Description

Oracle Enterprise Linux is the Linux RPM version of Oracle. You can download it free and it is very near to Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS. This is a how to guide about installing Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.3 in a VirtualBox VM for testing purposes.

Software Download

Download software from https://edelivery.oracle.com/linux

Sign up with an Oracle account:

Accept the terms and restrictions:

Select Oracle Linux product pack and x86 64 bits platform

Download the first option: Oracle Linux Release 6 Update 3 for x86_64 (64 Bit):

Create VirtualBox Machine

For testing purposes is a good idea to use virtual machines. We have used here Oracle VirtualBox. Once downloaded and installed, the first step is to create a Virtual Machine for our OEL installation:

Press New in the toolbar and complete the fields with bellow information:

Select the memory size, 512MB is recommended, but we will use 1024MB. We can change it depends on our requirements after operating system installation

The next step is the creation of a virtual hard drive. Our recommendation is to place a little disk with 10GB to store the operating system files and add new volumes after installation when needed.

When press on "Create" button, a Virtual Disk creation wizard is shown. Select VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image):

Select dynamically allocated for storage on physical drive, it means that the virtual disk file increase when needed (fixed size takes all the space assigned from start):

Select the file name, location and the space, for our purposes 10GB is ok.

Our machine is ready to start now, but we need to mount on the DVD Drive the downloaded OEL 6.3 installation image. Select the virtual machine and click on Settings at the toolbar. Select storage on the left pane of the Settings window:

The next step is to configure network settings. Click on network on the left pane and configure as NAT (internal network between host and guest) or Bridged (assign a virtual adapter attached to the selected physical adapter). We use the last one to get full connectivity in our LAN:

Oracle Enterprise Linux Installation

Start the Virtual Machine. DVD is loaded at startup. Select the option "Install or Upgrade an existing system":

Skip the media validation:

The initial installation wizard screen is loaded, press Next:

Select the language of your convenience and press Next:

Select the keyboard layout and press Next:

Keep the default selection "Basic Storage Devices" and press Next:

Partition is going to be performed, press "Yes, discard any data", our disk is new:

Assign a hostname for your system and press on configure network:

Select "System eth0" and configure to start automatically. We are not going to change the DHCP default, if needed it can be done in IPV4 settings, assigning an static IP address. Click on Next button:

Select your time zone and click on Next button:

Type your root user password, confirm and press on Next:

On installation type select "Use all space" and Next:

An alert window raise up, click on "Write changes to disk"

Select "Basic Server" and choose the option "Customize now", if we install a basic server only no desktop will be installed:

Select on Desktops the options "Desktop", "Desktop Platform", "General Purpose Desktop", "Graphical Administration Tools", "Remote Desktop Clients" and "X Window System". Click on Next:

The installation process starts to install all the packages selected in our configuration:

At the end of the process a congratulations message is displayed, click on Reboot:

The system will reboot to start the configuration process.

First Boot (Configuration Process)

Welcome screen, press on Forward button:

Accept the license agreement and forward:

You can provide your Oracle account information for updates, for our testing purposes we select no:

"No, thanks" on alert window:

And again confirm that we don't want updates setup clicking on forward button:

Provide an alternative root account information and password:

Click on "Synchronize date and time over the network" to keep the system with the right time via Network Time Protocol (NTP):

Click OK on the alert kdump window:

Click on Finish, no options because with 1024MB of memory we cannot configure kdump:

And at the end the login window, click on your user name:

Provide the password:

And that's all, your OEL 6.3 is installed: