4 Postinstallation Tasks

4.1.1 Downloading and Installing Patches

Check the OracleMetaLink Web site for required patches for your installation.

To download required patches:

1. Use a Web browser to view the OracleMetaLink Web site:

   http://metalink.oracle.com
   
   

2. Log in to OracleMetaLink.

   
   

   Note: If you are not an OracleMetaLink registered user, click Register for MetaLink! and follow the registration instructions.

   
   

3. On the main OracleMetaLink page, click Patches.

4. Select Simple Search.

5. Specify the following information, then click Go:

   • In the Search By field, choose Product or Family, then specify RDBMS Server.

   • In the Release field, specify the current release number.

   • In the Patch Type field, specify Patchset/Minipack.

   • In the Platform or Language field, select your platform.

4.1.2 Running Oracle Enterprise Manager Java Console

In addition to using Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control or Grid Control to manage an Oracle Database 10g database, you can also use the Oracle Enterprise Manager Java Console to manage databases from this release or previous releases. The Java Console is installed by the Administrator installation type.

To start the Java Console, follow these steps:

1. Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to specify the Oracle home directory where you installed Oracle Client.

2. Set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH shared library path environment variable of the system to the following:

   $ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

3. Enter the following command to start the Java Console:

   $ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/oemapp console
   

4.1.3 Updating Instant Client

To update Instant Client:

1. Download Instant Client from Oracle Technology Network (http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html).

2. If you want to place the files in the existing directory, then ensure that the directory is empty.

   If you want to place the files into a different directory (and remove the previous files), ensure that you update the PATH environment variable setting to reflect the new location.

4.1.4 Connecting with Instant Client

If you installed the Instant Client installation type, you can configure users' environments to enable dynamically linked client applications to connect to a database as follows:

1. Set the appropriate shared library path environment variable for your platform to specify the directory that contains the Instant Client libraries. For the Instant Client installation type, this directory is the Oracle home directory that you specified during the installation, for example:

   /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/client_1
   
   

   The required environment variable is LD_LIBRARY_PATH :

2. Use one of the following methods to specify database connection information for the client application:

   • Specify a SQL connect URL string using the following format:

     //host:port/service_name
     
     

   • Set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable to specify the location of the tnsnames.ora file and specify a service name from that file.

   • Set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable and set the TWO_TASK environment variable to specify a service name from the tnsnames.ora file.

4.2.1 Configuring Instant Client Light

When you install Instant Client, the Instant Client libraries are installed under the ORACLE_HOME directory and the Instant Client Light specific library is installed installed under the ORACLE_HOME/light directory. To configure Instant Client Light, you must replace the ORACLE_HOME/libociei.so file with the ORACLE_HOME/light/libociicus.so file.

After replacing the library file, you must set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to point to the location of the Instant Client shared library files. For example:

$ORACLE_HOME

4.2.2 Creating a Backup of the root.sh Script

Oracle recommends that you back up the root.sh script after you complete an installation. If you install other products in the same Oracle home directory, then Oracle Universal Installer updates the contents of the existing root.sh script during the installation. If you require information contained in the original root.sh script, then you can recover it from the backed up root.sh file.

4.2.3 Connecting Instant Client or Instant Client Light to an Oracle Database

Before you can connect Instant Client (including Instant Client Light) to an Oracle database, make sure that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable specifies the directory that contains the Instant Client libraries. This directory is the ORACLE_HOME directory that you specified during installation.

For example, the shared libraries for Instant Client or Instant Client Light (if you have configured Instant Client Light), are in:

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/client_1

After you have checked the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, you can use any of the following methods to specify Oracle Database connection information for client applications:

• Specifying a Connection by Using the Easy Connect Naming Method

• Specifying a Connection by Configuring a tnsnames.ora File

• Specifying a Connection by Using an Empty Connect String and the LOCAL Environment Variable

Enter user-name: system@admin@//shobeen:1521/sales_us

4.2.4 Setting Up User Accounts

For information about setting up additional user accounts, refer to Oracle Database Administrator's Reference for Linux and Solaris Operating Systems.

