Setting up a connection to Oracle

To make a connection from a client machine to an Oracle database, you must install the Oracle client application on the client machine. Be sure you install a release of the Oracle client application that is compatible with the release of the database to which you want to connect.

Note:

If you are connecting from a 32-bit ArcGIS client, you must install a 32-bit Oracle client. This is true even if you install the ArcGIS client application on a computer with a 64-bit operating system (OS) and the database and server OS are 64-bit. If you are connecting from a 64-bit ArcGIS client, you must install a 64-bit Oracle client. If you are connecting from a 64-bit ArcGIS client, install a 64-bit Oracle client.

Obtain the Oracle Instant, Runtime, or Administrator client from Oracle. Install it on the client computer following the directions in your Oracle documentation.

If you use the Oracle Instant Client, set the environment variable of your operating system or user profile to include the path to and name of the directory where you placed or installed the Oracle Instant Client:

• On Linux, set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.
• On Windows, set the PATH environment variable. If both ArcGIS for Server and ArcGIS for Desktop are installed on the same Windows computer, set the PATH variable to read the 64-bit client before the 32-bit client. For example, if your 32-bit Oracle Instant Client is installed to c:\Program Files (x86)\Oracle and your 64-bit Oracle Instant Client is installed to c:\Program Files\Oracle, add the following to the beginning of your PATH variable value on Windows: C:\Program Files\Oracle;C:\Program Files (x86)\Oracle;.

If your ArcGIS client was already running, restart it to recognize the new files and environment variable.

After you configure the Oracle client, test the connection by adding a database connection from ArcGIS for Desktop.

If you will be connecting to the database from a client application other than ArcGIS, you may also need to add an entry in the tnsnames.ora file (Oracle 10g) or extproc.ora file (Oracle 11g) to allow you to connect to the Oracle DBMS and set appropriate environment variables, such as ORAHOME and PATH. See your Oracle documentation for details.