Oracle 8i and 9i in same SUN Box

[dasigrist]

Hi,

I have 1 solaris 5.6 machine with a Oracle 8.1.5 installed. I want to install a Oracle 9.2.0.1 on this machine for a future upgrade of the 8i. I have 2 different Oracle users for it. User oracle owns oracle 8.1.5 and user oracle2 will hold the oracle 9.2.0.1. The problems is that I don't have access on the oracle user once he isn't in the passwd file, because is a NIS user. So, I don't have write permissions for the oraInventory folder and can't set these permissions for my new oracle2 user. I want create a diferent oraInventory folder for my 9i installation. What I need to do?

Sorry for my english. I hope you understand what I mean.
Best regards

Daniel

[KenEwald]

I recommend using the same OS user (oracle) and although it shouldn't be necessary, keep a backup of your oraInventory folder after you make any Oracle install changes.

Oracle 9.x will not install on top of your 8.x software if you're using the OFA directory structure.

You'll end up with:
/app/oracle/product/8.1.7
and
/app/oracle/product/9.2.0

[dasigrist]

And what to do with the oraInst.loc? Need I rename it to oraInst.loc.8.1.5 for instance? Once I don't have write access to the oraInventory directory, I need a new one for the 9i installation because the OUI will complaim about that.

[KenEwald]

If you really want to use a different OS user put them in the same (dba) group and use the group permissions.

[dasigrist]

That is just the problem... I can't put the oracle2 user in the same group as oracle because, as I said, oracle is a NIS user and I don't have access to the user or its group. So, oracle2 will be a new user with total different groups than user oracle.