Configuring Oracle Database XE on Linux

I do all my database work in MySQL but I recently needed to setup a Rails application to use Oracle as a backend database. I didn't want to spend any of my money to do this, so I was pleased to see that Oracle make Oracle Database Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) available as free download.

You can find the software HERE but you will need to create an Oracle account first. Be warned that the Oracle site can be a little frustrating. You will want to download Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (either Western European or Universal version depending on your language requirements), which represents the Server, and Oracle Database 10g Express Client, which allows remote access to the server from another machine.

Oracle provides detailed documentation on these, including an Installation Guide, a Getting Started Guide and an Online Tutorial. While these are welcome, they tend to cover more options than you really need and so they can be a bit confusing. This note trims off that excess verbage and explains what I needed to do to install the database on a Linux Fedora 5 server.


Oracle XE Server Installation

1. Check the prerequisites in the Installation Guide
For hardware these are basically 512 MB memory, 1.5 GB disk.
You'll need at least 1024 MB of swap space. Check that with:

# free -m

If the total for the Swap line is less that 1024 then you need to add a swapfile of an appropriate size. I'll try and add a short note about that to this site when I get the chance - otherwise google for it.

You'll need the linux packages glibc (2.3.2 or higher) and libaio (0.3.96 or higher). You should have glibc already there but you'll have to install libaio (as root):

# yum install libaio

There are also a bunch of kernel parameters listed in the installation guide. I didn't have to mess with these.

2. Install the Downloaded RPM

# rpm -ivh oracle-xe-10.2.0.1-1.0.i386.rpm
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
1:oracle-xe              ########################################### [100%]
Executing Post-install steps...
You must run '/etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure' as the root user to
configure the database.

If you've met all the prerequisites, the rpm should install smoothly

3. Run the Configuration Script

# /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

Accept the defaults for the two questions about ports, provide an administrator password and set the database to start on boot. The script will then do a load of work in the background to configure things properly.

This can take quite a while. Run top in another window if you want reassurance that things are happening.

4. Access the Database via its Web Site

On the server with the database, open up a browser and go to http://localhost:8080/apex.
Login as system and give the password that you set earlier. If you want to access this site from other machines on your network then go Administration->Manage HTTP Access and select Available from Local Server and Remote Clients.

You can enable a test database by going to Administration->Database Users->Manage Users and clicking on HR. Provide a password (such as 'hr') and change Account Status to unlocked and click the Alter User button. This test database is handy for testing later on.

5. Set Some Environment Variables

As root, open /etc/bashrc in an editor and add this line at the bottom of the file:

. /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/bin/oracle_env.sh

When you create a shell this will set a few environment variables that are required in order to access the database. These include LD_LIBRARY_PATH, ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID. Look for them in the output of printenv when you create a new shell.

That's it for installing the server...


Oracle XE Client Installation

You would install this on a remote machine that wants to access the database server over the network.

1. Check the prerequisites

Nothing significant here, except the glibc and libaio packages, as above:

# yum install libaio

2. Install the Downloaded RPM

This gave me a couple of errors but they didn't appear to be a problem...

# rpm -ivh oracle-xe-client-10.2.0.1-1.0.i386.rpm
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
df: `/usr/lib/oracle': No such file or directory
expr: syntax error
/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.86099: line 23: [: -lt: unary operator expected
1:oracle-xe-client       ########################################### [100%]
Executing Post-install steps...

3. Setup the Environment Variables

As root, open /etc/bashrc in an editor and add this line at the bottom of the file:

. /usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/client/bin/oracle_env.sh

4. Access the Remote Server

If your paths are setup correctly then you can access sqlplus from a shell. Here I am accessing the HR test database on server testbed. The connect syntax is username/password@host

# sqlplus /nolog

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Mon Jan 29 10:21:21 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

SQL> connect hr/hr@testbed.int.craic.com
Connected.

SQL> select * from jobs;

You see a load of output returned by the server, indicating that everything is set up correctly.

That's it... fairly simple installations... you'll need to look elsewhere for guidance on actually creating tables and entering data. I'll add a guide to using Oracle as a backend database with Rails shortly.