Pre-installation tasks

By default, Adaptive Server installs to directory that it creates during the installation process. The new directory does not conflict with default installation directories of earlier versions of Adaptive Server.

Installation directory defaults for Adaptive Server are as follows:

Table 4-1 is a list of the environment variables and their default settings.

Adaptive Server and its components on Linux are released as Redhat Package Manager (RPM) packages. You must have root permissions to install RPM packages. After you have installed the packages, you should log in as the user “sybase” to configure your servers.

When you log in as “sybase” for the first time after installation, verify that the SYBASE environment variable is correctly set and that $SYBASE/$SYBASE_ASE/bin and $SYBASE/$SYBASE_OCS/bin are in your search path.

Before installing Sybase servers:

1. Read the release bulletins for the latest information on the products (Adaptive Server, Monitor Server, and so on) that you are installing. See the “Special Installation Instructions” section.

2. Install operating system patches, if required. Required operating system patches are described in the release bulletin for the product.

   Your Sybase product shipment includes printed release bulletins; they are also availablehttp://www.sybase.com/support/manuals.

3. Review the SySAM procedures and plan your client/server configuration using Chapter 3, “Sybase Software Asset Management (SySAM).”

4. Create a “sybase” account on your system to perform all installation tasks.

   The “sybase” user must have permission privileges from the top (or root) of the disk partition or operating system directory down to the specific physical device or operating system file.

5. Log in to the machine as the “sybase” user.

   It is important to maintain consistent ownership and privileges for all files and directories. A single user—the Sybase System Administrator with read, write, and execute permissions—should perform all installation, upgrade, and setup tasks.

6. Verify that you have a directory /opt on your machine, and that it has sufficient space to accommodate the software. If an /opt directory does not already exist, the Linux RPM creates it in the root directory.

   If you are installing for an upgrade, see Chapter 8, “Upgrading Sybase Servers.”

7. Verify:

   • That the directory location for the Sybase installation has sufficient space. Include an additional 2.4MB space for the installation program.

   • That your operating system meets the release-level, RAM, and network-protocol requirements.

   Space requirements for Adaptive Server Enterprise products are listed in Chapter 2, “Installation Requirements.”

8. If you are performing an installation on a remote machine, set the DISPLAY variable of the local X11 server.

   • On the machine where you are monitoring the installation of Adaptive Server, enter:

     % export DISPLAY=your_display:0.0
     

     where your_display is the name of the local display.

   • On the machine where you are installing Adaptive Server, enter:

     $ xhost +
     

9. Verify that your network software is configured.

   Sybase software uses network software even if Adaptive Server and Sybase client applications are installed on a machine that is not connected to a network.

   If you are having connection problems, or if you want to verify your network configuration, complete these steps:

   1. Log in to your host machine with this UNIX command:

          telnet host
      

      This command gives you a login prompt for the same machine.

   2. Without logging out, log in to your host machine a second time, using the same command.

      If you cannot log in to the machine a second time, your network software is not properly configured to run in loopback mode. See the network software documentation, or consult your vendor.

   3. Log out twice.

10. Adjust shared memory segments.

    Depending on the number and types of devices you use for backup (dump) and recovery (load), you may need to adjust the shared memory segment parameter in the operating system configuration file to accommodate concurrent Backup Server processes. The default number of shared memory segments available for process attachments is 6.

11. The operating system shared memory default, for most Linux releases is 32MB. The minimum required by Adaptive Server is 64MB. To tune the maximum shared memory segment size per request heap, go to the /proc directory. Check the available operating system size.

    # ipcs -lm | grep ’max seg size’
    max seg size (kbytes) = 32768
    

    Choose the new size for the operating system shared memory parameter. For example, to change the shared memory to 512MB, enter:

    #echo ’512 * 1024 * 1024’ |bc > proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
    

    Verify that the change takes effect:

    # ipcs -lm | grep ’max seg size’
    max seg size (kbytes) = 524288
    

    This change is a dynamic Linux kernel tuning. The operating system does not need to be restarted.

    To avoid having to make this change after each restart, add this line to the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file:

    echo ’512 * 1024 * 1024 | bc > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
    

12. Determine the location, type, and size of each database device.

    You must provide this information during the installation of Adaptive Server. Devices are operating system files, or raw partitions, used to store databases and database objects. For details, see “Determining the location, type, and size of a database device”.

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Copyright © 2002. Sybase Inc. All rights reserved.

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