in reply to Re^2: What are DBD::Oracle's dependencies (on Linux)?
in thread What are DBD::Oracle's dependencies (on Linux)?

There are two ways to do this - the hard way and the easy way. First, the hard way:
  1. Go to http://www.oracle.com
  2. At the top, click on "Developers"
  3. At the bottom, click on Database (under "Product Centers")
  4. On the left, click on Downloads (in the navigation bar called "Services")
  5. Pick the right installer for your version of Linux and your hardware
  6. Download it after you affirm that you're not a terrorist
  7. Get X working on your Linux box (if you don't already have it working).
  8. Go to www.puschitz.com/OracleOnLinux.shtml and follow the directions there. Depending on your Oracle and Linux versions, there will be between 10 and 50 discrete steps. You will need to be familiar with the innards of Linux.
  9. Attempt to install Oracle.
  10. Curse. A lot.
  11. Remove the installation after cursing because you forgot step 34a1b.
  12. Do it over again.

The easy way: find someone who's done this before (like me), pay them $100 to do it, and get on with your life.

I'm serious - installing Oracle on Linux is an absolute pain in the ass. I can do it in under 4 hours and on the first try (usually) because I've done it some 10 times in the last 6 months. The only thing worse is installing Oracle on Windows Server 2003. (Possibly worse is being an Exchange administrator, but it's a toss-up.)

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

  • Comment on Re^3: What are DBD::Oracle's dependencies (on Linux)?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^4: What are DBD::Oracle's dependencies (on Linux)?
by nguye103 (Acolyte) on Oct 01, 2004 at 18:54 UTC
    I don't understand why one person is telling me that I need to install the Oracle database and another is telling me that I don't need to install the database, just the server. It sounds like the person telling me to install the database is saying that I need to install Oracle (and if i'm wrong, i apologize), but the problem is I need to access the database from another computer from Linux (Suse) without having ORACLE on Linux. I know that I can access the database by just installing DBD-Oracle, but I don't know what I need to get DBD-Oracle to install properly because it says that I need to set my Oracle_home environment variable when I attepmt to install it and I don't know how to go about doing this.
[reply]
      I am a junior Oracle DBA and a Perl developer who's been developing against Oracle databases for five years. I am telling you exactly what you need:
      1. You need DBD::Oracle installed on the machine you want to use to talk to an Oracle database.
      2. To install DBD::Oracle, you need the client libraries that come with the Oracle database. (Basically, you need sqlplus installed, plus a few other things.)
      3. To install those libraries, you need the Oracle installer from www.oracle.com, just like I described.
      4. Then, you point the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to wherever you installed Oracle. This is usually /opt/oracle, but not always.

      These items are not negotiable. They are at a minimum what is needed to install DBD::Oracle. Period. End of story. ikegami was wrong in what he said in his reply.

      Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
      Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
      Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
      Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

[reply]
        These items are negotiable. E.g. Point 2: You don't need SQL*Plus. Elipsis. The story continues
[reply]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom