Response Files

19 Jan 2015

One of the frequent tasks a DBA must carry out is to install Oracle software on new hosts, along with, presumably, new Oracle databases. Usually, it’s just a matter of launching the Oracle installer or “dbca” utility and then following the wizard. Not a big deal! However, this approach has two inconveniences:

you need a X server in order to use the GUI
the lack of standardization: it’s hard to remember all the options, locations and so on, not to mention it’s error prone
if many installations are to be done, it’s not funny to click-click through all those wizard pages

Oracle addresses these kind of problems by means of:

silent installations
response files

Response Files Location

As an example, we’re going to install a new Oracle 12c using the silent/response files facility. We assume that the server is already prepared for such an installation, so all prerequisites have been already taken care of.

The first step is to install the Oracle software. After we downloaded the required archive and unzip it, on Linux, we end up with something like this:

[oracle@mercur 12102_linux64]$ find . -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -printf '%M %u %p\n'
drwxrwx--- root ./database/rpm
drwxrwx--- root ./database/stage
-rwxrwx--- root ./database/runInstaller
drwxrwx--- root ./database/sshsetup
-rwxrwx--- root ./database/readme.html
-rwxrwx--- root ./database/welcome.html
drwxrwx--- root ./database/install
drwxrwx--- root ./database/response

The template response files are in the “database/response” folder:

[oracle@mercur 12102_linux64]$ ls -al database/response/
total 120
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf  4096 Jul  7  2014 .
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf  4096 Jan 19 12:02 ..
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 74822 Apr  4  2014 dbca.rsp
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 25036 Jul  7  2014 db_install.rsp
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf  6038 Jan 24  2014 netca.rsp

So, there’s a template for the software installation, one for the network setup and one for the database installation using “dbca”.

Create and Use the Response File

If a RSP file is already provided, the simplest method is to make a copy of it and edit it so that to be customized to the DBA/organization standard.

The other option is to record a RSP file using the installer if, of course, such an option exists for that installer. For example, up to 11.2, the Oracle Universal Installer used to have the “-record” parameter which might have be used in order to generate a response file. Interestingly enough, this option is not a valid one anymore in 12c.

As soon as you have the response file, you may start the installation:

[oracle@mercur database]$ ./runInstaller -silent -responseFile /media/sf_bazar/orakits/rsps/db_install_12102_ee_norac.rsp -waitforcompletion
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking Temp space: must be greater than 500 MB.   Actual 39043 MB    Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB.   Actual 4086 MB    Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2015-01-19_02-12-48PM. 
Please wait ...You can find the log of this install session at:
/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/installActions2015-01-19_02-12-48PM.log
The installation of Oracle Database 12c was successful.
Please check '/u01/app/oraInventory/logs/silentInstall2015-01-19_02-12-48PM.log' for more details.

As a root user, execute the following script(s):
        1. /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh
        2. /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/2e_db/root.sh

Successfully Setup Software.

As root, run the above two scripts and you’re good to go.

To silently create the listener, we can also use the Oracle provided RSP file. For a standard LISTENER, there’s no need to edit anything.

[oracle@mercur response]$ /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/2e_db/bin/netca -silent -responsefile /media/sf_bazar/orakits/12102_linux64/database/response/netca.rsp 

Parsing command line arguments:
    Parameter "silent" = true
    Parameter "responsefile" = /media/sf_bazar/orakits/12102_linux64/database/response/netca.rsp
Done parsing command line arguments.
Oracle Net Services Configuration:
Profile configuration complete.
Oracle Net Listener Startup:
    Running Listener Control: 
      /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/2e_db/bin/lsnrctl start LISTENER
    Listener Control complete.
    Listener started successfully.
Listener configuration complete.
Oracle Net Services configuration successful. The exit code is 0

Finally, a database can be created using a response file. You can use the following command:

[oracle@mercur ~]$ dbca -silent -responseFile /media/sf_bazar/orakits/rsps/dbca_12c_noasm_pluggable.rsp                                                                                        
Enter SYS user password: 

Enter SYSTEM user password: 

Enter PDBADMIN User Password: 

Cleaning up failed steps
4% complete
Copying database files
5% complete
6% complete
12% complete
17% complete
30% complete
Creating and starting Oracle instance
32% complete
35% complete
36% complete
37% complete
41% complete
44% complete
45% complete
48% complete
Completing Database Creation
50% complete
53% complete
55% complete
63% complete
71% complete
74% complete
Creating Pluggable Databases
79% complete
100% complete
Look at the log file "/u01/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/dbca/mercdb/mercdb.log" for further details.

