Oracle 10g on Centos 6.7 - x86 issues: ntcontab.o, snmccolm.o, ORA-27125

Abstract

Its getting harder and harder to install good old 10g on newer Centos versions. Last attempt on 6.5 was semi-problematic, with some extra packages missing, 6.7 deployment was even more challenging.

System specifications

Centos version (/etc/issue): CentOS release 6.7 (Final)
Oracle version: Version 10.2.0.1.0 Production (10201_database_linux_x86_64.cpio)

Problems and solutions

#1: Error invoking target 'ntcontab.o' of makefile

This error occurred around 65% in installation progress, aborting is not an option - more errors will follow and in the end whole process fails. Did some testing and it appears that one process is building the file, next one is instantly deleting it:

# cp /misc/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/lib32/ntcontab.o /misc/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/lib/

But in the end it looks like it was one of the following (where not needed in 6.5):

# yum install libaio-devel.i686 -y
# yum install zlib-devel.i686 -y
# yum install glibc-devel -y
# yum install glibc-devel.i686 -y
# yum install libaio-devel -y
# yum install ksh -y
# yum install glibc-headers

#2: /misc/oracle/database/product/10.2.0/db_1/sysman/lib/snmccolm.o: could not read symbols: File in wrong format

It might be that it may be solved with some more x86 packages thrown into the pile, I was not able to find the exact culprit. Many of the sources online simply telling to ignore this and fix it with 10.2.0.4 patch. Thats what we'll do: Ignore.

#3: ORA-27125: unable to create shared memory segment

Reason is unknown, it was thrown by DBCA with continuous installation process.
The solution is very simple, first check the oracle user group information:

[oracle@storage] $ id oracle 
uid = 500 (oracle) gid = 502 (oinstall) groups = 502 (oinstall), 501 (dba) 
[oracle@storage] $ more /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group 
0 

Execute the following command as root, the dba group is added to the system kernel:

[oracle@storage] $ echo 501 > /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group

Continue with DBCA, step will fail, but then retry DBCA, the problem disappeared and database was created.

#4: bonus problem, not Centos 6.7 related: You do not have enough free disk space to create the database

My bad was that I had 12TB storage mounted, looks like I missed the 10g storage requirement: 400MB, but less then 2TB. Found no other solution then to unmount /dev/sdb1, shrink it with gparted to get ~500GB space, ext4 it and mount the new device /dev/sdb2 to another mount point /oracle.

Conclusion

Move to 11i or 12c, its about time.