Oracle(R) Universal Installer Concepts Guide
Release 1.7


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Using the Oracle Universal Installer

Introduction

Oracle has redesigned the architecture of the Oracle Installer, basing it on a Java engine that can handle complex requirements. The Oracle Universal Installer now performs component-based installs and contains object-oriented techniques which enable different levels of integrated bundle, suite, and web-based installs, and complex logic in a single package. The installation engine is easily portable across all Java-enabled platforms, and platform-specific issues can be encapsulated from the overall installation process.

The Oracle Universal Installer provides the following capabilities for addressing software management and distribution:


Note:

Although the Oracle Universal Installer can list all products previously installed with another Installer (orainst), it cannot deinstall them.  


System Requirements

The Oracle Universal Installer system requirements are listed below:


Java Runtime Environment (JRE)

Automatically installed with the Oracle Universal Installer. Check the release notes or installation guide of the products you are installing for the exact version that is required.


Memory Requirements:

5 MB for Installer files


150 KB/component for the installation required files (e.g logs)

Installing Oracle Products With the Oracle Universal Installer

For Windows platforms, start the Oracle Universal Installer by running the Oracle Universal Installer executable, SETUP.BAT or SETUP.EXE.

For UNIX platforms, run the script called runInstaller from the top directory of the CD-ROM by typing

runInstaller

In the case of installing products that span multiple CDs, temporary copies of OUI and JRE are placed in the TEMP or TMP directory so that these applications can be launched when you change CD-ROMs.

If a higher version of the Oracle Universal Installer is detected on your machine, the detected version is used to install rather than the one on the CD-ROM.

If you get an Xlib error or a "Failed to connect to Server" error when you are running the Oracle Universal Installer on Solaris, you need to set up the environment variables as follows:

%setenv DISPLAY <machine name>:0.0 
%xhost + 

Then, re-run the runInstaller script again.

The Oracle Universal Installer "Welcome" screen appears.

The sections below describe the Oracle Universal Installer screens.

Welcome

To familiarize yourself with the button functions, read the following descriptions before continuing:

Press the About Oracle Universal Installer button if you want to see the version of Oracle Universal Installer you are using.

Press the Deinstall Products button if you want to view and deinstall the components already installed on the machine in all Oracle homes.

Press the Next button if you want to go to the next step.

Press the Previous button if you want to return to the previous step.

Press the Installed Products button if you want to view the components already installed on the machine in all Oracle homes. You can deinstall a component if necessary.

Press the Help button if you want to view the Oracle Universal Installer Help.

Press the Exit button if you want to exit from the Oracle Universal Installer at any time during the installation. For information on the Oracle Universal Installer's exit codes, refer to "Oracle Universal Installer Exit Codes" on page 1-18.


Note:

For information on using response files for silent installations, refer to Chapter 3, "Silent Install Using Response Files" and the installation and configuration guide of your product. A response file contains answers to dialogs that otherwise would be provided by the user in an interactive installation session.  


After you have read the information above, press the Next button to continue or the Exit button to quit.

Unix Installer Location (For UNIX)

Various operations need to be performed with root privileges at this time. For example, you must have root privileges to be able to write the OUI inventory.

If you have root privileges, continue with the required operations.

If you do not have root privileges, run the /tmp/oraInstRoot.sh Bourne shell script from another terminal window before proceeding with the install. To successfully run this script, you must be logged on as user with root privileges.

The OUI inventory is where the inventory location is created. The Inventory location, <orainventory>, is located at \Program Files\Oracle\Inventory on NT and at the same level as the first <Oracle Home> on Solaris. It is the location for the Oracle Universal Installer's bookkeeping. Information about the inventory location is written into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\inst_loc and /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc (requires root permissions).


Note:

You should not exit the install in order to run the oraInstRoot.sh Bourne shell script. Exiting the install removes this script.

The "Unix Installer Location" screen only appears the first time you install.  


Unix Group Name (For UNIX)

Provide the name of the group which should own the base directory.

You must choose a UNIX group name which will have permissions to update/install/deinstall Oracle software. Members of this group must have write permissions to the base directory chosen.

Only users who belong to this group are able to install/deinstall software on this machine.

File Locations

In the "File Locations" screen, enter the stage location of your products and the location where you want to install your product. Specify full paths with up to 32 alphanumeric characters.


Note:

Do not leave any fields empty.  



Source

Path: Enter the full path of the products.jar file from which the product(s) will be installed. You may also use the Browse button to find the products.jar file.

The stage location is the centralized location where components have been placed for installations. It could be a single-CD staging area or a multi-CD staging area which spans across more than one disk. The components are bundled in one stage location and their description file is the products.jar file. The Oracle Universal Installer will read this file and provide a list of the components available to be installed.

The stage location may be a local CD-ROM drive, a network drive, or a web location. See the examples in the table below.

Stage Location   Example  

CD-ROM location  

D:\<directory_name> which is pre-populated when you run the Universal Installer from a CD-ROM.  

Network Drive  

/net/<directory_name>/Disk1/stage1/products.jar  

Web Location  

To set up any webserver, you need a stage placed on a webserver location.

For example: files can be accessed by pointing a browser at:

http://<webserver>:<port>/<my_stage>/stage

http://www.oracle.com/81/Disk1/stage1/products.jar

Refer to "Installation from the Web" for more information.  

For more information about multi-CD staging, refer to the Oracle Software Packager User's Guide.


Destination

Name: Enter an Oracle home name or select it from the drop-down list.

If you currently do not have a home created on your machine, one is created for you during the installation. The home will have whatever name you enter in the Name field.

Oracle homes are identified by name, and the Oracle home name identifies the program group associated with a particular Oracle home, and the Oracle services installed on the associated home. The Oracle home name must be 1 to 16 characters long and can only include alphanumeric characters and underscores. The Oracle home name must not include spaces.


Note:

Name field only appears in Windows Platforms.  


Path: Enter the Oracle home with its full path or select it from a drop-down list of existing Oracle Homes.

List of Oracle homes the Oracle Universal Installer maintains on Windows platforms:

List of Oracle homes the Oracle Universal Installer maintains on UNIX:

If none of these homes exists, a default home is calculated based on the disk volume with the largest amount of free space.

You may also use the Browse button to choose a directory to install your product. This location is the destination directory to which the product will be installed.

When you have entered the appropriate information, press the Next button to continue. The "Available Products" screen appears.

Available Products

Select a product option to install and press the Next button to continue.

Installation Types

The installation type is a pre-defined component set that automatically selects which components to install.

The Installation Types which appear in this screen depend on the list that the install developer had specified when the components were built with the Oracle Software Packager, an installation definition tool which allows you to define the installation characteristics of a component. Oracle Software Packager is available from the Oracle Technology Network: http://technet.us.oracle.com->internet servers->system management: Software Packager.

Refer to the Oracle Software Packager User's Guide for detailed information about building components.

Installation Types are given a name, followed by a description of what is installed using it.

Examples of Installation Types for a product could be Minimum, Complete, Custom, and Typical, and the order of the types may differ depending on how the installation had been developed.

Examples for the installation types are listed below:

Type   Definition  

Minimum  

Installs required dependent components only  

Complete  

Installs all dependent components  

Custom  

Installs end-user selected dependent components. If you choose Custom, a tree listing appears which allows you to specify which dependencies to install.  

Typical  

Installs default dependent components  


Note:

When the number of Installation Types cannot fit as radio buttons on the screen, you may see a scrollable list of install types instead of radio buttons. Additional information may be provided through pop-up descriptions or an I button. For a pop-up description of a specific Installation Type, you can move the mouse cursor over the Installation Type and hold it there briefly to display the description. Press the I button for additional information.  


When you have chosen the Installation Type, press the Next button to continue. The screen which appears next depends on the Installation Type you have chosen.

Available Product Components (For Custom Installation)

Select a component or patch to install or deselect components you do not want to install.

To familiarize yourself with the behavior of the checkmarks, please read the following descriptions before continuing:

A component that is to be installed may depend on the installation of other components. If you try to deselect a required component, the following message appears: "This is a required component. You cannot deselect a required component." Press the Show Details button on the Error Dialog screen for information on why the component is required.

For information on the status of the installations, see the Install Status column.

Attention: Patches are installable units that have bug fixes for released products and are associated with the component they patch. You can install a patch over a component or a patched component with a lower or equal patch version. Patchsets are top level installable items containing a group of patches. The patches in a patchset can be different versions for one component (patch) and/or multiple components (patches). Refer to the Oracle Software Packager User's Guide for detailed information on patches.

The Product Languages button allows you to select all languages your product will be running in.


Note:

Changing the language of a product does not affect the installation session's language. The Oracle Universal Installer runs in the language detected at the operating system level.  


Refer to "Internationalization and Installation Translations Support" on page 1-24 for more information changing the language of a product.

