4 Oracle Database Client Postinstallation Tasks

This chapter describes the following postinstallation tasks:

Required Postinstallation Tasks
Recommended Postinstallation Tasks
Required Product-Specific Postinstallation Task – Configuring Oracle Net Services

Note:

This chapter describes basic configuration only. See Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows (64-Bit) on Intel Itanium and product-specific administration and tuning guides for more sophisticated configuration and tuning information.

4.1 Required Postinstallation Tasks

This section covers the following topics:

Downloading and Installing Patches
Updating Instant Client

4.1.1 Downloading and Installing Patches

To download required patches, check the OracleMetalink Web site for required patches for your installation. Doing so ensures that you have the latest update of Oracle Database Client.

Note:

You cannot update Instant Client by downloading a patch. Use the procedure under "Updating Instant Client" to update Instant Client.

Use a Web browser to view the OracleMetalink Web site:

http://metalink.oracle.com
Log in to OracleMetalink.

Note:
If you are not an OracleMetalink registered user, then click Register for MetaLink! and follow the registration instructions.
On the main OracleMetalink page, click Patches.
Select Simple Search.
Specify the following information, then click Go:
- In the Search By field, choose Product or Family, then specify RDBMS Server
- In the Release field, specify the current release number
- In the Patch Type field, specify Patchset/Minipack
- In the Platform or Language field, select your platform
Open the patch ReadMe file, which you can access by clicking the View ReadMe icon, and follow the installation instructions.

Some patches install with Oracle Universal Installer; others require special procedures. Oracle recommends that you always read the ReadMe before proceeding.
Return to the Patch Set page, click Download, and save the file on the system.
Use an unzip utility to uncompress the Oracle patches that you downloaded from OracleMetaLink.

4.1.2 Updating Instant Client

To update Instant Client:

Download Instant Client from Oracle Technology Network (http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html).
Place the new files directly on top of the previous files.

If you place the files into a different directory (and remove the previous files), be sure to update your PATH environment variable setting to reflect the new location.

4.2 Recommended Postinstallation Tasks

Oracle recommends that you perform the tasks in the following sections after completing an installation:

Configuring Instant Client Light
Connecting Oracle Database Client to an Oracle Database
Connecting Instant Client or Instant Client Light to an Oracle Database
Setting Up User Accounts
Using Oracle9i Language and Definition Files with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2)
Configuring Oracle Counters for Windows Performance Monitor

4.2.1 Configuring Instant Client Light

To configure Instant Client Light, you need to make it the default instead of Instant Client.

To configure Instant Client Light:

In the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME directory, either rename or delete the oraociei10.dll file.

The oraociei10.dll file is the main binary for Instant Client.
From the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME\install\instantclient\light directory, copy the oraociicus10.dll file to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME directory.

The oraociicus10.dll file is the binary for Instant Client Light.
Make sure that the PATH environment variable points to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME directory.

Note:

If the Instant Client PATH is not set, applications will try to load the regular Instant Client libraries first. If the applications cannot find these, they will attempt to load the Instant Client Light library next.

4.2.2 Connecting Oracle Database Client to an Oracle Database

After you run Oracle Universal Installer to install Oracle Database Client, you need to use Net Configuration Assistant (NetCA) to configure Oracle Database Client to connect to an Oracle database. At the end of installation, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you to configure the database connection. If you bypassed that option, or if you need to change the database connection later on, use the following procedure if you installed the Administrator, Runtime, or Custom installation types.

See Also:

"Connecting Instant Client or Instant Client Light to an Oracle Database" if you had installed the Instant Client installation type

To connect Oracle Database Client to an Oracle Database:

From the Start menu, choose Oracle - HOME_NAME, then Configuration and Migration Tools, then Net Configuration Assistant.
In the Welcome window, select Local Net Service Name configuration and click Next.
In the Net Service Name Configuration window, select Add and click Next.
In the Service Name window, enter the name of the Oracle database to which you want to connect and click Next.
In the Select Protocols window, select the protocol you want and click Next.
In the Protocol window, depending on the protocol you selected, enter the appropriate information and click Next.
In the Net Test window, select whether you want to test the connection, and click Next.
In the Net Service Name window, enter a name for the net service and click Next.
Answer the remaining prompts, which allow you to configure another net service name, and then click Finish to complete the configuration.

Net Configuration Assistant creates the tnsnames.ora file in the following location:
```
ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin\tnsnames.ora
```

See Also:

Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide for more information on Oracle Net Configuration Assistant

4.2.3 Connecting Instant Client or Instant Client Light to an Oracle Database

Before you can connect Instant Client or Instant Client Light to an Oracle database, make sure that the PATH environment variable specifies the directory that contains the Instant Client libraries. (By default, Oracle Universal Installer updates the PATH variable for you during the installation process, but another user may have inadvertently reset it since then.) This directory is the Oracle home directory that you specified during installation.

For example, for regular Instant Client, it is in:

C:\> oracle\products\10.2.0\client_1

For Instant Client Light, it is in:

C:\> oracle\products\10.2.0\client_1\light

After you have checked the PATH environment variable, you can use any of the following methods to specify Oracle Database connection information for client applications:

Specifying a Connection by Using the Easy Connect Naming Method
Specifying a Connection by Configuring a tnsnames.ora File
Specifying a Connection by Using an Empty Connect String and the LOCAL Variable

4.2.3.1 Specifying a Connection by Using the Easy Connect Naming Method

You can specify a connection address to an Oracle Database directly from a client application, without having to configure a tnsnames setting for the Instant Client. This method is convenient in that you do not have to create and manage a tnsnames.ora file. However, your application users will need to specify the host name and port number when they want to log in to your application.

