Installing An Oracle-Ready CentOS 6.2 Server

Requirements

An USB stick with more than 4 GB of free storage
A 64 bits server machine with plenty RAM and HDD storage
Connectivity with CentOS Internet repositories or LAN mirrors
A Linux client machine with an installed desktop environment: CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, etc. + Gnome, KDE, etc.

Steps

Download a CentOS-6.2-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso (4.1GB) from the DVD mirrors or alternative download a minimal (322M), netinstall (227M), LiveCD (698M) or LiveDVD (1.6G) version. This how to uses CentOS-6.2-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso (4.1GB).
Store the downloaded ISO into de USB key via this guide. I prefer the alternatives section with livecd-iso-to-disk script.
Connect the USB stick to one of the USB ports on the server machine and boot. Ensure that USB boot is enabled on the setup.
On the CentOS installation wizard select Server and customize.
Choose a wise partition schema depending on your hardware, for example 6 GB RAM + 2 x 500GB HDD:

/            ext4    60GB   
/boot    ext4    130M
/home    xfs        ~403GB
/opt    xfs        ~240GB      
/var    xfs        ~210GB
swap    swap    12GB

On the package selection step ensure that no desktop environment is selected and ensure that ssh is installed. Select any additional package you want.
Choose a complex root password.
Once the OS installation is completed, reboot, login as root and ensure that ssh is working via:

$ ssh localhost

By default, the eth0 network interface is disabled. Configure networking settings:

Login as root
Edit the archive /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and configure the network interface to look like:

DEVICE="eth0"
HWADDR="00:1C:C0:95:59:55"
NM_CONTROLLED="yes"
ONBOOT="yes"
NETWORK=192.168.192.0
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=192.168.192.201
GATEWAY=192.168.192.1
DNS1=192.168.192.2
DNS2=192.168.192.2
PEERDNS="yes"

Restart networking daemon and test for connectivity with ping or other tool.

Add a sudoer user -for example bozz- to avoid the use of root.

Login as root
Create a new user and add it to wheel group:

$ adduser -G wheel bozz

Reset the password for bozz user (NOTE: choose a password you won't forget):

$ passwd bozz

Edit /etc/sudoers and uncomment the line starting with %wheel, it shall look like:

%wheel  ALL=(ALL)    ALL

Logout, login again with bozz user and test sudoer's privileges:

$ sudo ls -hal

NOTE: From now, I only use the bozz user instead of root. You can also (optionally) disable the root account from remote access for security reasons.

Login as bozz user
Configure CentOS repositories via LAN mirrors:

Ensure you can connect to the LAN mirror, example: http://mirrors.home.dev/centos

$ pushd /tmp
$ wget http://mirrors.home.dev/centos
$ popd

Create a new repo file at /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Mirror.repo

$ sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Mirror.repo

Append the following entries pointing to the mirror:

[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
baseurl=http://mirrors.home.dev/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
 
#released updates 
[updates]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Updates
baseurl=http://mirrors.home.dev/centos/$releasever/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0

#additional packages that may be useful
[extras]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Extras
baseurl=http://mirrors.home.dev/centos/$releasever/extras/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0

Comment or delete existing repository archives

comment every line of /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo with #
delete the repository file

$ sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo

Update the system using the mirror:

$ sudo yum update

Install Java JRE 7u1 64 bit on the server [Not required for Oracle Database, required for Oracle Fusion Middleware Suite]:

Goto http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html and download jre-7u1-linux-x64.rpm
Copy jre-7u1-linux-x64.rpm to the server via scp or other. Via scp from the Linux client:

$ scp jre-7u1-linux-x64.rpm bozz@SERVER:~/

$ sudo rpm -Uvh jre-7u1-linux-x64.rpm

Make use of Java JRE absolute version (/usr/java/jre1.7.0_01) in the alternatives configuration for java and javaws:

$  sudo alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/jre1.7.0_01/bin/java 20000
$  sudo alternatives --install /usr/bin/javaws javaws /usr/java/jre1.7.0_01/bin/javaws 20000

Ensure the correct java version:

$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_01"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_01-b08)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.1-b02, mixed mode)

Ensure that the alternatives is properly configured:

$ alternatives --config java
There is 1 program that provides 'java'.

    Selection    Command
  -----------------------------------------------
  *+ 1           /usr/java/jre1.7.0_01/bin/java

  Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 
 
$ alternatives --config javaws

  There is 1 program that provides 'javaws'.

    Selection    Command
  -----------------------------------------------
  *+ 1           /usr/java/jre1.7.0_01/bin/javaws

Configure JRE_HOME system-wide environment variable. Edit /etc/environment:

$ nano /etc/environment

Append the following content:

export JRE_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.7.0_01

Logout and login again and test if JRE_HOME environment variable is correct:

$ echo $JRE_HOME
/usr/java/jre1.7.0_01

$ ls -1 $JRE_HOME
bin
COPYRIGHT
lib
LICENSE
man
plugin
README
release
THIRDPARTYLICENSEREADME.txt
Welcome.html

Prepare the CentOS server for installing Oracle products without sacrifice performance with a graphical environment. Oracle Fusion Middleware products use an X11 graphical environment on installation wizards. So the SSH X11 Forwarding should be installed and enabled.

On the server, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

$ sudo nano  /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Set the following values:

X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes

On the server, install the packages xorg-x11-xauth and libXtst:

$ sudo yum install xorg-x11-xauth libXtst

On the client, install the fontconfig packages xorg-x11-fonts-base and liberation-fonts:

for a CentOS client:

$ sudo yum install xorg-x11-fonts-base liberation-fonts

for Ubuntu client:

$ sudo apt-get install xfonts-base ttf-liberation

On the client, try to login to the remote server using "-Y" option:

$ ssh -Y bozz@SERVER

Remotely logged, try to run your X program, such as the xterm or other:

$ sudo yum install xterm
$ xterm

And you shall see the X program pop up in your local desktop. You can also add the following into your

$HOME/.ssh/config

ForwardAgent yes
ForwardX11 yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes

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Installing An Oracle-Ready CentOS 6.2 Server

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Requirements

Steps

References

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