2 Oracle Instant Client and Oracle Instant Client Light
This chapter contains the following topics:
2.1 About Oracle Instant Client
Oracle Instant Client provides the necessary Oracle Database client-side files to create and run OCI, OCCI, ODBC, and JDBC OCI applications. Useful command-line utilities including SQL*Plus, SQL*Loader and Oracle Data Pump are also available. Oracle Instant Client simplifies the deployment of applications by eliminating the need for an Oracle home on the client machines.
The storage space requirement of an OCI application running in Instant Client mode is significantly reduced compared to the same application running in a full client-side installation. A minimal install of Instant Client shared libraries can occupy less than 10% of the space of a full client-side installation. Finally, the Instant Client is easy to install.
Why use Instant Client?
-
Installation involves unzipping a few files, or installing RPM packages.
-
The Oracle Database client-side number of required files and the total disk storage are significantly reduced.
-
There is no loss of functionality or performance for applications deployed using Instant Client.
-
It is simple for independent software vendors to package applications.
A README file is included with the Instant Client installation. It describes the version, date and time, and the operating system the Instant Client was generated on.
OCI applications, by default, look for the OCI Data Shared Library, libociei.so
(or Oraociei18.1.dll
on Windows) in the runtime library search path (for example LD_LIBRARY_PATH
on Linux, or PATH
on Windows) to determine if the application should operate in the Instant Client mode. If this library is not found, then OCI tries to load the Instant Client Light Data Shared Library (see Table 2-3 and Table 2-4), libociicus.so
(or Oraociicus18.1.dll
on Windows). If the Instant Client Light library is found, then the application operates in the Instant Client Light mode. Otherwise, a full installation based on Oracle home is assumed.
For Instant Client, the following tables shows the Oracle Database client-side files required to deploy an OCI application for Linux and UNIX and Microsoft Windows. Other libraries and utilities get installed, but are not needed for OCI runtime use. For example, you can delete files such as jdbc.jar
.
Table 2-1 Instant Client Shared Libraries for Linux and UNIX
Linux and UNIX | Description for Linux and UNIX |
---|---|
|
Client Code Library |
|
OCI Instant Client Data Shared Library |
|
Security Library |
|
Oracle Notification Service (ONS) library |
libmql1.so |
Light Weight IPC Library |
libipc1.so |
Message Queue Light Library |
Footnote 1
The libraries libclntsh.so.18.1, libclntshcore.so.18.1, and libociei.so must reside in the same directory in order to use Instant Client.
Table 2-2 Instant Client Shared Libraries for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows | Description for Microsoft Windows |
---|---|
|
Forwarding functions that applications link with |
|
Data and code |
|
Security Library |
|
ONS library used by OCI internally |
|
Symbol tables |
Oracle Database 18c library names are used in the table and are current for Oracle Database release 18c, version 18.1.
On Microsoft Windows, a .sym
file is provided for each dynamic-link library (DLL). When the .sym
file is present in the same location as the DLL, a stack trace with function names is generated when a failure occurs in OCI on Microsoft Windows.
In general, all OCI functionality is available to an application being run using the Instant Client, except that the Instant Client is for client-side operation only. Therefore, server-side external procedures cannot use Instant Client libraries.
For development you can also use the Instant Client SDK.
2.2 Install from ZIP Files, from RPMs, and from Oracle Universal Installer
Oracle Instant Client can be installed in several ways.
The Instant Client libraries can be installed by either choosing the Instant Client option from Oracle Universal Installer or by downloading and installing either the ZIP files or RPMs from the OCI page on the Oracle Technology Network website: Oracle Instant Client
To Download and Install the Instant Client Libraries from the Oracle Technology Network Website
The following steps are for the Linux, Unix, and Windows environments.
-
From the Oracle Technology Network, download and unzip the required ZIP packages from OTN to an empty directory, such as
instantclient_18_1
, for Oracle Database release 18c, version 18.1. All Instant Client ZIP installs require the Basic or Basic Light package. -
Or, to install the RPM files, follow these instructions:
-
Become root by running
su
and entering the super-user password. -
Change to the directory in which you want to install.
-
Uninstall any earlier installations.
# rpm -e package-name
-
Install each package with yum. Yum will automatically install required dependencies, such as
libaio
.# yum remove package-name # yum install package-name.rpm
Or, install each package with rpm.
# rpm -ivh package-name.rpm
-
Delete the
.rpm
files if you want to save disk space. -
Exit the root shell. No need to reboot.
-
-
Set the operating system shared library path environment variable to the directory from Step 1. For example, with ZIP files on Linux or UNIX, set
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
toinstantclient_18_1
.export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/oracle/instantclient_18_1:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
With Linux RPMs, setLD_LIBRARY_PATH
to:export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/18.1/client64/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
On Windows, set
PATH
to theinstantclient_18_1
directory. For example, on Windows 7, update PATH in Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> PATH. -
If necessary, set the
NLS_LANG
environment variable to specify the language and territory used by the client application and database connections opened by the application, and the client's character set, which is the character set for data entered or displayed by a client program.NLS_LANG
is set as an environment variable on UNIX platforms and is set in the registry on Windows platforms. See Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for more information on setting theNLS_LANG
environment variable. -
If you intend to co-locate optional Oracle client configuration files such as
tnsnames.ora
,sqlnet.ora
,ldap.ora
, ororaaccess.xml
with Instant Client, then put them in thenetwork/admin
subdirectory of Instant Client. This is the default Oracle client configuration directory for applications linked with Instant Client. Alternatively, Oracle client configuration files can be put in another, accessible directory. Then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to that directory name.
After completing the preceding steps you are ready to run OCI applications.
The OCI application uses the Instant Client when the OCI shared libraries are accessible through the operating system Library Path variable. In this way, there is no dependency on the Oracle home and none of the other code and data files provided in the Oracle home are needed by OCI.
Install the Instant Client from the Oracle Universal Installer
For Oracle Universal Installer, invoke the Oracle Universal Installer and select the Instant Client option and install the Instant Client shared libraries to an empty directory, such as instantclient_18_1
, for Oracle Database release 18c, version 18.1.
See Steps 3 through 5 in To Download and Install the Instant Client Libraries from the Oracle Technology Network Website about setting environment variables.
If you did a complete client installation (by choosing the Admin
option in Oracle Universal Installer), the locations of the Instant Client shared libraries in a full client installation are:
On Linux or UNIX:
libociei.so
library is in $ORACLE_HOME/instantclient
libclntsh.so.18.1
, libclntshcore.so.18.1
, and libnnz18.so
are in $ORACLE_HOME/lib
On Windows:
oraociei18.dll
library is in ORACLE_HOME\instantclient
oci.dll
, ociw32.dll
, and orannzsbb18.dll
are in ORACLE_HOME\bin
To enable running the OCI application using Instant Client, copy the preceding libraries to a different directory and set the operating system shared library path to locate this directory.
Note:
All the libraries must be copied from the same Oracle home and must be placed in the same directory. Co-location of symlinks to Instant Client libraries is not a substitute for physical co-location of the libraries.
There should be only one set of Oracle libraries on the operating system Library Path variable. That is, if you have multiple directories containing Instant Client libraries, then only one such directory should be on the operating system Library Path.
Similarly, if an Oracle home-based installation is performed on the same system, then you should not have ORACLE_HOME/lib
and the Instant Client directory on the operating system Library Path simultaneously regardless of the order in which they appear on the Library Path. That is, either the ORACLE_HOME/lib
directory (for non-Instant Client operation) or Instant Client directory (for Instant Client operation) should be on the operating system Library Path variable, but not both.
To enable other capabilities such as OCCI and JDBC OCI, you must copy a few additional files. To enable OCCI, you must install the OCCI Library (libocci.so.18.1
on Linux or UNIX and oraocci18.dll
on Windows) in the Instant Client directory. For the JDBC OCI driver, in addition to the three OCI shared libraries, you must also download OCI JDBC Library (for example libocijdbc18.so
on Linux or UNIX and ocijdbc18.dll
on Windows). Place all libraries in the Instant Client directory.
Note:
On hybrid platforms, such as Sparc64, to operate the JDBC OCI driver in the Instant Client mode, copy the libociei.so
library from the ORACLE_HOME/instantclient32
directory to the Instant Client directory. Copy all other Sparc64 libraries needed for the JDBC OCI Instant Client from the ORACLE_HOME/lib32
directory to the Instant Client directory.
2.3 Environment Variables for Oracle Instant Client
The ORACLE_HOME
environment variable no longer determines the location of NLS, CORE, and error message files.
An OCI-only application should not require ORACLE_HOME
to be set. However, if it is set, it does not affect OCI. OCI always obtains its data from the Data Shared Library. If the Data Shared Library is not available, only then is ORACLE_HOME
used and a full client installation is assumed. Though ORACLE_HOME
is not required to be set, if it is set, then it must be set to a valid operating system path name that identifies a directory.
If Dynamic User callback libraries are to be loaded, then as this guide specifies, the callback package must reside in ORACLE_HOME/lib
(ORACLE_HOME\bin
on Windows). Set ORACLE_HOME
in this case.
Environment variables ORA_NLS10
and ORA_NLS_PROFILE33
are ignored in the Instant Client mode.
Beginning with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), when using Instant Client libraries, the Instant Client can use the ORA_TZFILE
environment variable to read the time zone file from the file system when this environment variable is set. Otherwise, if the ORA_TZFILE
variable is not set, then the larger, default, timezlrg_n.dat
file from the Data Shared Library is used. If the smaller timezone_n.dat
file is to be used from the Data Shared Library, then set the ORA_TZFILE
environment variable to the name of the file without any absolute or relative path names. The file must be copied to subdirectory oracore/zoneinfo
for (UNIX/LINUX) or oracore\zoneinfo
for (Microsoft Windows) in the instant client directory. You can use the genezi
utility with the -v
option to verify that the time zone file and location is valid or run SQL*Plus.
On Linux or UNIX:
export ORA_TZFILE=timezone_n.dat
On Windows:
set ORA_TZFILE=timezone_n.dat
In these examples, n is the time zone data file version number.
Be sure to create subdirectory oracore/zoneinfo
for (UNIX/LINUX) or subdirectory oracore\zoneinfo
for (Microsoft Windows) where oracoei
or oraociicus
DLL's are located (typically in the instantclient_12_2
directory) and copy the timezone_n.dat
file to this directory.
To determine the versions of small and large time zone files that are packaged in the Instant Client Data Shared Library, enter the following command to run the genezi
utility:
genezi -v
If OCI is not operating in the Instant Client mode (because the Data Shared Library is not available), then ORA_TZFILE
variable, if set, names a complete path name as it does in previous Oracle Database releases.
If TNSNAMES
local naming parameters are used, then, as mentioned earlier, TNS_ADMIN
directory must contain the TNSNAMES
configuration files. If TNS_ADMIN
is not set, then the ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
directory must contain Oracle Net Services configuration files.
2.4 Database Connection Strings for Oracle Instant Client
All Oracle Net naming methods that do not require use of ORACLE_BASE_HOME
, or ORACLE_HOME
(to locate configuration files such as tnsnames.ora
, sqlnet.ora
, or oraaccess.xml
) work in the Instant Client mode.
If you intend to co-locate optional Oracle configuration files such as tnsnames.ora
, sqlnet.ora
, ldap.ora
, or oraaccess.xml
with Instant Client, note that beginning with Oracle Database release 18c, version 18.1 Instant Client Basic and Basic Light Zips and RPMs precreate a network/admin
directory, where these files can be placed. In earlier releases, users had to create the network/admin
directory themselves.
See Database Connection Strings for complete information about database connection strings.
See Also:
Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide chapter on "Configuring Naming Methods" for more about connect descriptors
This section includes the following topic: Examples of Oracle Database Connection String Connect Identifiers.
2.5 SDK for Oracle Instant Client
The software development kit (SDK) is a set of development tools that allows the creation of applications can be downloaded from the Instant Client link URL on the Oracle Technology Network website:
-
The Instant Client SDK package has both C and C++ header files and a makefile for developing OCI and OCCI applications while in an Instant Client environment. Developed applications can be deployed in any client environment.
-
The SDK contains C and C++ demonstration programs.
-
On Windows, libraries required to link the OCI or OCCI applications are also included.
Make.bat
is provided to build the demos. -
On UNIX or Linux, the makefile
demo.mk
is provided to build the demos. Theinstantclient_18_1
directory must be in the runtime library search path, for exampleLD_LIBRARY_PATH
before linking the application. The OCI and OCCI programs require the presence oflibclntsh.so
andlibocci.so
symbolic links in theinstantclient_18_1
directory. Beginning with Oracle Database 18c, version 18.1, Instant Client Basic and Basic Light ZIP files on Linux, Unix, and macOS now have thelibclntsh
andlibocci
symbolic links precreated. -
The SDK also contains the Object Type Translator (OTT) utility and its classes to generate the application header files.
2.6 About Oracle Instant Client Light
The Instant Client Light version of Instant Client further reduces the disk space requirements of the client installation.
The size of the library has been reduced by removing error message files for languages other than English and leaving only a few supported character set definitions out of around 250.
This Instant Client Light version is geared toward applications that use either US7ASCII, WE8DEC, WE8ISO8859P1, WE8MSWIN1252, or a Unicode character set. There is no restriction on the LANGUAGE
and the TERRITORY
fields of the NLS_LANG
setting, so the Instant Client Light operates with any language and territory settings. Because only English error messages are provided with the Instant Client Light, error messages generated on the client side, such as Net connection errors, are always reported in English, even if NLS_LANG
is set to a language other than AMERICAN
. Error messages generated by the database side, such as syntax errors in SQL statements, are in the selected language provided the appropriate translated message files are installed in the Oracle home of the database instance.
