The Database Design Resource Center



Oracle Installation Problems

Unfortunately, Oracle installation problems occur more often than not.

After all, that is the reason for this whole section on how to install Oracle and then deal with all the other issues before and after installation.

Oracle installation problems due to System requirements:


  • Verify System Requirements and ensure that the system requirements in the installation documentation have been met.

    Note: You can complete a Minimal Oracle8i Enterprise Edition installation on a 64MB machine, but you cannot run Oracle Universal Installer and the database assistants during the same installation session. Later versions of Oracle requires a minimum of 512MB to avoid Oracle installation problems.

    To run the assistants on a machine with less than 96MB of RAM, complete a Minimal installation, then when asked if you want to create a database, answer No.

    Similarly, if asked if you want to migrate an existing database, choose No. After installation is completed and Oracle Universal Installer exits, run the assistant(s).

    Oracle Options (interMedia, Spatial, etc.) are not installed during a Minimal installation. If you want to install any of the options, do so after completing a Minimal installation.

  • Before installing an Oracle8i server ensure that any existing Net8 or SQL*Net listeners on the same computer are stopped.

    An existing listener may prevent the Net8 8.1 listener from starting during the Oracle8i install due to listener endpoint conflicts with an existing listener.

  • You must have Administrative privileges to install. Before beginning installation, ensure that you are logged on as a user with Administrative privileges.

Oracle installation problems: Out of memory problem: An out-of-memory problem has been noticed on minimal systems (64MB; 512MB of RAM is recommended) when running the Oracle Database Migration Assistant and Oracle Database Configuration Assistant.

If you are using a minimal system, Oracle Corporation recommends that you increase virtual memory to 200 MB (modify it in System Properties). Ensure that your system has enough disk space necessary before proceeding with an installation by reading "System Requirements" in your installation guide.

Oracle installation problems: Deinstallation problem:

  • Start regedit (you can start it at the command prompt by typing C:\regedit, or from the Start menu.)
  • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices.
  • Delete OracleTNSListener.
  • Delete OracleService(SID).

is the Oracle Home Name you just deinstalled from (such as: OraHome81) (SID) is the SID you just deinstalled (such as: ORCL)

Oracle installation problems: Oracle Home Issues

  • Installing products into new 8.1 Oracle homes using the previous Oracle Installer (V3) is not supported.
  • Do not set ORACLE_HOME in the environment path.
  • If you install Oracle Client software into an Oracle home, and then perform an Oracle8i Enterprise Edition installation into the same Oracle home, the listener will not be created. Perform the second installation into a different Oracle home to create the listener.

Installation Tips

  • If you exit Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) during an installation (kill the OUI, machine reboots, etc), or if the installation does not complete (that is, ALL required configuration tools are not run at the end) OUI will not register the installation in its inventory.

    Files may have been copied to the Oracle Home, so it is best to first remove those files manually and restart the installation.

  • If you delete an Oracle Home manually (without using OUI), the products in that home remain registered with OUI. If you next attempt an installation in the same home, some or all products selected may not be installed because OUI determines they are already installed.

    The workaround is to first use OUI to deinstall the products in that home (which removes them from OUI inventory), then reinstall in the same home.

Oracle installation problems: Problems on non-secure connection

To connect to Oracle as a privileged user over a non-secure connection, you must meet the following conditions:

  • The server to which you are connecting must have a password file.
  • You must be granted the SYSOPER or SYSDBA system privilege.
  • You must connect using a username and password.

If these conditions are not met then there will be problems in accessing and using oracle.

Return to installing the Oracle database


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