Oracle Linux installation & configuration guide

This post covers the topic of Oracle Linux installation.
Oracle Linux is a versatile operating system that offers a solid base for (almost)all Oracle products.

The version used in this post is Oracle Linux Release 6 Update 2 for x86_64 (64 Bit) that can be downloaded from:

https://edelivery.oracle.com/linux

Installation is pretty simple and not different than any other Linux.

These screens describe the process.

When installation is complete it's time to configure the system to work properly.

At first we need to enable network editing ifcfg-ethX file using a text editor.
The "X" above meas that every network card needs to be manually configured, in this case I'm going to configure my only NIC that is eth0.

I log in as root user:

[root@orcl ~]# nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

And edit the file as follows:

IPADDR=10.0.0.4
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=10.0.0.250
DEVICE="eth0"
HWADDR="00:50:56:BF:00:25"
ONBOOT="yes"
TYPE=Ethernet
BOOTPROTO=static

Then you need to restart the network service to make this configuration running:

[root@orcl ~]# service network restart

Shutting down interface eth0:                              [  OK  ]
Shutting down loopback interface:                          [  OK  ]
Bringing up loopback interface:                            [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth0:                                [  OK  ]

When network is up and running I connect to my server via SSH using Putty from my PC

Next step is to add DNS nameserver:

[root@orcl ~]# nano /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 10.0.0.88
nameserver 10.0.0.9

Then it's time to edit hosts file according to our server hostname

[root@orcl ~]# hostname
orcl
[root@orcl ~]# nano /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
10.0.0.4 orcl

Now we need to enable YUM repository

[root@orcl ~]# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
[root@orcl yum.repos.d]# wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-ol6.repo

The step above enable access to YUM Repos giving us the ability to install software using the syntax:

yum install PACKET_NAME

Disable iptables:

[root@orcl ~]# service iptables stop
iptables: Flushing firewall rules:                         [  OK  ]
iptables: Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter          [  OK  ]
iptables: Unloading modules:                               [  OK  ]

and remove the service so next reboot we don't have to stop iptables again

[root@orcl ~]# chkconfig iptables off

An optional step is to configure Network Time Protocol so your server can adjust time and date automatically.

[root@orcl ~]# nano /etc/ntp.conf

In this file look for this lines:

server 0.rhel.pool.ntp.org
server 1.rhel.pool.ntp.org
server 2.rhel.pool.ntp.org

and edit address making them point to correct NTP servers.
When done start ntpd service:

[root@orcl ~]# service ntpd start

And finally make it executable at boot:

[root@orcl ~]# chkconfig ntp on

Last step is to disable SELINUX

[root@orcl ~]# nano /etc/selinux/config

Change

SELINUX=enforcing

to

SELINUX=disabled

Reboot...then your installation and configuration is complete!!!