For example, suppose you are running SQL*Plus on the client machine and want to connect to the sales_us database, which is located on a server whose host name is shobeen and port number is 1521. If you launch SQL*Plus from the command line, you could log in as follows:

Enter user-name: system@admin@//shobeen:1521/sales_us

Similarly, in your application code, you can use Oracle Call Interface net naming methods to create the Instant Client-to-Oracle Database connection. For example, the following formats in the OCIServerAttach() call specify the connection information:

Specify a SQL connect URL string using the following format:
```
//host[:port][/service_name]
```
For example:
```
//shobeen:1521/sales_us
```
Alternatively, you can specify the SQL connect information as an Oracle Net keyword-value pair. For example:
```
"(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp) (HOST=shobeen) (PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=sales_us)))"
```
See Also:
Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide for more information on using Oracle Call Interface Instant Client

4.2.3.2 Specifying a Connection by Configuring a tnsnames.ora File

By default, when you install Instant Client, Oracle Universal Installer does not include a sample tnsnames.ora file nor the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant utility normally used to create it. However, if you want to shield users from having to specify actual host names and port numbers, you may want to consider using a tnsnames.ora file to set the Instant Client-to-Oracle Database connection.

You can create the tnsnames.ora file manually by copying and modifying a version of this file from another Oracle installation, or you can use Oracle Net Configuration Assistant to create and manage it for you.

To install Oracle Net Configuration Assistant:

Run Oracle Universal Installer.
Select the Custom installation type.
In the Available Product Components list, select Oracle Network Utilities and click Next.
In the Summary window, click Install, then click Exit and Yes to exit Oracle Universal Installer.

After you have installed Oracle Net Configuration Assistant, follow the procedure in "Connecting Oracle Database Client to an Oracle Database" for each client computer.

Then, on each client computer, configure either of the following settings:

Set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable to specify the location of the tnsnames.ora file and specify a service name from that file.
Place the tnsnames.ora file in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin directory, and make sure that the ORACLE_HOME environment has been set to this Oracle home.

See Also:
Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide for more information on Oracle Call Interface Instant Client connection strings

4.2.3.3 Specifying a Connection by Using an Empty Connect String and the LOCAL Variable

You can set the connect string to an empty connect string (""), and then set the LOCAL environment variable to one of the following values:

A direct address, as described under "Specifying a Connection by Using the Easy Connect Naming Method"
Oracle Net keyword-value pair
A tnsnames.ora entry and TNS_ADMIN is set to the location of tnsnames.ora
A tnsnames.ora entry and the following:
- tnsnames.ora file located in ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
- The ORACLE_HOME environment variable set to this Oracle home

This method allows your applications to specify internally a connection string if the application code itself uses an empty connection string. The benefit of an empty connect string is that the application itself does not need to specify the tnsnames.ora entry. Instead, when a user invokes the application, the location of the database is determined by a script or the environment, depending on where you have set the LOCAL environment variable. The disadvantage of using empty strings is that you need to configure this additional information in order for your application to connect to the database.

4.2.4 Setting Up User Accounts

For information about setting up additional user accounts, see Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit).

4.2.5 Using Oracle9i Language and Definition Files with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2)

You can use Oracle9i database language and territory definition files with Oracle Database 10g release 2 (10.2). If the computer where Oracle Database is installed has been configured to use this functionality, you need to enable this functionality on each client computer as well.

To enable this functionality:

Run the cr9idata.pl script, by default located in ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\nls\data\old.

If the client installation type you chose does not include this directory, you can find the cr9idata.pl script in the same directory path in a default Oracle Database installation.
Set the ORA_NLS10 environment variable to point to the directory where you installed the new language and territory definition files, which by default are in ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\nls\data.
Restart Oracle Database.

See Also:

Appendix A, " Installing Oracle Database Client Using Response Files" for information on response files, in which you can set the b_cr9idata variable and then run the response file with Oracle Universal Installer
Appendix B, " Configuring Oracle Database Client Globalization Support" for information on globalization support that is affected by this release of Oracle Database
Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for information about the NLS_LANG parameter and Globalization Support initialization parameters

4.2.6 Configuring Oracle Counters for Windows Performance Monitor

Before you can use to view Oracle-specific counters, you must specify the SYSTEM password using Operfcfg.exe located in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\bin directory.

To set the system password, enter the following:

operfcfg.exe -U SYSTEM -P password -D TNS_Alias_for_database

See Also:

Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows (64-Bit) on Intel Itanium for additional information about Oracle Counters for Windows Performance Monitor

4.3 Required Product-Specific Postinstallation Task – Configuring Oracle Net Services

You can configure Oracle Database Client to communicate with Oracle Net Services by adding the appropriate entries to the tnsnames.ora and listener.ora files. If you have a previous release or Oracle software, you can just copy information in the Oracle Net tnsnames.ora and listener.ora configuration files from the previous release to the corresponding files in the new release.

Note:

The default location for the tnsnames.ora and listener.ora files is the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\network\admin directory.