Chili!Soft ASP + Oracle 8i v8.1.7 Install HOW-TO (RaQ3 and RaQ4)


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This is a step-by-step document for advanced users and system administrators on how to install Oracle 8i (8.1.7) on a Cobalt RaQ4, as well as how to create a ASP connection to it.

Tested and verified on the following hardware and software:

  • Cobalt RaQ4R, 512 MB RAM , 30Gb RAID with all updates installed including OS Update 1.0.
  • Oracle 8i v8.1.7 (downloaded from www.oracle.com)

OR

  • Cobalt RaQ3i, 512 MB RAM, 20Gb with all updates installed including OS Update 4.0.
  • Oracle 8i v8.1.7 (downloaded from www.oracle.com)

Installation files are generally placed in the /home partition since it has the most space.

You need to install the Oracle 8i Client files in order to enable the ASP server to communicate with other external Oracle8i databases.

During the installation process of Oracle8i, you have the option to select which parts of the application you wish to install, ranging from the full-blown server to just the client files.

You need to configure the Oracle Listener after installing the client files if you need to connect to other Oracle databases. Refer to your local Oracle DB Administrator for help.
The file is usually $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora

 

WARNING
Technical Support is not available in these instances and you would be referred to our Professional Services team.

 

Step 1

Prepare the RaQs for the Oracle installation by fully updating it with Cobalt patches.

Assuming clean, restored RaQs out of the box...

You may obtain OS Restore CD images via anonymous ftp from ftp.nl.cobalt.com in /pub/iso. Restore CD images that come with updated patches eliminate the section below on applying patches.

For the RaQ4, apply OS Update 1.0 at the minimum, they were applied in the following order:

  1. RaQ4-All-System-0.0.1-7657.pkg
  2. RaQ4-All-Security-0.0.1-8061.pkg
  3. RaQ4-en-OSUpdate-1.0.pkg

For the RaQ3, software and patches were applied in the following order:

  1. RaQ3-en-OSUpdate-3.0.pkg
  2. All-Kernel_i386-1.1.pkg
  3. RaQ3-All-System-3.0.1-6168.pkg
  4. RaQ3-All-Security-3.0.1-8061.pkg
  5. Chilisoft ASP 3.5.2 pkg (contact Chili!Soft Technical Support for more information)
  6. casp_interbase_patch_raq3.pkg
  7. RaQ3-en-Update-OS-4.0.pkg

 

Step 2

You need the following files obtained via anonymous ftp from ftp.nl.cobalt.com/pub/oracle :

  1. xmp-3.4k-test.tar.gz
  2. xfree-3.3.5-3-test.tar.gz
  3. jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2

Make sure these files go into a location on the /home partition.

In the same FTP area, you can find the same Oracle 8i 8.1.7 file (524 Mb) as well as the Oracle documentation.

 

Step 3

Login as root to your RaQ4.

Untar xfree-3.3.5-3-test.tar.gz with the following command:

tar xzvf xfree-3.3.5-3-test.tar.gz --directory /

Untar xmp-3.4k-test.tar.gz with the following command:

tar xzvf xmp-3.4k-test.tar.gz --directory /

Unzip jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2 with the following command:

bzip2 -d jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2

Untar jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2 with the following command:

tar xvf jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar --directory /home

 

Next, make a symlink from /usr/local/java to /home/jdk118_v3, like so:

ln -s /home/jdk118_v3 /usr/local/java

 

Step 4

Mount your Oracle CD-ROM on the RaQ4 or untar the 524 Mb download to a directory in /home.

Follow this link to the excellent Oracle8i Installer How-To to continue the installation process.

Recommended: Export the display to another X terminal before running the Oracle8i installer.

e.g.
export DISPLAY=1.2.3.4:0.0

 

You want to begin at the Oracle Pre-Install section. I made my installation of Oracle in the /home/u01 directory.

Example of the environment of the oracle user on the RaQ, installing to /home/u01:

ORACLE_BASE=/home/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=/home/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_SID=ora1; export ORACLE_SID
PATH=$PATH:/home/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/bin; export PATH
CLASSPATH=.:/home/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/jdbc/lib/classes111.zip; export CLASSPATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
ORA_NLS33=/home/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/ocommon/nls/admin/data; export ORA_NLS33
NLS_LANG=american; export NLS_LANG
umask 022

Remember the Database name you created.

 

Step 5 (Setting up the ASP DSN)

Access the ASP Administrative Server, click on Databases > Environment.

 

Step 6

Enter the ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH variables.

To find out what the variables are, login to your RaQ4 as the user oracle, type "env".

Restart the ASP server.

 

Step 7

Configure a new ASP DSN normally, select Oracle 8i and put in the appropriate entries. I have called my Oracle database - oracle2.support and am using the default samples, in this example.

 

Finally, test the DSN to make sure the connection is successful.