Press the Next button to continue. If you are performing a Custom installation, the "Component Locations" screen appears. Otherwise, the "Summary" screen appears.

Component Locations (For Custom Installation)

On the "Component Locations" screen, you can see where each component is to be installed, select alternate locations for some of the components, and check for available disk drive space.

To show a list of all the components to be installed, check the "Show all Components to be Installed" box.

For more information on a specific component, you can move the mouse cursor over the component in the list box and hold it there briefly to display a pop-up description.

To see if a component's location can be changed, and to see where a component is to be installed, click the component in the list. If the component's location can be changed, a Destination Location field appears where you can type the new location. You can also browse for new locations using the Change Location button.

To check for available space on your different disk drives, select the arrow in the Available Disk Space field. By default, the disk space is shown for the volume in which the files will be copied to. Disk space is only refreshed when you complete one of the following actions:

Check "show all available volumes" to see the disk space on all volumes.


Note:

If there is insufficient disk space, the items in the problem volume will be displayed in red with an icon next to it.  


When you have entered the appropriate information, press the Next button to continue. The "Summary" screen appears.

Summary

The "Summary" screen presents a summary of the options you have selected. Depending on your installation, information may include the following:


Global Settings

Product Languages

The language you have chosen for running the Oracle product. To change Product Languages setting, you must return to the "Available Product Components" screen.

Refer to "Internationalization and Installation Translations Support" on page 1-24 for more information changing the language of a product.


Space Requirements

The disk space required to install the product. The space requirement appears in a different color if the disk space available is less that what is required.


New Installations

Products to be installed for the first time on the machine.


Upgrades

Products to be upgraded to a higher version.


Reinstallations

The Oracle Universal Installer deinstalls earlier versions of the product first before starting the installation.


Downgrades

Products to be downgraded to a lower version.


De-Installations

Products to be removed as part of this installation because no other products depend on them and are replaced by newer versions.


Already Installed

Products which are already installed. The Oracle Universal Installer does not re-install these products.


Note:

If there is a disk space shortage and you press the Install button, a warning dialog appears. If you press the No button, the space information is refreshed.  


When you have checked your choices, press the Install button to continue.

The "Install" screen appears.

If other disks are required, the Oracle Universal Installer will prompt you for another disk during the Install phase. For example, the Oracle Universal Installer prompts you after you click the Install button on the Summary page.


Note:

Depending on the products selected for installation, there may be other product-specific screens which appear. Press the Help button for more information on these screens.  


Install

The "Install" screen appears when the product is installing. Installation operations include executing actions such as file copy and adding services on NT systems and linking on Solaris systems, and executing decision points and calculations.

During installation, the Oracle Universal Installer writes the OraInstall\oraInstall.err and OraInstall\oraInstall.out in the TEMP or TMP location. If the environment variable is not set, the default directory is c:\temp (Windows platform) or /tmp (UNIX).

If a problem occurs during the installation, look for Java exceptions in these files.

The jar files, which can contain files which are part of your product or which can contain libraries which are used by the Oracle Universal Installer, are first copied to this default location before they are extracted to their install location. Native libraries are copied here also. Make sure you have enough space in the default TEMP or TMP directory otherwise the installation will not succeed. The amount of space required depends on the product being installed.

A progress bar shows the status of the installation on a per component basis, based on the component size. The size is relative to the total size of the installation.


Note:

For upgrades and reinstallations, the Oracle Universal Installer deinstalls earlier versions of the product first before starting the installation.  


If you want to stop the installation, press the Cancel button.

If there are no required or optional configuration tools for the installation, the "End of Installation" screen appears when the installation is completed.

Logs

Several logs are created during installation:

Installation Log

During the install, the Oracle Universal Installer writes a text file that contains information on:

The installation log is located in <oraInventory>\logs\InstallActions.log.

It is backed up as installActions<date>.log.

By default, the Inventory location, <orainventory>, is located at
\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory on NT and at the same level as the first <Oracle Home> on Solaris.

The Installation Log is used for debugging purposes only. All actions, queries, everything that happens during the install, and all modifications to the target machine are logged in the file.



Deinstall Log

The Deinstall Log is written to when the Oracle Universal Installer starts the installation process (indicated by a progress bar).

The Deinstall Log is a binary file, which contains a record of every action the Oracle Universal Installer performed during the installation. It is called install.log. Every Oracle Universal Installer action defined, must have an "undo" action defined. Therefore, when the installer records the action and the parameters for this action, it automatically "knows" what the "undo" of that action will be. If you perform a de-installation of a component afterwards, the Oracle Universal Installer reads the log backwards and then runs all the "undo" actions for the recorded actions for that component.