4.2.5 Setting the NLS_LANG Environment Variable

NLS_LANG is an environment variable that specifies the locale behavior for Oracle software. This variable sets the language and territory used by the client application and the database server. It also sets the character set for the client, which is the character set for data entered or displayed by an Oracle client program, such as SQL*PLUS.

4.2.6 Generating the Client Static Library

The client static library (libclntst10.a) is not generated during installation. If you want to link your applications to the client static library, you must first generate it as follows:

1. Switch user to oracle.

2. Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to specify the Oracle home directory used by the Oracle Client installation. For example:

   • Bourne, Bash, or Korn shell:

     $ ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/client_1 
     $ export ORACLE_HOME
     
     

   • C shell:

     % setenv ORACLE_HOME /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/client_1
     
     

3. Enter the following command:

   $ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/genclntst
   

4.3.1 Configuring Oracle Net Services

If you have a previous release of Oracle software installed on this system, you might want to copy information from the Oracle Net tnsnames.ora configuration file from the previous release to the corresponding file for the new release.

If necessary, you can also add connection information for additional database instances to the new file.

4.3.2 Configuring Oracle Precompilers

This section describes postinstallation tasks for Oracle precompilers.

4.3.3 Configuring OCCI

Two sets of Oracle C++ Call Interface (OCCI) libraries are installed with this release on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. One set is for use with GNU C++ compiler version 2.96 and the other set is for use with GNU C++ version 3.2. The libraries are installed in the following locations:

• Libraries for use with GNU C++ version 2.96 supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 only:

  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10_296.a
  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10_296.so.10.1
  
  

• Libraries for use with GNU C++ version 3.2:

  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.a
  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.so.10.1
  
  

• Libraries for use with GNU C++ version 3.3 supported on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9:

  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.a
  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.so.10.1
  
  

Although the libraries are installed on all Linux distributions, they are not supported on all distributions. The following table shows the supported GNU C++ version for each distribution.

To create the required symbolic links in the $ORACLE_HOME/lib directory to the appropriate libraries for a distribution, you must you must create symbolic links to the libraries or overwrite the libraries after taking their backup. For example, you can use the following commands to create symbolic links to the libraries after removing $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.a and $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.so.10.1:

$ ln -s  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10_296.a $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.a
$ ln -s  $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10_296.so.10.1 $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libocci10.so.10.1

4.3.4 Configuring ODBC

The current release of Oracle ODBC Driver for Linux complies with the ODBC 3.52 specification. Features of the Linux version of the ODBC driver are based on the features of the Microsoft Windows version of the same driver. To set up the Oracle ODBC Driver:

1. Add DSN entries for the Oracle ODBC driver in the odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files.

   The following are sample entries of the odbc.ini file:

   [Oracle10gODBCDriver]
   Application Attributes = T
   Attributes = W
   BatchAutocommitMode = IfAllSuccessful
   CloseCursor = F
   DisableDPM = F
   DisableMTS = T
   Driver = Oracle10gODBCDriver
   DSN = TestDSN
   EXECSchemaOpt =
   EXECSyntax = T
   Failover = T
   FailoverDelay = 10
   FailoverRetryCount = 10
   FetchBufferSize = 64000
   ForceWCHAR = F
   Lobs = T
   Longs = T
   MetadataIdDefault = F
   QueryTimeout = T
   ResultSets = T
   # ServerName is TNS_alias_from_tnsnames.ora
   ServerName = OraDB
   SQLGetData extensions = F
   Translation DLL =
   Translation Option = 0
   UserID = scott
   
   

   The following are sample entries of the odbcinst.ini file:

   [Oracle10gODBCDriver]
   Description     = Oracle 10g Linux ODBC driver
   Driver = $ORACLE_HOME/lib/libsqora.so.10.1
   Setup         =
   FileUsage     =
   CPTimeout     =
   CPReuse       =
   

   
   

   See Also: For more information about adding DSN entries, refer to http://www.unixodbc.org

   
   

2. If required, set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable.

3. Run the following commands to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable:

   • Bourne, Bash, or Korn shell:

     LD_LIBRARY_PATH=driver_manager_install_directory/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
     LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
     export LD_LIBRARY_PATH 
     
     

   • C shell:

     setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH driver_manager_install_directory/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATHsetenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH $ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH