Recently I have been involved in supporting a customer environment where part of the Databases are running on Oracle. Amongst various requirements one of the question was related on how to protect Oracle Servers and their Databases using Veeam Backup & Replication. With the latest versions of Veeam new functions have been added to support Oracle Servers with their Databases and more is coming with the next updates. So I took this chance to add a new Server Application in my homelab and install Oracle Database Server.
The idea is to cover the basics with a step by step article series on how to reproduce an Oracle Database environment in our homelab. In addition, a great resource to test and learn more about protecting and making Oracle workloads available to different platforms.
For this environment I will be using a new Windows Server 2016 based on VMware VM template with the latest release of Oracle Database Server. At the time of writing this is Oracle Database 12c release 2.
As per usual we’ll segment the deployment process with separate articles and in particular:
- Install Oracle Database Server
- Create a sample Oracle Database
- How to Backup Oracle databases using Veeam
- Options to Restore Oracle Databases using Veeam Explorer for Oracle
The last two might be in video format as an experiment for this blog! Of course I would like to keep the format of this article series open to new topics as well. The idea is to create the base for more advanced topics with regard to recovery options and integration with Oracle RMAN.
The wizard to install Oracle Database Server is pretty easy but very features rich. Let’s give a quick look at the main options to get up and running into our homelab.
Install on Windows Server 2016
First step is to obtain the main installation files from the Oracle website. The download requires a simple sign in process to create an Account. Once created we can download the software and unzip the content to the desired server where we want to install Oracle database server.
The file is pretty big but not enormous. Roughly 2.8 GB for the Windows 64-Bit based edition. Other versions are available including Linux, Oracle Solaris both x86 and SPARC, HP-UX and AIX. This one will refer to the Windows installer.
As soon as the installer files are ready let’s navigate to \..\winx64_12201_database\database\setup and run this file as Administrator.
This will start the Oracle Universal Installer which will retrieve the main settings for the installation.
The wizard starts offering 10 steps to install Oracle. First one is to provide an email to get notifications about security updates and more.
It’s not a mandatory field and we can omit this one moving on to the next screen. For a homelab this option is not required and we can always change this at any time.
In the next step we have the option to create a new database, install software only or even upgrade an existing instance. Let’s go with the first option to create a database.
In the System Class we can choose for either a Desktop or Server Class. The latter provides more options to configure and this is the one we’ll be using.
With the Database installation options there are 3 choices. Unless we want to create an Oracle Database Cluster let’s go for the first option which allows for a Single instance database installation.
With the install type we have the Typical and Advanced install options. In this instance let’s go for the Advanced one to review the extra settings about passwords, custom installation and storage management.
As an extra step for security the wizard offers the option to create a Virtual Account to run Windows Services for this Oracle installation with a non-administrative account. This can be either an existing or newly created account.
When we try to use an account with administrator privileges the following message appears.
When we create a new one from the wizard, automatically the newly created account will have no Windows logon rights on the same server.
At this point we either accept or change the locations for:
- Oracle base
- Software location
- Storage type
- Database file location
- Database edition
- Global database name and password
For storage type let’s go with defualt File system option unless Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is already configured. As database edition let’s go for the Enterprise option.
Finally let’s disable the Container Database option for now.
The wizard now has all the main info to install Oracle. The summary now shows the chosen settings which in turn can also be exported into a response file and repeat with future unattended installations. Let’s proceed with next to install Oracle Database Server.
The Oracle Universal Installer is now ready to perform the install showing the different stages and their progress.
Once completed the last screen from the Oracle Universal Installer wizard will show the link to manage the Database Server, the Database created and other settings from a web page using the Oracle Enterprise Manager.
In the next step we are now ready to create Oracle Database sample we can use for our testing.
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