Hi,
We run our databases on NT and we face this problem once in a while. For the
benefit of our consultants working on the client side I had prepared a
document.
This has worked perfectly for me as well as for our consultants on the
client side.
I am aware that the present problem is removing one version of Oracle and
not cleaning up the entire oracle installation. My document deals with
removing all oracle products or as the heading says clearing up the system
(of ORALCE?)
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Clearing up the System after an incomplete or improper installation of
Oracle
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Database Installation involves a set of procedures which need to be followed
in order to have a proper working installation. If we follow these
procedures the Installation will be fine and usually problems related to
improper installation do not arise. But it is not always possible to get a
proper installation for the first time. This document is a troubleshooting
guide which would help to clear off the mess created by an improper
installation in a WindowsNT system.
First we need to know that During installation Oracle writes into certain
directories (which we would have specified during installation) and also
into the WindowsNT registry. WindowsNT registry is a repository of
information about all the installed products and configurations on that
system. When we are installing Oracle a directory is created in the registry
which is name oracle which is present in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/
In the case of an improper installation the problems faced are
· We may not be able to uninstall the incomplete installation
· We may succeed in uninstalling the incomplete installation but yet face
problems with WindowsNT Services.
· Every time we log into WindowsNT we may get an error 'at least one system
service failed to start' which may be an Oracle service from the earlier
installation.
· We may get an error while creating a database 'the database with the name
you specified already exists please chose another name' which again may be
attributed to an improper un-installation.(I am not pretty comfortable with
the Oracle's Un-installation utility because I feel it does not uninstall
everything)
Keeping the above points in mind it would be better if we know where exactly
to look in case we are faced with such problems. When oracle is installed it
makes entries in the following places
1. The first and the foremost- the directory in which we install the Oracle
database (say D:\Ora8i)
2. The second is the inventory it maintains in the directory c:\program
files\oracle
3. The third HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE in the registry
4. The other place is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM . Inside this entry there
are three nodes controlset1,controlset2 and currentcontrolset. These nodes
in turn have 4 nodes out of which 2 are important to us. They are Enum and
Services. The Enum node has got two nodes out of which the 'root' node is of
great interest to us because it stores details about all the services that
are running on a WindowsNT system. The other node of interest from the
controlsets is Services. The services node has got a list of services
running on a WindowsNT system.
In case we need to clean up the system after an incomplete installation we
can follow the following steps
Delete the home directory where Oracle is installed
Delete the folder C:\program files\oracle Note:- This clears off information
about any other Oracle utility installed on that system.
Delete the registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE Warning:- This
clears off information about any other Oracle utility installed on that
system and you may not be able to run those programs again.
Delete the Oracle Related services from
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CONTROLSETx/ENUM/ROOT/ . They will be named with a
prefix LEGACY_ORACLE... Note:- You will have to use regedt32.exe to invoke
registry editor and not regedit. You will have to use the security menu and
give permissions to yourself before deleting these entries. Else it will not
work . It is to be noted that there are three control sets and all the three
(in reality any 2) need to be cleared off these un-necessary entries.
Delete the Oracle Related services from
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CONTROLSETx/SERVICES . They will have a prefix
'Oracle'.
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I have also attached a document having the same contents
Jared will this get a chance ??
joking??
coz
I am a
novice
Clearing up the System.doc
