Deinstallation of Oracle Database

deinstall stop the oracle software and remove it, including data files and recovery files.

deinstall utility exist in ORACLE_HOME/deinstall directory.

$ [oracle@devBase deinstall]$ pwd
/u01/app/oracle/product/19.3.0/dbhome_1/deinstall

Steps involved in deintallation of Oracle Software and data files.

Step 1 Backup all the data files.

Step 2 Switch into deinstall directory.

Step 3 Enter following command

$ [oracle@devBase deinstall]$ ./deinstall 

It start deinstallation process

Note : On CentOS 8 / RedHat 8 deinstalltion utility stop by throwing an error.

[oracle@devBase deinstall]$ ./deinstall
Checking for required files and bootstrapping ...
Please wait ...
Location of logs /tmp/deinstall2020-02-09_07-19-33AM/logs/

############ ORACLE DECONFIG TOOL START ############


######################### DECONFIG CHECK OPERATION START #########################
## [START] Install check configuration ##


Checking for existence of the Oracle home location /u01/app/oracle/product/19.3.0/dbhome_1
Oracle Home type selected for deinstall is: Oracle Single Instance Database
Oracle Base selected for deinstall is: /u01/app/oracle
Checking for existence of central inventory location /u01/app/oraInventory
ERROR: null

To solve this change CentOS / RedHat version temporarily by entering following command.

[oracle@devBase deinstall]$ export CV_ASSUME_DISTID=RHEL7.6

After that you can successfully execute deinstall utility.

You can also use various flags with deinstall such as -checkonly, -help etc. For complete information on options click here