Installing Oracle 12c Database on RHEL 6

Oracle has released the 12c database software and could be downloaded from https://edelivery.oracle.com/. This blog post goes through the installation of 12c in RHEL 6 and highlights any differences to that of installing 11gR2 in RHEL 6
The linux system used in this case is 2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64. The minimum requirements for installing 12c on RHEL 6 could be found on Oracle documentation. However the issue of database software not recognizing the environment (issue that was there when installing 11gR2 on RHEL 6) is still there on 12c as well. After step 2 has passed the OUI complains system doesn't meet the minimum requirements and prompt to exit. This could be ignored and continued but then prerequisite checks are not carried out. Following text could be seen in the error log

ID: oracle.install.commons.util.exception.DefaultErrorAdvisor:389
oracle.cluster.verification.PreReqNotSupportedException: Reference data is not available for verifying 
prerequisites on this operating system distribution

Changing the cvu_config file entry CV_ASSUME_DISTID value to OEL6 resolved this issue (same as in installing 11gR2 on RHEL 6)(update 15/07/2013 Oracle has a note on this 1567127.1)
Once this is done execute runInstaller to start the installation process.

Installing of software steps are similar to previous versions of Oracle. Pre-installation tasks are not shown here.

With 12c Oracle has introduce extended user groups for job role separation. These groups are OSBAKCUPDBA group (created in linux as backupdba) which is to manage backup and recovery jobs. OSDGDBA group to administer and monitor data guard broker (on linux dgdba group) and finally group for key management called OSKMDBA (created on linux as kmdba).

Prerequisite Checks

Summary page and beginning of the installation.

Once the software installation is complete create a listener using NETCA similar to previous versions of Oracle.



One of the key features of 12c is the mulch-tenancy databases where one container database (CDB) can hold multiple pluggable databases (PDB). However it is still possible to create non container databases with 12c. The database created here is a non-container database.

With 12c the Enterprise Manager Database Control is deprecated and Enterprise Manager Database Express 12c has been introduced instead.

If a listener was not created using NETCA a new listener could be created using DBCA.

Starting with 12c Oracle Label Security and Database Vault are installed by default and could be enabled or disabled during the database creation or afterwards using SQL.

From the DBCA itself the alert log could be viewed while the database is being created.

EM Express URL is listed similar to EM Console URL at the end of the installation.

Few sample pages from Database Express 12c

Update 15 July 2013
Useful metalink notes
Requirements for Installing Oracle Database 12.1 on RHEL6 or OL6 64-bit (x86-64) [ID 1529864.1]
Requirements for Installing Oracle Database 12.1 on RHEL5 or OL5 64-bit (x86-64) [ID 1529433.1]
Master Note For Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) Database/Client Installation/Upgrade/Migration Standalone Environment (Non-RAC) [ID 1520299.1]
RHEL6: 12c CVU Fails: Reference data is not available for verifying prerequisites on this operating system distribution [ID 1567127.1]

Related Posts
Installing 12c (12.1.0.1) RAC on RHEL 6 with Role Separation - Clusterware
Installing 12c (12.1.0.1) RAC on RHEL 6 with Role Separation - Database Software
Installing 12c (12.1.0.1) RAC on RHEL 6 with Role Separation - Creating CDB & PDB
Installing Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 on RHEL 7