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Oracle client doesn't work for some users

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04-04-2017 08:53 AM
WilliamBuerger
by
Occasional Contributor
‎04-04-2017 08:53 AM

I have a system running an Oracle database (12c, 64bit) and I need to have ArcMap running on this same system connect to the database.  ArcMap is 32bit so I also have the 32bit Oracle 12c instant client on the system.  The user I was connected as when I set all of this up works fine having the 64bit oracle server path first in the environment variables.  But any other user on this system gets the "Failed to connect to database ... database client software failed to load..." error.  All of the discussions on this topic seem to focus on the environment path which I did in order to get the first user to work.  But everything is setup the same for the other users yet it doesn't work for them.  Is there anything else that could cause the Oracle client to fail to load?  Is there any other logs or checks you can perform to see where the problem is coming from?

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20 Replies
AndresCastillo
by MVP Regular Contributor
MVP Regular Contributor
‎09-28-2020 09:35 AM

excellent, I am facing the same issue.

Initially, making a database connection in ArcCatalog gave me this error:

Client software failed to load. Be sure the database client software is installed and configured cor... 

This didn't work.

Verified there is issue with 32-bit Oracle client, because SQL plus 32-bit app will not launch.
Verified by looking at properly working SQL Plus 64-bit and 32-bit from another machine that had no issues accessing Oracle 32-bit via task scheduler.
32-bit ODBC Data Source app is successful when making a connection.

I was getting some permissions issue once I applied explicit permission to my domain user account on the sqlplus.exe file:

The initial workaround I was doing was to run as admin, but the real fix was:

In the advanced security settings, I changed the owner of the parent oracle folder to my admin domain user account (from the original owner admin user account), allowed my account the full control, Enable Inheritance, check the box on for 'Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object', ok, then when finalized, switched back to original owner.
Now, I don't need to run anything explicitly as admin!
reference:

Give permissions to files and folders in Windows 10

Other troubleshooting:
The database client release must be compatible with the release of the database management system to which you are connecting (Oracle 19c).
https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/downloads.html
Verify the Enterprise Geodatabase, as well as the ArcGIS Desktop version are compatible with the Database version.