Oracle 11 and 12, Orarun and Single-server Multi-version Installations on SLES

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 4 (SLES 11 SP4)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1)

The Oracle Server installation pattern for SLES (which installs the 'orarun' package) , is designed to setup the environment on a SLES server so that you are ready to install the Oracle product of your choice.

However, 'orarun' for SLES11 always assumes you are working with Oracle11gR2 and 'orarun' for SLES12 always assumes you are working with Oracle12cR1. So if you want to install Oracle 12 on SLES11, you need to modify the environment that has been setup by the 'orarun' package (or, if you are an Oracle expert, you can just setup the environment without using the 'orarun' package/Oracle pattern).

Also, because the orarun package only configures a server for a the support of a single Oracle version, customers who wish to run multiple Oracle versions on the same SLES server, must manually modify the environment to accommodate their needs.

Installing Oracle 12 on SLES 11:

After the Oracle Pattern / orarun installation, change the following lines in /etc/profile.d/oracle

From:
  ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11gR2/db
#  export ORA_CRS_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11gR2/crs
#  export ORA_ASM_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11gR2/asm

To:
  ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/12cR1/db
#  export ORA_CRS_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/12cR1/crs
#  export ORA_ASM_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/12cR1/asm

Installing Oracle 11 on SLES 12:

After the Oracle Pattern / orarun installation, change the following lines in /etc/profile.d/oracle

From:
  ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/12cR1/db
#  export ORA_CRS_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/12cR1/crs
#  export ORA_ASM_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/12cR1/asm

To:
  ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11gR2/db
#  export ORA_CRS_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11gR2/crs
#  export ORA_ASM_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11gR2/asm


Multiple Oracle Homes Support:

Oracle Database supports multiple Oracle versions / multiple Oracle homes on the same server. You must install each different release of Oracle Database into a unique Oracle home directory.

You must also create  / edit the server environment appropriately so whenever any Oracle related action is executed on the server, the execution environment (e.g. ORACLE_HOME) in use is at that time is configured correctly for the correct database and Oracle version that the action is intended to be actioned against (e.g. database start/stop etc).

Configuration files installed by the orarun package:
                /etc/sysconfig/oracle
                /etc/init.d/oracle          (init script: start|stop|status|restart)
                /etc/profile.d/oracle.csh
                /etc/profile.d/oracle.sh

Related configuration files created by the Oracle installation process:
                /etc/oratab
                /etc/oraInst.loc


Running Oracle 12 with the high-availability extension.
In order to successfully use the HAE Oracle resource agent with 'container based' Oracle 12 databases, you must define 2 parameters on the Oracle resource agent that start with C##. Here is an example:

Instance attributes:   sid             orcl
                               home          /opt/oracle/product/12cR1/db
                               monprofile   C##monprof1
                               monuser     C##monitor1

NOTE:  The monitor profile entry should be auto-created in the database if it does not already exists.

Remember to edit the /etc/oratab file (if it exists) and set the database Y/N start field to 'N' so that the HAE Oracle resource agent can be responsible for the start/stop of the database.

NOTE: Always use the latest resource agents available for the version of SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension being used (search for 'resource-agents' under the appropriate product/version on the patch finder web-site or use the appropriate zypper command on any High Availability Extension subscribed update repositories).