In my effort to create a fully free APEX environment this post is step 1: Install CentOS-5 and Oracle XE 11g.

This series will consist of a number of posts:

• Install CentOS-5 linux (post 1)
• Install Oracle XE 11g beta (post 1)
• Webserver choices
  • EPG (post 1)
  • TomCat (post 2)
  • Configuring the APEX Listener (post 3)
  • GlassFish Installation (post 4)
  • GlassFish Configuration (post 5)
  • Oracle HTTP server & mod_plsql (post 6)

This is post 1, covering the basic installation.

Install CentOS-5

In my first attempts to get to this fulle freeware APEX environment I decided to use Ubuntu server with the GNOME desktop. However I found out that most software is delivered in RedHats RPM format. Especially the Oracle HTTP server preferes to be installed on a RedHat compliant system. CentOS is just that.

Just do a clean install CentOS downloaded from their site. I used version 5. But make sure you use the 64 bit version.

After the clean install I installed the VirtualBox extensions:

1. Choose “Devices” – “Install Guest Additions”
2. Open a terminal:

   su -
   cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_4.0.6_71416/
   ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

   This installs the VBox additions. We do need a reboot:

   shutdown -r now

Install Oracle XE 11g beta

1. Download the installer here.
2. Open a terminal and go to the directory where you downloaded the ZIP

   mkdir OracleXE
   unzip linux.x64_11gR2_OracleXE.zip -d OracleXE
   su -
   cd /home/apex/Downloads/OracleXE
   rpm -ivh oracle-xe-11.2.0-0.5.x86_64.rpm

3. We’re still Super so we can kick the configuration straight away:

   /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

   the installer will ask for a port to run Apex (8080), a port to run the database listener (1521) a password to be used for both SYS and SYSTEM users and whether you’d like to have the database start automatically at system start (y). As a famous dutch beer-commercial states: “now we wait”.

4. When the installer finishes I put the apex user (the one I use to log in into the system) to the dba group. If we ommit this step we’ll not be able to use SQL*plus as the regular user (in my case this user is called “apex”).

   usermod -G dba apex

5. Now we need to edit the bashrc file to have the paths and system variables set correctly for everyone on the system.

   gedit /etc/profile

   In the editor at the end of the file add these lines:

   #ORACLE XE 11g Beta
   export ORACLE_SID=XE
   export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
   export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/xe
   export ORACLE_TERM=xterm
   export NLS_LANG=american_america.utf8
   export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
   export ORA_NLS33=$ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
   export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

6. Now let’s reboot. We’re finished installing XE !

   shutdown -r now

7. In the menu go to: Applications – Oracle Database 11g…. – Get Started
   This starts the browser and opens the APEX environment. 

   When the page opens correctly we know that:

   1. The database starts automatically
   2. The EPG is running on port 8080

If you continue to use the EPG, you’re ready.

if you want to use a different HTTP server you should continue:

• TomCat 6 (post 2)
• GlassFish (post 4)
• Oracle HTTP server & mod_plsql (post 6)

You can also use the APEX listener in a stand-alone mode.

• Apex listener on Linux
• Apex listener on Windows