1
Verifying Requirements

Oracle9iAS Portal cannot be installed stand-alone. It is installed as part of Oracle9i Application Server. You must consult the Oracle9i Application Server Administrator's Guide for your particular operating system. As part of a typical Oracle9i Application Server installation, the following components are installed:

• Oracle9iAS Portal database objects: images, demos, page groups, common services, utilities, required support files, documentation, and Single Sign-On (SSO).

• Oracle9i Application Server Web Server: Servlets, mod_plsql, and the Oracle HTTP Server.

  See also: Oracle HTTP Server documentation in the Oracle9i Application Server documentation library for detailed information about Oracle HTTP modules (mods) and the overall Oracle9i Application Server architecture Oracle9i Application Server Administrator's Guide for your particular operating system

1.1 System Requirements

In order to use Oracle9iAS Portal, you must have an Oracle9i database and Oracle9i Application Server running, including the Oracle HTTP Server.

Oracle9iAS Portal is packaged and installed with the Oracle9i Application Server, in the same Oracle Home location, but in a separate Oracle Home location from the Oracle9i database database.

1.1.1 Oracle Databases

Oracle9iAS Portal can be installed in the following database:

• Oracle9i Release 9.0.1.3 Enterprise and Standard Edition.

  See also: "Administration" section of the Oracle9iAS Portal Release Notes for information on the required database patches.

Also, verify that the following conditions exist on your database before configuring Oracle9iAS Portal:

• Oracle JServer Option, which includes the Enterprise JavaBeans and CORBA Tools, Java Virtual Machine, and Oracle Java Tools, are installed.

• You have the SYS user password on your database.

• Your database is up and running.

1.1.1.1 Database System resource requirements

The SYSTEM Tablespace should have at least 150 MB of available free space during the Oracle9iAS Portal and the Oracle9iAS Single Sign-On Server installation. This would ensure faster installation as the extents would not have to be added during installation.

The PORTAL tablespace in the Infrastructure database should have initial storage of at least 75 MB. For the customer database installation, users should make sure that the default tablespace has at least 75 MB of available free space and they should have auto extend enabled.

The index tablespace PORTAL_IDX in the Infrastructure database should have initial storage of at least 20 MB. For the customer database installation, users should make sure that the Index tablespace has at least 20 MB of available free space and they should have auto extend enabled.

The Document tablespace PORTAL_DOC and Logging tablespace PORTAL_LOG in the Infrastructure database should have initial storage of at least 4 MB. For the customer database installation, users should make sure that the Document and Logging tablespace to have at least 4 MB of available free space and they should have auto extend enabled.

The Temporary tablespace PORTAL_TMP in the Infrastructure database should have initial storage of at least 20 MB. For the customer database installation, users should make sure that the Temporary tablespace has at least 20 MB of available free space and they should have auto extend enabled.

1.1.2 Oracle Home

You must install Oracle9i Application Server and its component, Oracle9iAS Portal, in a separate Oracle home directory from your Oracle9i database.

1.1.3 Web Browsers

• Netscape 4.0.8 and 4.72, or higher.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.1 with Service Pack 1 and 5.0, or higher.

  Note: You may encounter JavaScript errors if you use a browser older than the recommended minimum.

1.1.3.1 Configuring Browser Settings

In order to work optimally, the browser's cache and image settings need to be configured.

1.1.3.2 Cache Settings

Please make sure that your browser cache settings are as follows:

Internet Explorer:

Under Tools->Internet Options -> General Tab -> Settings

Check for newer versions of stored pages: 
[X] Every visit to the page 
[ ] Every time you start Internet Explorer 
[ ] Automatically 
[ ] Never 

Netscape:

Under Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Cache

Document in cache is compared to document on network:
[ ] Once per session 
[X] Every Time 
[ ] Never 

1.1.3.3 Image Settings

Please make sure that pictures/images are automatically loaded as follows:

Internet Explorer:

Under Tools->Internet Options -> Advanced Tab

[X] Show Pictures 

Netscape:

Under Edit->Preferences->Advanced->

[X] Automatically Load Images 

1.1.4 Tablespace Requirements

Since Oracle9iAS Portal is installed with Oracle9i Application Server, the tablespace amounts are calculated as a whole for all Oracle9i Application Server. Refer to the Oracle9i Application Server Administration Guide for your particular platform for the documented tablespace requirements.

Note: If you are using a FAT file system in your Windows NT/2000 environment, double the amount for the default tablespace. During installation, you are prompted to select a tablespace from the database in which to install the Oracle9iAS Portal schema and database objects. The default tablespace set by the Oracle9iAS Portal Configuration Assistant is USERS. Do not allocate additional tablespace for each page group that you create since page groups are part of the Oracle9iAS Portal schema.

1.1.5 init.ora Settings

Refer to the Oracle9i Application Server Administrator's Guide for your particular operating system for details.

1.1.6 Terminal Settings

On UNIX, set your terminal (using the set TERM command) to one of the following types:

3151 386 386s 386u 386x 
ansi avx3 
dec dgd2 dgd4 
hft hftc hp iris ncd 
sun sun5 tandm 
vt100 vt220 
wy150 wy50 
xsun xsun5

1.1.7 Oracle Text Requirements

To enable Oracle Text searching in Oracle9iAS Portal, make sure that the following requirements are met:

• Install and configure the Oracle9i database (minimum 9.0.1.3) with the Oracle Text option by running the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI).

1.1.8 Unix Shell Settings

For Unix, you should use csh or ksh for installing Oracle9iAS Portal. The Oracle9iAS Portal Configuration Assistant (OPCA) uses various Oracle utilities which may not work properly in other shells. The OPCA invokes sub-shells to run various utilities, including SQL*Plus, SQL*Loader, import, and loadjava. You should disable the sourcing to other Oracle homes in the shells before installing Oracle9iAS Portal. For example, if your shell sources to an old Oracle home by default, OPCA will create a sub-shell that sources to a different Oracle home, causing the utilities to fail.