CreateOUIProcess(): 13 … Permission issue or Library issue?

Recently I have been doing some installs for Oracle GoldenGate via the silent install process; mostly using Ansible.  Every once in a awhile I will run into a system that is not configured correctly, for what ever reason.  I know when I run into these systems because the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) will fail to install Oracle GoldenGate binaries.  The error I typically get is related to CreateOUIProcess(): 13 errors. 

This error is a pain because there is not underlying message that accurately reflects what is going on.  Just the error.  This get even more frustrating when the issue appears to be be masked by Ansible.  Hopefully, this post will serve to help someone else or as a reminder for me on how to fix the issue.

Error

Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from  ……. Please wait…Error in CreateOUIProcess() 13: <some message>

When

This is typically seen when trying to install an Oracle product with ./runInstaller

Cause

The specific Oracle user is unable to execute temp files from the /tmp directory as the execute permissions on /tmp was not allowed.

Solution

1. Check the permissions on the /tmp directory and/or the mappings in the /etc/fstab file.  Remount the /tmp directory if needed.

2. Install the libsnl library on RHEL/OEL.  This may be due to a SysAdmin not fully configuring the correct rpm file.

3. Export the location of a TEMP directory (often the fix)

$ mkdir -p /home/oracle/software_temp
$ export TEMP=/home/oracle/software_temp
$ ./runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer ….

The three items provided should be able to resolve an CreateOUIProcess(): 13 … error.

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