Select the following software installation paths
Specify an Oracle base location that is owned by the user performing the installation. You can choose a location with an existing Oracle home, or choose another directory location that does not have the structure for an Oracle base directory.
Using the Oracle base directory path helps to facilitate the organization of Oracle installations, and helps to ensure that installations of multiple databases maintain an Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) configuration.
Even if you do not use the same software owner to install Oracle Clusterware and ASM, and to install Oracle Database, be aware that running the root.sh script during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation changes ownership of the home directory where Oracle Clusterware binaries are placed to root. For this reason, the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster home cannot be in the same location as other Oracle software. However, Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone database--Oracle Restart--can be in the same location as other Oracle software.
If you have created a path for Oracle base that is compliant with Oracle Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines for Oracle software paths, then Oracle Universal Installer provides this path as the default Oracle base path. For OUI to recognize the path as an Oracle software path, it must be in the form u0[1-9]/app, and it must be writable by any member of the Oracle Inventory (oraInventory) group. Oracle recommends that you create an Oracle base path manually. The Optimal Flexible Architecture path for the Oracle Base is /u01/app/user, where user is the name of the user account that you want to own the Oracle Database software.
Specify a location for the Oracle Clusterware and Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) software binaries. Ensure that the directory path you provide meets the following requirements:
It should be created in a path outside existing Oracle homes.
It should not be located in a user home directory.
It should be created either as a subdirectory in a path where all files can be owned by root, or in a unique path.
Before installation, it should be owned by the installation owner (typically oracle for a single installation owner for all Oracle software, or grid for role-based Oracle installation owners), and set to 750 permissions.
For installations with Oracle Clusterware and ASM only, Oracle recommends that you create a path compliant with Oracle Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines, so that Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) can select that directory during installation. For OUI to recognize the path as an Oracle software path, it must be in the form u0[1-9]/app.
When OUI finds an OFA-compliant path, it creates the software home and Oracle central inventory (oraInventory) directories for you.
If you created an OFA-compliant path for Oracle base, then it automatically creates an OFA-compliant path for the software home derived from the Oracle base path. The Optimal Flexible Architecture path for Oracle Base is /u01/app/user, where user is the name of the user account that you want to own the Oracle Database software.