Oracle has recently (September 2011) released Oracle Database Express Edition 11g Release 2 (Oracle Database XE).  This is an entry-level database based on the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 that has a small-footprint.  It’s free to “develop, deploy, and distribute”.  It is also fast to download and simple to install.

Download Page

Documentation

The default character set used during installation and setup is AL32UTF8, which is perfect for use with WebCenter Content development machines!

Oracle XE 11g also supports Oracle Text.

Oracle Database 11.2.0.2 has been available for Linux for a while.  It is also now available for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit).  You need access to My Oracle Support to get this upgrade/patch.  11.2.0.2 allows for new installations (a departure from patch sets of the past) as well as a slew of other enhancements and updates.  Download links are listed below.  If you are performing a fresh installation you do NOT need to download all seven (7) disk sets, only the first two!

• Windows 11.2.0.2
  • 32-bit
  • 64-bit
• Linux 11.2.0.2
  • 32-bit
  • 64-bit

For those of you that have ever tried to setup an Oracle Database on Linux you know there are a variety of steps to take on your fresh box before you can actually begin the installation process.  You will need to install serveral binaries and those will perhaps have several depedencies.  After that you will need to create an “oracle” user.  And the list goes on.  If you have a support subscription with a valid Customer Support Identifeir (CSI) this whole process gets MUCH easier.

My Unbreakable Linux Network support subscription and accompanying CSI allow for the use of the “up2date” command.  This will update the binary I ask for as well as deduce, install and/or update any dependencies.  Technically, I can accomplish the same tasks without the subscrption.  This would require that I look up (and not miss) binary depedencies while also having the time to manually hunt down, download and install the binaries by hand.  Or I can just use the up2date command!

Having just installed OEL5.4 and registered the box with the Unbreakable Linux Network I can use the up2date command along with the parameter “oracle-validated”.  Running this command will update all the necessary binaries in prepartion for installing Oracle Database.  It will resolve and install or update all related dependencies of those binaries.  It will aso create the OS user oracle along with the oinstall and dba OS groups.  Let’s try it out here:

[bash]
[root@localhost ~] up2date -i oracle-validated

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: el5_x86_64_latest…

Fetching rpm headers…
*******************************************************

Name Version Rel
———————————————————-
oracle-validated 1.0.0 22.el5

Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies…
There was a package dependency problem. The message was:

Unresolvable chain of dependencies:
glibc-headers 2.5-42.el5_4.3 requires kernel-headers
glibc-headers-2.5-42.el5_4.3 requires kernel-headers >= 2.2.1
oracle-validated 1.0.0-22.el5 requires kernel-headers
[/bash]

Oops. Need to update the kernel headers. When you try to run up2date again telling it to update kernel-headers it will likely not do so. This is because of how up2date is currently configured. We can override the configuration by using the –force command:

[bash]
[root@localhost ~] up2date –force kernel-headers

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: el5_x86_64_latest…

Name Version Rel
———————————————————-
kernel-headers 2.6.18 164.15.1.0.1.el5

Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies…

kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.1 ***************** Done.
Preparing ***************** [100%]

Installing…
1:kernel-headers ****************** [100%]

[/bash]

Now when you run your up2date command with oracle-validated it should work a lot better.