2.6.1 Globalization Settings
Instant Client Light supports the following client character sets:
Single-byte
-
US7ASCII
-
WE8DEC
-
WE8MSWIN1252
-
WE8ISO8859P1
Unicode
-
UTF8
-
AL16UTF16
-
AL32UTF8
Instant Client Light can connect to databases having one of these database character sets:
-
US7ASCII
-
WE8DEC
-
WE8MSWIN1252
-
WE8ISO8859P1
-
WE8EBCDIC37C
-
WE8EBCDIC1047
-
UTF8
-
AL32UTF8
Instant Client Light returns an error if a character set other than those in the preceding lists is used as the client or database character set.
Instant Client Light can also operate with the OCI Environment handles created in the OCI_UTF16
mode.
See Also:
Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for more information about National Language Support (NLS) settings
2.6.2 Libraries for Oracle Instant Client Light
OCI applications, by default, look for the OCI Data Shared Library, libociei.so
(or Oraociei18.1.dll
on Windows) in the runtime library search path (for example LD_LIBRARY_PATH
on Linux, or PATH
on Windows) to determine if the application should operate in the Instant Client mode.
If the OCI Data Shared Library is not found, then OCI tries to load the Instant Client Light Data Shared Library (see Table 2-3 and Table 2-4), libociicus.so
(or Oraociicus18.1.dll
on Windows). If the Instant Client Light library is found, then the application operates in the Instant Client Light mode. Otherwise, a full installation based on Oracle home is assumed.
Table 2-3 Instant Client Light Shared Libraries Linux and UNIX
Linux and UNIX | Description for Linux and UNIX |
---|---|
|
Client Code Library |
|
OCI Instant Client Light Data Shared Library |
|
Security Library |
libmql1.so |
Light Weight IPC Library |
libipc1.so |
Message Queue Light Library |
Table 2-4 Instant Client Light Shared Libraries for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows | Description for Microsoft Windows |
---|---|
|
Forwarding functions that applications link with |
|
Data and code |
|
Security Library |
|
Symbol tables |
2.6.3 Installing Oracle Instant Client Light
How can Instant Client Light can be installed.
Instant Client Light can be installed in one of these ways:
-
Installed from Oracle Technology Network (OTN)
The following URL is the Instant Client page on the Oracle Technology Network website: Oracle Instant Client
For Instant Client Light, download and unzip the
basiclite.zip
package in to an emptyinstantclient_12_2
directory. -
Installed from an Instant Client Administrator installation
From the
ORACLE_HOME/instantclient/light
subdirectory, copylibociicus.so
(ororaociicus12.dll
on Windows). The Instant Client directory on theLD_LIBRARY_PATH
(PATH
on Windows) should contain the Instant Client Light Data Shared Library,libociicus.so
(oraociicus12.dll
on Windows), instead of the larger OCI Instant Client Data Shared Library,libociei.so
(oraociei12.dll
on Windows). -
Installed from an Oracle Universal Installer installation
When you select the Instant Client option from the Oracle Universal Installer,
libociei.so
(ororaociei12.dll
on Windows) is installed in the base directory of the installation, which means these files are placed on theLD_LIBRARY_PATH
(PATH
on Windows).The Instant Light Client Data Shared Library,
libociicus.so
(ororaociicus12.dll
on Windows), is installed in thelight
subdirectory of the base directory and not enabled by default. Therefore, to operate in the Instant Client Light mode, the OCI Data Shared Library,libociei.so
(orOraociei12.dll
on Windows) must be deleted or renamed and the Instant Client Light library must be copied from thelight
subdirectory to the base directory of the installation.For example, if Oracle Universal Installer has installed the Instant Client in
my_oraic_12_2
directory on theLD_LIBRARY_PATH
(PATH
on Windows), then use the following command sequence to operate in the Instant Client Light mode:cd my_oraic_12_2 rm libociei.so mv light/libociicus.so .
Note:
To ensure that no incompatible binaries exist in the installation, always copy and install the Instant Client files in to an empty directory.
2.7 About Patching Oracle Instant Client Shared Libraries on Linux or UNIX
Because Instant Client is a deployment feature, the number and size of files (client footprint) required to run an OCI application has been reduced.
