5 Creating Required Operating System Groups and Users

The following local operating system groups and users are required if you are installing Oracle Database:

• The Oracle Inventory group (oinstall)

• The OSDBA group (dba)

• The Oracle software owner (oracle)

• An unprivileged user (nobody)

To determine whether these groups and users already exist, and if necessary, to create them, follow these steps:

1. To determine whether the oinstall group exists, enter the following command:

   # more /etc/oraInst.loc

   If the output of this command shows the oinstall group name, then the group already exists.

   If the oraInst.loc file exists, then the output from this command is similar to the following:

   inventory_loc=/u01/app/oracle/oraInventory inst_group=oinstall

   The inst_group parameter shows the name of the Oracle Inventory group, oinstall.

   
   

2. To determine whether the dba group exists, enter the following command:

   # grep dba /etc/group

   If the output from this commands shows the dba group name, then the group already exists.

3. If necessary, enter the following commands to create the oinstall and dba groups:

   # /usr/sbin/groupadd oinstall # /usr/sbin/groupadd dba

4. To determine whether the oracle user exists and belongs to the correct groups, enter the following command:

   # id oracle

   If the oracle user exists, then this command displays information about the groups to which the user belongs. The output should be similar to the following, indicating that oinstall is the primary group and dba is a secondary group:

   uid=440(oracle) gid=200(oinstall) groups=201(dba),202(oper)

5. If necessary, complete one of the following actions:

   • If the oracle user exists, but its primary group is not oinstall or it is not a member of the dba group, then enter the following command:

     # /usr/sbin/usermod -g oinstall -G dba oracle

   • If the oracle user does not exist, enter the following command to create it:

     # /usr/sbin/useradd -g oinstall -G dba oracle

     This command creates the oracle user and specifies oinstall as the primary group and dba as the secondary group.

     
     

6. Enter the following command to set the password of the oracle user:

   # passwd oracle

7. To determine whether the nobody user exists, enter the following command:

   # id nobody

   If this command displays information about the nobody user, then you do not have to create the user.

   If the nobody user does not exist, then enter the following command to create it:

   # /usr/sbin/useradd nobody

6 Configuring Kernel Parameters

Verify that the kernel parameters shown in the following table are set to values greater than or equal to the recommended value shown. The procedure following the table describes how to verify and set the values.

ParameterValueFilesemmsl

semmns

semopm

semmni

250

32000

100

128

/proc/sys/kernel/semshmall2097152/proc/sys/kernel/shmallshmmaxHalf the size of physical memory (in bytes)/proc/sys/kernel/shmmaxshmmni4096/proc/sys/kernel/shmmnifile-max65536/proc/sys/fs/file-maxip_local_port_rangeMinimum: 1024

Maximum: 65000

/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_rangermem_default262144/proc/sys/net/core/rmem_defaultrmem_max262144/proc/sys/net/core/rmem_maxwmem_default262144/proc/sys/net/core/wmem_defaultwmem_max262144/proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max

Note:

If the current value of any parameter is higher than the value listed in this table, then do not change the value of that parameter.