Oracle Database 12c Preinstall Steps for Oracle Linux Simplified

This post is a quick reminder that Oracle Linux includes a handy RPM to address pre-installation requirement for Oracle Database 12c. Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2, we changed the name for this RPM, so the RPM you should look for depends on what release of Oracle Database 12c you plan to install:

For Oracle Database 12c Release 2: oracle-database-server-12cR2-preinstall
For Oracle Database 12c Release 1: oracle-rdbms-server-12cR1-preinstal

Both of these RPMs are in the ol6_latest and ol7_latest repository for Oracle Linux 6 and 7 on the Oracle Linux yum server as well as from ULN. All recent releases of Oracle Linux 6 and 7 by default include the proper yum configuration to install these RPMs.

$ yum info oracle-database-server-12cR2-preinstall Available Packages Name : oracle-database-server-12cR2-preinstall Arch : x86_64 Version : 1.0 Release : 3.el7 Size : 19 k Repo : ol7_latest/x86_64 Summary : Sets the system for Oracle Database single instance and Real Application Cluster install for Oracle Linux 7 License : GPLv2 Description : The Oracle Preinstallation RPM package installs software packages and sets system parameters required for Oracle : Database single instance and Oracle Real Application Clusters installations for Oracle Linux Release 7 Files : affected: /etc/sysctl.conf, /boot/grub/menu.lst OR /boot/grub2/grub.cfg Files added: : /etc/security/limits.d/oracle-database-server-12cR2-preinstall.conf

The output below is from a fresh Oracle Linux 7.4 installation to prepare for Oracle Database 12c Release 2:

You can review all the actions performed by the preinstallation RPM in a log file located here

/var/log/oracle-database-server-12cR2-preinstall/results/orakernel.log