Step By Step Install: Installing Oracle Database on Windows 8

This is a continuation of my step by step install.  In my last post, I installed Windows 8 Preview into a virtual machine.  This post is about installing the Oracle Database software onto the machine.

Downloading the Correct Version from Oracle Support

You can download Oracle from the download page, but according to the Oracle certifications, PeopleSoft is only certified to run on the 11g version available from Oracle Support.  I think it is version 11.2.0.1 that is available on the download page, but you need version 11.2.0.4.

Update (12/29): Note — You do need a license as Oracle database is not free software.  If you want something open source/free may I suggest MySQL or something like that.  If you are doing something for personal use, you probably don’t want Oracle software such as Oracle database or PeopleSoft anyway.  My assumption here is that you installing this for a larger organization.

Here are the steps I went through to find the database install files:

• Went to Oracle Support
• Clicked on the Patches & Updates tab
• Selected “Product or Family (Advanced)” in the Patch Search
• Selected “Oracle Database” for Product
• Selected “Oracle 11.2.0.3.0” for Release
• Selected Patch Set for Type (I had an issue with Japanese Characters, it was the second one on the list)
• Selected Microsoft Windows for Platform

Copying the Files to the Machine

Getting the installation files to the machine turned out to be harder than I thought.  Installing VMware Tools ended up breaking the machine for me.  (I think my problem is that I don’t have video acceleration on my laptop.)  Anyhow, here’s what I did.

First, I had to determine the machine’s IP address.  Normally, I would open a command prompt and type ipconfig, but I had trouble finding the command prompt!  I ended up finding it in the Explorer Window on the File menu.

Note: I also found that even though you won’t see a traditional “Start” menu with a run option, the Start > R keyboard command does still work.  From that dialog, you can enter “cmd”.

In any regard, you can type ipconfig to determine the machine’s IP address.  In this case, the address is 172.16.102.129:

Next, I had to setup a local user on the machine that I could use to connect for file sharing.  The control panel wasn’t in the easiest of locations to find on the machine.  I found that if I moved my mouse to the lower right hand corner, a gear icon would display.

Clicking on the gear icon brought up a set of tools where I could select to open the control panel:

In the Control Panel, I opened the “User Accounts and Family Safety” section.  I didn’t grab the screenshots for all of the steps I took, but basically, I setup a new user on the local machine and set the password to something that I could use for file sharing.

Next, I setup a directory called “inout” for transferring files to and from the machine.  After right clicking on the new folder, I could share it with my new user.

Now, I connect to the IP address on my host machine and used the file sharing to copy the database install files to the virtual machine.

Running the Database Install

At this point I had all of the install files on the virtual machine itself.  I’ll point out that I found that I had to extract each of the downloaded zip files into separate directories first.  Then, I copied the files into a single unified install folder.  You can read more about that saga on that post.

To kick off the install, I launched the “setup” program:

Of course, it asks for authorization:

After a little bit of loading, it brought me to the installer window.  Since this is just for experimentation and playing around, I ignored the security updates options.

This is just for testing, skipping updates…

I got this message, but again, since we are just testing, I said yes to continue:

PeopleSoft has the scripts to create the database.  I could create a database just to test the installation, but I don’t want to waste the space.  I just chose to install the software only:

I chose a single database installation.  This is for testing and the Grid installation features will just complicate matters.

Unfortunately, I don’t know many languages, so I am sticking with English:

I don’t think I am using any of the more advanced features that would make a difference between the different editions.  I just chose personal, but I don’t think it really matter which edition I chose:

Next, I chose the directory to install into.  My base directory was c:\oracle, and underneath that, I put the database installation into dbhome_1.

Finally, we get to review our choices before we start the main installing part.

It takes a bit to copy files and install…

On my first attempt, I got an error message.  You can read more about this on my other post, but basically it was because I extracted the files initially into the same directory.

It required a Firewall authorization…

Finally, it finished!