Now that the certification of the Oracle Database 11g R2 with Oracle Linux 6 and the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel has been announced, we are glad to announce the availability of oracle-rdbms-server-11gR2-preinstall, the Oracle RDBMS Server 11gR2 Pre-install RPM package (formerly known as oracle-validated). Designed specifically for Oracle Linux 6, this RPM aids in the installation of the Oracle Database.

In order to install the Oracle Database 11g R2 on Oracle Linux 6, your system needs to meet a few prerequisites, as outlined in the Linux Installation Guides. Using the Oracle RDBMS Server 11gR2 Pre-install RPM, you can complete most of the pre-installation configuration tasks. which is now available from the Unbreakable Linux Network, or via the Oracle public yum repository.

The pre-install package is available for x86_64 only. Specifically, the package:

• Causes the download and installation of various software packages and specific versions needed for database installation, with package dependencies resolved via yum
• Creates the user oracle and the groups oinstall and dba, which are the defaults used during database installation
• Modifies kernel parameters in /etc/sysctl.conf to change settings for shared memory, semaphores, the maximum number of file descriptors, and so on
• Sets hard and soft shell resource limits in /etc/security/limits.conf, such as the number of open files, the number of processes, and stack size to the minimum required based on the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Server installation requirements
• Sets numa=off in the kernel boot parameters for x86_64 machines

Please see the release announcement for further details and instructions. Also take a look at Ginny Henningsen's "How I Simplified Oracle Database Installation on Oracle Linux" article on the Oracle Technology Network for a general description on how to perform the installation of the Oracle Database on Oracle Linux. While the article refers to Oracle Linux 5 and the former "oracle-validated" package, the steps for Oracle Linux 6 are still very similar (we're looking into updating that article for Oracle Linux 6).