To see a list of all components currently installed, go to the software Inventory location (INST_LOC in registry on NT; the content of the /var/opt/oracle/instloc file on Solaris). Each of these component structures will have an install.log file, which contains the Oracle Universal Installer actions performed.

Note: Do not remove this log.


Relinking log

The relinking log is created only if any linking is performed. For example: Oracle8i linking writes to a single relinking log. Do not remove this log.

Required Configuration Tools

The "Required Configuration Tools" screen shows the name and status of the tools which are required to run before the installation is completed.

The status shown for the tool could be succeeded, failed, or pending.

When you select a tool, its details are shown in the Details box. Details are displayed as the tool is running. When a tool is running, you may not see the details of another tool.

If all tools succeed on the first try, the Oracle Universal Installer automatically proceeds to the next screen. Otherwise, it remains on the "Required Configuration Tools" screen until all tools are completed successfully. You will then be allowed to press the Next button to proceed.

If you want to stop a configuration tool while it is running, you can press the Stop button.

If a required tool fails even after retrying it, the Oracle Universal Installer considers the entire installation session as having failed. No products are registered in the OUI inventory.


Tip:

If a required tool fails and the Oracle Universal Installer considers the entire installation session as having failed, you may consider manually deleting files that were copied into the Oracle Home and then restarting your installation.  


Optional Configuration Tools

The "Optional Configuration Tools" screen shows the name and status of the optional tools which you can run during the installation.

The status shown for the tool could be succeeded, failed, or pending.

When you select a tool, its details are shown in the Details box. Details are displayed as the tool is running. When a tool is running, you may not see the details of another tool.

If all tools succeed on the first try, the Oracle Universal Installer automatically proceeds to the next screen.

If you want to stop a configuration tool while it is running, you can press the Stop button.

You can still proceed with the installation if the optional tool fails.

End of Installation

The "End of Installation" screen informs the user whether the installation was successful or unsuccessful.

For information on the Oracle Universal Installer's exit codes, refer to "Oracle Universal Installer Exit Codes" on page 1-18.

Viewing Release Information

To view release information, press the Release Information button.


Note:

The Release Information button is not available if there is no release information.  


For Solaris only: When the Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to enter a tool/command to display the readme, you must type in xterm -e before the name of the tool if you are using a tool such as vi or emacs to view the readme.

For example, xterm -e vi, which brings up a separate xterm window that immediately executes the vi <filename> command.

Launching Additional Configuration Tools

To launch additional configuration tools, press the Additional Configuration Tools button to access the "Optional Configuration Tools" screen. Select the appropriate item from the list box and double-click or press the space bar.


Note:

The Additional Configuration Tools button is not available if there is no additional configuration tool.  


Installing Another Product or Exiting

To install another product, press the Next Install button.

Exiting the Oracle Universal Installer

To Exit from the Oracle Universal Installer, press the Exit button.

Oracle Universal Installer Exit Codes

The Oracle Universal Installer returns one of the following exit codes:

Code   Description  

0  

All installations were successful  

1  

All installation were successful but some optional configuration tools failed  

-1  

At least one installation failed  

Note that:

  1. This feature will not work if the Oracle Universal Installer is running in "bootstrap" mode. In this case setup.exe/runInstaller will just launch the JRE process and return immediately without waiting for the exit code. The Oracle Universal Installer will be running in "bootstrap" mode if the following line exists in the file "oraparam.ini":BOOTSTRAP=TRUE

  1. If you exit without installing any products (for example if you exit from the "Welcome" screen), the exit code will be -1.

Running the Oracle Universal Installer Once It is Installed

The Oracle Universal Installer is installed on your system during the installation of your Oracle products:

A new version of the Oracle Universal Installer replaces its older version.

The Oracle Universal Installer is placed under "Independent Products" in the Inventory panel as a "non-Oracle Home" product because it maintains an inventory across all Oracle Homes.

To run the Oracle Universal Installer:

When the Oracle Universal Installer is first run/installed, it checks for the JRE path (the location where it is run from), using the location specified in the oraparam.ini file. If the JRE does not exist here, the Oracle Universal Installer looks for a local JRE.

Removing Oracle Products With the Oracle Universal Installer

A deinstallation can be performed before making your selection of products to install or after a successful install.

