Installing Oracle Instant Client Using Zip Files

Learn how to download and use zip files to install Oracle Instant Client.

1. Go to the Oracle Instant Client Downloads page:
   https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/downloads.html
2. Download the desired Oracle Instant Client zip files. 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 zip file.

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

3. Unzip each zip file into a single directory such as /opt/oracle/instantclient_21_1 that is accessible to your application. For example, for Linux x86-64:

   $ cd /opt/oracle      
   $ unzip instantclient-basic-linux.x64-21.1.0.0.0.zip

   The various packages unzip into /opt/oracle/instantclient_21_1.
4. Install the operating system libaio package. This is available as libaio1 on some Linux distributions. For example, on Oracle Linux run:

   $ sudo yum install libaio

5. If Oracle Instant Client is the only Oracle software installed on your system, then update the runtime link path, for example:

   $ sudo sh -c "echo /opt/oracle/instantclient_21_1 > \
         /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle-instantclient.conf"
     $ sudo ldconfig

   Alternatively, set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable prior to running applications. For example:

   $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/oracle/instantclient_21_1:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

   Optionally, add the variable to configuration files such as ~/.bash_profile and to application configuration files such as /etc/sysconfig/httpd.

6. 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 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.
7. To use binaries such as sqlplus from the SQL*Plus package, unzip the package to the same directory as the Basic package and then update your PATH environment variable. For example:

   $ export PATH=/opt/oracle/instantclient_21_1:$PATH

8. Start your application.