Oracle Instant Client installation in Windows

oracle_instantclient

Skill - Oracle Instant Client installation in Windows

In this post we will install Oracle Instant Client that enables communication between python scripts and Oracle database.

Without Oracle Instant Client, python scripts cannot communicate with the oracle database.

If you computer that is running the python scripts already has Oracle database installed in it, Instant Client may not be required.
But there can be cases where the Oracle is 32 bit and python is 64 bit or vice-versa, where Instant Client installation will be necessary even if Oracle Database is installed in the computer.

Download Oracle Instant Client from https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/downloads.html or search for “Oracle Instant Client download” if this link does not work
Download the relevant zip file by clicking on the link like “Instant Client for Microsoft Windows (x64)”
Download the basic package zip file

Download Oracle Instant Client Package - zip file
Create an installation directory like C:\instantclient
Copy the zip file to the installation directory and unzip the zip file there.
Now all the instant client files will be in the folder C:\instantclient
Include the above folder path C:\instantclient\ in PATH and OCI_LIB64 system environment variables
If we get an error in python script something like “32 bit instant client not found”, then remove the 64 bit files and folders and install a 32 bit version of Instant Client.

Along with Oracle Instant client, we also need cx_Oracle python module to interface with Oracle database in python scripts
To install cx_Oracle python module, run the following command in the python environment

python -m pip install cx_Oracle

You can watch the video on this post here