Prerequisites for installing Oracle SOA Suite on Red Hat 64-bit

Oracle SOA Suite 10g (10.1.3.x) is certified to install and run on 64-bit Linux. Ignore the Oracle install notes and follow these instructions instead, and you can guarantee it to work flawlessly.

These instructions are specific to Oracle SOA Suite 10g (10.1.3.1) and Red Hat ES 5.4 x86_64, installed as user "oracle". You can then proceed normally with your patching/upgrades.

1. Modify /etc/redhat-release.

This is to fake out the installer to recognize this as a certified OS.

cp /etc/redhat-release /etc/redhat-release.original
export ORAREL="Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Nahant Update 8)"
echo $ORAREL > /etc/redhat-release

2. Create user and group.

groupadd dba
groupadd oinstall
useradd -c "Oracle software owner" -g oinstall -G dba oracle
passwd oracle

3. Confirm that the following RPMs are installed.

This can be done by using the following command. Ensure that the appropriate 32-bit and 64-bit packages are installed accordingly. All of the required RPMs can be found on the install media.

Command:

rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}.%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n" | grep <package>

Packages:

binutils-2.17.50.0.6-12.el5.x86_64.rpm
compat-db-4.2.52-5.1.i386.rpm
compat-db-4.2.52-5.1.x86_64.rpm
compat-glibc-2.3.4-2.26.i386.rpm
compat-glibc-2.3.4-2.26.x86_64.rpm
compat-libstdc++-296-2.96.138.i386.rpm
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3.61.i386.rpm
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3.61.x86_64.rpm
control-center-2.16.0.16.el5.i386.rpm
control-center-2.16.0.16.el5.x86_64.rpm
gcc-4.1.2.46.el5.x86_64.rpm
gcc-c++-4.1.2.46.el5.x86_64.rpm
glibc-2.5.42.i686.rpm
glibc-2.5.42.x86_64.rpm
glibc-common-2.5.42.x86_64.rpm
glibc-devel-2.5.42.i386.rpm
glibc-devel-2.5.42.x86_64.rpm
libgcc-4.1.2.46.el5.i386.rpm
libgcc-4.1.2.46.el5.x86_64.rpm
libpng-1.2.10-7.1.el5_3.2.i386.rpm (optional)
libpng-1.2.10-7.1.el5_3.2.x86_64.rpm (optional)
libstdc++-4.1.2.46.el5.i386.rpm
libstdc++-4.1.2.46.el5.x86_64.rpm
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2.46.el5.i386.rpm
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2.46.el5.x86_64.rpm
libXpm-3.5.5.3.i386.rpm
make-3.81.3.el5.x86_64.rpm
openmotif-2.3.1-2.el5.i386.rpm
openmotif-2.3.1-2.el5.x86_64.rpm
ORBit2-2.14.3-5.el5.i386.rpm (optional)
ORBit2-2.14.3-5.el5.x86_64.rpm (optional)
pdksh-5.2.14.36.el5.x86_64.rpm
setarch-2.0.1.1.x86_64.rpm
sysstat-7.0.2.3.el5.x86_64.rpm

4. Apply Oracle patch 6078836.

This is done by simply downloading the patch and executing the following commands.

unzip p6078836_101330_LINUX.zip
cp 6078836/libdb.so.2 /usr/lib
rm -rf 6078836

5. Add the following to /etc/security/limits.conf.

Use tab as the delimiter.

* soft nproc 2047
* hard nproc 16384
* soft nofile 2048
* hard nofile 65536

6. Add the following to /etc/pam.d/login.

session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so

7. Add the following to /etc/profile.

if [ $USER = "oracle" ]; then
if [ $SHELL = "/bin/ksh" ]; then
ulimit -p 16384
ulimit -n 65536
else
ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536
fi
fi

8. Ensure that you have at least 512 MB of SWAP space.

Simply run the following command to confirm.

grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo

9. Confirm that 'perl' and 'fuser' are installed.

Simply run the following command to confirm.

which perl ; which fuser

10. If using a RAC database, manually set the SYS password on all RAC nodes to same password.

The SYS password must be set to the same value on all RAC nodes. For example, the following command would have to be executed on all RAC nodes:

ALTER USER sys IDENTIFIED BY manager;

11. Force the OS to link to 32-bit (you must undo this post-installation).

mv /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc.oracle.original
echo "/usr/bin/gcc.oracle.original -m32 \$*" > /usr/bin/gcc
chmod 755 /usr/bin/gcc

12. Immediately prior to installation, set the shell to 32-bit (as ‘oracle’).

linux32 bash
export LDEMULATION=elf_i386

13. Start the installer (as ‘oracle’)!