Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration From Novice to Professional

CHAPTER 5 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION 83
use of Oracle Universal Installer (OUI); you will also need to use the “root” account to
perform a few tasks such as modifying the kernel settings. And of course, a common prerequisite
for all operating systems is adequate space for database files, archived redo logs,
and backups.
Client Installations
A client installation refers to the software that needs to be installed on every machine
from which a connection to the database is initiated. This could be a user’s laptop or an
application server. In this section, I’ll show you two types of client installations—Instant
Client and SQL Developer—and demonstrate how to install them on a Windows server.
Instant Client
Prior to Oracle 10g, a typical client installation was a bloated collection of software
including dozens of features—such as the Oracle XML Development Kit—which are
rarely needed. Installation was a time- consuming process that required the use of OUI.
Beginning with Oracle Database 10g, Oracle provides the most essential software in
a bundle called an instant client. OUI is not needed for installation; you can simply copy
a few files to a directory of choice. The entire process takes only a few minutes:
1. Use your OTN account to download the necessary zipped files from Oracle Technology
Network. Several choices are offered. The most common choices are Basic
and SQL*Plus. The Basic package contains the dynamic link libraries required by
Oracle applications, and SQL*Plus is the traditional command- line tool favored by
database administrators.
2. Unzip the files and copy the contents to a directory of choice, as shown in Listing 5-1.
The highlighted entries are the ones from the SQL*Plus package.
Listing 5-1. Contents of the Instant Client Software Directory