Instant Client Installation for Linux x86-64 (64-bit)

For general Instant Client information, see the Home Page.

ODBC users should follow the ODBC Installation Instructions.

The "Database Client Installation Guide for Linux" chapter on Installing Oracle Instant Client is here.

Instant Client RPMs are also available without click-through from yum.oracle.com for Oracle Linux 8 and Oracle Linux 7. Older RPM packages are available for Oracle Linux 8, Oracle Linux 7 and Oracle Linux 6.

Client-server version interoperability is detailed in Doc ID 207303.1. For example, Oracle Call Interface 19.3 can connect to Oracle Database 11.2 or later. Some tools may have other restrictions.

Installation of ZIP files:

1. Download the desired Instant Client ZIP files. All installations require a Basic or Basic Light package.
2. Unzip the packages into a single directory such as /opt/oracle/instantclient_19_3 that is accessible to your application. For example:

  cd /opt/oracle			
unzip instantclient-basic-linux.x64-19.3.0.0.0dbru.zip

The various packages install into subdirectories of /usr/lib/oracle, /usr/include/oracle, and /usr/share/oracle.

3. Prior to version 18.3, create the appropriate links for the version of Instant Client. For example:

  cd /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2
ln -s libclntsh.so.12.1 libclntsh.so
ln -s libocci.so.12.1 libocci.so

4. Install the operating system libaio package. This is called libaio1 on some Linux distributions. On Oracle Linux 8 prior to Instant Client 21 you also need the libnsl package.

For example, on Oracle Linux, run:

sudo yum install libaio

5. If Instant Client is the only Oracle Software installed on this system then update the runtime link path, for example:

 
 sudo sh -c "echo /opt/oracle/instantclient_19_3 > \
      /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle-instantclient.conf"
  sudo ldconfig

Alternatively, set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable prior to running applications. For example:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/oracle/instantclient_19_3:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

The variable can optionally be added to configuration files such as ~/.bash_profile and to application configuration files such as /etc/sysconfig/httpd.

6. If you intend to co-locate optional Oracle configuration files such as tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora, ldap.ora, or oraaccess.xml with Instant Client, put them in the network/admin subdirectory. This needs to be created for 12.2 and earlier, for example:

mkdir -p /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/network/admin

This is the default Oracle configuration directory for applications linked with this Instant Client.

Alternatively, Oracle configuration files can be put in another, accessible directory. Then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to that directory name.

7. To use binaries such as sqlplus from the SQL*Plus package, unzip the package to the same directory as the Basic package and then update your PATH environment variable, for example:

export PATH=/opt/oracle/instantclient_19_3:$PATH

8. Start your application.

Installation of RPM files:

1. Download the desired Instant Client RPM packages. All installations require a Basic or Basic Light RPM.
2. Install the packages with yum. For example:

sudo yum install oracle-instantclient19.3-basic-19.3.0.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Note that from 19.3, by default only one version of the Instant Client RPM libraries can be installed at a time.

3. Prior to 19.3, if Instant Client is the only Oracle Software installed on this system then update the runtime link path, for example:

  
 sudo sh -c "echo /usr/lib/oracle/18.3/client64/lib > \
      /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle-instantclient.conf"
  sudo ldconfig

For Instant Client 19.3 RPM packages, these commands are automatically run.

An alternative to using ldconfig for older versions, is to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable in each shell prior to running applications. For example:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/18.3/client64/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

The variable can optionally be added to configuration files such as ~/.bash_profile and to application configuration files such as /etc/sysconfig/httpd.

4. If you intend to co-locate optional Oracle configuration files such as tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora ldap.ora, or oraaccess.xml with Instant Client, put them in the network/admin subdirectory. This needs to be created for 12.2 and earlier, for example:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/oracle/12.2/client64/lib/network/admin

This is the default Oracle configuration directory for applications linked with this Instant Client.

Alternatively, Oracle configuration files can be put in another, accessible directory. Then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to that directory name.

5. To use binaries from the tools package, use yum to install the package and then update your PATH environment variable, for example:

export PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/19.3/client64/bin:$PATH

6. Start your application.