Hence, all files needed to patch Instant Client shared libraries are not available in an Instant Client deployment. A complete client installation based on Oracle home is needed for patching. Use the opatch
utility for patching.
After you apply the patch in an Oracle home environment, copy the files listed in About Oracle Instant Client to the instant client directory, as described in Install from ZIP Files, from RPMs, and from Oracle Universal Installer.
Instead of copying individual files, you can generate Instant Client zip and RPM files for OCI and OCCI, JDBC, and SQL*Plus as described in Regeneration of Data Shared Library and Zip and RPM Files. Then, you can copy the zip and RPM files to the target system and unzip them as described in Install from ZIP Files, from RPMs, and from Oracle Universal Installer.
The opatch
utility stores the patching information of the ORACLE_HOME
installation in libclntsh.so
. This information can be retrieved by the following command:
genezi -v
If the Instant Client deployment system does not have the genezi
utility, you can copy it from the ORACLE_HOME
/bin
directory.
Note:
The opatch
utility is not available on Windows.
2.8 Regeneration of Data Shared Library and Zip and RPM Files
The process to regenerate the data shared library and the zip and RPM files changed in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1).
Separate make file targets are used to create the data shared libraries, zip, and RPM files either individually or all at once. Currently, ilibociei
builds only the zip and RPM files. Regeneration of data shared libraries requires both a compiler and linker, which may not be available on all installations. The sections that follow show the make file target used to regenerate data shared libraries, zip, and RPM files.
Note:
The regenerated Instant Client binaries contain only the Instant Client files installed in the Oracle Client Administrator Home from which the regeneration is done. Therefore, error messages, character set encodings, and time zone files that are present in the regeneration environment are the only ones that are packaged in the data shared libraries. Error messages, character set encodings, and time zone files depend on which national languages were selected for the installation of the Oracle Client Administrator Home.
Regeneration of the data shared library and the zip and RPM files is not available on Windows platforms.
2.8.1 Regenerating Data Shared Library libociei.so
The OCI Instant Client Data Shared Library (libociei.so
) can be regenerated by using the following commands in an Administrator Install of ORACLE_HOME
:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk igenlibociei
The new regenerated libociei.so
is placed in the ORACLE_HOME
/instantclient
directory. The original existing libociei.so
located in this same directory is renamed to libociei.so0
.
2.8.2 Regenerating Data Shared Library libociicus.so
To regenerate Instant Client Light data shared library (libociicus.so
), use the following commands:
mkdir -p $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/install/instantclient/light cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk igenlibociicus
The newly regenerated libociicus.so
is placed in the ORACLE_HOME
/instantclient
/light
directory. The original existing libociicus.so
located in this same directory is renamed to libociicus.so0
.
2.8.3 Regenerating Data Shared Libraries libociei.so and libociicus.so in One Step
To regenerate the data shared libraries libociei.so
and libociicus.so, use the following commands:
mkdir -p $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/install/instantclient/light cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk igenliboci
The newly regenerated libociei.so
is placed in the ORACLE_HOME
/instantclient
directory. The original existing libociei.so
located in this same directory is renamed to libociei.so0
.
The newly regenerated libociicus.so
is placed in the ORACLE_HOME
/instantclient
/light
directory. The original existing libociicus.so
located in this same directory is renamed to libociicus.so0
.
2.8.4 Regenerating Zip and RPM Files for the Basic Package
To regenerate the zip and RPM files for the basic package, use the following commands:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk ic_basic_zip
2.8.5 Regenerating Zip and RPM Files for the Basic Light Package
To regenerate the zip and RPM files for the basic light package, use the following commands:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk ic_basiclite_zip
2.8.6 Regenerating Zip and RPM Files for the JDBC Package
To regenerate the zip and RPM files for the JDBC package, use the following commands:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk ic_jdbc_zip
2.8.7 Regenerating Zip and RPM Files for the ODBC Package
To regenerate the zip and RPM files for the ODBC package, use the following commands:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk ic_odbc_zip
2.8.8 Regenerating Zip and RPM Files for the SQL*Plus Package
To regenerate the zip and RPM files for the SQL*Plus package, use the following commands:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk ic_sqlplus_zip
2.8.9 Regenerating Zip and RPM Files for the Tools Package
To regenerate the zip and RPM files for the tools package, use the following commands:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk ic_tools_zip
2.8.10 Regenerating Zip and RPM Files for All Packages
To regenerate the zip and RPM files for all packages, use the following commands:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib make -f ins_rdbms.mk ilibociei
The new zip and RPM files are generated under the following directory:
$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/install/instantclient
Regeneration of the data shared library and the zip and RPM files is not available on Windows platforms.