Oracle 11i and Linux 2.1 AS help

[fazman]

I've been tasked by my brother in law to setup a linux box so he can install Oracle 11i on it.

i'm not sure which linux OS will work, but I was told that Red Hat Linux 2.1 AS is supported by Oracle 11i.

1) Where is some place i can get a live eval copy to test out?
2) Is there some special settings i need to make prior to installing Oracle 11i?

I bought one of those Dell SC400's back when it was on sale for $300 and I tossed in 1GB (2x512MB) of memory. I have a 40GB boot drive and a 160 GB hard drive for the database. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Faz-man

 

[ntrights]

I would recommend Solaris, I know Solaris is not Linux but many commands that work in Solaris work in Linux also. You can download Solaris 9 (Pc version) for free today.

 

[jose]

For AS, ES & WS versions of RedHat Enterprise Linux you have to pay for it.

You can get a Enterprise 3.0 ES version from RH for about $167

Regards,
Jose

 

[Nothinman]

I would recommend Solaris, I know Solaris is not Linux but many commands that work in Solaris work in Linux also. You can download Solaris 9 (Pc version) for free today.

I've never seen Oracle for Solaris/x86, only for Sparc. I'm not authoritative by any means but I think I'd remember noticing and chuckling about something like that had I seen it. And frankly I'd never want to run Solaris when given an option for Linux.

Anyway RH makes the source for all of their Enterprise software available but no binaries or installers, you'd have to do it all by hand. Best I can say is to call them and see if they can help you out with a deal.

2) Is there some special settings i need to make prior to installing Oracle 11i?

Probably, I havn't done 11i but when installing older versions of Oracle there was always some funky finengling we had to do to get it to install, I think most of it is documented on Oracle's site.

 

[fazman]

Thanks Jose!

I'm just worried that i will plunk down the cash for that OS and it won't work for what I need. That's why i'm just trying to get something to try out first. I'm wondering if there is a place i can call to get a 30 day time out OS or something like that. Or do they have something where I can buy it and if it doesn't work for me I can cancel it with in a certain time period to get my money back?

Some one asked about Solaris, my brother in law doesn't want to use solaris... that is what I originally suggested to him to get (and i would have got him a Sparc box too... but he said no...).

Where can i find out what OS's are on the compatibility list for Oracle 11i? Maybe i can try some other Linux flavors that i can get for free to test out. Would just the free regular RH 9.0 work with Oracle 11i to test out???

Thanks everyone for the advice.

C-ya,
Faz-man

For AS, ES & WS versions of RedHat Enterprise Linux you have to pay for it.

You can get a Enterprise 3.0 ES version from RH for about $167

Regards,
Jose

 

[Nothinman]

that is what I originally suggested to him to get (and i would have got him a Sparc box too... but he said no...)

Solaris is free for non-profit use on single CPU machines (I'd read the license agreement to be sure though) so technically you could try it without any money.

That's why i'm just trying to get something to try out first. I'm wondering if there is a place i can call to get a 30 day time out OS or something like that

Call their sales line, not really anyone better you could talk to than them.

Maybe i can try some other Linux flavors that i can get for free to test out. Would just the free regular RH 9.0 work with Oracle 11i to test out???

Any Linux can work with a little work, but I believe Oracle only supports RedHat AS and I think SuSe.

 

[drag]

If you want to try it out, get the solaris for redhat or whatever.

Then install it on Redhat's fedora project.

That's as close to Redhat AS as your going to get. You could also try out SuSE's free FTP download install option. (they don't have a cd install offered).

Remember to pick hardware that you know will be supported easily. That can solve a lot of headaches down the line.

Or maybe you can try out Debian even.


If it doesn't work, or you get major issues then go ahead and buy into Redhat AS or SuSE's server line. That way you know you can get a working Oracle server for as little $ as possible to play around with. Anything you learn from setting up oracle on a unsupported distro will be usefull for you even if your not able to quite pull it off.


Could be a great learning experiance. Plus I bet you'd get some good help from fedora's or SuSe's forums from other people that may be interested in the same setup.

 

[Batti]

Academic pricing for Redhat AS is $50, if you happen to be associated with a University. I've deployed 9i on ES2.1 and AS 3.0, and I can tell you it works well if you follow all the tweaks for kernel params and such.

You can find compatability charts on oracle.com.

Good Luck!

 

[Batti]

Also, there's a good whitepaper on redhat.com that tells you about the kernel params and setup you need.