How to install the instant client from Oracle on a Linux application server

This is how I quite quickly installed sqlplus on a Linux appserver on request from my customer:

1. Download the two files

instantclient-basic-linux.x64-11.2.0.4.0.zip
instantclient-sqlplus-linux.x64-11.2.0.4.0.zip

from the otn network.


2. Create Directory for the installation files

mkdir  /u01/oracle/product/admin/install

3. Ftp the files over to the server

4. Put the installation files in the install Directory:

mv /tmp/instantclient*.zip /u01/oracle/product/admin/install

5. Unzip the files:

unzip instantclient-basic-linux.x64-11.2.0.4.0.zip -d /u01/oracle/product
unzip instantclient-sqlplus-linux.x64-11.2.0.4.0.zip -d /u01/oracle/product

The files will be unzipped to the Directory /u01/oracle/Product/instantclient_11_2

6. Create a Directory for networking:

mkdir $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

7. set up the .bash_profile:

export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/oracle/product/instantclient_11_2
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/u01/oracle/product/instantclient_11_2
export NLS_LANG=NORWEGIAN_NORWAY.UTF8
export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

8. Create file tnsnames.ora, add an entry for each of the databases you'd like to Access via sqlplus.

All done!


Note that you do need *both* the basic and the sqlplus instantclient zip files to be unpacked into the same directory. If not, you will be missing Libraries in your installation and you'll receive the following error when launching sqlplus:

sqlplus: error while loading shared libraries: libclntsh.so.11.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or Directory