I just installed Oracle 10g XE on a RH Linux 4 host. It seems to be
functioning correctly, but the Oracle XE installer did not install the
application where I wanted it to go. It would not accept any effort on
my part to tell it where to place the application. I created a special
LVM filesystem specifically for Oracle XE, but the installer placed
the whole application including the system and data files in the /usr/
lib directory. This filesystem is on a physical partition and I do not
want to reinstall the OS just to make it bigger to accomodate Oracle
XE. It seems to be that the only viable alternative is to move the
data files (system, user, etc.) to the LVM filesystem that I
originally created for it. I have moved non-XE data files (i.e.
tables, etc.) using the alter command, but I have never moved system
data files.

My question are:

1. Can all the XE *.dbf files (system, data, logs, etc.) be moved to
another filesystem without the XE crashing and burning?

2. If so, what is the best way to do it without destroying the XE?

3. For the future, can the Oracle XE installer be more flexible in
where you place things? Or is this a case of "you get what you pay for
- take it or leave it"?

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:56:31 -0800, Jack wrote:

> 1. Can all the XE *.dbf files (system, data, logs, etc.) be moved to
> another filesystem without the XE crashing and burning?

If you are careful, yes. Just make sure to shut down the database first.

>
> 2. If so, what is the best way to do it without destroying the XE?

Ever heard of 'special link' ... ln -s ...? That's what I did.

>
> 3. For the future, can the Oracle XE installer be more flexible in
> where you place things? Or is this a case of "you get what you pay for
> - take it or leave it"?

Pretty much 'take it or leave it' for now. Perhaps they will listen for
the next release. (Coincident with 11g, we hope.)

<sigh>
Oracle tried to be nice by not using the universal installer for XE -
Straight forward, minimal thinking, stuff it into a fairly universal spot.
And every day I hear whining about the lack of flexibility in the XE
installation.
</sigh>

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Hans Forbrich (mailto: Fuzzy.GreyBeard_at_gmail.com)
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