other directories, as shown in the
following example: C:/app/OracleHomeUser1

 ORACLE_HOME: Is the directory where you choose to install the software for a
particular Oracle product. It specifies the directory containing the Oracle software for a
given release as shown in the following example:

C:/app/OracleHomeUser1/product/11.1.0/dbhome_1

 ORACLE_SID: Is used to uniquely identify a particular database on a system. For this

reason, one cannot have more than one database with the same SID on a computer
system. Oracle Corporation suggests that a maximum of eight characters be used for
system identifiers

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 Downloading the oracle database software
1. Open a web browser of your choice and navigate to http://otn.oracle.com/windows. By
default, the page displays the What's New tab, showcasing news about Oracle on
Windows.

Note: In this OBE, we use Internet Explorer to download the software.

2. Click the Downloads tab.

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3. Click on the latest version of Oracle Database 12c (x64).

4. The software downloads page displays the files required to download the database. It lists
a set of software files to install software such as, Oracle Database Grid
Infrastructure and Oracle Database Gateways with the Oracle database. Each set
displays a short description of what the file includes. You can choose to download any set
of software depending on your requirement.

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5. In this OBE, we install Oracle Database 12c. Accept the license agreement and click the
files under Oracle Database 12c Release ... for Microsoft Windows (x64) to download.

6. Log into your Oracle web account. If you do not have an Oracle account, click the "Sign
Up" link to create one. Then choose the location where you want to download the .zip
files.

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7. After downloading the files, use the default built-in extraction tool provided by Windows,
or tools such as 7-zip to extract the .zip files. In this OBE, we use the built-in extractor to
extract the software files.

Right click winx64_12c_database_1of2 and select Extract All...

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8. Choose the folder of your choice and click Extract. In this OBE, we extract the file to
the F:\windows_db_12c\winx64_12c_database_1of2 folder.

9. The file winx64_12c_database_2of2.zip must be extracted into the same folder where
the first file was extracted. Right click winx64_12c_database_2of2.zip, select
the Extract All... option and specify the same location where the first file was extracted.
In this OBE, we extract the files to
the F:\windows_db_12c\winx64_12c_database_1of2 folder. Click Extract.

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 10. The software files are extracted. Expand the winx64_12c_database_1 folder.

 Install Oracle Database 12c on Windows 10

Step 1: Next go to folder database 2 and then go to this folder Stage then go to the directory
components. And copy all the directories from this components’ folder. Press CTRL + A to
select all and CTRL + C to copy. Now we have to come back to our folder database 1 and here it
is inside this you have folder Stage, go to it and then go to the folder Components and here paste
all those files which we copied earlier. That’s it. Now we are all set to start the setup and install
Oracle Database 12c on our windows 10.

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Step 2: Go to database 1 folder and Right-Click on setup.exe and Run as administrator. Accept
the warning and this will start your Oracle Universal Installer.

Step3: On the First Screen you need to provide your email address if you want to receive all the
notifications and news alerts from oracle. If you do not want it then simply leave these fields
empty and move to next. Accept this warning as it’s just reminding you that you didn’t provide
the email id, avoid it and move ahead.

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Step4: Software Updates – On this step you have options for installing updates to oracle
database 12c if you have oracle database credentials then choose the first option fill up the login
form and download the updates. Or if you already have downloaded the updates on your system
then choose the 2nd option specify the file location and install the updates. The 3rd option will
let you proceed ahead without installing any updates. This is the one that we are going to do now
as we just downloaded fresh and updated copy of oracle 12c software.

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Step5: Installation Option – On this screen you will be presented with 3 different installation
options. You can choose any of them according to your needs. In my case I want to install Oracle
server software and want to create a database also. Thus I will choose the first option.
**Important – If you choose the second option then only oracle server will be installed and no
database will be created. You can create a database after the installation of oracle server using
DBCA. You can choose the 3rd option if you want to perform the upgrade of the database and
software. But I will choose the first option and will hit next and move ahead.

Step6: System Class – On this screen you have to choose between Server Class and Desktop
class. If you are installing this oracle database 12c on your laptop or desktop, then select the first
option which is Desktop class. If you are installing oracle 12c on a server which is capable
enough to handle the load of all the server components and processes, then choose the 2nd option
which is Server class.
In my case I am installing Oracle database 12c on a windows 10 professional which is installed
on my laptop thus I will choose the first option and hit next.

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Step 7: In this step you can (1) choose the folder on which Oracle database will be installed, (2)
Global database name and password, (3) pluggable database name.

Step 8: Prerequisite Checks – On this screen OUI (Oracle Universal Installer) will check for
the prerequisites such as hardware compatibility. If everything goes well then we will be good to
install it. If there is any error, then OUI will show you here. Fortunately, no errors!

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Now hit Install. Doing so will start the installation. This installation might take some time
depending on your hardware.

Step 9: The installer shows you the summary of the information such as global settings, database
information, etc. You need to review the information and click the install button if everything is
fine.

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Here we are the last step where we will unlock the users. Click this password management
button.

Now here in this password management window we have all the users which are by default
locked. You can unlock any of them, for example – I want to unlock this user with
name Anonymous. For that I will uncheck the box which is in front of its name and give it a
valid password. Click OK now. Avoid this warning again as it’s reminding you that the
password is not up to the oracle standards. Just hit yes and move ahead.

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Final Step:
Just hit Yes and move ahead. We are back again on our DBCA windows. Here you can see all
the important information regarding our oracle database such as Global database name, SID of
our database, location of the parameter files and the link for our enterprise manager. I would
suggest you to save this link somewhere.

Click ok and this installation is successfully done. Click Close to close OUI.

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