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Install GUI X11 packages and VNC Server on Exadata Compute Nodes

Recently we patched our Exadata machines to the April 2016 QFSP. On running DBCA we got X11 forwarding error and upon further investigation we discovered that X11 related packages RPM are removed in the new compute node patches.
Image version: 12.1.2.3.1.160411
On Oracle support website there is a note about it:
Refer MOS for more information –> Unable to run graphical tools (gui) (runInstaller, dbca and dbua) on Exadata 12.1.2.1.0 – 12.1.2.2.0 (Doc ID 1969308.1)
In addition to adding pack the X11 packages we also installed VNC Server(tigervnc), which can be a useful thing to do some basic GUI stuff.
— Install GUI Packages back in Exadata —
1. Download OEL6 (OEL6.7) Linux from E-delivery website as image
2. FTP file to serve, preferably to Cluster file system to do on both nodes
3. Create a directory and mount the OEL6 media
mkdir /mnt
— IF exists just continue
mount -o loop /ACFS/V77197-01.iso /mnt
4. Change the REPO, Edit /etc/yum.repos.d/Exadata-computenode.repo
Remove old information and add below lines
[ol6_iso]
name=Oracle Exadata DB server
baseurl=file:///mnt
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1
5. Validate the repository
yum list –disablerepo=* –enablerepo=ol6_iso
6. Install the X11 packacges
yum –disablerepo=* –enablerepo=ol6_iso install xorg-x11-xauth
–Update 2 –: starting 12.1.2.2.0 this package is not mandatory for X applications, so you can run below if your imageinfo version is more than it–
–Update 1–: I had a conversation with Oracle Development team after posting this blog post and interestingly they could not re-produce the same scenario in their lab. We upgraded from OL5 to OL6 on the compute nodes with almost 2 years of difference between the image versions. If your compute node versions is already OL6 then most likely you should not encounter the above scenario (that’s what the Oracle development team told me atleast).  If you do encounter it then log a SR with Oracle and get their blessings before proceeding.
yum –disablerepo=* –enablerepo=ol6_iso install xorg-x11-utils
If packages already exist remove the pakages and reinstall since it will fix the library dependencies
yum –disablerepo=* –enablerepo=ol6_iso remove xorg-x11-utils
yum –disablerepo=* –enablerepo=ol6_iso install xorg-x11-utils
7. Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config to enable X11Forwarding
vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Below values should not be commented
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes
UseDNS yes
8. Restart the SSHD service to reflect the new changes
service sshd restart
Stopping sshd: [ OK ]
Starting sshd: [ OK ]
9. Run any GUI utility to check, export the display if required
export DISPLAY=10.10.10.1:0.0
dbca
10. Install VNC Server
yum –disablerepo=* –enablerepo=ol6_iso install vnc-server
11. Configure VNC Server for oracle user
vi /etc/sysconfig/vncservers
— Add / Edit Parameters like below in file, make sure the 2 lines are uncommented
VNCSERVERS=”2:oracle”
VNCSERVERARGS[2]=”-geometry 800×600 -nolisten tcp -localhost”
— Set VNC password for oracle user —
su – oracle
vncpasswd
Password:
Verify:
— Login back as root user and start the vnc server service —
service vncserver start
New ‘exatestdbadm01.domain.com:2 (oracle)’ desktop is exatestdbadm01.domain.com:2
Creating default startup script /home/oracle/.vnc/xstartup
Starting applications specified in /home/oracle/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/oracle/.vnc/exatestdbadm01.domain.com:2.log
[ OK ]
Login with any VNC viewer to test
— To Stop Service Run —
service vncserver stop
Shutting down VNC server: 2:oracle [ OK ]
 
 

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