Mark D Powell wrote:
> fitzjarrell@cox.net wrote:
>> 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
>
> Actually, I believe that Oracle is very flexible and will install and
> work correctly under any owner name you want to use providing you set
> the recommended ulimits for the chosen ID. Any patches and upgrades
> would also need to be ran as this ID. At least it would under version
> 7. Using the name Oracle as the owner is just what most sites do.
>
> HTH -- Mark D Powell --

My "best practice" is to never install Oracle under a schema named
"oracle" nor to create groups named oinstall or dba. As long as you
are consistent in your management practices I am not aware of any
issues ever generated by stepping away from the defaults.
--
Daniel Morgan
University of Washington
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group

On 16 Sep 2006 18:46:15 -0700, "idiotprogrammer"
<idiotprogrammer@gmail.com> wrote:

>The reason they used two different users (i'm guessing) is to separate
>two different installations (and so you can distinguish the two
>applications when running together).

This 'approach' is just asking for trouble and ending up with manyfold
administrative issues.
If you need 2 Oracle installations (which I doubt you do) install them
in 2 different Oracle_homes under *1* single user.

--
Sybrand Bakker, Senior Oracle DBA

Sybrand Bakker schreef:
> On 16 Sep 2006 18:46:15 -0700, "idiotprogrammer"
> <idiotprogrammer@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The reason they used two different users (i'm guessing) is to separate
>> two different installations (and so you can distinguish the two
>> applications when running together).
>
> This 'approach' is just asking for trouble and ending up with manyfold
> administrative issues.
> If you need 2 Oracle installations (which I doubt you do) install them
> in 2 different Oracle_homes under *1* single user.

Sorry, don't agree with this.
- administrative overhead is minimal (just remember what
user to login with)
- setting environments for two different sessions/users is
easier, and less error prone than setting environments
for one session/user, or multiple sessions/same user.

Lastly, there may be different requirements for different
versions, which may affect each other.

The problem the OP is likely to run into is called oraInst.loc.
If two different users have been installing oracle, and the
location of oraInst.loc was *not* specified on the command line
of the installer, it uses the same file.
Ownership may have changed (the last install was done by oracle,
not by bob, and now bob installs), hence the error.

Search for another oraInst.loc file (installation logs may
be helpful), and use that - "runInstaller --help" will
show you how

--
Regards,
Frank van Bortel

Top-posting is one way to shut me up...