Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2): Installation Articles

If you follow me on social media, you will know I’ve put out a few 12cR2 installation articles recently. It’s good motivation for me to read through the installation guides and see what’s changed, if anything, between versions. I quite like doing some of this nuts & bolts stuff. 🙂

If you’re interested, this is what I’ve done so far.

I always feel like I should stress a few things in relation to my install guides, or anyone else’s for that matter.

  • You should always read the installation manuals. I know it can be boring, but there is a bunch of stuff you should understand that I don’t include, because my intention isn’t to regurgitate the manual. Maybe you have a situation where something is relevant that other’s don’t care about.
  • The RAC articles are intentionally really basic. I avoid some of the job separation (users and groups) that you may want in your organisation. I keep the storage very simple. I avoid a lot of the possible topology variations. I would always consider these as a starting point for playing with RAC on a VM, rather than something you would consider a RAC “best practice”. Once you’ve got one of these running you can try variations. Don’t expect me to write a separate guide for all variations. Try it yourself.
  • I will make choices over my approach to make stuff suit the wider audience. For example I’ve tended to steer clear of ASMLib and the new “ASM Filter Driver” because a big chunk of my audience are sceptical of them and prefer to use UDEV. I’m happy to use either and if you are using Oracle Linux and UEK it really doesn’t make a great deal of difference. I think you should play with both and decide for yourself which you like. Remember, I’m not going to write multiple variations of the article.
  • The installation guides are all using interactive installations, but I rarely do these nowadays, preferring to use silent installations and silent database creations. I’m not sure how many people would be happy with a bunch of response files as their introduction to a new version. I think the GUI screens aid with understanding when you are new. You should definitely graduate to the silent stuff though! I’ve included the response files generated during each interactive installation.
  • I modify the installation guides over time as I learn more about the stuff. That’s true of all my articles, but don’t assume because I installed it this way today, that’s definitely the way to do it!

I guess what I’m saying is I’ve only done a handful of 12.2 installations, so I’m no guru. Keep that in mind and learn to think for yourself! 🙂

Happy installing!

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) : Default APEX Installation Gone!

I’m a fan of APEX, but I am not a fan of the shared installation used in Oracle Database 12.1. I’m sure it is great for some people, but not for me. I prefer to have APEX installed locally in the PDB, which prompted this article.

Fast forward to Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) and APEX is no longer installed by default. It’s still shipped with the software, see $ORACLE_HOME/apex (see update), but not installed. I am conflicted about this…

  • On the one hand this is great because I don’t have to worry about removing the shared APEX installation before installing it into the PDB.
  • On the other hand this means people have to make an active choice to install APEX, which not everyone will do. That’s a pity. In addition to the tool itself, there is some useful APIs that come with it, like APEX_WEB_SERVICE and APEX_JSON. You don’t really need the later in 12.2 as you have lots of new JSON support, but it’s good to have for backwards compatibility.

So just remember you have an extra job to do after you’ve installed your database, which to install the latest version of APEX. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Update: As per comment from Joel Kallman, always download the latest version and install in the PDB locally, not in the root!

Cloud Control 13c Release 2 (13cR2)

o-enterprisemgr-13c-clr-2769481We’ve finished the rollout of 13cR1 agents to all dev and test environments, but haven’t started the production rollout. Good job really as 13cR2 has now been released.

The announcements are here.

The downloads and documents are here.

My plan is now:

  • Stop the rollout of 13cR1 to production.
  • Test the clean install of 13cR2 and the upgrade of 13cR1 to 13cR2 at home. Articles will be coming soon.
  • Play about with it until I’m happy.
  • Upgrade the existing 13cR1 to 13cR2 and upgrade all the existing dev/test agents.
  • Gain some confidence in the new installation.
  • Roll it out to production.

Let’s hope I get this done before 13cR3. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Cloud Control 12cR2 : Is it really release 2?

Oracle Cloud Control 12cR2 is installed and merrily monitoring one of the test 11gR2 databases running on HP-UX. I’ll probably leave it like that until I come back from Oracle OpenWorld. I don’t want to change the entire administration and monitoring infrastructure just as I leave for a couple of weeks.

As I’m re-familiarizing myself with the 12c way of doing things, I’ve been wondering if this really is a full “Release 2” product, or just 12cR1 with Bundle Patch 2. Not surprisingly, one of my readers asked the same question, pointing out the version 12.1.0.2 does not look consistent with a “Release 2” product, which would typically be 12.2.0.1.

I take Oracle version numbers with a pinch of salt. I’m currently using WebLogic version 10.3.5, which is 11g WebLogic. 🙂 At least WebLogic 12c has been versioned appropriately. 🙂

So why the 12cR2 branding, when 12cR1 of the database hasn’t been released yet? My guess is this is a marketing move for one very specific reason. One of the big marketing messages around Cloud Control was its ability manage clouds and allow you to charge customers based on their resource usage. While speaking recently to a representative of a large oracle customer/partner, I found out this functionality plain didn’t work, at least not with their selection of (latest version) Oracle products.

Assuming Cloud Control 12cR2 is now actually capable of delivering on this promise, that represents quite a big change that’s probably worthy of a re-brand, even if the version number doesn’t warrant it.

Of course, this is all speculation on my part. I’m not using it for managing clouds or charging customers. I’m just a regular DBA who likes to watch the performance page every few minutes while doing my administration in SQL*Plus. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Update: See Hans’ comment about the version number. He’s quite correct that this version falls in line with a new release in the GC/CC universe.

Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 Installation…

I did an EM Cloud Control 12cR2 installation at work yesterday. The database repository was 11.2.0.3 on HP-UX and the middle tier was installed on RHEL 5.8. The installation was pretty much the same as the 12cR1 version. Over the next few days I’ll be testing out some of the features to decide if we can move across to it permanently.

Today I did two run throughs of single server installations on Oracle Linux 5.8 and 6.3. There are a couple of minor differences, but nothing to worry about. You can see what I did here:

The installations are a little small, so they are not too fast, but it’s good enough to test things out.

Cheers

Tim…

Update: It’s been a while since I used the 12c version, so I’ve had to relearn a few simple things. I thought I might as well write the down in case it helps others.

RELIES ON clause no more…

I’ve been running through my demos before my PL/SQL workshop in Utrecht and I noticed a change in the behaviour of the PL/SQL Function Result Cache. In 11gR1 it was necessary to specify dependencies using the RELIES ON clause, but now Oracle 11gR2 takes care of Detection of Sources for you. Neat. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

RTFM… If you can find them…

A certain something has been released today, so like any self respecting DBA/Developer I went straight for the manuals…

At the time of writing there are none listed on OTN or Tahiti. I tried cunningly altering existing URLs to match the new version, but to no avail.

I’m sure they will appear soon. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Update: Thank you to Mathew Buttler for pointing out the documentation is available here:

http://www.oracle.com/pls/db112/portal.all_books