The Oracle Installer is a Java based GUI that is
pretty straightforward, so I am not going to elaborate every step
along the way, but rather point out the areas where you need to make
some very conscious decisions. First, I highly recommend that you
choose the Advanced Installation option off the first page
as shown below (Figure 19). The reason is that you know you do not
want to create a starter database and you know you may want to make
other options decisions along the way.
Figure 19:
Advanced Installation Option in Oracle 11g
As you progress, the installer will offer an
option to install either the Enterprise Edition (i.e. the
whole enchilada) or custom. I generally just choose the former, but
if you are truly trying to keep your install to a bare minimum, then
choose custom install and deselect the following as you deem
appropriate for your demo needs:
Though you might not want the XML Development
Kit, that is a mandatory component that must be installed. When
later asked about creating a database, choose Install Database
Software Only for now.
Create the Demo Database
The Oracle Database Configuration Assistant
(DBCA) is a Java based GUI that is also straightforward, so I am not
going to elaborate every step along the way, but simply point out
the areas where you need to make some conscious decisions. I am
going to assume you chose Enterprise Edition during the install,
which means you may have more choices to make during the database
creation process than if you had minimized the Oracle installation.
Now I know there lots of us who say GUIs are
bad, real DBAs run scripts. On the purely technical side, there was
a time when the only way I would create a database was via my own
handwritten SQL scripts. But over the years, the Oracle database has
become so complex in terms of options that writing such scripts
became inefficient. Fortunately at the very same time, the Database
Configuration Assistant (DBCA) has become so good that I rarely
write my own scripts anymore, especially for RAC deployments, where
DBCA is much quicker and better than I could even aspire to be.
But now because this very factor that DBCA is
generally good enough for creating databases it has been easy to
miss the fact that the database software has many more options that
require deliberate decisions. What I mean is that you can no longer
start up DBCA to create a database and then mindlessly press the
Next button until it starts working. That may have been acceptable
and safe back with 8i, but 11g is definitely a different animal. So
you should carefully navigate the DBCA screens and options and feel
free to choose to disable or change significant items if deploying
Oracle on a notebook or desktop with limited resources.
Here are just a few examples of why I strongly
recommend cautiously navigating and selecting from DBCA (many items
listed below are generally not really needed all the time or very
conducive to use on simple non-production or demo systems with
limited I/O bandwidth):
-
11g now defaults to auditing turned on and
stored in the database
-
DBCA defaults to installing Java Virtual
Machine and XML DB
-
DB multi file read count seems to default to a
much higher value
-
File system I/O options defaults to NONE wish
it would just choose SETALL
-
Job queue processes now defaults to 1000
instead of 10 that is a very big change
-
There are more pre-supplied Oracle jobs to
actually do self-maintenance
-
Max dump file size still defaults to UNLIMITED
never a good choice for PCs
-
XML DB Events default to ENABLED since default
is now to install XML DB
-
Recycle BIN still defaults to ON and thus
people potentially collect junk
-
SGA now has some additional new areas: Results
Cache, Function Cache, etc.
I could go on, but just the above should be
sufficient for most people to see that when creating an Oracle
database on a smaller machine, like a notebook, it is clearly best
not to just blindly accept the DBCA defaults anymore. When done
properly, I have been able to run 10g, 11g and a two node 10g RAC
cluster all on my Windows XP notebook without any major headaches.
Even when running them all concurrently!
When running DBCA, please make sure to pick Custom
Database (Figure 20). The reason is very simple if you want to
change redo log and data file size allocations, then you must go
with the custom option. Otherwise, DBCA blindly copies over some
pre-existing files of a set size that usually is not too good. You
can often pick better, so choose custom.
Figure 20:
Database Configuration Screen
This is an excerpt from
Oracle on VMWare:
Expert tips for database virtualization
by Rampant TechPress.
and include the URL for the page.
