EVERY Oracle install contains the minimum requirements for ArcGIS (or can be
easily updated to contain the missing packages). You really need to understand
the underlying database to get your best value out of ArcSDE. Unfortunately,
there is no short-cut to learning Oracle -- you just need to do it (or choose a
different RDBMS with a less steep learning curve [they're all pretty steep]).
As a 24+ year Oracle DBA I am among the least likely on the planet to be
giving advice on simple install techniques (I tweak *everything*, and I tweak
differently at every site, and I doubt I could explain why I did what I did what
I did in under a week). There are nearly 5 million hits for a search on "oracle
install tutorial", but the first page looks like there's pretty good stuff to be
had right there.
- V