Installing Oracle on Redhat 7

ZX81.org.uk: Computing: Oracle: Oracle HOWTO: Installing Oracle on Redhat 7

Introduction

The subject at hand is really much wider than just Redhat 7.x, especially as more recent distributions are following Redhats lead and are now including glibc 2.2 also. I have no reason to believe that this process will not work with newer versions of SuSE, Debian, etc.

The other point to note is that I do not have a copy of RedHat 7. I have not, personally, verified that any of this works, although I have had a number of emails from people who have had success.

Most of the following material comes from two people, who are the real people you should thank if it works for you. They are John Smiley and Max McClanahan.

The process

The problem is that Oracle 8.1.x needs glibc 2.1.3. It will link without error with glibc 2.2, but when you try to run dbassist or create a database from scratch, there are problems (dbassist hangs, 'End of file on communication channel', etc.)

Here is a step-by-step process for getting Oracle 8.1.6 or 8.1.7 working on systems with glibc 2.2 (don't bother with 8.1.5 if you can help it). Note that 9i requires glibc 2.2 and will not work with earlier versions:

1. Install the compat-glibc RPM for 2.1.3.
2. Execute the following command: . /usr/i386-glib21-linux/bin/i386-glibc21-linux-env.sh
3. Type "export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5"
4. Type: cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
5. Run the following command from the UNIX prompt: relink all

All of the Oracle software, including the assitants, will work fine now.

This technique will work on RedHat 7.0 with the 2.2.16 kernel, as well as the 2.4.0 and 2.4.1-pre11 kernels.

The rest

John Smiley also asked me to point out that Oracle have issues some patches (ftp://205.227.44.220/server/patchsets/unix/LINUX/8161/bug1467074/) that are required in order for them to consider your machine 'certified':

Operating System: Intel Based Server LINUX Version:Red Hat 7.0 
Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Version: 8.1.7 (8i) 
N/A Version: N/A 
Status: Certified 
Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition Version: 8.1.7 (8i)
Bug Number: 1467074 
REDHAT 7.0/ORA-3113 ISSUE (GLIBC 2.1.94 AND LATER)
Patch for bug 1467074 is mandatory for this certification.

RedHat even have a bug report on this issue, which may be worth a look: Bugzilla report from Redhat.