A Installing Oracle Database Companion CD Using Response Files

A.1 How Response Files Work

You can automate the installation and configuration of Oracle software, either fully or partially, by specifying a response file when you start Oracle Universal Installer. Oracle Universal Installer uses the values in the response file to provide answers to some or all of the Oracle Universal Installer prompts.

Typically, Oracle Universal Installer runs in interactive mode, which means that it prompts you to provide information in graphical user interface (GUI) screens. When you use response files to provide this information, you run Oracle Universal Installer at a command prompt using either of the following modes:

• Silent mode: Oracle Universal Installer does not display any screens. Instead it displays progress information in the command window where you started it. To use silent mode, you run setup.exe with the -silent parameter and include a response file, which contains responses to the Oracle Universal Installer prompts.

• Noninteractive (or suppressed) mode: Oracle Universal Installer only displays screens for which you did not supply information in the response file. You can use variables in the response file or command-line prompts to suppress other Oracle Universal Installer screens, such as Welcome and Summary, that do not prompt for information. To use noninteractive mode, run setup.exe without the -silent parameter, but include the response file or any other parameters that apply.

You define the settings for a silent or noninteractive installation by entering values for the variables listed in the response file. For instance, to specify the Oracle home name, you would supply the appropriate value for the ORACLE_HOME_NAME variable, as in the following example:

ORACLE_HOME_NAME="OraDBHome1

Another way of specifying the response file's variable settings is to pass them as command line arguments when you run Oracle Universal Installer. For example:

SYSTEM_DRIVE:\setup.exe_location> setup -silent "ORACLE_HOME_NAME=OraDBHome1" ...

This method is particularly useful if you do not want to embed sensitive information, such as passwords, in the response file. For example:

SYSTEM_DRIVE:\setup.exe_location> setup -silent "s_sysPwdFresh=binks342" ...

Ensure that you enclose the variable and its setting in quotes.

A.2 Preparing a Response File

This section describes the methods that you can use to prepare a response file for use during silent-mode or noninteractive-mode installations:

• Editing a Response File Template

• Recording a Response File

A.3 Running Oracle Universal Installer Using the Response File

At this stage, you are ready to run Oracle Universal Installer at the command line, specifying the response file you created, to perform the installation. On Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you must open the command prompt with Administrator privileges. The Oracle Universal Installer executable, setup.exe, provides several options. For help information about the full set of these options, run setup.exe with the -help option, for example:

SYSTEM_DRIVE:\setup.exe_location> setup -help

A new command window appears, with the "Preparing to launch..." message. In a moment, the help information appears in that window.

To run Oracle Universal Installer and specify a response file:

1. Place the response file on the computer where you want to install the Oracle Database Companion CD products.

2. At a command prompt, run Oracle Universal Installer with the appropriate response file. On Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you must open the command prompt with Administrator privileges. For example:

   SYSTEM_DRIVE:\setup.exe_location> setup [-silent] "variable=setting" [-nowelcome] [-noconfig] [-nowait] -responseFile filename 
   

   where:

   • filename: Identifies the full path of the response file.

   • -silent: Runs Oracle Universal Installer in silent mode and suppresses the Welcome window. When you use -silent, then the -nowelcome option is not necessary.

   • "variable=setting" refers to a variable within the response file that you may prefer to run at the command line rather than set in the response file. Enclose the variable and its setting in quotes.

   • -nowelcome: Suppresses the Welcome window that appears during installation.

   • -noconfig: Suppresses running the configuration assistants during installation, performing a software-only installation instead.

   • -nowait: Closes the console window when the silent installation completes.

A.4 Running Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant in Noninteractive Mode

You can run Workflow Configuration Assistant in noninteractive mode by entering your configuration parameter settings directly in the Workflow Configuration Assistant wfinstall.bat script. You must specify all required and conditionally required parameters for the features to use.

To run Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant in noninteractive mode:

1. Go to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\wf\install directory, which is the default location of the wfinstall.bat script.

