The installation of Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) (64-bit) on Oracle Linux 5 (64-bit). The article is based on a server installation with a minimum of 2G swap, secure Linux disabled. Oracle recommend a default server installation, but for these installations the following package groups installed:

GNOME Desktop Environment
Editors
Graphical Internet
Text-based Internet
Development Libraries
Development Tools
Server Configuration Tools
Administration Tools
Base
System Tools
X Window System

An example of this type of Linux installations can be seen here. Alternative installations may require more packages to be loaded, in addition to the ones listed below.

Download Software
Unpack Files
Hosts File
Set Kernel Parameters
Setup
Installation
Post Installation

Download Software
Download the following software.

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) Software (64-bit)

Unpack Files
Unzip the files.

unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_1of2.zip
unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_2of2.zip

You should now have a single directory called “database” containing installation files.
Hosts File
The “/etc/hosts” file must contain a fully qualified name for the server.

<IP-address>  <fully-qualified-machine-name>  <machine-name>

For example.

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain  localhost
192.168.2.181   ol5-11gr2.localdomain  ol5-11gr2

Set Kernel Parameters
Oracle recommend the following minimum parameter settings.

fs.suid_dumpable = 1
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 536870912
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048586

The current values can be tested using the following command.

/sbin/sysctl -a | grep <param-name>

Add or amend the following lines in the “/etc/sysctl.conf” file.

fs.suid_dumpable = 1
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576
fs.file-max = 6815744
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 536870912
kernel.shmmni = 4096
# semaphores: semmsl, semmns, semopm, semmni
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default=4194304
net.core.rmem_max=4194304
net.core.wmem_default=262144
net.core.wmem_max=1048586

Run the following command to change the current kernel parameters.

/sbin/sysctl -p

Add the following lines to the “/etc/security/limits.conf” file.

oracle              soft    nproc   2047
oracle              hard    nproc   16384
oracle              soft    nofile  1024
oracle              hard    nofile  65536
oracle              soft    stack   10240

Disable secure linux by editing the “/etc/selinux/config” file, making sure the SELINUX flag is set as follows.

SELINUX=disabled

Alternatively, this alteration can be done using the GUI tool (Applications > System Settings > Security Level). Click on the SELinux tab and disable the feature. If SELinux is disabled after installation, the server will need a reboot for the change to take effect.
Setup
Install the following packages if they are not already present.

# From Oracle Linux 5 DVD
cd /media/cdrom/Server
rpm -Uvh binutils-2.*
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf*
rpm -Uvh gcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh gcc-c++-4.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-common-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-headers-2.*
rpm -Uvh ksh*
rpm -Uvh libaio-0.*
rpm -Uvh libaio-devel-0.*
rpm -Uvh libgomp-4.*
rpm -Uvh libgcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-4.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-devel-4.*
rpm -Uvh make-3.*
rpm -Uvh sysstat-7.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-2.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh numactl-devel-2*
cd /
eject

Create the new groups and users.

groupadd oinstall
groupadd dba
groupadd oper
groupadd asmadmin

useradd -g oinstall -G dba,oper,asmadmin oracle
passwd oracle

Note. We are not going to use the “asmadmin” group, since this installation will not use ASM.

Create the directories in which the Oracle software will be installed.

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1
chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01
chmod -R 775 /u01

Login as root and issue the following command.

xhost +<machine-name>

Login as the oracle user and add the following lines at the end of the “.bash_profile” file.

# Oracle Settings
TMP=/tmp; export TMP
TMPDIR=$TMP; export TMPDIR

ORACLE_HOSTNAME=ol5-11gr2.localdomain; export ORACLE_HOSTNAME
ORACLE_UNQNAME=DB11G; export ORACLE_UNQNAME
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/db_1; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_SID=DB11G; export ORACLE_SID
PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH; export PATH
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH; export PATH

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib; export CLASSPATH

Installation
Log into the oracle user. If you are using X emulation then set the DISPLAY environmental variable:

DISPLAY=<machine-name>:0.0; export DISPLAY

Start the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) by issuing the following command in the database directory:

./runInstaller

Proceed with the installation of your choice. You can see the type of installation I performed by clicking on the links below to see screen shots of each stage.

Configure Security Updates
Select Install Option
System Class
Node Selection
Select Install Type
Typical Install Configuration
Create Inventory
Perform Prerequisite Checks
Summary
Install Product
Database Configuration Assistant
Database Configuration Assistant 2
Execute Configuration Scripts
Finish

Post Installation

Edit the “/etc/oratab” file setting the restart flag for each instance to ‘Y’.

DB11G:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1:Y