More often than not, I see installations, where either shared memory parameters or ulimit settings are not set as required for an optimal Oracle database installation.

The tool RDA, commonly known as a support tool to gather diagnostic information for Oracle Support for service requests, can do these checks quite nicely.

Steps:

• Download RDA from MetaLink Note 314422.1.
• unzip in working directory
• run Health Check Validation Engine of RDA

$ ./rda.pl -T hcve
Processing HCVE tests ...
Available Pre-Installation Rule Sets:
1. Oracle Database 10g (10.1.0) PreInstall(HP-UX)
2. Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0) PreInstall (HP-UX Itanium)
3. Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (HPUX)
4. Oracle Database 11g R1 (11.1.0) PreInstall (HPUX)
5. Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) PreInstall (HP-UX)
6. Oracle Application Server 10g R2 (10.1.2) PreInstall (HP-UX)
7. Oracle Portal PreInstall (Generic)
Available Post-Installation Rule Sets:
8. Oracle Portal PostInstall (generic)
9. Data Guard PostInstall (Generic)
Enter the HCVE rule set number
Hit 'Return' to accept the default (1)
> 3

Enter value for < Planned ORACLE_HOME location or if set >
Hit 'Return' to accept the default ($ORACLE_HOME)
>

Test "Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (HPUX)" executed at Tue Dec 23 15:26:31 2008

Test Results
~~~~~~~~~~~~

ID NAME RESULT VALUE
===== ==================== ====== ========================================
10 OS Certified? PASSED Certified with 10g R2 RDBMS
20 User in /etc/passwd? PASSED userOK
25 Got EXTJOB User? FAILED ExtjobNotFound
30 Group in /etc/group? PASSED GroupOK
40 Input ORACLE_HOME RECORD $ORACLE_HOME
50 ORACLE_HOME Valid? PASSED OHexists
60 O_H Permissions OK? PASSED CorrectPerms
70 Umask Set to 022? PASSED UmaskOK
80 LDLIBRARYPATH Unset? PASSED UnSet
90 SHLIB_PATH Unset? PASSED UnSet
100 Other O_Hs in PATH? PASSED NotFound
110 oraInventory Permiss FAILED oraInventoryNotOK
120 /tmp Adequate? PASSED TempSpaceOK
130 Swap (in MB) RECORD 15144
140 RAM (in MB) PASSED 14334
150 SwapToRAM OK? PASSED SwapToRAMOK
160 Disk Space OK? FAILED OnlySpaceForOne
170 Kernel Parameters OK FAILED [EXECUTABLE_STACK=1] too large [MAXUP..>
175 Links and Libs OK? PASSED AllExist
180 Got ld,nm,ar,make? PASSED ld_nm_ar_make_found
190 ulimits OK? PASSED ulimitOK
200 Got OS Bundles? PASSED GOLDAPPS11iandGOLDBASE11iAdequate
210 Got OS Patches? FAILED [PHNE_31097 or its successor PHNE_324..>
220 Other OUI Up? PASSED NoOtherOUI


The output file contains detailed information, about why a specific check failed.

[PHNE_31097 or its successor PHNE_32477 or its successor PHNE_33498 or its successor PHNE_35418] not installed
[PHSS_31221 or its successor PHSS_33263 or its successor PHSS_33944] not installed
[PHSS_30970 or its successor PHSS_33033 or its successor PHSS_35379] not installed
[PHSS_32508 or its successor PHSS_34411 or its successor PHSS_35099] not installed
[PHSS_32509 or its successor PHSS_34412 or its successor PHSS_35098] not installed
[PHSS_32510 or its successor PHSS_34413 or its successor PHSS_35100] not installed

FAILED
[EXECUTABLE_STACK=1] too large
[MAXUPRC=1024] too small
[MSGMNI=50] too small
[MSGTQL=40] too small
[NCSIZE=9964] too small
[NFILE=5000] too small
[NINODE=4844] too small
[SHMMAX=1024000000] too small
[MAXSWAPCHUNKS=2048] too small
[MSGMAP=42] too small == KernelOK