Cloning Oracle software - why does nobody do this?




The oracle clone functionality seems to be one of the best kept secrets around - its incredibly easy to use, saves hours of installation times. Makes all software installs the same. There doesn't seem to be a downside!

Get an existing home you know works, tar/zip it up and copy this to another host

unzip it (anywhere you like - does not have to be same directory structure)

1)      cd to new ORACLE_HOME/clone/bin
2)      run the following:
perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=/xxxxxORACLE_HOME_NAME=xxxxx where ORACLE_HOME is the path you untarred it to and ORACLE_HOME_NAME is what you want it called in the inventory. The HOME and HOME_NAME do not have to match the source paths.
3)      This ‘runs’ an install to register it with the inventory and relink all of the executables – no xterm required
4)      Get root.sh run as you would normally for an install

Done in no time at all - saves hours of effort!

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Update 22/10/2014 - seems ORACLE_BASE is now mandatory (at least from 11.2)

The summary page shows this (so seems more things are available to change)

NAME
    clone.pl - Clones an Oracle home.

SYNOPSIS
    perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=<OH>
                  ORACLE_BASE=<OB>
                  [ORACLE_HOME_NAME=<OH Name>]|-defaultHomeName
                  OSDBA_GROUP=<group-name>
                  OSOPER_GROUP=<group-name>
                  OSASM_GROUP=<group-name>
                  -O<>
                  -debug
                  -help

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