ERROR: Oracle VM Manager can not be installed on a 64 bit Oracle Linux version 6.7

While rebuilding my OVM at home, I hit a new bug with the 3.3.3 installer. Being a fresh rebuilt, I had decided to go with the latest and greatest version of OVM. This went great until I went to install the OVM Manager software. There I hit a new bug when the prerequisites were being checked.

Wait as sec, this IS an Oracle Linux 6.7 build.. the latest and greatest version of 6 available. What is going on here? Well, it turns out Oracle make a change in the platform.py scripts, forcing the check to get confused with “Redhat” vs “Oracle”. So the quick fix is to simply rename the /etc/oracle-release file.

$ ./runInstaller.sh
Oracle VM Manager Release 3.3.3 Installer Oracle VM Manager Installer log file:
/var/log/ovmm/ovm-manager-3-install-2015-08-28-214203.log
Please select an installation type:
    1: Install
    2: Upgrade
    3: Uninstall
    4: Help
    Select Number (1-4): 1
Starting production with local database installation …
Verifying installation prerequisites …
Oracle VM Manager can only be installed on a 64 bit Oracle Linux version 5.5
and higher.
Current version is ‘oracle’ version ‘6.7’
Configuration verification failed …

Well, it kinda is a fix, but you have to rename both the start and end of the file. In my case, I renames it to “/etc/temp_oracle-release_temp.

After that the installer ran for a bit, but again failed! This time with the error;

Preparing to launch the Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2015-08-28_10-20-22PM

Log: /u01/app/oracle/oraInventory/logs/install2015-28_10-20-22PM.log

Copyright (c) 1996, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Reading response file..

Expected result: One of enterprise-4,enterprise-5,enterprise-6,redhat-6,redhat-4,redhat-5,SuSE-10,SuSE-11

Actual Result: redhat-n/a

Check complete. The overall result of this check is: Failed <<<<

Problem: This Oracle software is not certified on the current operating system.

Recommendation: Make sure you are installing the software on the correct platform.

Warning: Check:CertifiedVersions failed.

Expected result: 1.7

Actual Result: 1.7.0_79

Check complete. The overall result of this check is: Passed

CheckJDKVersion Check: Success.

Verifying data……

Copying Files…

So a little more digging, and it looks like lsb_release is broken once the /etc/oracle-release file is moved. So a quick “fix” is top change the CHECKFIRST to “/etc/redhat-release” from “/etc/oracle-release” in /usr/bin/lsb_release

This is in no way a perfect fix, but it does get around the install issue. Hopefully Oracle will have a patch for this soon.

 

# Defines the data files

INFO_ROOT=”/etc”                              # directory of config files

INFO_LSB_FILE=”lsb-release”                   # where to get LSB version

INFO_LSB_DIR=”lsb-release.d”                  # where to get LSB addon modules

INFO_DISTRIB_SUFFIX=”release”                 # <distrib>-<suffix>

ALTERNATE_DISTRIB_FILE=”/etc/debian_version”  # for Debian [based distrib]

ALTERNATE_DISTRIB_NAME=”Debian”               #     “

CHECKFIRST=”/etc/redhat-release”              # check it before file search

So, kicked off the installer a second time, and I was up and running in OVM in about 15 minutes.

Hopefully this helps you, but based on my “fixes” I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few other challenges with 6.7. if you hit any, please drop me a note.