Oracle 8.1.7 on a HP-UX Mininal Install

[Ronan Mullally]

Has anybody tried installing Oracle
on a minimal install of HP-UX?

I know it won't run out of the box,
various packages like the X minimum
runtime and a some basic development packages are needed. However once it gets to the stage where the Oracle installer successfully completes everything should be hunky dory, right?


-Ronan

[Bill Hassell]

If you limit the number of users for your Oracle database to 1 and you aren't too concerned about performance, you should be OK.

But if you plan on dozens or hundreds of users, with report generation, queries and uopdates all going on at the same time, plan to spend a lot of time with a good Oracle DBA or consultant talking about the size and contents of SGA and the oraXXX.ini file, and changing HP-UX kernel parameters to match.

[Ronan Mullally]

All the box in question will do is oracle. There'll be no user logins.

Do the kernel parameters on a minimum install differ from those of a full install? If so, by how much?


-Ronan

[Unix Systems Admin]

Hi,

The minimal install does not give much shared memory or semaphores which Oracle (and Oracle DBAs!) love.

Depending on the size of your machine you will want to up the shmmax and semmni parameters to name a few.

What I generally do for our Oracle database servers is choose the template for "General OLTP/Database system" from the kernel Tuned Parameter Sets and up maxusers a bit. This gives a fair whack of shared memory for the DBAs.

Remember that on 32-bit HPUX you can only have about 1.5GB shared memory due to the way the system handles processes.

Adam

[Ronan Mullally]

Thanks Adam.

Do you normally go for a full install or a minimal install?


-Ronan

[CHRIS ANORUO]

Go for full installation to get the necessary programs. On the 32-bit HPUX you can only have 1.75GB shared memory due to the way the system handles processes (i.e. quardrant allocation). There is no rigid limit for Kernel configuration settings, it depends on your environment. Have a look at the attached kernel configuration? The shared memory areas should be of interest to you. This is from 10.20 running oracle 8.0.5.2.2.2.

[CHRIS ANORUO]

Go for full installation to get the necessary programs. On the 32-bit HPUX you can only have 1.75GB shared memory due to the way the system handles processes (i.e. quardrant allocation). There is no rigid limit for Kernel configuration settings, it depends on your environment. Have a look at the attached kernel configuration? The shared memory areas should be of interest to you. This is from 10.20 running oracle 8.0.5.2.2.2.

[Ronan Mullally]

I'm reluctant to go for a full install as the majority of the packages installed are not necessary for a dedicated Oracle server. The fewer packages installed the less I have to worry about HP advisories appearing on the likes of Bugtraq.

I've done the install using a minimal system. There are about half a dozen additions to make to the basic install, most of which are only necessary for the oracle install phase.

-Ronan