1. Client Installation Guide
  2. Oracle Database Client Preinstallation Tasks
  3. Oracle Database Client Software Requirements

3.2 Oracle Database Client Software Requirements

Learn about the Oracle Database Client software requirements.

Topics:

3.2.1 Oracle Database Client Software Requirements

Lists the software requirements for Oracle Database client.

Table 3-3 Windows x64 Software Requirements

Requirement Value

Operating System

Oracle Database for Windows x64 is supported on the following operating systems:

  • Windows 7 x64 - Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions

  • Windows 8 x64 - Core, Pro, and Enterprise editions

  • Windows 8.1 x64 - Pro and Enterprise editions

  • Windows 10 x64 - Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions

  • Windows Server 2012 x64 - Standard, Datacenter, Essentials, and Foundation editions

  • Windows Server 2012 R2 x64 - Standard, Datacenter, Essentials, and Foundation editions

  • Windows Server 2016 x64 - Standard, Datacenter, and Essentials editions

Note:

  • Windows Multilingual User Interface Pack is supported.

  • The Server Core option is not supported.

See Also:

Check My Oracle Support note 1563794.1 for more information about Hyper-V support at

https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=NOT&id=1563794.1

Compiler

The following components are supported with the Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Update 4, Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Update 3, and Intel 14.0 C compilers:

  • Oracle Call Interface

  • External callouts

  • Pro*C/C++

  • Oracle XML Developer's Kit (XDK)

Oracle C++ Call Interface supports:

  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Update 4

  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Update 3 - OCCI libraries are installed under ORACLE_HOME\oci\lib\msvc\vc14. When developing OCCI applications with MSVC++ 2015, ensure that the OCCI libraries are correctly selected from this directory for linking and executing.

  • Intel 14.0 C compilers with Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 STLs

Pro*COBOL supports:

  • Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.2 - Update 2

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

Oracle Database Client

To connect to Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), the following are required:

  • Oracle Database Client is version 10.2 or higher.

  • If the earlier Oracle Database Client is running on the same computer as Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), a bequeath connection cannot be used.

Oracle recommends upgrading Oracle Database Client to the latest patchset (10.2.0.5, or 11.2.0.4 or later). You can download the patchset from the Patches and Updates section of My Oracle Support at

https://support.oracle.com

3.2.2 Instant Client Light Language and Character Set Requirements

Describes the requirements to use Instant Client Light.

In addition to the requirements, if you plan to use Instant Client Light, then the applications must use the following languages and character sets:

  • Language: Any language that Oracle supports, but only US English error messages returns errors on the client side.

  • Territory: Any territory that Oracle supports.

  • Character sets:

    • Single byte

      • US7ASCII

      • WE8DEC

      • WE8ISO8859P1

      • WE8MSWIN1252

    • Unicode

      • UTF8

      • AL16UTF16

      • AL32UTF8

      Instant Client Light can connect to databases having one of the following database character sets. If a character set other than those in the list is used as the client or database character set, then an error is returned.

      • US7ASCII

      • WE8DEC

      • WE8MSWIN1252

      • WE8ISO8859P1

      • WE8EBCDIC37C

      • WE8EBCDIC1047

      • UTF8

      • AL32UTF8

      Instant Client Light can also operate with the OCI Environment handles created in the OCI_UTF16 mode.

      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\KEY_HomeName\NLS_LANG subkey, where HomeName is the unique name identifying the Oracle home. The Registry setting is overridden by the NLS_LANG environment variable.

      Note:

      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 potentially causes an irrecoverable error or affects security negatively. If a character that is not supported by the database character set appears in an input-document element name, then a replacement character (usually "?") is substituted for it. This terminates parsing and raises an exception.