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Oracle® Database Client Installation Guide
10g Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows (x64)

Part Number B15684-03
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2 Oracle Database Client Preinstallation Requirements

This chapter describes the following tasks that you must complete before you can install the Oracle Database Client products:

2.1 Oracle Database Client Hardware Requirements

Table 2-1 lists the required hardware components for Oracle Database Client.

Table 2-1 Hardware Requirements

Requirement Minimum Value

Physical memory (RAM)

512 MB minimum, 1 GB recommended

Virtual memory

Double the amount of RAM

Hard disk space

Total ranges from 280–855 MB. See Table 2-2 for details.

Video adapter

256 colors

Processor

AMD64, or Intel Extended memory (EM64T)


2.1.1 Hard Disk Space Requirements

This section lists system requirements for Windows platforms that use the NT File System (NTFS) file systems. FAT32 space requirements are slightly larger. Oracle recommends installing Oracle components on NTFS.

The NTFS system requirements listed in this section are more accurate than the hard disk values reported by the Oracle Universal Installer Summary window. The Summary window does not include the space required to create a database or the size of compressed files that are expanded on the hard drive.

The hard disk requirements for Oracle Database Client components include space required to install Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and Oracle Universal Installer on the partition where the operating system is installed. If sufficient space is not detected, then installation fails and an error message appears.

Table 2-2 lists the space requirements for NTFS.

Table 2-2 Disk Space Requirements for NTFS

Installation Type TEMP Space SYSTEM_DRIVE:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory Oracle Home Total

Instant Client

100 MB

5 MB

175 MB

280 MB

Administrator

100 MB

5 MB

750 MB

855

Runtime

100 MB

5 MB

350 MB

455

Custom (all components installed)

100 MB

5 MB *

650 MB *

755 MB *


* This size varies, depending on the on the installation components selected.

See Also:

"NTFS File System and Windows Registry Permissions" in Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows (x64)

To ensure that the system meets these requirements, follow these steps:

  1. Determine the physical RAM size. For a computer using Windows 2003, for example, open System in the Windows Control Panel and select the General tab. If the size of the physical RAM installed in the system is less than the required size, then you must install more memory before continuing.

  2. Determine the size of the configured virtual memory (also known as paging file size). For a computer using Windows 2003, for example, open System in the Control Panel, select the Advanced tab, and click Settings in the Performance section. Then select the Advanced tab. The virtual memory is listed in the Virtual Memory section.

    If necessary, see your operating system documentation for information about how to configure additional virtual memory.

  3. Determine the amount of free disk space on the system. For a computer using Windows 2003, for example, open My Computer, right-click the drive where the Oracle software is to be installed, and choose Properties.

  4. Determine the amount of disk space available in the temp directory. This is equivalent to the total amount of free disk space, minus what will be needed for the Oracle software to be installed.

    If there is less than 100 MB of disk space available in the temp directory, then first delete all unnecessary files. If the temp disk space is still less than 100 MB, then set the TEMP or TMP environment variable to point to a different hard drive. For a computer using Windows 2003, for example, open System in the Control Panel, select the Advanced tab, and click Environment Variables.

2.2 Oracle Database Client Software Requirements

This section covers the following topics:

2.2.1 General Oracle Database Client Software Requirements

Table 2-3 lists the software requirements for Oracle Database Client.

Table 2-3 Software Requirements

Requirement Value

System Architecture

Processor: AMD64, or Intel Extended memory (EM64T)

Note: Oracle provides 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (Itanium), and 64-bit (x64) versions of Oracle Database for Windows. The 64-bit (x64) database version, which this installation guide describes, runs on the 64-bit version of Windows on AMD64 and EM64T hardware. Oracle provides limited certification for 32-bit Oracle Database on 64-bit Windows (x64). For additional information, visit Oracle MetaLink at:

http://metalink.oracle.com

Operating System

Oracle Database for x64 Windows is supported on the following operating systems:

  • Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition

  • Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition

  • Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition

  • Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Windows Multilingual User Interface Pack is supported on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Compiler

The following components are supported with the Windows 2003 Microsoft Platform SDK or later compiler and Intel compiler 8.1:

  • Oracle C++ Call Interface

  • Oracle Call Interface

  • External callouts

  • PL/SQL native compilation

  • Pro*C

  • XDK

GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), Object Oriented COBOL (OOCOBOL) specifications, and Pro*COBOL are not supported.

