It is becoming more common these days to install Oracle software on remote Linux servers. This issue has always existed but was generally resolved either by silent installs or by someone physically going to the server to install the software. This is becoming more difficult with the popular virtualisation and cloud deployment strategies.

This post provides the steps involved to install Oracle Software using the GUI interface on a remote Linux server. There are many ways to achieve this, the way I resolve this issue is via Virtual Network Computing (VNC) as it is shipped with RedHat and OEL out of the box. For this post I’m using OEL 5 deployed on a OVM guest.

1. If not already done so download and install a client version of VNC so you can connect to the server. There are many out there, for the purpose of this post I use UltraVNC. You can download a free version from http://www.uvnc.com/download/index.html
2. By default VNC Server is installed in your RedHat and OEL OS, but it is not configured. The way VNC works is when started it creates a client instance for the user and binds it to a specific port. So if have an account on the Linux box you can setup a VNC Server session for that user, you don’t need to be root. For the purpose of this document I’m going to use oracle as the user to setup a VNC Session as this is the user I want use to install the software. However to start the VNC Service you must be root.
   
   As the root user run the following command:

   service vncserver start
   Starting VNC server: no displays configured                [  OK  ]

3. Login to the Linux box as the user  you wan to install the Oracle software
   
   [oracle@lisa ~]$
   
4. Run the command to create a new VNC server instance for the oracle user:
   
   vncserver
   
5. You will be ask to supply password information. This is what you will enter when connecting from your desktop client. This password is also independent of the actual Linux user password. The VNC Server is acting as a proxy to this instance.

   You will require a password to access your desktops.

   Password:
   Verify:
   xauth:  creating new authority file /home/oracle/.Xauthority

   New 'lisa.nz.oracle.com:1 (oracle)' desktop is lisa.nz.oracle.com:1

   Creating default startup script /home/oracle/.vnc/xstartup
   Starting applications specified in /home/oracle/.vnc/xstartup
   Log file is /home/oracle/.vnc/lisa.nz.oracle.com:1.log

6. As you can see a new instance lisa.nz.oracle.com:1 has been created. If you were to run the vncserver command again another instance lisa.nz.oracle.com:2 will be created. If you are going through a firewall you will need to ensure that the port 5901 (port 1) is open between your client desktop and the Linux Server.
   
7. Depending on the options chosen at install time a firewall could be in place. The simplest way to disable this is using the command. You will need to be root.
   
   service iptables stop
   
   This will stop the firewall while you install. If you just want to add a port to the accepted lists use the firewall UI. You will need to be root.
   
   system-config-security-level
   
8. Now you are ready to connect to the server via the VNC. Using the software installed in step one start the VNC Client. You should be prompted for the server and port.
   
9. If connectivity is established, you will be prompted for the password entered in step 5.
   
   
   
10. You should now be presented with a terminal screen ready to install software
    
    
    
11. Go to the location of the oracle install software and start the Oracle Universal Installer