3 Managing Oracle Homes

3.5.1 Target Home

The Oracle home currently accessed by Oracle Universal Installer for installation or de-installation is the target home. In order to upgrade or remove products from the target homes, those products must be shut down or stopped.

3.6.1 Structure of the Oracle Universal Installer Inventory

The Oracle Universal Installer inventory is hierarchical in structure consisting of the following:

• Central Inventory Pointer File

• Central Inventory

• Oracle Home Inventory

For Solaris: /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc
For Linux: /etc/oraInst.loc
For Windows this pointer is located in the registry key: \\HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE\\Software\Oracle\inst_loc.

inventory_loc=/home/oracle_db10g/product/10.2.0/db_1inst_group=oracle

./runInstaller -silent -invPtrLoc <Location_of_oraInst.loc> ORACLE_
HOME="<Location_of_Oracle_Home>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Name_of_Oracle_Home>"

<central inventory location>/ContentsXML/inventory.xml

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes" ?>
<!-- Copyright (c) 2005 Oracle Corporation. All rights Reserved -->
<!-- Do not modify the contents of this file by hand. -->
<INVENTORY>
<VERSION_INFO>
   <SAVED_WITH>10.2.0.0.0</SAVED_WITH>
   <MINIMUM_VER>2.1.0.6.0</MINIMUM_VER>
</VERSION_INFO>
<HOME_LIST>
<HOME NAME="OraDb10g_home1" LOC="/home/oracle_db10g/product/10.2.0/db_1" TYPE="O" IDX="1"/>
<HOME NAME="OUIHome" LOC="D:\OraHome1" TYPE="O" IDX="1" /> 
<HOME NAME="OUIHome12" LOC="D:\OraHome12" TYPE="O" IDX="3" /> 
<HOME NAME="OUIHome1" LOC="D:\homes\OraHome1" TYPE="O" IDX="4" /> 
<HOME NAME="OUIHome11" LOC="d:\homes\oui11" TYPE="O" IDX="2" REMOVED="T" /> 
</HOME_LIST>
</INVENTORY>

<central inventory location>/logs

<Name_of_Action><YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS{AM/PM}>.log

AttachHome2005-05-17_06-45-00AM.log

$ORACLE_HOME/inventory

ORACLE_HOME/inventory/ContentsXML/comps.xml

$ORACLE_HOME/inventory/ContentsXML/oraclehomeproperties.xml

<GUID>893051798#.356758136</GUID>
   <HOME CRS="T"/>
   <ARU_PLATFORM_INFO>
      <ARU_ID>46</ARU_ID>
      <ARU_ID_DESCRIPTION>Linux x86</ARU_ID_DESCRIPTION>
   </ARU_PLATFORM_INFO>
   <CLUSTER_INFO>
      <LOCAL_NODE NAME="stacg30"/>
    <NODE_LIST><NODE NAME="stacg34"/><NODE
NAME="stacg30"/></NODE_LIST></CLUSTER_INFO>

3.6.2 Creating the Central Inventory

Oracle Universal Installer enables you to set up the Central Inventory on a clean host or register an existing Oracle home with the Central Inventory, when it is lost or corrupted. You can setup the Central Inventory by using the -attachHome flag of Oracle Universal Installer. The syntax is as follows:

./runInstaller -silent -attachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"
CLUSTER_NODES="<node1,node2>" LOCAL_NODE="<node_name>"

You can use the session variables ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_HOME_NAME, CLUSTER_NODES, REMOTE_NODES, and LOCAL_NODE.

In a cluster installation, if you don't pass the CLUSTER_NODES session variable, Oracle Universal Installer takes it from the $ORACLE_HOME/inventory/ContentsXML/oraclehomeproperties.xml file.

In a cluster installation, if you don't pass the LOCAL_NODE session variable, Oracle Universal Installer, takes it from the $ORACLE_HOME/inventory /ContentsXML/oraclehomeproperties.xml file. If it does not find an entry there, it takes it from the Oracle Clusterware stack. If it is not able to find it in the stack also, then the first node of the CLUSTER_NODES is taken as the LOCAL_NODE.

You may pass the REMOTE_NODES variable if you want to specify the list of remote nodes. If you want to set up the Central Inventory in the local node, you need to pass the -local flag and the REMOTE_NODES variable empty. The syntax is as follows:

./runInstaller -silent -attachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"
REMOTE_NODES="{}" -local

For a non-Real Application Clusters setup, you need not pass the LOCAL_NODE variable, and the CLUSTER_NODES variable is empty. The syntax is as follows:

./runInstaller -silent -attachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"
CLUSTER_NODES="{}"

You can use the -local flag to attach the local Oracle home. If you are using a shared Oracle home with -local flag, use -cfs flag. This ensures that the local node information is not populated inside a shared Oracle home.

If the Central Inventory does not already exist, Oracle Universal Installer creates the Central Inventory in the location specified by the oraInst.loc file.

