Install problem. Oracle 8i on HP-UX 11 on E35 S9000 server

[Gavin_24]

I am new to installing oracle and have had several problems - most of which i have managed to get through myself but this one i can not figure out.
I have modifyed the kernel paramaters as per oracle documents.
I have set the user/group/user enviroment for oracle user
approx 380meg in tmp FS
almost 3g in u01
about 2.4g in u02
i keep getting this exception

Calling action fileActions1.7.1.7.0 instantiateFile
selectedNodes = null
source = /u01/product/8.1.7/jsp/install/sbs/chperms1.sbs
destination = /u01/product/8.1.7/jsp/install/chperms1
variables = null

Calling action unixActions1.7.1.8.0 changePermissions
source = /u01/product/8.1.7/jsp/install/chperms1
permissions = 755

Calling action SpawnActions1.7.1.7.0 Spawn
installcommand = /u01/product/8.1.7/jsp/install/chperms1
deinstallcommand =
WaitForCompletion = null

Exception thrown from action: Spawn
Exception Name: RuntimeException
Exception String: An error during runtime
Exception Severity: 0
Exception handling set to prompt user with options to RETRY IGNORE
User choice : Retry
Exception thrown from action: Spawn
Exception Name: RuntimeException
Exception String: An error during runtime
Exception Severity: 0
Exception handling set to prompt user with options to RETRY IGNORE
User choice : Ignore
Starting install install phase 1 of component Oracle Intelligent Agent
Starting install install phase 1 of component Oracle HTTP Server Extensions
Calling action fileActions1.7.1.7.0 finalClusterSetup
selectedNodes =
threadsActive = 2
vectorInitialSize = 25
vectorFactorSize = null

Calling action fileActions1.7.1.7.0 copyGroupFromJar
I run the /u01/product/8.1.7/jsp/install/chperms1 manual and continue (this occures a few times) but the install is no good (fails later in install on other problems).

any ideas appreciated.

Thanks in advance, appreciate any ideas/solutions.

Please note. I have installed java 1.4 and linked /opt/java to /opt/java1.4, hope this is right.
no patches to OS or oracle at this stage . seems difficult to get a definitive list of patches as i have tried some then the machine rejects them uppon install saying they are already installed/ or have been superseeded.

zip copy of install log included.

[Bill Hassell]

The E35 is a really old and very small machine to use for Oracle. I hope you have maxed out the RAM! Otherwise, performance will be unusable. As far as patches, it would take a month to go over every patch and determine it's relevancy so I would start with a fresh 11.0 install, then add the HWE (hardware patch set) followed by the QPK patch set from the latest (Dec 2002) SupportPlus CDROM (or download from the ITRC). If you rely on Oracle patch recommendations, they are always significantly out of date and not complete (except for specific issues with Oracle).

After patching, use the patch check and cleanup commands to make sure everything is complete and resolve any issues before adding Java and Oracle.

The relevant error message seems to be: Spawn which may indicate a lack of system resources (nrpoc, nfile, maxuprc, swap space, etc), so check in syslog.log and dmesg for any errors.

[Gavin_24]

ok, thank you. silly me never thought of checking the system logs. I'll do so and hope to see more detail of what the problem actually is. If no detail there - i'll be sure to follow your other recomendations.

thanks very much
regards
Gavin

[Brian M Rawlings]

As Bill says, this is an old box, low-end even in its day (long past, RIP). I suspect that you will always find all the wierd quirks and corner cases if you try to run Oracle at all on something this old, with the memory limitations it has. Worse to try 8i, known to use more memory than 7x of Oracle by 1.5x to 2x...

I'd be pleased and somewhat surprised to just get HP-UX 11i to boot on the box with enough free disk & mem space to run anything, let alone a hog like Oracle 8i.

Unless you love trouble, and don't mind fighting your way through all the little (and big) problems that come with trying to run at the very limit of supportability, I'd suggest you try this on something a little larger, a D- or K-class at a minimum.

To misquote ex-Prez Clinton... "It's' the memory, stupid!" (when it comes to Oracle)

Regards --bmr
(No, I ain't callin' you stupid, it's a part of the quote. The only stupid questions are the ones you keep to yourself. Good luck...)