To remove Oracle products, perform the following steps:

  1. Start the Oracle Universal Installer from a CD-ROM or

  1. Press the Deinstall Products button on the "Welcome" screen.

  2. The Inventory panel appears. Check the product(s) you want to remove from the Inventory panel and press the Remove button.

  3. The Remove Confirmation Dialog appears, asking if you want to remove the products and their dependent component(s). Press the Yes button.

The Oracle Universal Installer warns you of any product dependencies that might cause problems if particular products are removed, and prompts you to confirm the de-installation.

Pay special attention to the full list of products being deinstalled before proceeding. The Oracle Universal Installer computes this list based on the dependencies of each component.


Note:

You can also remove products by using the Installed Products button on the Oracle Universal Installer as long as this action is performed before making your selection of products to install.  


Error Dialog

The dialog comes up when an error occurs while executing an action or query. For example, running out of disk space while copying files is an exception/error condition.

Read the following button descriptions before continuing:


Retry

Try the action/query again


Ignore

Ignore the error and continue the installation.


Continue

Use the default value and continue the installation.


Cancel

Cancel the installation. The two options are:

Setting Default Paths for Locations

This section describes how the Oracle Universal Installer computes the default paths for the following:

Oracle Homes

The list of Oracle homes on Windows platforms consists of the following:

The list of Oracle homes on UNIX consists of the following:

If none of these homes exists on a machine, a default home is calculated based on the disk volume with the largest amount of free space.

Inventory

An inventory is a global inventory of all products installed in all Oracle homes on a machine.

On the Windows platform, the Inventory path is
<Program Files Folder>\Oracle\Inventory. The Program Files folder is a system-defined directory usually on the C drive.

On UNIX, the inventory path is ORACLE_BASE\oraInventory. If the ORACLE_BASE is not defined, it is created at the same level as the first Oracle home. For example, if your first Oracle home is at /private/ORACLEHome1, then, the inventory is at /private/oraInventory.

If the Oracle Universal Installer is unable to create an inventory directory at these locations, it prompts you with a locations dialog.

Clicking the Save As... button pops up a File browse dialog to accept a file name. The inventory as seen in the inventory tree will be logged into this file as text.

Optimal Flexible Architecture

For detailed information, refer to "Optimal Flexible Architecture Directory Structure (on Solaris)" on page 2-4.

Source Location

The source location default value is listed in the oraparam.ini file which is a part of your staging area. For example, the source location can be a CD-ROM.

Internationalization and Installation Translations Support

Installer/Installation Dialogs Language

OUI runs in the language of the operating system. OUI uses the language that Java detects, the system locale value, and sets that to the default language. The Installer dialogs will be displayed in this language if available. If specific Installer dialogs are not translated in the language of the operating system, those dialogs will be shown in English.

Product Language Selections

If multiple languages are defined for the products installed, the Universal Installer allows language selection via the Custom install type only. The languages selections are for the top level component being installed. A top level component is the product selected on the Products Selection dialog, a single one per installation session. If any sub-components (lower level) do not have files defined for the language the user selects, English only will be installed. The English files are always installed for all components, regardless of user selection or operating system language.

If a component is already installed, but with a different language set, that component will be reinstalled.

At install time, OUI looks at the language list of each file/filegroup to determine which need to be copied.

Installation from the Web

The Oracle Universal Installer is capable of installing a product from web. You can publish your staging area from a web server and then in the Universal Installer's "From" location, specify the http location for the products.jar file. For example, http://smpweb.us.oracle.com/product/ouiinstall/stage/products.jar. The Oracle Universal Installer recognizes a webstaging area just like a local, network, or CD-ROM stage.

System administrators of large customers who may want to deploy Oracle software to more than one target can use a combination of the web installation and response file features:

  1. Copy staging area on file System and make it accessible on the Intranet or a webserver.

  1. Include predetermined response files on the same location. They could have different groups of users who rely on different response files.

  2. Clients will run the Oracle Universal Installer locally and use the local response file that is emailed or downloaded before doing the silent install.

This important web install capability relies on some guidelines that must be followed at installation development time. Check your installation guide to see if the installation of your product is certified for web install.

To test if your stage is web enabled, you may try the following:

  1. Copy the stage where a webserver is running.

  1. Start the Oracle Universal Installer locally and point to the location of the products.jar file. (For example, http://smpweb.us.oracle.com/product/ouiinstall/stage/products.jar)

  2. Select to install a component or multiple components.

  3. Verify that the installation succeeds.




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