Comments embedded.
idiotprogrammer wrote:
> Hi, I'm upgrading a 9i Oracle installation and running a patch on RHE
> 3. I'm having a permission problem. User bob ran the original install
> script.

Why? The installation should have been done as 'oracle'.

>However, when user bob ran the upgrade patch with the Universal
> Installer (name: Oracle9i, path /data/oracle9i/OraHome1), it says you
> don't have the right to create dir OraHome1. I've verified that
> /data/oracle9i/OraHome1 exists; however, it isn't owned by bob; it is
> owned by user "oracle".

Correct. As it should be. 'bob' should have had nothing to do with
this software installation or upgrade.

> So how do you solve that problem? Do I delete
> the OraHome1 directory and let the install/upgrade wizard create one?

At that point you'd be removing the existing installation and affecting
any and all databases you've created. The true solution to this is you
should never have had 'bob' associated with any of the Oracle software
installation and used the 'oracle' user, as originally intended and
specified in the installation notes.

> Or do I "su - oracle" . The thing is that I don't recall ever creating
> a user "oracle." Opinons?

The fact is 'bob' should not be owner of any of the Oracle software,
period. 'oracle' should. And the SA made certain that 'oracle' owns
the $ORACLE_HOME root directory (and should own any subdirectories
under it). Read the installation notes and pre-installation checklist
again and you'll find Oracle specifies that 'oracle' (or an account
created *specifically* as the administrative account for the Oracle
installation) should be the O/S user installing the software (that is
unless you intend to make 'bob' the Oracle software owner, which means
you must take away his access to the account and create another for his
daily use. It also means you'll need to change ownership of these
directories to 'bob'. And assign that account the 'dba' group as
primary. And monitor the use of the 'bob' account to prevent
unauthorised access. And ensure all file permissions are set properly
on the Oracle executables.)

Hopefully this is not a critical installation (somehow I feel it is
not). It may be better if you simply wipe the Oracle slate clean and
start again, this time with the proper O/S user account.


>
>
> Robert Nagle
> idiotprogrammer
> Houston, Texas


David Fitzjarrell