1. Developer's Guide
  2. Installing and Configuring Oracle Data Provider for .NET
  3. Installing Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Managed Driver

Installing Oracle Data Provider for .NET, Managed Driver

Getting started with ODP.NET, Managed Driver

You can get started with ODP.NET Managed Driver by either using the Windows Installer, XCopy, or NuGet.

If you are using XCopy: Download ODP.NET, Managed Driver .zip file to a directory for staging the install. The .zip file contains a README file with XCopy installation instructions.

If you are using NuGet: Download the ODP.NET NuGet package(s) and use NuGet Package Manager to install.

The following NuGet packages are available:

  • ODP.NET, Managed Driver

  • Entity Framework assembly for Code First and Entity Framework 6 or higher use with ODP.NET, Managed Driver

If you are using Windows Installer: Follow the VSIX or Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) steps to install ODP.NET, Managed Driver.

ODP.NET, Managed Driver Files

ODP.NET, Managed Driver consists of the following files:

Table 2-1 ODP.NET, Managed Driver Files with Descriptions

File Description

Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll

Platform-independent (AnyCPU), fully-managed ADO.NET provider

\Resources\<lang>\Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.resources.dll

Platform-independent (AnyCPU), fully-managed ADO.NET provider resource DLLs.

OraProvCfg.exe

Platform-independent (AnyCPU) utility to configure/unconfigure ODP.NET, Managed and Unmanaged Drivers.

configure.bat

Batch file to add managed ODP.NET Windows Registry entries.

unconfigure.bat

Batch file to remove managed ODP.NET Windows Registry entries.

tnsnames.ora

A sample configuration file that defines data source aliases.

sqlnet.ora

A sample configuration file that configures network related settings.

Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.Client.Configuration.Section.xsd

An XML schema file that defines the configuration section for ODP.NET, Managed Driver.

Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.EntityFramework.dll

Platform-independent (AnyCPU), fully-managed assembly for Code First and Entity Framework 6 higher

\x64\Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll

Platform-dependent (64-bit .NET Framework), Managed Assembly for Kerberos support

The OraProvCfg.exe utility can perform many different configuration tasks, such as GACing ODP.NET or configuring ODP.NET in the machine.config file. To learn about how to use this utility, run oraprovcfg.exe on the command line without any parameters, which will output the documentation.

See Also:

Oracle Database Installation Guide for Microsoft Windows for installation instructions

Platform-Dependent Assemblies and Their Search Order

ODP.NET, Managed Driver has one platform-dependent DLL: Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll, which is 64-bit. While it consists of 100% managed code, it calls APIs outside of .NET, which is why it is platform dependent.

Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll supports Kerberos. The assembly is only needed in your application if you are using Kerberos security.

The assembly is not intended to be directly referenced by an application. Rather, it is referenced implicitly. ODP.NET, Managed Driver references the assembly by using the following search order:

  1. Global Assembly Cache

  2. The web application's bin directory or Windows application's EXE directory

  3. The DLL's default install location. Oracle recommends using this method of finding dependent assemblies if your application is AnyCPU.

For example, use the following steps for your application to use Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll:

  1. Right click Visual Studio project, select Add, and then select New Folder.
  2. Name the folder x64.
  3. Right-click the newly created x64 folder, select Add, and then select Existing Item.
  4. Browse to the folder where the DLL is located, which usually is ORACLE_HOME\odp.net\managed\x64, and then select Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Click the newly added Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll in the x64 folder.
  7. In the properties window, set Copy To Output Directory to Copy Always.

For x86 targeted applications, name the folder x86 and add the assembly from the x86 directory.

To make your application platform independent even if it depends on Oracle.ManagedDataAccessIOP.dll create both x64 and x86 folders with the necessary assemblies added to them.

File Locations After Installation

In an Oracle Universal Installer based install, the Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.dll assembly is installed to the following location:

.NET Framework 4:

ORACLE_HOME\ODP.NET\nuget directory

Managed ODP.NET is embedded within the Oracle.ManagedDataAccess.<version>.nupkg file. This file is a NuGet package. ODP.NET users can install this package using common Microsoft tools, such as NuGet Package Manager and Visual Studio.

When Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio is installed, Oracle documentation is installed in Visual Studio itself.

Samples are provided in GitHub:

https://github.com/oracle/dotnet-db-samples