Pre-installation tasks

WARNING! If you install Adaptive Server for an upgrade, you cannot install it into the same directory as the currently installed version. The new version overwrites the old one, causing the upgrade to fail. You must have both the old and the new versions of Adaptive Server to perform an upgrade.

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

Table 4-1: Environment variables

Variable

Set to...

$SYBASE

/sybase-12.5

$SYBASE_ASE

ASE-12_5

$SYBASE_OCS

OCS-12_5

$SYBASE_SYSAM

SYSAM-1_0

$SYBASE_FTS

FTS-12_5

$DISPLAY

NoteYou must manually set the $DISPLAY environment variable.

your_display:0.0 where your_display is the name of your machine. This variable must be set when performing a remote installation.

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 in the release bulletin.

  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. Identify or create a directory location for the Sybase installation directory, where you install the server products.

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

  7. Verify that:

    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.

  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 the operating system shared memory parameter.

    For Adaptive Server to run, the operating system must be configured to allow allocation of a shared memory segment at least as large as the Adaptive Server total logical memory configuration parameter.

    The default total logical memory configuration parameter on Digital UNIX is 47,104 2K pages, or 92MB. To adjust the shared memory value of the operating system, add the following lines to the operating system configuration file /etc/sysconfigtab:

    ipc: shm-max=nnn
    

    For Digital Unix 4.0d, add:

    ssm-threshold=0
    

    If this parameter is not set, Adaptive Server fails to start, and the following message is displayed:

    os create region: shmat "xx": invalid argument
    

    After you install Adaptive Server, you can change any configuration parameter, procedure cache, and data cache sizes and this may require the configuration parameter max memory to be increased.

  11. 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.

    Adaptive Server may allocate shared memory segments after start-up if any reconfiguration through sp_configure requires additional memory. You may need to account for these additional segments. This can be avoided by allocating all the shared memory during start-up, for the maximum memory you will make available to Adaptive Server, by using the allocate max shared memory configuration parameter. See the System Administration Guide for more information.

    At least 32 shared memory segments are required. Add the following line to the operating system configuration file /etc/sysconfigtab:

    set shmset:shminfo_shmseg=memory_segments 
    

    where memory_segments is the number of memory segments.

  12. Enable asynchronous disk I/O.

    This step is recommended for Digital UNIX users.

    Digital UNIX automatically enables asynchronous I/O but, by default, limits the number of concurrent I/O requests to 64. If you expect that you need additional requests for your Adaptive Server installation, add the following lines to the /etc/sysconfigtab file:

    rt:
    aio-max-num=1024
    

    To determine the current value of aio-maximum, enter:

    /sbin/sysconfig -q -rt 
    
  13. 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 portions of a disk (called raw partitions) used to store databases and database objects. For details, see “Determining the location, type, and size of a database device”.