2.5 Creating Required Operating System Groups and Users
Depending on whether this is the first time Oracle software is being installed on this system and on the products that you are installing, you may need to create several operating system groups and users.
The following operating system groups and user are required if you are installing Oracle Database:
The OSDBA group (dba)
You must create this group the first time you install Oracle Database software on the system. It identifies operating system user accounts that have database administrative privileges (the SYSDBA privilege). The default name for this group is dba.
If you want to specify a group name other than the default dba group, then you must choose the Custom installation type to install the software or start Oracle Universal Installer as a user that is not a member of this group. In this case, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to specify the name of this group.
The OSOPER group (oper)
This is an optional group. Create this group if you want a separate group of operating system users to have a limited set of database administrative privileges (the SYSOPER privilege). By default, members of the OSDBA group also have the SYSOPER privilege.
If you want to specify a separate OSOPER group, other than the default dba group, then you must choose the Custom installation type to install the software or start Oracle Universal Installer as a user that is not a member of the dba group. In this case, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to specify the name of this group. The usual name chosen for this group is oper.
An unprivileged user
Verify that the unprivileged user nobody exists on the system. The nobody user must own the external jobs (extjob) executable after the installation.
The following operating system group and user are required for all installations:
The Oracle Inventory group (oinstall)
You must create this group the first time you install Oracle software on the system. The usual name chosen for this group is oinstall. This group owns the Oracle inventory, which is a catalog of all Oracle software installed on the system.
Note:
If Oracle software is already installed on the system, then the existing Oracle Inventory group must be the primary group of the operating system user that you use to install new Oracle software.
The Oracle software owner user (typically, oracle)
You must create this user the first time you install Oracle software on the system. This user owns all of the software installed during the installation. This user must have the Oracle Inventory group as its primary group. It must also have the OSDBA and OSOPER groups as secondary groups.
Note:
In Oracle documentation, this user is referred to as the oracle user.
A single Oracle Inventory group is required for all installations of Oracle software on the system. After the first installation of Oracle software, you must use the same Oracle Inventory group for all subsequent Oracle software installations on that system. However, you can choose to create different Oracle software owner users, OSDBA groups, and OSOPER groups (other than oracle, dba, and oper) for separate installations. By using different groups for different installations, members of these different groups have DBA privileges only on the associated databases rather than on all databases on the system.
See Also:
Oracle Database Administrator's Reference for UNIX-Based Operating Systems and Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information about the OSDBA and OSOPER groups and the SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges
Note:
The following sections describe how to create local users and groups. As an alternative to creating local users and groups, you could create the appropriate users and groups in a directory service, for example, Network Information Services (NIS). For information about using directory services, contact your system administrator or refer to your operating system documentation.
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