After attaching the Oracle home, you can verify the success of the operation by verifying the contents of the log file present in the <central_inventory>/logs directory. You can also view the contents of the inventory.xml file under <central-inventory>/ContentsXML directory to verify if the Oracle home is registered.

3.6.3 Detaching Oracle Homes from the Central Inventory

You can detach an Oracle home from the Central Inventory. When you pass this flag, it updates the oraclehomeproperties.xml present in the Oracle home. The syntax is as follows:

./runInstaller -silent -detachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"

You can use the -local flag to detach the Oracle home from the inventory of the local node. If you are using a shared Oracle home, use -cfs flag. This ensures that the local node information is not populated inside a shared Oracle home.

./runInstaller -silent -local -cfs -detachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"

./runInstaller -silent -detachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"

You can completely clean the Oracle home and remove the home directory by using the -removeallfiles flag. The syntax is as follows:

./runInstaller -silent -deinstall -removeallfiles -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"

If you want to disable the warning message that appears when you use the -removeallfiles flag, use the -nowarningonremovefiles flag. The syntax is as follows:

./runInstaller -silent -deinstall -nowarningonremovefiles -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"

3.6.4 Upgrading and Patching the Oracle Home

You can apply patchsets and upgrade an existing Oracle home. You can apply patchsets using Oracle Universal Installer. For more information on upgrading or applying patchsets for an Oracle product, refer to the respective Oracle product installation guide of the product that you wish to upgrade.

3.6.5 Cloning Oracle Homes

You can clone an Oracle home using Oracle Universal Installer. For more information on cloning, refer to Chapter 7, "Oracle Software Cloning Using Oracle Universal Installer".

3.6.6 Backing up the Inventory

You can backup the Oracle home using your preferred method. You can use any method such as zip, tar, and cpio to compress the Oracle home.

It is highly recommended to backup the Oracle home before any upgrade or patch operation. You should also backup the Central Inventory when Oracle home is installed or de-installed.

3.6.7 Recovering from Inventory Corruption

The inventory (Central and the Oracle home inventory) is a critical part in the Oracle software life cycle management. The following section explains about what you need to do in case of inventory corruption.

3.6.8 Real Application Clusters

In a Real Application Clusters environment, the inventory also contains a list of nodes associated with an Oracle home. It is important that during upgrade and patching, the inventory is correctly populated with the list of nodes.

For more information, refer to Chapter 6, "Cluster Environment Installations".

./runInstaller -updateNodeList CLUSTER_NODES={"Node1","Node2"} 
ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>" 
LOCAL_NODE="Node_Name"

3.7.1 Home Selector Overview

The Home Selector is a part of the installation software. The Home Selector enables you to easily change your primary Oracle home (the one that appears first in the PATH environment variable). If you need to switch the active home or need to perform batch work which requires a "default home" to be active, the Home Selector can be used to change the Windows NT system settings.

When using the Home Selector to make a specific Oracle home the active one, the software installation in question is moved to the front of the PATH variable, making it the first directory to be scanned for executable and library files.

Use the GUI in the Environment tab of the Inventory dialog to establish the order of Oracle homes in your PATH variable.

3.7.2 How Home Selector Works

When you perform an installation on a system, Oracle Universal Installer runs the selectHome.bat file to register the Oracle home you selected. In silent mode, you perform this outside Oracle Universal Installer. The first Oracle home will be named the "DEFAULT_HOME" and will register itself in the Windows NT registry under the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

   Software

      Oracle

This is the default Windows NT registry hive which contains all the "generic" Oracle settings. Also the PATH variable is adjusted and the BIN directory of the $ORACLE_HOME is added to the environment variable.

Some additional parameters will also be written to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

   Software

      Oracle

         KEY_<ORACLE_Home_Name>

With Oracle Universal Installer, you can change the "DEFAULT_HOME" name to something else. Also, it registers all Oracle settings in the " KEY_<Home_NAME>" sub-key of the ORACLE key.

When an additional Oracle home is added to the system, the PATH variable is adjusted again to add the new BIN directory of the newly installed Oracle software. The registry variables are written to a key named "KEY_<HOME_NAME>".

3.7.3 Oracle Home Directory Structure for Windows Platforms

A typical Oracle home on Windows platforms contains the files and directories shown in Table 3-4.

3.7.4 Optimal Flexible Architecture Directory Structure (on UNIX)

The Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) standard is a set of configuration guidelines for fast, reliable Oracle databases that require little maintenance.

OFA is designed to:

• Organize large amounts of complicated software and data on disk to avoid device bottlenecks and poor performance

• Facilitate routine administrative tasks such as software and data backup functions, which are often vulnerable to data corruption

• Alleviate switching among multiple Oracle databases

• Adequately manage and administer database growth

• Help eliminate fragmentation of free space in the data dictionary, isolate other fragmentation, and minimize resource contention

The OFA directory structure is described in the following section.