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

Part Number B15684-04
Go to Documentation Home
Home
Go to Book List
Book List
Go to Table of Contents
Contents
Go to Index
Index
Go to Master Index
Master Index
Go to Feedback page
Contact Us

Go to previous page
Previous
Go to next page
Next
PDF · Mobi · ePub

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:

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

On Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the minimum requirement is 1 GB.

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 64 Technology (EM64T)


Hard Disk Space Requirements

This section lists system requirements for Windows platforms that use the NT File System (NTFS) file systems. Oracle recommends installing Oracle components on NTFS. NTFS allows for strong security of database files, trace files, incident data, and so on, stored in Oracle home.

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.

Oracle Database Client Software Requirements

This section covers the following topics:

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 64 Technology (EM64T)

Note: Oracle provides 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (Itanium), and 64-bit (x64) versions of Oracle Database for Windows. Oracle certifies the 32-bit Oracle Database client on 64-bit Windows (x64). For additional information, visit OracleMetaLink at:

https://metalink.oracle.com

Operating System

Oracle Database for Windows x64 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 Vista x64, Service Pack 1 - Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions

  • Windows Server 2008 x64 - Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, Standard without Hyper-V, Enterprise without Hyper-V, and Datacenter without Hyper-V editions

    The specific operating system components that are not supported are Windows Server 2008 x64 Hyper-V and Server Core.

Windows Multilingual User Interface Pack is supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

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

Pro*COBOL is supported with Net Express 5.0 from 10.2.0.4 release on Windows x64.

GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and Object Oriented COBOL (OOCOBOL) specifications 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


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.

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:

https://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:

Windows Telnet Services Support

Windows x64 platforms 'include a 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.

Windows Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Support

Oracle supports installing, configuring, and running Oracle Database through Terminal Services on Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. 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 and Windows Vista, the Remote Desktop is only available in Single User Mode. You can have multiple Remote Desktop sessions on Windows Server 2008.

See Also:

Components Supported on Windows x64 Operating Systems

All Oracle Database components are supported on Windows x64 operating systems with the following exceptions:

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control media

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

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Agent 10g Release 3 (10.2.0.3) is not supported on Windows Server 2008.

  • Oracle Database Lite is not supported on Windows Vista 64-bit and Windows Server 2008 64-bit.

  • DCE Adapter Support

  • Entrust PKI Support

  • GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

  • Generic Connectivity

  • Oracle Messaging Gateway

  • 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

    These are supported only on Windows XP.

  • Oracle HTML DB (Now called Oracle Application Express)

  • Oracle Real Application Clusters, including Cluster File System and Server Management are not supported on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

  • Business Components for Java (BC4J)

  • Oracle Clusterware

  • nCipher Accelerator Support

  • 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

  • CyberSafe Adapter Support

  • 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 Fail Safe Server

    Oracle Fail Safe Manager Console is supported on Windows XP but not on Windows Vista.

  • Oracle HTTP Server

  • Oracle Objects for OLE

  • Oracle Workflow Builder

  • Oracle Workflow

  • Java Server Pages

Additional 32-Bit Components Supporting Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64

32-bit Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) 10.2.0.2.21 support Microsoft Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64.

The following two components must first be installed through ODAC 10.2.0.2.21 before they can be upgraded by Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4):

  • Oracle Data Provider for .NET 2.0 (ODP.NET)

  • Oracle Database Extensions for .NET 2.0 (ODE)

They provide support for .NET Framework 2.0 and higher, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. These components were released after the original Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1), that is the reason they require ODAC installation.

ODAC 10.2.0.2.21 is available for download from Oracle Technology Network:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/windows/odpnet/index.html

See the installation instructions linked from the download web page for more information.

64-Bit Oracle .NET Components

64-bit Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) 10.2.0.3 for Windows x64 are not supported on Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64. 64-bit Oracle Data Provider for .NET and 64-bit Oracle Database Extensions for .NET are supported on these two operating systems beginning with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4.0) for Microsoft Windows Vista x64 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64.

Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server Support

Microsoft introduced Agile Recovery to the Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server 10.2.0.4 and higher, with the exception of 11.1.0.6, support the new DTC when the minimum operating system level is Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2008.

Agile recovery permits "in-doubt" Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) transaction outcomes on one node of a mid-tier Windows cluster to be queried through the MSDTCs on other participating cluster nodes. It only applies to Windows machines in a mid-tier clustered environment.

Web Browser Support

The following Web browsers are supported for iSQL*Plus and Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control:

  • Netscape Navigator 7.2 and later

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, and later with Service Pack 1 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows Vista)

  • Mozilla version 1.7 and later

  • Safari 1.2

  • Firefox 1.0.4