Installing Oracle Instant Client Using RPMs

Note:

Starting with 19c, by default, you can install only one version of the Oracle Instant Client RPM packages at a time. If you need multiple versions, use the Oracle Instant Client zip files.

Removing Earlier Oracle Instant Client Installations

Remove any earlier installations of Oracle Instant Client using yum before you start a fresh installation.

List the currently installed Oracle Instant Client packages. For example:

For Oracle Linux 7:

$ sudo yum list installed | grep instantclient

For Oracle Linux 8:

$ sudo dnf list installed | grep instantclient

The output will be like:

oracle-instantclient19.5-basic.x86_64 19.5.0.0.0-1 @/oracle-instantclient19.5-basic-19.5.0.0.0-1.x86_64

Remove the Oracle Instant Client packages. For example:

For Oracle Linux 7:

$ sudo yum remove oracle-instantclient19.5-basic.x86_64

For Oracle Linux 8:

$ sudo dnf remove oracle-instantclient19.5-basic.x86_64

Remove the legacy Oracle Instant Client yum repository setup package. For example:

For Oracle Linux 7:
```
$ sudo yum remove oracle-release-el7
```
For Oracle Linux 8:
```
$ sudo dnf remove oracle-release-el8
```
A reboot is not required.

Installing Oracle Instant Client From the yum Server

If you are using Oracle Linux and have configured your Oracle Linux yum server, then you can install Oracle Instant Client using the yum install command.

Install the Oracle Linux release package to configure repository definitions for Oracle Instant Client:

For Oracle Linux 7:
```
$ sudo yum install oracle-instantclient-release-el7
```
For Oracle Linux 8:
```
$ sudo dnf install oracle-instantclient-release-el8
```
Go to the Oracle Instant Client repositories to view the available Oracle Instant Client packages:

For Oracle Linux 7:

https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/oracle/instantclient21/x86_64/index.html

For Oracle Linux 8:

https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/oracle/instantclient21/x86_64/index.html

All installations require a Basic or Basic Light package. All other packages are optional.

Install Oracle Instant Client packages using yum.

For Oracle Linux 7:

$ sudo yum install oracle-instantclient-basic

For Oracle Linux 8:

$ sudo dnf install oracle-instantclient-basic

To install other Oracle Instant Client packages like SQL*Plus, run:

For Oracle Linux 7:
```
$ sudo yum install oracle-instantclient-sqlplus
```
For Oracle Linux 8:
```
$ sudo dnf install oracle-instantclient-sqlplus
```

Using versionlock to Avoid Upgrades

To ensure that you do not inadvertently upgrade Oracle Instant Client when a new major release is published, use yum versionlock after you have installed Oracle Instant Client 21c.

$ sudo yum install yum-plugin-versionlock

For Oracle Linux 7:

$ sudo yum versionlock oracle-instantclient-release-el7

For Oracle Linux 8:

$ sudo dnf versionlock oracle-instantclient-release-el8

Note:

Configuring yum versionlock still allows automatic Oracle Instant Client release updates to 21.2, 21.3, and so on.

Manually Downloading and Installing Oracle Instant Client RPM Packages

An alternative method for installing Oracle Instant Client is to manually download and install the Oracle Instant Client packages.

Go to the Oracle Instant Client Downloads page:

https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/downloads.html
Download the desired Oracle Instant Client RPM packages. Select the correct platform, architecture, and packages of your choice. For example, if your application is 64-bit, then ensure that you select 64-bit Instant Client and download the Basic Package RPM file.

All installations require a Basic or Basic Light package. All other packages are optional.

Install the packages using yum.

For Oracle Linux 7:

$ sudo yum install oracle-instantclient-basic

For Oracle Linux 8:

$ sudo dnf install oracle-instantclient-basic

Additionally, you may have to perform the following tasks before you start your application:

If you intend to colocate optional Oracle configuration files such as tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora, ldap.ora, or oraaccess.xml with Oracle Instant Client, then move these files to the /usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/lib/network/admin subdirectory.

This is the default Oracle configuration directory for applications linked with this Oracle Instant Client.

Alternatively, you can move the Oracle configuration files to another, accessible directory. Then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to that directory name.
To use binaries from the tools package, use yum or dnf to install the package and then update your PATH environment variable. For example:
```
$ export PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/bin:$PATH
```