2. Open the wfinstall.bat script in a text editor and locate a line similar to the following:

   . . . repository.jar" WorkflowCA /wfdir workflow_directory /orahome oracle_home 
   

   For example:

   . . . repository.jar" WorkflowCA /wfdir /d1/iasinstall/m21pw1/wf 
   /orahome /d1/iasinstall/m21pw1
   

3. Edit the script to append your additional parameters after the /wfdir, /orahome, and /ospath parameters. Enter the parameters all on the same line; otherwise, the script does not runs correctly.

   . . . repository.jar" WorkflowCA /wfdir workflow_directory /orahome 
   oracle_home /wfacct workflow_schema /instype installation_type 
   /tnsconndesc connection_string
   

   where:

   • /wfdir: The Oracle Workflow directory within your Oracle home directory. The default directory is ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\wf.

   • /orahome: Your Oracle home directory location, for example, C:\oracle\product\10.2\Db_1.

   • /wintz: The time zone you are using, for example, "Pacific Daylight Time". (Enclose the time zone in quotes.)

   • /systemroot: The location of the system root files for your operating system, for example, C:\WINDOWS.

   • /wfacct: Workflow Account.

   • /instype: Specify one of the following installation options:

     • server - Configures Workflow Server only; available in both GUI mode and command-line mode

     • add_language - Sets the language or languages used; available in both GUI mode and command-line mode

   • /tnsconndesc: Connection string to the Oracle database

   Note:

   If a parameter can be entered in both user interface mode and noninteractive mode, this section lists the name of the corresponding field in the Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant window alongside the noninteractive mode parameter name.

4. If you specified add_language for the /instype parameter, enter the /nlsopt parameter with the languages you want to add.

   Enclose the languages in quotes. For example, to specify Arabic, German, and Danish, enter the following value:

   "ar d dk"
   

   To use all available languages, set nlsop to all. Oracle Workflow server supports all languages that Oracle Database supports.

   See Also:

   "Locale Data" in Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for a list of standard language abbreviations.

5. If you specified server for the /instype parameter, enter the following parameters to integrate Oracle Internet Directory as your Oracle Workflow directory service:

   • /ldaphost - LDAP host name

   • /ldapport - LDAP Non-SSL port

   • /ldapuser - LDAP admin username

   • /ldaplogbase - Changelog DN

   • /ldapuserbase - User base (for example, /ldapuserbase cn=Users,dc=us,dc=oracle,dc=com)

   In these cases, Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant configures your Oracle Internet Directory integration using the existing LDAP parameters defined in your database. However, if you specify new LDAP parameters here, the Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant updates your settings.

6. If you specified server or all for the /instype parameter, enter these parameters to use Oracle Workflow Notification Mailer:

   • /mailserver - Inbound e-mail account: server name

   • /mailuser - Inbound e-mail account: username

   • /mailhost - Outbound e-mail account: server name

   • /htmlagent - Mail generation: HTML agent

   • /mailreply - Message generation: reply-to address

   • /processfolder - E-mail processing: name of processed folder

   • /discardfolder - E-mail processing: name of discard folder

7. If you specified server for the /instype parameter, and to change the tablespace assigned to the Oracle Workflow database account, set the /tablespace parameter to a valid existing tablespace name.

8. To control how Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant writes log information, set these parameters:

   • /debug - Specify true if you want Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant to write debug information to the workflow.log file. By default, Oracle Workflow does not log this information.

   • /logdir - Specify the path to the directory where you want Oracle Workflow Configuration Assistant to write the workflow.log file, or specify nolog if you do not want to create a log file. By default, the log file is written to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\wf\install directory.

9. Save your changes and exit the wfinstall.bat script.

To run the wfinstall.bat script, enter the following command:

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\wf\install\wfinstall.bat

If the wfinstall.bat script includes the minimum parameters, all entered as a single line of text in the file, it performs the configuration in noninteractive mode, without displaying the Oracle Workflow Assistant window. However, as a security precaution, the script may prompt you to enter the following passwords at run-time, depending on the installation options that your site uses:

• The password for your Oracle Workflow database account

• Your SYS password

• The password for the LDAP user account, if you enter LDAP parameters

• The password for the notification mailer e-mail account, if you enter mailer parameters