Database Wisdom: Oracle

Understanding OUI, DBCA and DBUA

Coming Soon!

Install Oracle 10g on Windows

I will be making the following assumptions:

• You have created an account on OTN and can download the software. Accounts are free. Go to http://otn.oracle.com and click on Register.


• You have a computer with Windows that supports Oracle 10g. In the following article, I will be working with Windows 2000 professional. The installation should work with Windows 2000 Professional, XP Professional or 2003. I have also installed on other Windows versions but I can't guarantee that will work for you.

  Check here, http://www.oracle.com/technology/support... , to make sure you are using a supported OS.

  If you want to install on Linux, see http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/htm... .

  If you have problems with Linux or any other OS issues, post in the discussion area and hopefully I, or someone else, will be able to walk you through it.

• Your computer has enough RAM and disk to run Oracle. Oracle's stated minimum is a 200 Mhz CPU and 256 Megabytes of RAM. In this article, I will be installing Oracle 10g on a Celeron 466 Mhz with 256 Megabytes of memory and a 20 gigabyte hard drive using Windows 2000. I would say this is the minimal hardware expectation.


• You have administrative access on your PC. Oracle requires changes that require this access to install.

Getting the software

Log in to OTN. The login link is in the top right corner of the screen.

Once you're logged in, on the left menu bar, select Downloads. It's under services near the bottom. From there select, Database and then database 10g. On this screen, select the flavor of your OS.

Read the License and click off the check boxes. This takes you to the download screen. We will worry about the companion CD at a later time. For now, just download the Complete Files at the top of the page.

Double-click the zip file and extract to a directory. If you are running Windows XP, I have had problems with its built-in support for zip files. I use 7-Zip, an open source file archiver that supports the zip format. If you need it, go to http://www.7-zip.org/.

For the sake of argument, I am extracting to c:\ora\disk1. Let's call that the extract home directory. When I say navigate to the extract home directory, that is the one I mean.

OK. Navigate to the extract home directory. From there, navigate to the Install directory. Do not click setup.exe in the extract home directory. Click setup.exe in the install directory.

We will now go through a set of screens to install the software. We will be choosing the easiest path through them. I want to make a note here--we will be making decisions that allow us to install in the easiest way possible. I would not recommend making the same choices for a normal development install and I definitely would not recommend making these choices for a production install. The goal here is to get the software installed with the minimum of fuss and bother.

At times, it will look like the install is doing nothing. You should see, in the upper right hand corner of the screen, either text or an activity bar running. This will let you know that the install program is working. You will only see anything here when Oracle is doing something, not when it is waiting for you to do something.

Previous Next