Pre-Installation Requirements for the Single-Tier "Lite" Edition ODBC Driver for Oracle, for Windows

DBMS Requirements

You need to know a variety of information pertaining to your target Oracle instance and database:

You need to know whether the client application is 32-bit or 64-bit. The Single-Tier "Lite" Edition ODBC Driver for Oracle must match the bit format of the client application.
The Oracle native client on a supported operating system, if you cannot install the Multi-Tier server components on the same machine as Oracle itself. At the time of writing, this product may be called SQL*Net, Net 8, Net 9, Net 10, the Oracle Instant Client, or the OCI Client, depending on the Oracle version. Product names vary over time.

You must have Oracle client software installed on the same machine as OpenLink's Lite drivers. You can obtain the relevant Oracle client from your Oracle installation CDs. You can also download the Oracle client from the Oracle Web site.
- Historically, this required installation of Oracle's SQL*Net or Net8, Net9, or Net10 software. These are full client packages for various versions of the Oracle DBMS.
- As of Release 6.x, when targeting Oracle 8.1.7.4 or later, you only require the Oracle InstantClient. The Oracle InstantClient comprises a small set of library files.
- The local Oracle client components must match the bit format of the client application and the Single-Tier "Lite" Edition ODBC Driver for Oracle.
You must ensure that the Oracle client software successfully connects to the Oracle DBMS.

There is minimal configuration associated with use of Oracle's InstantClients. They must appear in the System and User PATH.
Oracle's SQL*Net and Net8/9/10+ products require the configuration of an Oracle Net Service Name.