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Installing Java on OEL is a pretty straight forward task.  It does have a few complications though.  Remember the old days where you went to java.sun.com?  Now that redirects you to an Oracle page and ultimately you end up here to download the goods:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Once you get through the links you’ll be presented with two choices to download:

• jdk-6u22-linux-x64-rpm.bin
• jdk-6u22-linux-x64.bin

Well, well, what to do?  Since we are talking about OEL here we know that we have an rpm based system and we can install as root for a system-wide install so let’s opt for the first download, the rpm-bin.  We know it is an rpm based system since OEL is binary compatible with Redhat.  Generally speaking, select the Linux RPM in self-extracting file (if you have root access) or the Linux self-extracting file (if you don’t).

Having downloaded your file you need to upload it to the server and then execute:

chmod a+x <your file name>

And then run the application like this:

./<your file name>

Follow the prompts and the rest of the install is pretty straight forward.

Finally, you may want to edit your /etc/profile and add some things like JAVA_HOME (likely /usr/java/<version>) and CLASSPATH (likely something like $JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar:$JAVA_HOME/lib/dt.jar:.:..)

On Sunday, September 19th, 2010 at the Keynote Larry Ellison announced the launch of the Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel.  Here are a few pages from Oracle’s site describing benefits, why, etc.:

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/173453
http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/linux/ubreakable-enterprise-kernel-linux-173350.html

The process to upgrade your Oracle Enterprise Linux (now simply known as Oracle Linux) to the Oracle Enterprise Kernel involves a few fairly simple steps.  All of these steps assume you have a current Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) Subscription.  A variety of these items have also been made available on the Public Yum Server as well.

First, prepare your ULN Subscription by following these steps:

1. Log into linux.oracle.com with your ULN or SSO ID
2. Click the name of the system you want to upgrade
3. Click Manage Subscriptions button
4. Subscribe to the Enterprise Linux 5 Latest (x86_64) channel
5. Subscribe to the Oracle Linux 5 Latest (x86_64) channel
6. Click Save Subscriptions buttons

Second, upgrade your system by following these steps:

1. Log into the system as root
2. Run up2date -f kernel, wait for checks and installation
3. Run up2date -f kernel-headers, wait for checks and installation
4. Reboot system
5. Log into the system as root
6. Execute uname -r
7. Confirm 2.6.32.x is now running

At this point you will likely want to run up2date oracle-validated or up2date oracle-linux to ensure you have all the latest packages from those configurations as well.

For those of you that have ever tried to setup an Oracle Database on Linux you know there are a variety of steps to take on your fresh box before you can actually begin the installation process.  You will need to install serveral binaries and those will perhaps have several depedencies.  After that you will need to create an “oracle” user.  And the list goes on.  If you have a support subscription with a valid Customer Support Identifeir (CSI) this whole process gets MUCH easier.

My Unbreakable Linux Network support subscription and accompanying CSI allow for the use of the “up2date” command.  This will update the binary I ask for as well as deduce, install and/or update any dependencies.  Technically, I can accomplish the same tasks without the subscrption.  This would require that I look up (and not miss) binary depedencies while also having the time to manually hunt down, download and install the binaries by hand.  Or I can just use the up2date command!

Having just installed OEL5.4 and registered the box with the Unbreakable Linux Network I can use the up2date command along with the parameter “oracle-validated”.  Running this command will update all the necessary binaries in prepartion for installing Oracle Database.  It will resolve and install or update all related dependencies of those binaries.  It will aso create the OS user oracle along with the oinstall and dba OS groups.  Let’s try it out here:

[bash]
[root@localhost ~] up2date -i oracle-validated

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: el5_x86_64_latest…

Fetching rpm headers…
*******************************************************

Name Version Rel
———————————————————-
oracle-validated 1.0.0 22.el5

Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies…
There was a package dependency problem. The message was:

Unresolvable chain of dependencies:
glibc-headers 2.5-42.el5_4.3 requires kernel-headers
glibc-headers-2.5-42.el5_4.3 requires kernel-headers >= 2.2.1
oracle-validated 1.0.0-22.el5 requires kernel-headers
[/bash]

Oops. Need to update the kernel headers. When you try to run up2date again telling it to update kernel-headers it will likely not do so. This is because of how up2date is currently configured. We can override the configuration by using the –force command:

[bash]
[root@localhost ~] up2date –force kernel-headers

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: el5_x86_64_latest…

Name Version Rel
———————————————————-
kernel-headers 2.6.18 164.15.1.0.1.el5

Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies…

kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.1 ***************** Done.
Preparing ***************** [100%]

Installing…
1:kernel-headers ****************** [100%]

[/bash]

Now when you run your up2date command with oracle-validated it should work a lot better.