Installing ArcSDE 9.2 for Oracle version 10G R2 on Windows 2003 x64

Question

We submitted this question on an ESRI user forum, but we would also like to submit it elsewhere to ensure an answer.
We are trying to install ArcSDE 9.2 for Oracle. The version of Oracle is 10G R2 (10.2.0.1). The server is a Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 edition with SP1. There are now 2 instances of Oracle on the server, but this problem originally occurred when there was only one instance. The issue: ArcSDE 9.2 apparently installs just fine. There are no error messages during the run of the installation process. However, when the Post-Installation process is called, a critical error alert pops up reporting, "The application failed to start because OCI.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application might fix this problem." ArcSDE has been uninstalled and reinstalled several times. Oracle has been uninstalled and reinstalled several times. Various searches have been made, concerning this error message. On Friday the only ESRI Article we could find mentioning this error was Article ID: 25388 which stated that the "ORA81/bin" directory needed to be added to the PATH environment variable. However, today we found a new ESRI forum entry dated 6/2/2007 with the querystring "c=2&f=1717&t=223961" in which someone reported the need to install the 32 bit Oracle_HOME. However the ESRI Support Center article he referenced, (dated November 14, 2006), stated that the 32 bit Oracle Client needed to be installed to a different Oracle_HOME and the service name created for it, is to be used in the Post-Installation process. And finally our Oracle DBA reported seeing another Support Center Article which stated that the 32 bit versions of the Oracle libraries are installed by default in a different location, and it was only necessary to add that location to the PATH environment variable. I have also seen information on Oracle forums stating that this message means that the Oracle client needed to be installed, but our Oracle DBA reports that this is installed by default with Oracle DB server. My question is of course which if any of these solutions is correct?
E.R. Joell MCSD MCDBA

Answer 1

I have managed an ORacle/ArcSDE environment for many years where multiple SIDs were running.
If it doesn't know which SID then it would indicate that it is picking up the wrong ORACLE_SID environment setting. To be honest, UNIX is an easier environment to operate software in as one can set environment variables to suit software very directly. Now I have not run ArcSDE on a Windows environment before so any suggestions I have may not work as I write them.
Still, I would suggest you consider writing a CMD/batch script that:
1. Set all appropriate Oracle environment variables DIRECTLY eg
SET ORACLE_BASE=c:\oracle\product
SET ORACLE_HOME=c:\oracle\product\10.2.01
SET ORACLE_SID=...
2. Set the ArcSDE environment
3. Sets the Path to include all Oracle, ArcSDE and required Windows executables
4. Start the ArcSDE service:
NET START ESRARCSDE (or whatever this thing is called)
I suspect if you can get this going you will never go back to any other method of starting and managing ArcSDE (this approach works and works well on UNIX so you will be all skilled up to migrate across to Linux/Solaris etc if you see fit).
Hope this helps.
PS I have run ArcSDE against non-supported versions quite successfully over the years so I would say try it against 10.2.0.1 and see what happens.
regards
Smon