3 Installation Tasks

The Oracle Client software is available on disc (DVD) or you can download it from the Oracle Technology Network Web site. In most cases, you use the graphical user interface (GUI) provided by Oracle Universal Installer to install the software. However, you can also use Oracle Universal Installer to complete silent-mode installations, without using the GUI.

Accessing the Installation Software

The Oracle Client software is available on compact disc (DVD) or you can download it from the Oracle Technology Network Web site. To install the software from the hard disk, you must either download it from Oracle Technology Network and unpack it, or copy it from the disc, if you have it.

You can access and install Oracle Client by using one of the following methods:

To copy the software to a hard disk, refer to the following section:

"Copying the Software to the Hard Disk"
To install the software from a disc or from an existing hard disk location, refer to the following section:

"Installing the Oracle Client Software"
To download the software from Oracle Technology Network, refer to the following section.

Downloading Oracle Software from the OTN Web Site

This section describes how to download the installation archive files and extract them on your hard disk. It contains the following topics:

Downloading the Installation Archive Files
Extracting the Installation Files

Downloading the Installation Archive Files

To download the installation archive files from Oracle Technology Network:

Use any browser to access the software download page from Oracle Technology Network:
```
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/
```
Navigate to the download page for the product to install.
On the download page, identify the required disk space by adding the file sizes for each required file.

The file sizes are listed next to the file names.
Select a file system with enough free space to store and expand the archive files.

In most cases, the available disk space must be at least twice the size of all of the archive files.
On the file system that you selected in step 4, create a parent directory for each product, for example OraCli10g, to hold the installation directories.
Download all of the installation archive files to the directory that you created in step 5.
Verify that the files you downloaded are the same size as the corresponding files on Oracle Technology Network.

Extracting the Installation Files

To extract the installation archive files, perform the following steps:

If necessary, change directory to the directory that contains the downloaded installation archive files.
To uncompress each file, enter a command similar to the following:
```
unzip filename.zip
```

When you have extracted all of the required installation files, refer to "Installing the Oracle Client Software".

Copying the Software to the Hard Disk

Before installing Oracle Client, you may copy the software to the hard disk to enable the installation process to run a bit faster. The following section describes the procedure to copy the software to a hard disk.

Copying the Oracle Client Software to a Hard Disk

If the system does not have a DVD drive, you can copy the software from the disc to a file system on another system, then use FTP to copy the files to the system where you want to install the software.

To copy the contents of the disc to a hard disk:

Create a directory on the hard disk to hold the Oracle software:
```
$ mkdir OraCl10g
```
Change directory to the directory you created in step 1:
```
$ cd OraCl10g
```
Create subdirectories for each installation disc with names similar to the following, where n is the disc number:
```
$ mkdir Diskn
```
Insert the disc into the disc drive.
Copy the contents of the mounted disc to the corresponding new subdirectory as follows:
```
$ cp -R /directory_path Diskn
```
In this example, /directory_path is the disc mount point directory, or the path of the client directory on the DVD. The mount point directory is /dvd.
If necessary, mount the next disc and repeat step 5.

After you have copied all the required discs, refer to "Installing the Oracle Client Software".

Installing the Oracle Client Software

The following sections describe how to install the Oracle Client software:

Reviewing Installation Guidelines
Running Oracle Universal Installer

Reviewing Installation Guidelines

Review the following guidelines before starting Oracle Universal Installer:

Oracle Universal Installer

Do not use Oracle Universal Installer from an earlier Oracle product release to install components from this release.
Reinstalling Oracle software

If you reinstall Oracle software into an Oracle home directory where Oracle Client is installed, you must re-install components that were installed before you began the re-installation.

Running Oracle Universal Installer

This section describes the Basic Installation as a default setting. For any type of installation process, start Oracle Universal Installer and install the software, as follows:

If you are installing the software from disc, mount the first disc if it is not mounted.
To start Oracle Universal Installer, complete one of the following steps depending on the location of the installation files:

Note:
Start Oracle Universal Installer from the terminal session where you logged in as the oracle user and set the user's environment (as described in Chapter 2).
- If the installation files are on disc, enter commands similar to the following, where directory_path is the path of the client directory on the DVD:
```
$ cd /tmp
$ /directory_path/runInstaller
```
- If the installation files are on the hard disk, change directory to the client directory and enter the following command:
```
$ ./runInstaller
```
Use the following guidelines to complete the installation:
- Follow the instructions displayed on the Oracle Universal Installer screens. If you need additional information, click Help.
- When Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to run a script with root privileges, enter a command similar to the following in a terminal where you are logged in as the root user, then click Continue or OK:
```
# /script_path/script_name
```
  Alternatively, enter a command similar to the following to run the script in a terminal where you are logged in as a user that is a member of the admin group:
```
$ sudo /script_path/script_name
```
If you chose an installation type that runs Oracle Net Configuration Assistant (NetCA) in interactive mode, you must provide detailed information about configuring the network.

If you need assistance when using NetCA in interactive mode, then click Help on the screen.

Note:
If you chose a default installation, NetCA runs in noninteractive mode.
When all of the configuration tools have finished, click Exit, then click Yes to exit from Oracle Universal Installer.

Refer to Chapter 4 for information about tasks that you must complete after installing the software.