DBD::Oracle and Windows 64bit 

I have successfully compiled and installed  DBD::Oracle on Windows 2008 server 64bit operating system today.  

I used the latest version of <a href='http://search.cpan.org/~pythian/DBD-Oracle-1.24a/'>DBD::Oracle 1.24</A>
version 11.2.0.1.0 for 64bit windows of Oracle's
<a href='http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/oci/instantclient/htdocs/winx64soft.html'>Instant Client Package - Basic</a>
along with the Instant Client Package - SQL*Plus and finally the Instant Client Package - SDK.


To get it to Make and compile correctly I had to download Microsoft's <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-ca/download'>Visual Studio Ultimate</a>

which should contain all the files you need.  It is rather portly at 2+gb so you might want to grab lunch while you are downloading it.


After all the above downloading DBB::Oracle installed right out of the box.

All one has to do is select  'Start Menu->All Programs->Microsoft Visual Studio 2010->Visual Studio Tools->Visual Studio x64 Win64 Command Prompt (2010)' 
which will open a good old 'dos' window.

At this point CD to the directory where you downloaded DBD::Oracle

c:\DBD-Oracle>

then set your 'ORACLE_HOME to the Instant Client directory

c:\DBD-Oracle>set ORACLE_HOME=c:\IC_11

you should also set your NLS like this

c:\DBD-Oracle>set NLS_LANG=.WE8ISO8859P15

Once the above setting are done do a 

c:\DBD-Oracle>perl Makefile.PL

and then a 

c:\DBD-Oracle>nmake install


Which will produce a whole of warnings (the make you can ignore them for now as they do not seem to effect DBD::Oracle at all) and near the end it should output something like this;


Generating code
Finished generating code
        if exist blib\arch\auto\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.dll.manifest mt -nologo -manifest blib\arch\auto\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.dll.manifest -outputresource:blib\arch\auto
\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.dll;2
        if exist blib\arch\auto\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.dll.manifest del blib\arch\auto\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.dll.manifest
        C:\Perl64\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e "chmod" -- 755 blib\arch\auto\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.dll
        C:\Perl64\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e "cp" -- Oracle.bs blib\arch\auto\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.bs
        C:\Perl64\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e "chmod" -- 644 blib\arch\auto\DBD\Oracle\Oracle.bs
        C:\Perl64\bin\perl.exe "-Iblib\arch" "-Iblib\lib" ora_explain.PL ora_explain
Extracted ora_explain from ora_explain.PL with variable substitutions.
        C:\Perl64\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e "cp" -- ora_explain blib\script\ora_explain
        pl2bat.bat blib\script\ora_explain

At this point you are all done.  

Well almost

It is important that you test your code before you install but you will have to set a few things up to get it to fully test correctly

You will need a TNSNAMES.ORA file that points to a valid DB in the Instant Client Directory

Next you will need to set the ORACLE_USER_ID to a valid user


c:\DBD-Oracle>set ORACLE_USER_ID=system/system@XE


You will have to set up TNS_ADMIN to point to the Instant Client Directory


c:\DBD-Oracle>set TNS_ADMIN=c:\IC_11


Most importantly you will have to add the Instant Client directory to your path like this

c:\DBD-Oracle>path = c:\IC_11;%path%

If you do not do this step you will run into the dreaded 

Can't load 'C:/Perl/lib/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.dll' for module DBD::Oracle: load_file:%1 is not a valid Win32 application at C:/Perl/lib/DynaLoader.pm line 202.

Error later on after the compile when you try to use DBD::Oracle.

What is actually going on is that Perl cannot find oci.dll (or one of the other .dlls it needs to run) the 'C:/Perl/lib/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.dll' and the DynaLoader error
are just a false trails. For more info on this check out this page <a href='http://www.alexander-foken.de/Censored%20copy%20of%20Oracle%20Troubleshooter%20HOWTO.html#oneoci'>Oracle Troubleshooter'</a>
by Alexander Foken.  It is rather dated but the facts of why perl did not find a dll are still valid.


now you can do this

c:\DBD-Oracle>nmake test

and all the tests should run and it will report

Finally simple do a 

c:\DBD-Oracle>nmake install

and you are all set

That is about it.

At this point you might want to add the Instant Client directory permanently to your path so you will not run into the Dynaloader error again.





In general compiling DBD:Oracle for 64 bit machines has been a hit or miss operation.  
The main thing to remember is you will have to compile using 32 bit Perl and compile DBD::Oracle against a 32bit client
which sort of defeats the purpose of having a 64bit box.  
So until 64bit Perl comes out we will be posing in this README any success stories we have come across

-------- Original Message --------
From: 	Alex Buttery, OCA, MCTS
	Director, Database Architecture and Operations
	Impact Rx, Inc.


I needed to get perl working on a 64-bit Windows Server so I got creative. Since I was unable to build DBD::Oracle on the Windows Server
(even with Visual Studio 6 installed), I decided that I would try another approach. Here are the steps I took to get it working 
(yes, this is a hack and I'm not even sure that it does not violate someone's license agreements but I'm not going to be asking anyone 
else to support this configuration). 

 Step 1: Install 32-bit Perl 5.8.8 from Activestate on the Server to the C: drive.

 Step 2: Install the 32-bit Oracle client on the server (I'm assuming the 64-bit client has already been installed and is working) to 
 	 the c:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client32 directory in the OraHome_Client32 Home.

 Step 3: Locate Oracle.dll in the new Oracle Home directory, it should be located somewhere close to 
 	 c:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client32\perl\site\5.8.3\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread\auto\DBD\Oracle.

 Step 4: Locate Oracle.dll in the Perl 5.8.8 directory. (C:\Perl) It should be somewhere close to c:\Perl\site\lib\auto\DBD\Oracle.

 Step 5: Copy the contents of the Oracle directory found in Step 3 to the Perl directory found in Step 4.

 Step 6: Copy GetInfo.pm from C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client32\perl\site\5.8.3\lib\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread\DBD\Oracle to C:\Perl\site\lib\DBD\Oracle

 Step 7: Locate Oracle.pm in the new Oracle Home directory, it should be located somewhere close to 
 	 c:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client32\perl\site\5.8.3\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread\auto\DBD.

 Step 8: Locate Oracle.pm in the Perl 5.8.8 directory. (C:\Perl) It should be somewhere close to c:\Perl\site\lib\auto\DBD.

 Step 9: Copy Oracle.pm from the Oracle directory found in Step 7 to the Perl directory found in Step 8.

 Step 10: Set up required ODBC connections using the 32-bit ODBC applet (odbcad32.exe) located in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 directory.  
 	  Note: The ODBC applet in the Administrative Tools menu points to the odbcad32.exe located in the C:\Windows\system32 directory 
 	  and is actually the 64 bit version of the ODBC applet This cannot be used by Perl

 Step 11: Create batch scripts to run Perl programs and include the following SET statements to point Perl to the correct Oracle Home:

 	SET ORACLE_HOME=c:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client32 <== 32-bit Oracle Home

	SET ORACLE_SID=xyz123                             <== SID of Production Database

	SET NLS_LANG=.WE8ISO8859P1                        <== Default Language from Database   (preceeding "." Is required)

	SET PATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\bin;%PATH%                 <== Add 32-bit Oracle Home to beginning of default PATH

 

Hopefully, you will be able to include these instructions in the next build of DBD::Oracle to help out other poor souls that are fighting
this same battle.

 

 
