Cannot register Oracle Spatial as a data source in ArcGIS Server 10.1

Question

We have the 64-bit Oracle client installed on our ArcGIS Server 10.1 server, but I am still getting an error message in ArcGIS Server when I try to register an Oracle Spatial database connection.  The Oracle Spatial database connection works in ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 on my local machine.  I am able to bring the table (without geometry) from Oracle Spatial into a map document and join it to a feature class.  But I can�??t publish the map document as a map service because the data source (Oracle Spatial) is not registered with ArcGIS Server.  The message looks like ArcGIS Server cannot recognize the Oracle client.The connection property set was missing a required property or the property value was unrecognized. Cannot connect to database because the database client software failed to load. Be sure the database client software is installed and configured correctly.

Any suggestions?

StephanieSnider · Answer

Excellent!  I'll add this to my notes.  Only a restart of the ArcGIS Server service is needed.

Thanks!

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RichardWatson · Answer

The problem occurs when you define the required System environment variables for Oracle after ArcGIS Server is running.

Because ArcGIS Server is already running, it won't see the new System environment variables.  You can see this by using the SysInternals Process Explorer utility.  This is a fundamental Windows architecture issue.

The easiest solution to this is to simply restart the Windows service associated with ArcGIS Server.

StephanieSnider · Answer

Have you put the path to the 64-bit client libraries before the path to the 32-bit libraries in the PATH environment variable?

Since I don't have ArcGIS Desktop installed on the server, I don't need the 32-bit Oracle Client.  I did discover the reason why  ArcGIS Server was not recognizing the 64-bit Oracle client.  I had to restart the server.  Doh!  I thought that setting up the PATH and TNS_ADMIN system variable would be enough.  But it needed a reboot.  Once I did, I was able to register the database and publish the map service.