Introduction
Why did I need the 9i version of the instantclient package? Why not use the Oracle 10g or 11i InstantClient package? If you googled so far, you might already have an idea why. In our environment is a legacy Oracle 8 database, version 8.0.5, in full production. Whatever the reasons for not upgrading it, I needed a way to monitor it and connect remotely. The first problem, which version of Oracle is backward compatible to what? This information was difficult to get: it turns out that the last version of Oracle that supports Oracle 8.0.5 is Oracle 9i. Everything after that will not connect. This includes the OCI client and JDBC drivers as well. Luckily Oracle 9i is still available for download, but only in the full 3-disk database package, requiring a full installation. I needed the OCI instantclient funtionality to make the Nagios monitoring plugin check_oracle work. Also, I wanted to use the SQLplus and tnsping commandline.
Download the Oracle 9i 64bit Edition and extract the content:
My target system is a 64bit SuSE Linux Enterprise Server SP2 with Nagios 3.0.2, so I downloaded the Oracle 9i 64bit packages. Don't get irritated by the "amd64" file name references to AMD, it certainly works with Intel 64bit also...
fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> ls -l total 1461956 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 552344576 2008-06-19 11:56 amd64_db_9204_Disk1.cpio -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 587835392 2008-06-19 11:58 amd64_db_9204_Disk2.cpio -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 355244544 2008-06-19 11:59 amd64_db_9204_Disk3.cpio extract it with: fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> gunzip amd64_db_9204_Disk1.cpio.gz fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> gunzip amd64_db_9204_Disk2.cpio.gz fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> gunzip amd64_db_9204_Disk3.cpio.gz fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> cpio -idcmv < amd64_db_9204_Disk1.cpio fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> cpio -idcmv < amd64_db_9204_Disk2.cpio fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> cpio -idcmv < amd64_db_9204_Disk3.cpio fm@ml08460:/home/sw/Oracle9i> ls -ld D* drwxr-xr-x 6 2840 502 4096 2004-05-01 06:49 Disk1 drwxr-xr-x 3 2840 502 4096 2004-05-01 06:49 Disk2 drwxr-xr-x 3 2840 502 4096 2004-05-01 06:49 Disk3
Create the new home directory for Oracle 9i
There is no need to create a extra oracle user or group, as long as the account accessing the Oracle client has the ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY＿PATH set correctly. LD_LIBRARY PATH can be avoided by an entry in /etc/ld.so.conf. For my setup, the installation required approximately 46 MB of disk space.
mkdir -p /home/oracle/instantclient_9 cd /home/oracle/instantclient_9
Extract the bare minimum client libraries required for the OCI client
This is the most tricky part to figure out. Error messages pointed the way to which files are missing, and strace is a great help to determine what else goes wrong. For this step we need the Java development kit (JAVASDK) to get the Java binary jar, allowing us to ectract the libraries from its Oracle package containers. Jar handling is almost like tar.
fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> jar xf /home/sw/Disk2/stage/Components/oracle.rdbms.sqlplus/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/lib.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> jar xf /home/sw/Disk2/stage/Components/oracle.rdbms.occi/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/lib.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> jar xf /home/sw/Disk1/stage/Components/oracle.rsf.clntsh_rsf/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/lib.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> ln -s libclntsh.so.9.0 libwtc9.so
Extract the SQLplus and Oracle NET client commands, add the SQLplus message file
These files provide the commandline interface and the basic error messages.
fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> mkdir bin fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> cd bin fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/bin> jar xf /home/sw/Disk2/stage/Components/oracle.rdbms.sqlplus/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/bin.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/bin> jar xf /home/sw/Disk2/stage/Components/oracle.networking.netclt/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/bin.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/bin> cd .. fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> mkdir -p sqlplus/mesg fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> cd sqlplus/mesg fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/sqlplus/mesg> jar xf /home/sw/Disk2/stage/Components/oracle.rdbms.sqlplus/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/mesg.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/sqlplus/mesg> cd ../..
Extract the TimeZone Info file for SQLplus
Next, we need the timezone.dat and timezonelrg.dat files
fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> mkdir -p oracore/zoneinfo fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> cd oracore/zoneinfo fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/oracore/zoneinfo> jar xf /home/sw/Disk1/stage/Components/oracle.rsf.oracore_rsf/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/zone.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/oracore/zoneinfo> cd ../..
Extract the Network Client message files
Now we are extracting the network client message files, i.e. containing the tnsping error messages:
fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> mkdir -p network/mesg fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> cd network/admin fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/network/admin> jar xf /home/sw/Oracle9i/Disk2/stage/Components/oracle.networking.netclt/9.2.0.4.0/1/DataFiles/mesg.1.1.jar fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/network/admin> cd ../..
Almost there. We create the client configuration files, tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora.
