paper -
34 Details of Installing an Oracle Database for Instructional Use
Michael
Lamont, Western Kentucky University
Darleen Pigford, Western Kentucky University
The use of relational database systems has increased
dramatically in the past decade. Many
corporations and institutions rely heavily on these systems for their
day-to-day data storage needs. These
modern database systems are fast, redundant, feature-laden, and complex. The complexity of these systems has le d to
a situation common in the field of information technology: the demand for
qualified people has far outstripped supply.
The Department of Computer Science at Western Kentucky
University recognized t his shortage some years ago, and created courses to
teach database skills at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The database of choice for these courses is
the recognized leader in relational database systems, Oracle Server. Prior to the spring semester of 2000, the
Oracle system used for instruction al purposes was run on the OpenVMS operating
system. With the ascendance of U NIX in
database applications, it was decided to switch to a UNIX version of Oracle for
instructional use.
This paper describes the process that was used to install Oracle Server 7.3.4 on a UNIX server running Sun Microsystems' Solaris 7 flavor of UNIX. Particular attention is paid to problems that occurred during the setup process and the first semester of the system's classroom use, and their solutions. Future directions for the classroom use of a UNIX-based Oracle system are also discussed.