After understanding the Oracle architecture, it is time to install the Oracle software as well as creating the databases we shall be using. As a DBA, one of your tasks is to install and configure the Oracle database on the servers and to do this, you need to know which Oracle database software version is suitable for your organisation, the hardware requirements, the database you will be using, among other issues. This is what we call preparing the database environment and this section is purposely meant for that. So, lets dive in 😉 .
Installing Oracle Database Software
Before you install the software, you need to take note of the following:
- Oracle database software version. Oracle has got a lot of versions and choosing the suitable one for your organisation can sometimes be challenging. For example Oracle Database 10g, 11g, 12c, 18c, 19c, 21c, etc. On top of the versions, there’s also the different editions like the Enterprise Edition, Express Edition, Standard Edition, etc. As a DBA, you need to know a distinction among them and choose the best for your company. To understand these versions, you can check out this article about them. To understand the editions in Oracle, here is the write up from Oracle you can use.
- Review Documentation. Look at the documentation for the software version you want to install and see the different upsizes and downsizes for each version. Look at the features available for you in every version, the installation guide for that version on each operating system, etc This will help in getting familiar with working with the software you’re planning to install.
- Look at the system requirements. This is so crucial 🤔. We don’t want to install a software that will turn into a monster 😈 taking up all the memory and slowing down the machine. We first need to identify things like the minimum RAM required for a given version, processor capacity to manage instance background processes, the available disk space for keeping the database’s files, etc. All these are done in comparison with the company’s existing resources as well as software’s requirements. For example for 11g version, 1GB of RAM is needed, 200MB of free space is needed, a minimum of 1.5GB to 3.5GB of disk space is needed.
- The operating system. Oracle can be installed on various versions of operating system like Windows, Linux and MacOS. though the complexity of installation and management differs. Linux installation is a bit complicated than Windows. You’ll find Windows taking the crown in simplification of Oracle’s installation. So we need to pay much attention to the operating system and the best version for each system.
After making an informed decision, we can go ahead and install the Oracle Database software on the machine / servers. For our case, we shall go with the Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition. Though it is not the latest version, it has everything we need to undertake this course and understand the principles of Oracle Database Administration.
We shall begin by downloading the software from Oracle website using this link (first create an Oracle account if you don’t have). We shall use the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) to install the software—this first scans the computer to confirm it has the minimum requirements for the software performance. To learn about its installation, we can look at this page for guidance.
Creating Oracle Database
If you have successfully finished the installation of the software, congratulations🎖. Now we need to create a database that will be used to store application data and accessed by users. To create the database, we shall use the Database Configuration Assistant – DBCA (A tool used to manage Oracle databases for example creating, managing database options, configuring storage, deleting databases).
With this tool (DBCA), we can make different configurations like setting the global database name, enabling and scheduling database backup, setting password for administrative database users, setting database location, configuring memory for SGA components and PGA, etc. You can have a quick guide on creating Oracle database here.
If you have made it this far, congratulations 🏆 . Now that you have installed Oracle software and you have a working database, we can now proceed with something different. We need to ensure the instance is running well. Remember, without the instance; forget about the database. So lets dive into instance management.
Summary
1. Before installing Oracle database software, we need to pay attention to the system requirements as well as the version of software we are you’re about to install.
2. We use the Oracle Universal Installer to install the software on the machine.
3. After installing, we use the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) to create databases in Oracle.
