4 Oracle Database Client Postinstallation Tasks

4.1.1 Downloading and Installing Patches

To download required patches, check the My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) Web site for required patches for your installation. Doing so ensures that you have the latest update of Oracle Database Client.

To find and download patches:

1. Use a Web browser to view the My Oracle Support (OracleMetaLink) Web site:

   https://support.oracle.com/

2. Log in to My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink).

   Note:

   If you are not a My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) registered user, then click Register here and follow the registration instructions.

3. On the main page of My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink), click Patches & Updates.

4. Select Advanced Search.

5. Specify the following information, then click Go:

   • On the Advanced Search page, click the search icon next to the Product or Product Family field.

   • In the Product Family field, select Database and Tools in the search list field, then specify RDBMS Server in the text field.

   • In the Release field, specify the current release number.

   • In the Platform or Language field, select your platform.

   • Any available patch updates are displayed under the Results heading.

6. 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.

7. Return to the Patch Set page, click Download, and save the file on the system.

8. Use an unzip utility to uncompress the Oracle patches that you downloaded from My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink). The unzip utility is located in the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory.

4.1.2 Updating Instant Client

To update Instant Client:

1. Download Instant Client from Oracle Technology Network http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/instant-client/index-097480.html.

2. 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.

4.2.1 Configuring Instant Client Light

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

To configure Instant Client Light:

1. In the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME directory, either rename or delete the oraociei11.dll file.

   The oraociei11.dll file is the main binary for Instant Client.

2. From the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME\install\instantclient\light directory, copy the oraociicus11.dll file to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME directory.

   The oraociicus11.dll file is the binary for Instant Client Light.

3. Ensure that the PATH environment variable points to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME directory.

4.2.2 Connecting Oracle Database Client to an Oracle Database

After you run Oracle Universal Installer to install Oracle Database Client, you must 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.

To connect Oracle Database Client to an Oracle Database:

1. From the Start menu, choose Oracle - HOME_NAME, then Configuration and Migration Tools, then Net Configuration Assistant.

2. In the Welcome window, select Local Net Service Name configuration and click Next.

3. In the Net Service Name Configuration window, select Add and click Next.

4. In the Service Name window, enter the name of the Oracle database to which you want to connect and click Next.

5. In the Select Protocols window, select the protocol you want and click Next.

6. In the Protocol window, depending on the protocol you selected, enter the appropriate information and click Next.

7. In the Net Test window, select whether you want to test the connection, and click Next.

8. In the Net Service Name window, enter a name for the net service and click Next.

9. 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_HOME\network\admin\tnsnames.ora
   

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, ensure 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:\app\username\product\11.2.0\client_1

For Instant Client Light, it is in:

C:\app\username\product\11.2.0\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

sqlplus system/admin@//shobeen:1521/sales_us

4.2.4 Setting Up User Accounts

For information about setting up additional user accounts, see Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows.

4.2.5 Using Oracle9i Language and Definition Files with Oracle Database 11g Release 2

Changes have been made to the content of some of the language and territory definition files in Oracle Database 10g and later releases. These updates are necessary to correct the legacy definitions that no longer meet the local conventions in some of the languages and territories that Oracle Database supports.

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 customers should review their existing application code to ensure that the correct cultural conventions, which were introduced and defined in Oracle Database 10g, are being used. For customers who may not be able to make the necessary code changes to support their applications, Oracle Database offers Oracle9i locale definition files with this release of Oracle Database. If the Oracle Database server installation has been configured to use the Oracle9i files, then you must enable this functionality in each client installation as well.

To enable this functionality:

1. Run the cr9idata.pl script, by default located in 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.

2. 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_HOME\nls\data.

3. Restart Oracle Database.

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_HOME\bin directory.

To set the system password, enter the following:

DRIVE_LETTER:\> ORACLE_HOME\bin\operfcfg.exe
Enter user-name: system
Enter password: password
Enter tns-alias: orcl
operfcfg: New registry values have been successfully set.

4.4.1 Migrating User Settings from Release 1.0

The first time you start SQL Developer after installing it or after adding any extensions, you are asked if you want to migrate your user settings from a previous release. (This occurs regardless of whether there was a previous release on your system.)

These settings refer to database connections, reports, and certain SQL Developer user preferences that you set in a previous version by clicking Tools and then Preferences. However, some user preferences are not saved, and you must re-specify these using the new release.

To migrate user settings from SQL Developer Release 1.0:

1. Install Oracle SQL Developer.

2. When you start SQL Developer Release 1.1, click Yes when asked if you want to migrate settings from a previous release.

3. In the dialog box that is displayed, do not accept the default location for the settings. Instead, specify the location of your Release 1.0 settings, which might be a folder whose path ends with sqldeveloper\jdev\system.

See also Section 4.4.2, "Migrating Information from Previous Releases."

4.4.2 Migrating Information from Previous Releases

If you have used a previous release of SQL Developer or a pre-release version of the current release, you may want to preserve database connections that you have been using. To preserve database connections, save your existing database connections in an XML file. To save the connections, right-click the Connections node in the Connections Navigator and select Export Connections. After you complete the installation described in this guide, you can use those connections by right-clicking the Connections node in the Connections Navigator and selecting Import Connections.

If you want to use any user-defined reports or the SQL history from a previous version, see "Location of User-Related Information" for information about where these are located. If you want to use any user-defined reports or the SQL history from Release 1.0 with both Releases 1.0 and 1.1, you must save them before using Release 1.1, because Release 1.1 modifies the files to a format that is incompatible with Release 1.0.

SQL Developer preferences (specified by clicking Tools and then Preferences) from a pre-release version of the current release cannot currently be saved and reused; you must re-specify any desired preferences.

4.4.3 Location of User-Related Information

SQL Developer stores user-related information in several places, with the specific location depending on the operating system and certain environment specifications. User-related information includes user-defined reports, user-defined snippets, SQL Worksheet history, and SQL Developer user preferences.

SQL Developer user preferences are stored under the installation directory. To preserve preferences when upgrading to a more recent version of the same SQL Developer release, but not to upgrade from Release 1.0 to 1.1, use the Check for Updates feature (click Help, then Check for Updates) to upgrade your system.

This user-related information is stored in or under the HOME environment variable location, if defined; otherwise the SQLDEVELOPER_USER_DIR location, if defined; otherwise as indicated in the following table.

The table shows the typical default locations (under a directory or in a file) for specific types of resources on different operating systems. (Note the period in the name of any directory or folder named .sqldeveloper.)

SQL Worksheet archive files contain SQL statements that you have entered. These files begin with sqldev and then have a random number (for example, sqldev14356.sql). If you close SQL Developer with a SQL Worksheet open that contains statements, then you will be prompted to save these files.

To specify a nondefault SQLDEVELOPER_USER_DIR location, do either of the following:

• Set the SQLDEVELOPER_USER_DIR environment variable to specify another directory path.

• Edit the <sqldeveloper_install>\sqldeveloper\sqldeveloper\bin\sqldeveloper.conf file and substitute the desired directory path for SQLDEVELOPER_USER_DIR in the following line:

  SetUserHomeVariable SQLDEVELOPER_USER_DIR
  

If you want to prevent other users from accessing your user-specific SQL Developer information, you must ensure that the appropriate permissions are set on the directory where that information is stored or on a directory above it in the path hierarchy. For example, you may want to ensure that the sqldeveloper folder and the <user-name>\.sqldeveloper folder under Documents and Settings are not sharable.