oracle user on Solaris in multi-version environment

[a128]

I have an existing Oracle 8.1.7.3 DB on Solaris 8 and plan to upgrade it to 9.2.0.3. Of couse I have an existing Oracle user called "oracle" for the 8i DB. I am wondering when I install 9i on the same machine, do I need to create another UNIX user for Oracle as the owner of the 9i installation or I can use the same UNIX user "oracle"? My understanding is I should create another UNIX user for 9i but would like someone to confirm it.

Thanks,

[davey23uk]

no need to create a new user, as long as you are choosing different ORACLE_HOMES.

Unless you want to restrict access for whatever reason

[stecal]

It is not a bad idea to create a separate user, oracle9, who owns the 9i software. Your oracle and oracle9 UNIX users/accounts can be in the same groups (dba, oinstall). Creating a user, which is a one-time process, is much easier than changing ORACLE_HOMEs, which you may wind up doing numerous times as you go back and forth between versions.

[davey23uk]

surely thats whats oraenv is for?

personally I like one user - but its all personal choice on this really

[a128]

Since the existing is for 8i and the new install is for 9i, will it mess up oraInventory, which is at directory level above the default ORACLE_HOME?

For example, my existing has structure:

/ora01/app/oracle/oraInventory
/ora01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7 (ORACLE_HOME for 8i)
/ora01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0 (ORACLE_HOME for 9i?)
/ora01/app/oracle/admin/ORCL/...

Also I suppose even though they share the admin subdirectory (at level above ORACLE_HOMEs), they won't mess up the existing setup as long as no DB from each home uses the same SID?

thanks,

[marist89]

Originally posted by stecal
It is not a bad idea to create a separate user, oracle9, who owns the 9i software. Your oracle and oracle9 UNIX users/accounts can be in the same groups (dba, oinstall). Creating a user, which is a one-time process, is much easier than changing ORACLE_HOMEs, which you may wind up doing numerous times as you go back and forth between versions.

During conversion, you will need to chmod your datafiles, control files, etc. Personally, I think that's a lot of extra work, but that's also your choice...