One solution is to install both x86 (32-bit) and x64 Oracle Clients on your machine, then it does not matter on which architecture your application is running.
Here an instruction to install x86 and x64 Oracle client on one machine:
Assumptions: Oracle Home is called OraClient11g_home1
, Client Version is 11gR2
-
Optionally remove any installed Oracle client (see How to uninstall / completely remove Oracle 11g (client)? if you face problems)
-
Download and install Oracle x86 Client, for example into
C:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x86
-
Download and install Oracle x64 Client into different folder, for example to
C:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x64
-
Open command line tool, go to folder
%WINDIR%\System32
(typicallyC:\Windows\System32
) and create a symbolic linkora112
to folderC:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x64
(see commands section below) -
Change to folder
%WINDIR%\SysWOW64
(typicallyC:\Windows\SysWOW64
) and create a symbolic linkora112
to folderC:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x86
, (see below) -
Modify the
PATH
environment variable, replace all entries likeC:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x86
andC:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x64
byC:\Windows\System32\ora112
, respective their\bin
subfolder. Note:C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ora112
must not be in PATH environment. -
If needed set your
ORACLE_HOME
environment variable toC:\Windows\System32\ora112
-
Open your Registry Editor. Set Registry value
HKLM\Software\ORACLE\KEY_OraClient11g_home1\ORACLE_HOME
toC:\Windows\System32\ora112
-
Set Registry value
HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\ORACLE\KEY_OraClient11g_home1\ORACLE_HOME
toC:\Windows\System32\ora112
(notC:\Windows\SysWOW64\ora112
) -
You are done! Now you can use x86 and x64 Oracle client seamless together, i.e. an x86 application will load the x86 libraries, an x64 application loads the x64 libraries without any further modification on your system.
-
Probably it is a wise option to set your
TNS_ADMIN
environment variable (resp.TNS_ADMIN
entries in Registry) to a common location, for exampleTNS_ADMIN=C:\Oracle\Common\network
.
Commands to create symbolic links:
cd C:\Windows\System32
mklink /d ora112 C:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x64
cd C:\Windows\SysWOW64
mklink /d ora112 C:\Oracle\11.2\Client_x86
Notes:
Both symbolic links must have the same name, e.g. ora112
.
Despite of their names folder C:\Windows\System32
contains the x64 libraries, whereas C:\Windows\SysWOW64
contains the x86 (32-bit) libraries. Don’t get confused.