The installation of Oracle RDBMS software requires supporting OS level functionality to successfully complete and operate. This article outlines the RPM checks which should be completed before the installation of Oracle 11g RDBMS is begun.

1. Logon to your Linux Server as the root user.

2. Below is a listing of the RPM Oracle gives as required for a successful 11g RDBMS install. However, RPMs are continuously updated so the version on your system may be newer than what was given by the manufacturer

binutils-2.17.50.0.6
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3
elfutils-libelf-0.125
elfutils-libelf-devel-0.125
elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.125
gcc-4.1.2
gcc-c++-4.1.2
glibc-2.5-24
glibc-common-2.5
glibc-devel-2.5
glibc-headers-2.5
kernel-headers-2.6.18
ksh-20060214
libaio-0.3.106
libaio-devel-0.3.106
libgcc-4.1.2
libgomp-4.1.2
libstdc++-4.1.2
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2
make-3.81
numactl-devel-0.9.8.i386
sysstat-7.0.2
unixODBC-2.2.11
unixODBC-devel-2.2.11

3. Thus, when investigating if the RPM exists on your system, you should not include the version number. In this example we will check for the existence of RPM binutils-2.17.50.0.6. Use the rpm –qa command to gather all installed packages, then lookup for the specific one with grep.

[root@mylinux1 ~]# rpm -qa|grep binutils
binutils-2.17.50.0.6-14.el5
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

4. As seen above the actual version of the rpm binutils-2.17.50.0.6 is an exact match, but it does not have to be. As long as the installed package has a version greater than the required version of 2.17.50.0.6, it meets our needs for 11g RDBMS install.

5. Repeat these steps for each required package.
This completes checking for required Oracle 11g RDBMS packages.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com