Network Protocol

The Oracle Net foundation layer uses Oracle protocol support to communicate with the following industry-standard network protocols:

  • TCP/IP

  • TCP/IP with SSL

  • Named Pipes


2.2.2 Instant Client Light Language and Character Set Requirements

In addition to the requirements described in the previous section, if you plan to use Instant Client Light, your applications must use the following languages and character sets:

  • Language: US English

  • Territory: Any territory that is supported by Oracle

  • Character sets:

    • Single byte

      • US7ASCII

      • WE8DEC

    • Unicode

      • UTF8

      • AL16UTF16

      • AL32UTF8

The language, territory, and character sets are determined by the NLS_LANG parameter, which is stored in the registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEID\NLS_LANG subkey, where ID is the unique number identifying the Oracle home.

Caution:

AL32UTF8 is the Oracle Database character set that is appropriate for XMLType data. It is equivalent to the IANA registered standard UTF-8 encoding, which supports all valid XML characters.

Do not confuse Oracle Database database character set UTF8 (no hyphen) with database character set AL32UTF8 or with character encoding UTF-8. Database character set UTF8 has been superseded by AL32UTF8. Do not use UTF8 for XML data. UTF8 supports only Unicode version 3.1 and earlier; it does not support all valid XML characters. AL32UTF8 has no such limitation.

Using database character set UTF8 for XML data could potentially cause a fatal error or affect security negatively. If a character that is not supported by the database character set appears in an input-document element name, a replacement character (usually "?") is substituted for it. This will terminate parsing and raise an exception.

2.3 Oracle Database Client Hardware and Software Certification

The platform-specific hardware and software requirements included in this installation guide were current at the time this guide was published. However, because new platforms and operating system software versions might be certified after this guide is published, review the certification matrix on the OracleMetaLink Web site for the most up-to-date list of certified hardware platforms and operating system versions. This Web site also provides compatible client an database versions, patches, and workaround information for bugs. The OracleMetaLink Web site is available at the following URL:

http://metalink.oracle.com/

You must register online before using OracleMetaLink. After logging in, select Certify & Availability from the left-hand column. From the Product Lifecycle page, select the Certifications button. Other Product Lifecycle options include Product Availability, Desupport Notices, and Alerts.

The following sections list the following certification information:

2.3.1 Windows Telnet Services Support

Windows 2003 and Windows XP include as Telnet Service that allows remote users to log on to the operating system and run console programs using the command line, in the same way that they do on UNIX. Oracle supports the use of command line utilities, such as SQL*Plus, Export, Import, and SQL*Loader, using this feature, but does not support their GUI tools.

Note:

Make sure that the Telnet service is started on the Windows Services utility.

2.3.2 Windows Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Support

Oracle supports installing, configuring, and running Oracle Database through Terminal Services on Windows 2003 and Windows XP. If you encounter problems with the installation through Terminal Server, Oracle recommends that you try connecting to the Terminal Services console session of the server (using mstsc/console).

You can configure Windows 2003 to use Terminal Services in Remote Desktop for Administration Mode or Terminal Server Mode. For Windows XP, the Remote Desktop is only avialable in Single User Mode.

See Also:

2.3.3 Windows Support

The following components are not certified on Windows XP:

  • DCE Adapter Support

  • Entrust PKI Support

  • Generic Connectivity

  • Oracle Messaging Gateway

  • Oracle Real Application Clusters, including Cluster File System and Server Management

  • Oracle Clusterware

  • nCipher Accelerator Support

The following components are not supported on Windows 2003:

  • DCE Adapter

  • Oracle Fail Safe

  • GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

  • Oracle Database Extensions for .NET

  • Oracle Procedural Gateway

  • Oracle Transparent Gateway

  • Oracle HTML DB

  • Oracle Workflow

  • Oracle HTTP Server

  • Business Components for Java (BC4J)

  • CyberSafe Adapter Support

  • Entrust PKI Support

  • Generic Connectivity

  • Java Server Pages

  • nCipher Accelerator Support

  • Oracle Data Provider for .NET

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control CD

    A 64-bit Windows version of Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control is not available in this release.

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Java Console

  • Oracle Messaging Gateway

  • Oracle Migration Workbench

    You can execute Oracle Migration Workbench from a 32-bit Windows environment to migrate third-party databases, as supported by release 9.2.0.2.1 or later, to an Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) database installed on a 64-bit Windows computer.

  • Oracle Objects for OLE

  • Oracle Workflow Builder

  • Pro*COBOL

  • Oracle Database Extensions for .NET

  • Oracle Enterprise Integration Gateways, which include the following:

    • Oracle Procedural Gateway for APPC

    • Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA

  • Oracle Open Gateways, which include the following:

    • Oracle Transparent Gateway for Sybase

    • Oracle Transparent Gateway for Teradata

    • Oracle Transparent Gateway for Microsoft SQL Server

  • Database Upgrade Assistant