A Frequently Asked Questions

This appendix answers the frequently asked questions for Oracle Universal Installer.

On Windows, when I run Oracle Universal Installer setup.exe, it is not invoked.

This may occur because some system resources are being held by some services. If you stop these services, Oracle Universal Installer can be invoked.

To run Oracle Universal Installer again, execute the following command:

setup -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Dsun.awt.nopixfmt=true

When I start Oracle Universal Installer from any location, after setting the PATH environment variable, I receive an error that reads "Could not read any NLS message catalogue!". What do I do?

Oracle Universal Installer needs some files in the directory where the runInstaller (UNIX) or setup.exe (Windows) is running. So, when you invoke runInstaller (UNIX) or setup.exe (Windows), you should invoke it from the directory where this command is present, or you must specify the complete path.

I have lost my Central Inventory, but have a valid Oracle home(s). What do I do?

Oracle Universal Installer enables you to set up the Central Inventory or register an existing ORACLE_HOME with the Central Inventory in case of inventory corruption or loss. You need to execute the command with the -attachHome flag. For more information, see the section "Creating the Central Inventory".

I want to deploy multiple Oracle home(s) from an existing Oracle home. How do I do this?

Oracle Universal Installer creates Oracle homes during Oracle software installation. To deploy multiple Oracle homes using an existing one, you need to clone the Oracle home. For more information on cloning and mass deployment, see Chapter 6, "Cloning Oracle Software".

I have lost my Oracle home inventory (comps.xml). What can I do?

Oracle recommends backing up the inventory when an Oracle home is installed or removed. Ensure that you back up the comps.xml that has the latest time-stamp. For more information on backing up the inventory, see "Backing up the Inventory".

When your Oracle home inventory is corrupted or lost, you can restore from the backup or you can install the Oracle home from an identical installation.

When I run the configuration assistants, they fail. What do I do?

To recover from this problem, rename the configToolAllCommands and configToolFailedCommands files as follows:

In UNIX, rename the configToolAllCommands and configToolFailedCommands files located in the OracleHome/cfgtoollogs/ directory to configToolAllCommands.sh and configToolFailedCommands.sh respectively and execute them.
In Windows, rename the configToolAllCommands and configToolFailedCommands files located in the OracleHome/cfgtoollogs/ directory to configToolAllCommands.bat and configToolFailedCommands.bat respectively and execute them.

ConfigToolAllCommands(.sh/.bat) is used when the installation was done with a -noConfig option and you want to run all the configuration assistants in standalone mode, outside the OUI context.

ConfigToolFailedCommands(.sh/.bat) is used when the install was done with failed configuration assistants and you want to run only the failed configuration assistants later in standalone mode, outside the OUI context.

When I apply a patchset or an interim patch, the installer tries to propagate to a node that I disconnected a long time ago. What do I do?

This may occur because the Oracle home is present in the Central Inventory.

Oracle Universal Installer enables you to remove the Oracle home from the Central Inventory in cases where the Oracle home is uninstalled. To remove the Oracle home, you need to execute runInstaller with the -detachHome flag. You can also completely remove the Central Inventory to remove traces of log files. For more information, see the section "Detaching Oracle Homes from the Central Inventory".

When I apply a patchset or an interim patch, the patch is not propagated to some of my Oracle Real Application Clusters nodes. What do I do?

In an Oracle Real Application Clusters environment, the inventory contains a list of nodes associated with an Oracle home. It is important that during the application of a patchset or an interim patch, the inventory is correctly populated with the list of nodes. If the inventory is not correctly populated with values, the patch is propagated only to some of the nodes in the cluster.

Oracle Universal Installer enables you to update inventory.xml with the nodes available in the cluster using the -updateNodeList flag in Oracle Universal Installer. For more information, see the section "Updating the Nodes of a Cluster".

What if I just want to update the inventory without reapplying a one-off patch?

The OPatch addpatch.pl tool enables you to update the inventory with a given one-off patch without actually reapplying it to the Oracle home. Use this tool if you are certain that the patch is present in the Oracle home but not in the inventory. You can download it from MetaLink at patch number 4321390 to just add the patch to the inventory. After using this option, opatch lsinventory shows the one-off patch information along with other installed one-offs.

On two separate occasions, I experienced a corrupt inventory and a failed installation. Does OUI provide a backup facility I could use before I try to install again?

OUI provides automated backups for the Central Inventory and Oracle home Inventory. For more information, see Automated Inventory Backups in Appendix B, " Troubleshooting and Debugging Oracle Universal Installer".