The Oracle installer is called the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI). Written in Java, OUI has the same look-and-feel on any of Oracle?s 60+ supported platforms. One of the nice new features of Oracle Database 10g is that the installer only needs to use one CD (in previous versions there were up to 3 different CD?s). Of course, additional CD?s are required to load optional products.

If you don?t have access to Oracle CD?s, you can download the Oracle Database software from Oracle Corporations web site at www.oracle.com.

The download is free for non-commercial use, and you will need to purchase a license if you want to use it for purposes other than learning.

To start the Oracle installer on a Windows environment, you simply put the Oracle Database 10g CD in the CDROM drive and the autorun will start the installer. If you have autorun disabled, simply double click setup from the CD. 

If you are running on another platform, follow the directions in the platform-specific install instructions:

* Mounting the CD

* Changing to the CD mount point (don?t do this if you are installing 9i or you wont be able to eject the CD on linux or UNIX platforms!)

* Running the installer. In UNIX this is typically called runInstaller.

The Oracle installer makes the install process quite easy and you simply follow the prompts. Let?s look at a typical install and see just how easy it is!

Tip: If you are trying to run the Oracle installer on UNIX, you need to make sure you can start an X-windows session on the console you are using! You must be able to run X in order for the Oracle installer to function correctly.

What we have gone over is the ?quick and dirty? installation and setup of Oracle on your computer.  While there are many more options available during the installation phase, they are things you will be working with in time.

The main points of this chapter include:

* The Oracle Universal installer will guide you through the installation process.

* There are several steps to installing Oracle, including the loading of the executables and the creation of databases.

* Oracle provides the Database Creation Assistant (DBCA) to help us create databases.

In the chapters to come, we will use Oracle in many different ways.  Through the information you will gain from these chapters, you will begin to understand more of the advanced options that can be performed as early as the installation phase of the software.

Installing the Oracle Software

Once you have started the installer, the first screen you will see is the welcome screen:

In this example, we will do a typical install, without creating the starter database so we un-check the Create Starter Database box.

If you need to install Oracle on another disk drive, you can enter the new location in the box titled Oracle Home Location. Now, press the Next button.

At this point, Oracle will collect information about your server environment. For example, you may get occasional errors that say that Oracle can not determine your IP address. This is typical if you are running in a Windows environment where there is a dynamic IP address. To avoid this, create a temporary entry in your hosts file (operating system dependent) with the current static IP address of your server.

Once the installer has collected external information it will present you a summary screen of all the products that you may install.

At this point, click the install button and Oracle will begin to install the database software on your computer. As it works, you will see a thermometer that displays the progress of the install:

The install may take up to ten minutes, so just be patient as it loads and links the executables. You can stop the install by clicking on the stop installation button.

Once the install is complete you will see the following screen:

This screen gives you a lot of information, and you will want to note the Ultra Search URL and the iSQL*Plus URL. When the end of installation screen appears the install is complete and you can click on the exit button to exit the installer.

Tip: On UNIX platforms you will also need to run a script called root.sh during the install as the ?root? user. 

Oracle Installed Components

When you installed the Oracle software, it is placed in a location called ORACLE_HOME.  In the case of the example above, we created ORACLE_HOME in the c:\oracle\product\10.1.0\Db_5 directory.

Next, we need to create a database. Let?s get started.

Using the Database Creation Assistant (DBCA)

While you can create a database manually, the beginning DBA is really better off letting Oracle handle the internals. The Database Creation Assistant (DBCA) wizard guides you through the database creation process. In this section, we are going to create a database using the DBCA.

Starting the DBCA

To start the DBCA from the Windows desktop choose start->Oracle OraDB10g_Home1 (or whatever you called your Oracle Home location)->Configuration and Migration Tools->Database Configuration Assistant.

If you are using Linux or UNIX, you can open DBCA from the command prompt with the simple command ?dbca?.  However, previous to doing this you may have to set up these environment variables:

$ export ORACLE_HOME=your_installation_directory

$ export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin

$ dbca

Once you have selected this option, the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) will start. You will see the DBCA welcome screen:

Simply press the next key and we will see the first of several screens that will guide us through the database creation. Here is the first screen:

Deciding What Kind of Database to Create

Notice that the DBCA can perform several functions:

* Creation of a database

* Configuration of database options

* Removal of a database

* Management of database templates.

For the purposes of this chapter we are interested only in the first option, creation of a database. Since this option is highlighted for us already, just click on the next button. Once you do, you will see the next screen which asks us what kind of database we want to create.

Again, Oracle gives us a number of options:

* Creation of a custom database without a template.

* Creation of a data warehouse like database from a template.

* Creation of a general purpose like database from a template.

* Creation of a transaction processing database from a template.

Note: Once you are ready to create real databases, you will likely use the ?Creation of a custom database without a template? option the most.

In our case, we will choose to create a general purpose database. If we selected a data warehouse or transaction processing database, we would find that the database creation process was much the same as the one we are going to go through.

If we chose to create the custom database, we would have to answer many more questions, beyond the scope of this book.

Remember, the DBCA is a crutch for beginners.  Once you become comfortable with Oracle, you should experiment with the custom database creation option, and eventually move-on to manual database creation.

The next screen asks for our global database name and the database SID (System Identifier). In our example we call our database BOOKTST.

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