Re: Preparing an Oracle Database XE port/package -- any tips ?

[Rink Springer]

Hi,

On Fri, Mar 07, 2008 at 04:36:56PM +0200, Adrian Penisoara wrote:
> After having to deploy an Oracle Database XE [1] installation (with Linux
> 32bit binaries from the official RPM package) on a production FreeBSD
> 6.2machine I realized it would be very much feasible to produce a
> FreeBSD
> port/package for it.
> I would like to know whether similar efforts have been undergoing and
> whether people came up with some tips & tricks on this.

We run Oracle XE on two FreeBSD 6.3 machines at work - we've just
manually set it up, but are very interested in a port of it. We did
the same as you basically - just uncompress it and move the files in
place.

Regards,

--
Rink P.W. Springer - http://rink.nu
"Anyway boys, this is America. Just because you get more votes doesn't
mean you win." - Fox Mulder

[Adrian Penisoara]

Hi,

After having to deploy an Oracle Database XE [1] installation (with Linux
32bit binaries from the official RPM package) on a production FreeBSD
6.2machine I realized it would be very much feasible to produce a
FreeBSD
port/package for it.
I would like to know whether similar efforts have been undergoing and
whether people came up with some tips & tricks on this.

The goal is not only to add the port into FreeBSD's ports tree but also to
eventually convince Oracle (I work for them) to post the package on their
official download page.

[1] http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/xe/index.html

Thank you for your time and help,
Adrian Penisoara
ROFUG / EnterpriseBSD

[Ivan Voras]

Rink Springer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Mar 07, 2008 at 04:36:56PM +0200, Adrian Penisoara wrote:
>> After having to deploy an Oracle Database XE [1] installation (with Linux
>> 32bit binaries from the official RPM package) on a production FreeBSD
>> 6.2machine I realized it would be very much feasible to produce a
>> FreeBSD
>> port/package for it.
>> I would like to know whether similar efforts have been undergoing and
>> whether people came up with some tips & tricks on this.
>
> We run Oracle XE on two FreeBSD 6.3 machines at work - we've just
> manually set it up, but are very interested in a port of it. We did
> the same as you basically - just uncompress it and move the files in
> place.

Could any of you write a short HOWTO article, either for the "official"
articles section or for the wiki (or both...)?

[Adrian Penisoara]

Hi,

Let's not forget about the Oracle 8i installation section in the FreeBSD
Handbook [1] which could surely benefit from updating (8i is desupported
since a ling time). I would be glad to help (re)writing such stuff, as time
permits.

[1]
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/linuxemu-oracle.html

Regards,

[Alexander Leidinger]

Quoting Adrian Penisoara <a...@freebsd.ady.ro> (from Fri, 7 Mar 2008
16:36:56 +0200):

> Hi,
>
> After having to deploy an Oracle Database XE [1] installation (with Linux
> 32bit binaries from the official RPM package) on a production FreeBSD
> 6.2machine I realized it would be very much feasible to produce a
> FreeBSD
> port/package for it.
> I would like to know whether similar efforts have been undergoing and
> whether people came up with some tips & tricks on this.
>
> The goal is not only to add the port into FreeBSD's ports tree but also to
> eventually convince Oracle (I work for them) to post the package on their
> official download page.

I'm not aware of something like this. Feel free to ask questions
regarding the linuxulator and our linux infrastructure in the ports on
emulation@. Also feel free to ask for review of the port on emulation@.

Bye,
Alexander.

--
Security isn't.

http://www.Leidinger.net Alexander @ Leidinger.net: PGP ID = B0063FE7
http://www.FreeBSD.org netchild @ FreeBSD.org : PGP ID = 72077137

[Jonathan Adams]

I am defnitely interested in helping in this area if needed. A couple
of years ago, I struggled mightily trying to get Oracle running on 5.1

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--
___________________________
Jon Adams

web: http://www.scis.nova.edu/~jonaadam
mail: keirre...@gmail.com
---------------------------------------------

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an
indomitable will." -
Mohandas Gandhi

[Ion-Mihai Tetcu]

On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:14:15 +0100
Alexander Leidinger <Alex...@Leidinger.net> wrote:

> Quoting Adrian Penisoara <a...@freebsd.ady.ro> (from Fri, 7 Mar 2008
> 16:36:56 +0200):
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > After having to deploy an Oracle Database XE [1] installation
> > (with Linux 32bit binaries from the official RPM package) on a
> > production FreeBSD 6.2machine I realized it would be very much
> > feasible to produce a FreeBSD
> > port/package for it.
> > I would like to know whether similar efforts have been undergoing
> > and whether people came up with some tips & tricks on this.
> >
> > The goal is not only to add the port into FreeBSD's ports tree but
> > also to eventually convince Oracle (I work for them) to post the
> > package on their official download page.
>
> I'm not aware of something like this. Feel free to ask questions
> regarding the linuxulator and our linux infrastructure in the ports
> on emulation@. Also feel free to ask for review of the port on
> emulation@.

I've worked on such a port (probably that's what ady is referring to)
but kinda' lost my interest in it ($REALLIFE got in the way).

I'll try to find it (it was about 80% done) but I'm not sure it
survived the clean-up sessions of my tmp/work dir (I don't know why I
didn't ci it in our cvs ...).

I'll work with Ady if he need help.

Ady, BTW, after we have the port and, with some test cases provided by
people that run it, can we hope for any kind of (semi-)official
support ?

