Preparing the Oracle Environment

In this section:

How to:

The Adapter for Oracle minimally requires the installation of the Oracle Client. The Oracle Client allows you to connect to a local or remote Oracle database server.

Make sure that the client shared library, libclntch, was generated on UNIX and z/OS USS.

If you are using Oracle 11g or 10g and wish to take advantage of the adapter's support for Unicode, see Configuring Oracle for Unicode.


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Procedure: How to Prepare the Oracle Environment on Windows

On Windows, the Oracle environment is set up during the installation of Oracle.


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Procedure: How to Prepare the Oracle Environment on UNIX

You can issue the following export commands in the edastart file. (Alternatively, you can issue them in a separate shell file, a database profile, or a user profile.)

  1. On the Web Console menu bar, select Workspace, then Configuration. In the Configuration pane, expand the Configuration Files folder and choose Server Startup Script to edit the edastart file. Place the export commands immediately following the shell setting. For example:
    #!/bin/ksh
    export ORACLE_SID=orac
    export ORACLE_HOME=/usr/oracle/orac
    . . .
  2. Specify the Oracle database instance to access using the UNIX environment variable $ORACLE_SID. For example:
    ORACLE_SID=orac
    export ORACLE_SID
  3. Specify the location of the Oracle database you wish to access using the UNIX environment variable $ORACLE_HOME. For example, to set the home directory for the Oracle software to /usr/orac, specify:
    ORACLE_HOME=/usr/oracle/orac
    export ORACLE_HOME
  4. Specify the path to the Oracle shared library using the appropriate platform-dependant UNIX environment variable, such as $LD_LIBRARY_PATH for Sun Sparc, $SHLIB_PATH for HP-UX, and $LIBPATH for AIX.

    This must be done only for an unsecured server. For example:

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

    Note: If the server is running with security on, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable is ignored. In this case, you must use IBI_LIBPATH.


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Procedure: How to Prepare the Oracle Environment on z/0S

The configuration for Oracle on z/OS requires that EDASTART JCL is used to allocate Oracle specific variables. This can be done using the EDAENV ddname in the JCL:

ORACLE_SID=ORAT
ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lpp/orac
LIBPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib

If you are running a secure server, then your Oracle run-time load and message libraries must be APF-authorized in order to avoid the following error message:

ORA-01019: unable to allocate memory in the user side

Another option is to implement an internal security mechanism by placing the following parameter in EDASERVE DDNAME.

APFAUTH=INTERNAL

With this setting, the server calls Oracle in a non-authorized state so that Oracle libraries do not require any special APF authorization (except when the Oracle documentation states differently).


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Syntax: How to Prepare the Oracle Environment on OpenVMS

When a site creates an Oracle SID, the Oracle software automatically generates a DCL setup script so users and products such as the Reporting Server, can properly invoke the environment.

The specification for the location of the Oracle setup file is:

$@disk:[oracle_root.DB_oraclesiddb]ORAUSER_oraclesiddb.COM

where:

disk

Is the disk on which Oracle is installed.

oracle_root

Is the root directory of the Oracle installation.

oraclesiddb

Is the name of the Oracle database. This name does not need to match the Oracle SID.

EDAENV.COM is an optional OpenVMS file that is invoked at server start up to issue DCL commands such as calls to DBMS setup files. Due to the use of symbols and job logicals in Oracle, the only proper way to invoke the Oracle setup file is by using the EDAENV.COM file.

By default, EDAENV.COM does not exist and must be manually created in the [.BIN] directory of EDACONF. In this case, and in its simplest form, EDAENV.COM will contain a single line of syntax that specifies the call to the Oracle setup file.



Example: Specifying the $ORACLE_SID on OpenVMS
$@3$DKB0:[ORACLE.DB_ORAC]ORAUSER_ORAC.COM

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Connecting to a Remote Oracle Database Server

Using the standard rules for deploying the Oracle Client, the server supports connections to:

Once you are connected to an Oracle database server, that server may define Oracle DATABASE LINKs that can be used to access Oracle tables on other Oracle database servers.


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XA Support

Read/write applications accessing Oracle data sources are able to perform transactions managed in XA-compliant mode.

To activate the XA Transaction Management feature, the server has to be configured in Transaction Coordination Mode, using the Web console configuration functions. Using Transaction Coordination Mode guarantees the integrity of data modification on all of the involved DBMSs and protects part of the data modifications from being committed on one DBMS and terminated on another.

For complete documentation on XA compliance, see XA Support.


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Configuring Oracle for Unicode

How to:

The adapter supports Unicode data in Oracle release 10g or higher databases that have been configured with the NLS_CHARACTERSET parameter set to UTF8. You must set the NLS_LANG environment variable in the edastart file or in a separate shell file.

Note:



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Syntax: How to Set the Environment Variable for NLS_LANG

To set the NLS_LANG environment variable to support Unicode, use the following syntax

NLS_LANG = language_territory.characterset

where:

language

Is the selected language.

territory

Is the name of the country associated with the selected language.

characterset

Is the value of the NLS_CHARACTERSET variable that is set in the Oracle database. For Unicode, this is always UTF8.



Example: Setting the NLS_LANG Variable for American English UTF-8

For American English UTF-8, the following setting is required:

NLS_LANG=American_America.UTF8

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