Oracle 11gR2 prerequisite checker warns of missing packages during installation on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware

Products

• VMware
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The Oracle Universal Installer considers SLES for VMware as OEL4 Oracle Enterprise Linux Server instead of SLES 11. As a result the prerequisite checker portion of the installer shows a different list of required RPMs that should be installed than the install on SLES 11.

This article provides steps to workaround this error.

Symptoms:

• Installing Oracle DB 11gR2 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for VMware fails
• During the install, if you select Install Software and Create DB or Install Software Only, you see list of errors including packages names within the installer GUI and in /opt/oracle/.oracle/logs/installActionsYYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SSAM.log. For example:
  
  The following is showing as missing:
  INFO: Expected Value:libaio-0.3.105 (i386)
  INFO: Actual Value:missing
  INFO: Error Message:PRVF-7532 : Package "libaio-0.3.105 (i386)" is missing on node "smtserver"
  INFO: Cause: A required package is either not installed or, if the package is a kernel module, is not loaded on the specified node.
  INFO: Action: Ensure that the required package is installed and available.
  
  
• The errors display for these packages:
  • binutils-2.19
  • gcc-4.3
  • gcc-32bit-4.3
  • gcc-c++-4.3
  • glibc-2.9
  • glibc-32bit-2.9
  • glibc-devel-2.9
  • glibc-devel-32bit-2.9
  • ksh-93t
  • libaio-0.3.104
  • libaio-32bit-0.3.104
  • libaio-devel-0.3.104
  • libaio-devel-32bit-0.3.104
  • libstdc++33-3.3.3
  • libstdc++33-32bit-3.3.3
  • libstdc++43-4.3.3_20081022
  • libstdc++43-32bit-4.3.3_20081022
  • libstdc++43-devel-4.3.3_20081022
  • libstdc++43-devel-32bit-4.3.3_20081022
  • libgcc43-4.3.3_20081022
  • libstdc++-devel-4.3
    
    
• These errors do not happen on SLES11 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) but they occur on SLES for VMware.

sles-oracle-db-install-fails

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for VMware 1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x

Resolution

To workaround this error:

1. Follow the steps in Oracle Database 11g R2 installation on SLES11-SP1 to add required Patterns and packages in SUSE.
   
   
2. Adding 32-Bit_Runtime Environment by following step 1 in in Oracle Database 11g R2 installation on SLES11-SP1 does not install most packages (page 3 of the document). In most cases, libstdc++43-devel-32bit-4.3.3 is not installed. You must find and install it from SUSE ISOs before starting to install Oracle.
   
   
3. Make sure the required packages mentioned in Oracle Database Quick Installation Guide 11g Release 2 on page 10 are installed on the SLES for VMware operating system.
   
   Note: Some RPM versions might be different from what is indicated in the document.
   
   
4. In Oracle installation CD/files, under (/database/stage/cvu/cv/admin/ folder for Oracle 11gR2), open the cvu_config file with a text editor.
   
   Note: The files and folders mentioned in this step apply to Oracle 11gR2. The Oracle 10g folder structure is different and the files and folders are not at this path.
   
   
5. Change the value CV_ASSUME_DISTID=OEL4 to CV_ASSUME_DISTID=SUSE11.
6. Save and close the file.
7. Start the Oracle installation.

Additional Information

The Ignore Prerequisites checkbox may let you continue the install, but this option may mean that you end up with missing packages.

Note: The documents linked to in this article can be found at http://www.oracle.com and http://www.novell.com.