--
IOnut - Un^d^dregistered ;) FreeBSD "user"
"Intellectual Property" is nowhere near as valuable as "Intellect"

[Adrian Penisoara]

Hi,

Not so fast (TM) :-).

1). I am talking about the Oracle XE package for which Oracle does not offer
any commercial support (except for Forum discussions).

2). Usually everything comes down to business cases and business
opportunities. So I think we will need to demonstrate a large userbase in
order to get attention. I think we should be happy if an Oracle XE FreeBSD
package will make it onto the downloads page in the first place.

3) Oracle EE / SE editions are indeed the big guns on the enterprise
database market, but until there are some more steps. And Oracle does not
use a packaging format for these, OUI (Oracle Universal Installer) is the
designated tool to use.

Note: The above represent solely my personal opinions, I do not speak on
behalf of my employer (Oracle).

Regards,
Adrian Penisoara
ROFUG / EnterpriseBSD.

[Ivan Voras]

On 07/03/2008, Adrian Penisoara <a...@ady.ro> wrote:

> Let's not forget about the Oracle 8i installation section in the FreeBSD
> Handbook [1] which could surely benefit from updating (8i is desupported
> since a ling time). I would be glad to help (re)writing such stuff, as time
> permits.
>
> [1]
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/linuxemu-oracle.html

I cannot contribute since I don't use Oracle (I'm interested because
running Oracle is a sort-of rite of passage - people look at an OS
differently if it can run Oracle :) ), but I can do a part of the
logistics - I can put the resulting text in the official wiki, find
someone to convert it and add to the handbook, etc.

[Ion-Mihai Tetcu]

On Fri, 7 Mar 2008 21:22:02 +0200
"Adrian Penisoara" <a...@freebsd.ady.ro> wrote:

[ .. ]

> > Ady, BTW, after we have the port and, with some test cases provided
> > by people that run it, can we hope for any kind of (semi-)official
> > support ?
> >
>
> Not so fast (TM) :-).
>
> 1). I am talking about the Oracle XE package for which Oracle does
> not offer any commercial support (except for Forum discussions).
>
> 2). Usually everything comes down to business cases and business
> opportunities. So I think we will need to demonstrate a large
> userbase in order to get attention. I think we should be happy if an
> Oracle XE FreeBSD package will make it onto the downloads page in the
> first place.

Yep, this is what I was thinking about for the beginning at least.

[Marcin Cieslak]

Adrian Penisoara wrote:
> 2). Usually everything comes down to business cases and business
> opportunities. So I think we will need to demonstrate a large userbase in
> order to get attention. I think we should be happy if an Oracle XE FreeBSD
> package will make it onto the downloads page in the first place.

I can give you one business case:

During election observation mission in 2007 an Oracle XE installation
I've had (just for test) on my FreeBSD notebook saved my (election) day
and allowed me to analyze and verify election results - and this is a
Big Thing(tm).

> 3) Oracle EE / SE editions are indeed the big guns on the enterprise
> database market, but until there are some more steps. And Oracle does not
> use a packaging format for these, OUI (Oracle Universal Installer) is the
> designated tool to use.

OUI is difficult to run, it's usually easier to setup a database without
it. Fortunately XE does not need one at all. There are scripts out there
that perform database creation end-to-end and I think they should be
included in the port.

--Marcin

[Adrian Penisoara]

Hi,

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 12:16 AM, Marcin Cieslak <sa...@system.pl> wrote:

> Adrian Penisoara wrote:
> > 2). Usually everything comes down to business cases and business
> > opportunities. So I think we will need to demonstrate a large userbase
> in
> > order to get attention. I think we should be happy if an Oracle XE
> FreeBSD
> > package will make it onto the downloads page in the first place.
>
> I can give you one business case:
>
> During election observation mission in 2007 an Oracle XE installation
> I've had (just for test) on my FreeBSD notebook saved my (election) day
> and allowed me to analyze and verify election results - and this is a
> Big Thing(tm).

Well, this sort of stories really ought to be told and heard around. Have
you considered writing a short story or even a news article on this topic (I
guess there are good places where you could submit it) ?

>
>
> > 3) Oracle EE / SE editions are indeed the big guns on the enterprise
> > database market, but until there are some more steps. And Oracle does
> not
> > use a packaging format for these, OUI (Oracle Universal Installer) is
> the
> > designated tool to use.
>
> OUI is difficult to run, it's usually easier to setup a database without
> it. Fortunately XE does not need one at all. There are scripts out there
> that perform database creation end-to-end and I think they should be
> included in the port.
>
>

Right. I will be extracting the RPM specs file to form the package
installation script.
I'm not sure whether the debian scripts have something better.

[Marcin Cieslak]

Adrian Penisoara wrote:
> Hi,

(dropping -isp)

>> During election observation mission in 2007 an Oracle XE installation
>> I've had (just for test) on my FreeBSD notebook saved my (election) day
>> and allowed me to analyze and verify election results - and this is a
>> Big Thing(tm).
>
>
> Well, this sort of stories really ought to be told and heard around. Have
> you considered writing a short story or even a news article on this topic (I
> guess there are good places where you could submit it) ?

This is not always easy. You need to observe state secrets of a host
country plus some special requirements in a highly political
environment. I will try my best anyway.

> Right. I will be extracting the RPM specs file to form the package
> installation script.
> I'm not sure whether the debian scripts have something better.

Go for install.sh on the
http://wiki.bsdportal.ru/doc:oraclexe_on_freebsd instead. Worked for me
like a charm. (The kernel patches mentioned in the article are already
incorporated).

--Marcin