If your Linux distribution is Oracle Linux, or Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and you are an Oracle Linux support customer, then you can complete most preinstallation configuration tasks by using the Oracle Preinstallation RPM for your release.

Oracle Preinstallation RPMs are available from the Oracle Linux Network or available on the Oracle Linux DVDs. Using the Oracle Preinstallation RPM is not required, but Oracle recommends you use it to save time in setting up your cluster servers.

When installed, the Oracle Preinstallation RPM does the following:

• Automatically downloads and installs any additional RPM packages needed for installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database, and resolves any dependencies

• Creates an oracle user, and creates the oraInventory (oinstall) and OSDBA (dba) groups for that user

• As needed, sets sysctl.conf settings, system startup parameters, and driver parameters to values based on recommendations from the Oracle Preinstallation RPM program

• Sets hard and soft resource limits

• Sets other recommended parameters, depending on your kernel version

• Sets numa=off in the kernel for Linux x86_64 machines.

To become an Oracle Linux Network customer, contact your sales representative or purchase a license from the Oracle Linux store:

https://shop.oracle.com/product/oraclelinux

To register your server on the Unbreakable Linux Network, or to find out more information, see the following URL:

https://linux.oracle.com

If you are using Oracle Linux 5.2 or a higher release, then the Oracle Preinstallation RPM is included on the install media.