Mission accomplished! It is important to note that the vast majority of installers accept a wide range of parameters which corresponds to options from the response file. The argument value from the command line has precedence.

Common Issues

Relative Paths

Pay attention not to provide the response file with a relative location. Apparently, OUI is not smart enough to figure out how to handle this scenario:

[oracle@mercur database]$ ./runInstaller -silent -responseFile ../../rsps/db_install_12102_ee_norac.rsp
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking Temp space: must be greater than 500 MB.   Actual 39052 MB    Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB.   Actual 4086 MB    Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2015-01-19_01-06-47PM. Please wait ...[oracle@mercur database]$ [FATAL] [INS-10101] The given response file ../../rsps/db_install_12102_ee_norac.rsp is not found.
  CAUSE: The given response file is either not accessible or do not exist.
  ACTION: Give a correct response file location. (Note: relative path is not supported)
A log of this session is currently saved as: /tmp/OraInstall2015-01-19_01-06-47PM/installActions2015-01-19_01-06-47PM.log. Oracle recommends that if you want to keep this log, you should move it from the temporary location.

Background Installation

By default, the OUI is launching the installation session in background as a separate process. Personally, I don’t like this style as it force me to immediately go and tail the log file. Furthermore, in Linux, the console is not completely detached and random messages are printed by the background install process. In order to avoid this, you must provide the -waitforcompletion parameter. The problem I’ve noticed however when using this parameter is that the log file is automatically deleted at the end of the installer command. Yet, another stupidity of Oracle.

OUI Complains about My Oracle Support

If you get:

[oracle@mercur database]$ ./runInstaller -silent -responseFile /media/sf_bazar/orakits/rsps/db_install_12102_ee_norac.rsp -waitforcompletion
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking Temp space: must be greater than 500 MB.   Actual 39052 MB    Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB.   Actual 4086 MB    Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2015-01-19_01-27-51PM. Please wait ...
[WARNING] - My Oracle Support Username/Email Address Not Specified
A log of this session is currently saved as: /tmp/OraInstall2015-01-19_01-27-51PM/installActions2015-01-19_01-27-51PM.log. 
Oracle recommends that if you want to keep this log, you should move
it from the temporary location.

Check if the DECLINE_SECURITY_UPDATES variable is set to true into the response file.

Things I don’t Like

Below are the things I don’t like as far as the response files feature is concerned:

The response file is a static dumb file. You cannot take values from environment variables or interact with other external interfaces. However, I think you can use m4 parser to generate a new response file on the fly.
The character-sets from the provided dbca.rsp template file are kind of stupid. For example, for the default characterset, the is US7ASCII assumed which isn’t such a good idea.

I couldn’t find anything related to OBFUSCATEDPASSWORDS parameter. How is it supposed to obfuscate these passwords? You may find some clues if you opt to install the database using OUI and then if you’re take a look into the log. You may find something like this:

INFO: Configuration assistant "Oracle Net Configuration Assistant" succeeded 
INFO: Command = /export/home/oracle/product/12.1.0/Db_3/bin/dbca  
        -progress_only 
        -createDatabase 
        -templateName General_Purpose.dbc 
        -gdbName orcl -sid orcl  
        -sysPassword 052b3cccab83184dd1ba5e728aa1ff1e189a90088c2da70291  
        -systemPassword 053e5dc6ab23642c16821c915b858ddc23d87c4a357e140d8e  
        -sysmanPassword 05b123a3abe32968b37230926a9bfc13f4d4ef5e52f01e095d  
        -dbsnmpPassword 058be1aeaba392a9299e7d3d8215720402fe045d76a03d4506  
        -emConfiguration LOCAL     
        -datafileJarLocation /export/home/oracle/product/12.1.0/Db_3/assistants/dbca/templates  
        -datafileDestination /export/home/oracle/product/12.1.0/oradata/ 
        -responseFile NO_VALUE   
        -characterset WE8ISO8859P1   
        -obfuscatedPasswords true

How those passwords are encrypted I have no clue. As an workaround you can get those values from the log and use it in your own response file. Of course, this is cumbersome and something you don’t want to do too often.

You can’t specify the options you want to install directly into the response file. There’s nothing related to “Spacial” option or “Apex” there. The only way is to create your own custom template and use it in the response file.

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