Next Previous Contents

5. The Installation Process

In this section, at last, the actual installation of Ingres takes place.

5.1 Starting the Installation Program

In the following I will presume that you install directly from the CD which is mounted under /cdrom. Log in as ingres and cd to $II_SYSTEM/ingres if it's not your home directory. Unpack the install subdirectory from the tar file and start the ingbuild program:


$ cd $II_SYSTEM/ingres 
$ tar xf /cdrom/ingres.tar install
$ install/ingbuild

On the starting screen of ingbuild you have to specify the path to the tar file and select the type of install: Custom or Package.

If you select Package Install you can choose between the installation of two packages: one is the whole software, the other is the DBMS server only. In the latter case none of the development tools will be installed.

I suggest you choose Custom Install. It won't be any more difficult than Package and you will see all the elements that can be installed. Furthermore, Express Install is available with Custom Install only.

After choosing Custom Install, a table on the next screen shows all components of Ingres together with their respective sizes. Because of common parts in different components the sizes added up indicate much more necessary disk space than really required.

You can see three meta-components in the table. These are:

By default every component is set to be installed. If you want to exclude some of them, you have to write "No" into column "Install?". In this case you have to exclude all meta-components that contain these elements as well.

You had previously decided if the default values for the "stable" Ingres environment variables were acceptable for your installation. If so, you can choose Express Install here. Remember that you can alter the values of II_LOG_FILE and II_NUM_OF_PROCESSORS as well as the size of the transaction log at any later time.

If this is your first Ingres install, you have the necessary space under $II_SYSTEM/ingres and the "stable" parameters' default values are OK, choose Express Install.

Let us see this option first.

5.2 Express Install

In the case of Express Install the installer executes the following tasks:

If the installation process went OK, the program tells you that every installed component is ready to use. In the table on the screen the "Install?" column shows "Ready" for every selected component.

Ingres is installed on your machine. Jump to subsection Completing the Initial Configuration.

5.3 Manual Install

If you choose Install rather than Express Install, the installer untars ingres.tar, checks the integrity of the components and puts them into their respective directories. Then it asks you if you want to setup these parameters now.

If you decide to do the setup later, the installer stops. In the table containing the components the "Install?" column shows "Not Set Up" for every selected component. You can run ingbuild again at any time and choose one of the options Setup All or Setup. A component can't be used until it is set up.

Let us see what happens if you choose to set up the components.

First, you have to set up the DBMS server. On the screens to follow you will see a fair amount of explanatory text about the parameters we have covered earlier.

During the setup phase, the installer prompts you for the values of the Ingres environment variables and the other parameters:

At every prompt, enter the appropriate parameter's previously decided value.

The installer will also ask you about C2 audit and Enhanced Security. Accept the default values for these.

5.4 Completing the Initial Configuration

After an Express Install (but perhaps after a manual install as well), you may want to change the value of some of the Ingres environment variables. You will see how to do this here. Stay logged in as ingres.

You can view the current values of Ingres environment variables with the command:


$ ingprenv

You can change the value of any variable as in the following example:


$ ingsetenv II_TIMEZONE_NAME GMT2

We set II_TIMEZONE_NAME to GMT2 (Greenwich Mean Time + 2 hours), the time zone Hungary is placed in. You can find all possible values for II_TIMEZONE_NAME in the file $II_SYSTEM/ingres/files/tz.crs (look for the lists beginning with the word VALID).

You can change the value of any other Ingres environment variable in a similar way. ingprenv and ingsetenv don't require a running Ingres server.

The System Reference Guide contains descriptions for every Ingres environment variable. Let me mention two of those that we haven't covered yet.

II_DATE_FORMAT determines the display format of dates. By default, its value is US which provides the format dd-mmm-yy.

It should be pointed out that the setting of this variable has no effect on the way dates are stored in the database. Ingres always stores full date values, century included. Hence, you can always change the setting of II_DATE_FORMAT without the risk of corrupting data. In order to avoid Y2K problems in your applications, you should use a date format that contains the century, such as MULTINATIONAL4 (dd/mm/yyyy) or FINLAND (yyyy-mm-dd). The latter seems especially proper under Linux :-)

Another Ingres environment variable that has a good chance to be changed from its default value is II_MONEY_FORMAT. This one is responsible for how values of money type are displayed. Just like with dates, the value of II_MONEY_FORMAT doesn't have an impact on the storage format of money columns which is always the same.

II_MONEY_FORMAT consists of two parts: the first part tells whether the currency sign precedes the amount (L = Leading or T = Trailing), the second part describes the currency itself ($, DM, Ft, etc: this part is a string of maximum 4 characters). The two parts are separated by a colon. II_MONEY_FORMAT defaults to L:$.

Only the ingres user is allowed to use ingsetenv, since these Ingres environment variables apply to the whole installation. However, some Ingres environment variables (including II_DATE_FORMAT and II_MONEY_FORMAT) can be overridden in the users' shell, via Linux variables of the same name. You can check the System Reference Guide about which other variables fall into this category.

Be careful: Ingres doesn't prevent you from changing the value of any Ingres environment variable, including II_DATABASE, II_CHECKPOINT, II_CHARSET, etc. (the "stable" parameters as we saw earlier). However, if you change one of these, prepare for the nastiest possible consequences, the mildest one of which is that Ingres won't run.

You can find information about how to set up Ingres/ICE in section Web Access.

5.5 Re-installation

If you want to re-install Ingres for whatever reason, remember to do the following first:

Databases that aren't completely removed can cause problems when you try to re-create them.

5.6 Command Line Install

You can run ingbuild in a non-interactive mode as well. The easiest way to do an Express Install is to start ingbuild in the following way:


install/ingbuild -express /cdrom/int_lnx/ingres.tar

In this case a regular Express Install takes place without having to press another key.

5.7 The Installer's Log

No matter which type of install you choose (express or manual), you can find all of ingbuild's messages in $II_SYSTEM/ingres/files/install.log. I suggest you check this file after an Express Install to see what happened during the installation process. On the other hand, if ingbuild stops with an error message, check this log also.


Next Previous Contents