Global and Local inventory

Every iAS, 8i or 9i $ORACLE_HOME must be registered on a Global Inventory.

The Global Inventory (oraInventory directory), contains pointers to each Local Inventory located under $ORACLE_HOME/inventory for every ORACLE_HOME.

The Local Inventories contain the local versions of the products installed on that $ORACLE_HOME.

On Unix/Linux platforms, the location of the Global Inventory is defined by the variable "inventory_loc" which is set on the file oraInst.loc.

ie:inventory_loc=/u01/oracle/oraInventory

This file, is located under /etc on Linux and AIX and under /var/opt/oracle on on Solaris, HP-UX and Tru64.

On Windows platforms, the location of the Global Inventory is defined by the Registry variable "inst_loc" located on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE.

Note:
1. Unlike 9i and above, 8.0.6 ORACLE_HOMEs can't be registered since they don't use the Global Inventory.

2. Incase of Oracle Applications, RapidClone uses the OUI bundle to register Cloned ORACLE_HOMEs into the Global Inventory. Registration of an ORACLE_HOME allows OUI to be used to maintain or patch that ORACLE_HOME.

3. Whenever you are applying any patch for the OUI, in order to prevent permission problems, before applying this patch, make sure the Operating System users that own iAS and 8i or 9i have read/write access on the Global Inventory.