PL/SQL developer with oracle 32-bit/64-bit client

Question

I have Oracle 64-bit client installed to run with my weblogic application. I learnt that pl-sql developer doesn't work with oracle 64-bit client so now i have both 32-bit and 64-bit clients installed on my machine and my ORACLE_HOME variable points to 64-bit client.

I am not able to start pl/sql developer even i specify the 32-bit client in Tools->Preferences of pl-sql developer version 8.0.4.

I changed my oracle client to 32-bit client then i was able to start pl-sql developer but my application doesn't work.

Is there a way i can run PL/SQL developer whilst pointing ORACLE_HOME to 64-bit oracle client. I am not sure specifying the ORACLE_HOME explicitly in Tools->Preferences of pl sql developer (for user/default as well as system preferences) has any effect as it picks the oracle home from the environment variable i believe.

Thanks, Adithya.

Answer 1

You'll need to install the two clients into separate Oracle Home locations, for example I've gone for C:\OracleHome and C:\OracleHome32

Then set up an Environment Variable, called TNS_ADMIN with the folder that contains your default TNSnames.ora file as the value (for me it is C:\OracleHome\network\admin)

Keep your preferences in PL/SQL Developer, and make sure you also specify the OCI library (mine is C:\OracleHome32\oci.dll)

Finally, using regedit.exe, add a second key under ORACLE (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE). I've called mine KEY_OraClient11g_home1 and KEY_OraClient11g_home2. Create the same 4 strings in the second key, with the appropriate changes to the data (e.g. ORACLE_HOME should have C:\OracleHome32 as it's data field in my example)

Restarting all applications should now let you use PL/SQL Developer seamlessly, whilst also defaulting to the 64-bit Oracle home for your weblogic application.

Answer 2

To fix this, download the 32-bit version of Oracle Instant Client, extract it to a directory such as C:\instantclient.

Next, configure PL/SQL Developer to use this version by clicking on Tools -> Preferences. Under Connection -> Oracle Home, point to the location where you had extracted Instant Client (C:\instantclient), and under Connection -> OCI library, point to the oci.dll file in the same directory (C:\instantclient\oci.dll).

Restart PL/SQL Developer and you should be able to connect.

Answer 3

This is an updated answer specifically for the Oracle 19 instant client and PLSQL Developer 13, which is 64 bit.

To make PL/SQL Dev work with the client, I went to : Configure -> Preferences -> Oracle\connection -> set oracle home to the new home dir, in my case, c:\oracle\product\19.x.

Do the same for the OCI : C:\oracle\product\19.x\instantclient_19_6\oci.dll

If you're migrating from an order version, you probably have built up a list of databases in your tns_names.ora. That will have to be moved over to the new client directory tree.

Manually make a subdir network\admin under the 19.x root. Once restarted, the Database list under 'Define Connection' had my list.

Answer 4

Quick post: I was trying to connect to a 64-bit Oracle database using PL/SQL Developer. Despite ORACLE_HOME being set the right values and oci.dll available, PL/SQL Developer could not connect to the database.

Further probing indicated that the Oracle installation was a 64-bit one, and PL/SQL Developer is incapable of loading 64-bit version of oci.dll file. To fix this, download the 32-bit version of Oracle Instant Client, extract it to a directory such as \instant_client.

Next, configure PL/SQL Developer to use this version by clicking on Tool menus -> Preferences. Under Oracle Home, point to the location where you had extracted Instant client (\instant_client, in this case) and under location of OCI Library, point to the oci.dll file present in location where you had extracted Instant client ( \instant_client\oci.dll). Restart PL/SQL Developer and you should be able to connect now.

open given link to download oci.dll file http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/instant-client/index-097480.html

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