Update from April 2014: This post has been superseded by this post: Oracle Database 12c on Oracle Linux 6

This is Step 2 in my 13 step process for creating an Oracle Education classroom environment using VirtualBox.

Here’s the previous step, Installing Oracle VirtualBox on Windows 7.

In this step we are going to get the Oracle Linux ISO from Oracle’s official Software Delivery Cloud called eDelivery. There are actually two Oracle Software Delivery Clouds (or at least two sections), one if for Oracle’s general software, and the other is for Oracle Linux, Oracle Virtual Machine and Oracle Virtual Machine templates. You reach the first site (we’ll go there later) at  http://edelivery.oracle.com and you reach the second (the one we are going to us now) by going to http://edelivery.oracle.com/linux. (Note the extra /linux on the end.)

We’ll actually be using the Oracle Linux 5.8 DVD image, not the Oracle Linux 6.3 image that is currently available (at the time of this writing). While Oracle Linux 6 is now certified for the Oracle Database, Oracle has yet to release some of the nice scripts (oracle-validated for example) for Oracle Linux 6. Oracle is going to be building new scripts (RPMs actually) which instead of being generic Oracle RPMs are instead going to be targeted at specific products like Oracle Database and WebLogic. So we’ll have ‘ oracle-rdbms-server-11gr2-preinstall’ and probably other RPMs for doing all the stuff required to set up the Oracle environment correctly for an Oracle Database install on Linux. But for now, Oracle Linux 5 has the oracle-validated RPM available and since we’re really much more concerned about our Oracle Database environment instead of having the latest and greatest Linux version, we’re just going to stick with Oracle Linux 5.8. Note that if you do decide to go down the Oracle Linux 6.3 path, you’ll also need a different version of Oracle 11g R2, Oracle 11.0.3 which is currently only available from Oracle support.

Let’s get started:

1. Navigate to https://edelivery.oracle.com and click Sign In / Register.
   

   Oracle Software Delivery Cloud – Oracle Linux and Oracle VM

2. Enter your Username and Password and click Sign In. Obviously if you don’t yet have an Oracle.com account, you can go through the registration process to create one by clicking the Sign Up link.
   

   Oracle.com Sign In

3. Agree to both the terms of service and the export restrictions and click Continue.
   

   Terms and Restrictions Agreement

4. Choose Oracle Linux from the Select a Product Pack drop down and x86 64 bit from the Platform drop down and click Go. If you are installing on a 32 bit system, you can download the 32 bit software.
   

   Media Pack Search

5. In the results list find the Oracle Linux Release 5 Update 8 Media Pack for x86 64 (64 bit) link and click it.
   

   Oracle Linux 5 Update 8

6. Click the first Downloadbutton in the Select column to download the ISO for Oracle Linux Release 5 Update 8 for x86_64 (64 Bit).
   

   Linux 5 Update 8 Download

7. Click OKto download the ISO.
   

   Download Dialog

8. Wait for the download to complete. This will take a while depending on the speed of your connection.
   

   Download Progress

We’ll be using this ISO image during the install of Oracle Linux. I often move the file to a more appropriate location than my downloads folder, but since we’ll be able to delete the file once we’ve finished with the Linux install it’s not that important to move it. If I decide that I’ll be keeping the file around for other installations, then I rename the file. Oracle_Linux_Release_5_Update_8.iso is a lot easier to figure out months down the road than V31120-01.iso.

Note that even though this is a DVD image that could be burned to DVD, there is no reason to do this as Virtual Box can use the file directly.