Appearantly, the values there depend on your DB location and settings.
fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> mkdir -p network/admin fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9> cd network/admin fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/network/admin> vi tnsnames.ora fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9/network/admin> vi sqlnet.ora
In order for the check_oracle to work in nagios, I added the export commands on top of /etc/init.d/nagios startup program.
fm@ml08460:/home/oracle> export ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/instantclient_9 fm@ml08460:/home/oracle/> export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/oracle/instantclient_9
Finally we can try it out:
Voila, it works...
fml08460:/home/oracle/instantclient_9 # bin/sqlplus xxxxx@yyyy SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.4.0 - Production on Tue Jun 24 17:42:16 2008 Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. Enter password: Connected to: Oracle8 Enterprise Edition Release 8.0.5.2.1 - Production PL/SQL Release 8.0.5.2.0 - Production SQL> ml08460:/home/local/oracle/instantclient_9 # du -sk . 45464
Reference file listing
Below is a complete list of files, representing a working Oracle 9i instantclient setup.
fm@ml08460:~ # ls -lR /home/oracle/instantclient_9 /home/oracle/instantclient_9: total 36792 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-06-25 09:18 bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2588 2008-06-24 16:47 facility.lis -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13189409 2008-06-24 16:47 libclntsh.so.9.0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21223006 2008-06-24 16:47 libclntst9.a -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024802 2008-06-24 16:48 libocci9.a -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 471160 2008-06-24 16:48 libocci.so.9.0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1332204 2008-06-24 16:47 libsqlplus.a lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 2008-06-24 18:46 libwtc9.so -> /home/oracle/instantclient_9/libclntsh.so.9.0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 319208 2008-06-24 16:47 libxsd9.a drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2008-06-25 09:20 network drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-06-24 17:16 oracore -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2638 2008-06-25 17:09 readme.20080624 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1432 2008-06-24 16:47 s0afimai.o drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-06-24 17:01 sqlplus -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25 2008-06-24 16:47 sysliblist /home/oracle/instantclient_9/bin: total 7164 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12977 2008-06-25 09:14 adapters -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2387 2008-06-25 09:14 gensyslib -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2131 2008-06-23 13:10 helpins -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3182232 2008-06-25 09:14 namesctl -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2365 2008-06-25 09:14 oerr -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3342889 2008-06-25 09:14 onrsd -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1745 2008-06-23 13:10 pupbld -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 700268 2008-06-23 13:10 sqlplus -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 20116 2008-06-25 09:14 tnsping -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2967 2008-06-25 09:14 trcasst.sbs -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1268 2008-06-25 09:14 trcfmt -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 30892 2008-06-25 09:14 trcroute /home/oracle/instantclient_9/network: total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-06-23 13:11 admin drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-06-25 09:21 mesg /home/oracle/instantclient_9/network/admin: total 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44 2008-06-23 13:11 sqlnet.ora -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 530 2008-06-23 13:11 tnsnames.ora /home/oracle/instantclient_9/network/mesg: total 764 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6144 2008-06-25 09:21 ncrus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16420 2008-06-25 09:21 ncrus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5632 2008-06-25 09:21 ncxus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11426 2008-06-25 09:21 ncxus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10240 2008-06-25 09:21 niqus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 52054 2008-06-25 09:21 niqus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3584 2008-06-25 09:21 nmpus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5895 2008-06-25 09:21 nmpus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4608 2008-06-25 09:21 nmrus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12464 2008-06-25 09:21 nmrus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5632 2008-06-25 09:21 nncus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21630 2008-06-25 09:21 nncus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 2008-06-25 09:21 nnfus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17859 2008-06-25 09:21 nnfus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26624 2008-06-25 09:21 nnlus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 67325 2008-06-25 09:21 nnlus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13312 2008-06-25 09:21 nnous.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 62515 2008-06-25 09:21 nnous.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5120 2008-06-25 09:21 nplus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11827 2008-06-25 09:21 nplus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9216 2008-06-25 09:21 nzus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9256 2008-06-25 09:21 nzus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6144 2008-06-25 09:21 snlus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4658 2008-06-25 09:21 snlus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3584 2008-06-25 09:21 tnlus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1041 2008-06-25 09:21 tnlus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7168 2008-06-25 09:21 tnplus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5697 2008-06-25 09:21 tnplus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46592 2008-06-25 09:21 tnsus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 233050 2008-06-25 09:21 tnsus.msg /home/oracle/instantclient_9/oracore: total 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-06-24 17:28 zoneinfo /home/oracle/instantclient_9/oracore/zoneinfo: total 520 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 370494 2008-06-24 17:28 timezlrg.dat -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 148797 2008-06-24 17:28 timezone.dat /home/oracle/instantclient_9/sqlplus: total 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-06-24 17:11 mesg /home/oracle/instantclient_9/sqlplus/mesg: total 196 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2008-06-24 17:10 cpyus.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1817 2008-06-24 17:10 cpyus.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11264 2008-06-24 17:10 sp1us.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16590 2008-06-24 17:10 sp1us.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31232 2008-06-24 17:10 sp2us.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 114029 2008-06-24 17:10 sp2us.msg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3584 2008-06-24 17:10 sp3us.msb -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 506 2008-06-24 17:10 sp3us.msg