Install Oracle Database 12cR2 Silent Mode on CENT OS 7 & Oracle Linux 7

If you are going to work on Oracle Database in cloud or in environments where X11 client or server is not available. It is always good to learn how to do a silent installation of Oracle. Specially in todays CI/CD devops model where dba’s have to provision DB servers using Ansible or other such tools. The base of doing such automation will require you to install Oracle from cli. In the below article we will do below 3 steps without any graphical user interface like X11, gnome, kde,vnc etc
1. Install Oracle 12.2.0.1 Database Software using a Response File
2. Create a Database with Response File
3. Create a Listener and Register the Database
I did the below setup on a cloud hosted server, running CENT OS 7, which came with bare minimum packages. It is always good to add different repositories which host all the important softwares for Linux
Now lets get started….
1. Add Groups
# groupadd oinstall
# groupadd dba
# groupadd oper
# groupadd backupdba
# groupadd dgdba
# groupadd kmdba
# groupadd asmdba
# groupadd asmoper
# groupadd asmadmin
# groupadd racdba
2. Add Oracle User
# useradd oracle -g oinstall -G dba,oper,backupdba,dgdba,kmdba
# passwd oracle
3. Check for missing packages

rpm -q --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}(%{ARCH})\n' binutils \
compat-libcap1 \
compat-libstdc++-33 \
elfutils-libelf \
elfutils-libelf-devel \
gcc \
gcc-c++ \
glibc \
glibc-common \
glibc-devel \
glibc-headers \
ksh \
libaio \
libaio-devel \
libgcc \
libstdc++ \
libstdc++-devel \
make \
libXext \
libXtst \
libX11 \
libXau \
libxcb \
libXi \
sysstat \
unixODBC \
unixODBC-devel

4. Install missing packages with Yum
eg:

# rpm -Uvh compat-libcap1

5. Update Kernel Parameters
Open sysctl.conf file and add the kernel parameters

# vi /etc/sysctl.conf
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.shmall = 1073741824
kernel.shmmax = 4398046511104
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048576
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500

6. Add Limits for Oracle user
Open file limits.conf and add below parameters

# vi /etc/security/limits.conf

--shell limits for users oracle 12gR1
oracle soft nofile 1024
oracle hard nofile 65536
oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16384
oracle soft stack 10240
oracle hard stack 32768

7. Create Bash Profile for Oracle user

# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.0/dbhome_1
# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.0/dbhome_1/network/admin
# mkdir -p /u01/app/oraInventory
# chown oracle:oinstall -R /u01
# vi .bash_profile

export TMP=/tmp
export ORACLE_HOSTNAME=easyoradba.com
export ORACLE_UNQNAME=ORA12C
export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/12.2.0/dbhome_1
export ORACLE_SID=ORA12C
PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib;
export CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib;
alias ob='cd $ORACLE_BASE'
alias oh='cd $ORACLE_HOME'
alias tns='cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin'
alias envo='env | grep ORACLE'
umask 022
envo
# envo

8. Disable SELINUX and IPTABLES (Not a good thing to do on a production server, only for test !!!)

# vi /etc/selinux/config
set SELINUX=disabled
# service iptables stop
# chkconfig iptables off

9. Download Oracle Database binary to home directory and prepare the staging area

# su - oracle
# cd /home/oracle
# unzip Oracle_Database_12CR2_linux_x64_12201.zip

This creates a directory ‘database’ with the installation files in it

10. Create Response File and Install Database Software in Silent Mode
Create a copy of the response file and add parameters for installation

# cd /home/oracle/database/response
# ls -ltrh
-rwxrwxr-x 1 oracle oinstall 6.1K Jun 20 2016 netca.rsp
-rwxrwxr-x 1 oracle oinstall 25K Jan 5 2017 dbca.rsp
-rw-rw-r-- 1 oracle oinstall 23K Jan 26 2017 db_install.rsp
# cp db_install.rsp ../
# vi db_install.rsp

Now add below values for the parameters as per the directory structure you created

oracle.install.option=INSTALL_DB_SWONLY
UNIX_GROUP_NAME=oinstall
INVENTORY_LOCATION=/u01/app/oraInventory
ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.0.1/dbhome_1
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
oracle.install.db.InstallEdition=EE
oracle.install.db.OSDBA_GROUP=dba
oracle.install.db.OSOPER_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
oracle.install.db.OSRACDBA_GROUP=dba
SECURITY_UPDATES_VIA_MYORACLESUPPORT=false
DECLINE_SECURITY_UPDATES=true

Make sure the above parameters are not duplicated if you will copy and paste the above values 🙂

# cd /home/oracle/database
# ./runInstaller -silent -responseFile /home/oracle/database/db_install.rsp

if you get error Oracle runInstaller – CreateOUIProcess(): 13 : Permission denied
Then change temporary directory to home directory and run installer again

# mkdir -p $HOME/tmp
# export TMP=$HOME/tmp

Run the installer again

# ./runInstaller -silent -responseFile /home/oracle/database/db_install.rsp

11. Run root scripts and complete install
If all goes well you will get below message
Starting Oracle Universal Installer…
Checking Temp space: must be greater than 500 MB. Actual 68933 MB Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB. Actual 3958 MB Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /home/oracle/tmp/OraInstall2018-07-05_04-21-40AM. Please wait …[oracle@vps database]$ You can find the log of this install session at:
/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/installActions2018-07-05_04-21-40AM.log
The installation of Oracle Database 12c was successful.
Please check ‘/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/silentInstall2018-07-05_04-21-40AM.log’ for more details.
As a root user, execute the following script(s):
1. /u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.0/dbhome_1/root.sh

Run the script by opening another session with root user and setup will complete successfully
Successfully Setup Software.

12. Create Database in Silent Mode
find the file dbca.rsp and make a copy of it and update below parameters

# cd $ORACLE_HOME/assistants/dbca/
# cp dbca.rsp $ORACLE_HOME
# vi dbca.rsp
gdbName=ora12c
sid=ora12c
databaseConfigType=SI
createAsContainerDatabase=false
templateName=General_Purpose.dbc
sysPassword=sys123
systemPassword=sys123
emConfiguration=NONE
datafileDestination=/u01/oradata
recoveryAreaDestination=/u01/fra
storageType=FS
characterSet=AL32UTF8
sampleSchema=TRUE
memoryPercentage=40
ora12c is global database name
# dbca -silent -createDatabase -responseFile dbca.rsp
53% complete
54% complete
55% complete
58% complete
Completing Database Creation
59% complete
60% complete
61% complete
64% complete
68% complete
69% complete
Executing Post Configuration Actions
100% complete

13. Create Listener and Register Database

# cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
# vi listener.ora
LISTENER =
(ADDRESS_LIST=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=PNPKEY)))
# lsnrctl start
# sqlplus "/as sysdba"
SQL> alter database register;
# lsnrctl status
Services Summary...
Service "ora12c" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "ora12c", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "ora12cXDB" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "ora12c", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully