Posted by Before your 21c database software installation, there are a number of prerequisite steps in order to get your operating system ready for the Oracle Database. This used to be a lengthy series of manual tasks, but more recently this has been simplified with the preinstall rpm file that we make available to you.
[root@localhost sf_tmp]# yum -y install oracle-database-preinstall-21c
Last metadata expiration check: 3:26:29 ago on Wed 14 Jul 2021 22:49:36 EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
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Package Architecture Version Repository Size
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Installing:
oracle-database-preinstall-21c x86_64 1.0-0.4.el8 @commandline 31 k
Installing dependencies:
compat-openssl10 x86_64 1:1.0.2o-3.el8 ol8_appstream 1.1 M
ksh x86_64 20120801-254.0.1.el8 ol8_appstream 927 k
libnsl x86_64 2.28-151.0.1.el8 ol8_baseos_latest 102 k
Transaction Summary
===============================================================================================================
Install 4 Packages
Total size: 2.2 M
Total download size: 2.1 M
Installed size: 6.6 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/3): libnsl-2.28-151.0.1.el8.x86_64.rpm 28 kB/s | 102 kB 00:03
(2/3): ksh-20120801-254.0.1.el8.x86_64.rpm 243 kB/s | 927 kB 00:03
(3/3): compat-openssl10-1.0.2o-3.el8.x86_64.rpm 303 kB/s | 1.1 MB 00:03
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Total 571 kB/s | 2.1 MB 00:03
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Installing : ksh-20120801-254.0.1.el8.x86_64 1/4
Running scriptlet: ksh-20120801-254.0.1.el8.x86_64 1/4
Installing : compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-3.el8.x86_64 2/4
Running scriptlet: compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-3.el8.x86_64 2/4
/sbin/ldconfig: /etc/ld.so.conf.d/kernel-5.4.17-2102.201.3.el8uek.x86_64.conf:6: hwcap directive ignored
Installing : libnsl-2.28-151.0.1.el8.x86_64 3/4
Installing : oracle-database-preinstall-21c-1.0-0.4.el8.x86_64 4/4
Running scriptlet: oracle-database-preinstall-21c-1.0-0.4.el8.x86_64 4/4
/sbin/ldconfig: /etc/ld.so.conf.d/kernel-5.4.17-2102.201.3.el8uek.x86_64.conf:6: hwcap directive ignored
Verifying : libnsl-2.28-151.0.1.el8.x86_64 1/4
Verifying : compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-3.el8.x86_64 2/4
Verifying : ksh-20120801-254.0.1.el8.x86_64 3/4
Verifying : oracle-database-preinstall-21c-1.0-0.4.el8.x86_64 4/4
Installed:
compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-3.el8.x86_64 ksh-20120801-254.0.1.el8.x86_64
libnsl-2.28-151.0.1.el8.x86_64 oracle-database-preinstall-21c-1.0-0.4.el8.x86_64
Complete!
[root@localhost sf_tmp]#
One of the tasks this rpm takes care of is creating a set of OS groups to handle various system administration roles that you might want to delegate with OS level utilities, such as backups, dataguard maintenance, RAC tasks etc. You can see these groups in /etc/group
[root@localhost sf_tmp]# cat /etc/group
root:x:0:
bin:x:1:
daemon:x:2:
sys:x:3:
...
...
oinstall:x:54321:
dba:x:54322:
oper:x:54323:
backupdba:x:54324:
dgdba:x:54325:
kmdba:x:54326:
racdba:x:54330:
[root@localhost sf_tmp]#
and the installer will prompt for which groups you would like top use at installation time.
One common thing I am seeing catch people out is that you might need to run a fresh terminal session in order to make sure that these groups can be seen by the installer. I’ve seen some confusion of late, where admins are running the preinstall rpm, but using an existing “oracle” terminal session to launch the installer. If you do that, the installer screen might not see those groups and thus you will only have the “oracle” option available in the drop down during installation
Simply exit the installer, grab a fresh terminal session and you’ll be good to do.
Enjoy your 21c database!
Learning is not a spectator sport 
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