14
Distributing and Managing Oracle Software
This chapter describes how to distribute and manage Oracle8
Enterprise Edition products across a network.
Specific topics discussed are:
Overview
Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) enables you to
distribute and manage Oracle software across a network. This chapter provides
a brief overview of SMS features, including installation, configuration,
and usage instructions (where necessary).
Systems
Management Server
SMS manages networked PCs running Windows operating systems.
Specifically, SMS provides:
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PC hardware and software inventory
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Software distribution
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PC troubleshooting
SMS is a component of Microsoft Backoffice, and is sometimes
used in companies running their businesses on Windows NT.
Oracle8
Enterprise Edition SMS Support
Oracle products for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT
support remote installation and software inventory and auditing capabilities
through SMS release 1.2. SMS integration with Windows 3.1 and Windows for
Workgroups is not currently supported. Oracle Corporation provides customizable
package definition files (.PDFs) that SMS administrators can use to distribute
and maintain Oracle products in Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 98
networks. These packages contain the same products as the corresponding
packages in a traditional installation.
Attention:
SMS .PDF files are not the same as Adobe Acrobat .PDF
files. Adobe Acrobat .PDF files contain only documentation, do not
contain products, and cannot be used to distribute and maintain
Oracle products.
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Distributing
Oracle Software with SMS
To distribute Oracle software with SMS:
Note:
You must be an SMS administrator to perform these procedures.
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Open the Packages window from the SMS Administrator's
console.
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Select New from the File menu.
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Select Import in the dialog box that appears in order
to specify the .PDF package that describes the Oracle software package
to SMS.
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Navigate to the SMS directory at the root of the
Oracle8 Enterprise Edition for Windows NT CD-ROM.
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Select the appropriate PDF package:
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Select Workstations to see more properties of the
package.
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Select the source directory for the package as follows:
Attention:
Setting the source directory is important, as installation
command lines specified in the .PDF file are interpreted relative to the
source directory.
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One or more command line options listed for the package
appear. They are defined in the .PDF file and must not be modified.
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Click Close to exit the window.
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Click OK to exit the Package Properties window.
SMS creates the package.
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Create a Run Command on Workstation job to distribute
the new Oracle8 Enterprise Edition product package. You can choose the
appropriate command line option for the package during job creation (for
example, Oracle8 Client/DBA for Win95 or Oracle8 Client/AppUser for Win95).
Consult your SMS documentation for more information about creating jobs.
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Restart all client and server machines after installing
Oracle software with SMS.
Note:
When you schedule an SMS job to distribute software, the
source directory that was specified during package creation must be accessible
to SMS. If you specified the Oracle8 Enterprise Edition for Windows NT
CD-ROM as the source, be sure the CD-ROM is loaded into your CD-ROM drive
during job creation.
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Note:
Oracle documentation distributed in an SMS package points
to the initial installation location in order to save client disk space.
This location is the SMS_PKGD directory of the SMS distribution server.
As a result, the client machine requires a drive mapping to the initial
installation location for access to documentation files. On Windows 95,
Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0, this drive mapping occurs automatically
when the documentation icon is selected.
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De-installation
Issues
Before running an Oracle de-installation job on an SMS client
machine, be sure that all Oracle applications and services are stopped.
De-installation will fail if services are running.
