Setting up Oracle for 10.1 Server and Desktop

[DeonaEvans]

I have installed 10.1 ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server on a 64 bit Windows Server 2008R2 virtual macine.  I have an oracle database that I used with 10.0 and have successfully established a connection to it through ArcCatalog.  When trying to register this database with ArcServer I get the error "The data item is inaccessible."  So, looking through the documentation I realize that I haven't loaded the oracle client software.  So I load the 64 bit client software.  Knowing that I also am running Desktop I install the 32 bit client as well.  I setup my environment variable Path to point to client_1(64bit) before (client_2) - as stated in the documentation.  I then go back to Catalog to look at my database and the connection no longer works.  If I take out the link to the 32 bit client in the Path environment variable, Catalog can connect to the database.  I'm confused.  I thought the 32 bit client was required if connecting to a database from Desktop.  I would have thought that I wouldn't be able to connect to the database via Catalog without the 32 bit oracle client.  I still cannot register the database in ArcServer.  What am I missing/doing wrong?

[RichardWatson]

I assume that you are talking about the Oracle Instant Client here.

After modifying the System PATH environment variable you either have to reboot the machine or restart the ArcGIS Server service.  Running processes do not see environment variable changes.

I have both the 32 bit and 64 bit Oracle Instant Clients installed (which I obtained from the ESRI download site) and am able to connect to my Oracle database via ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcGIS Server.

[DeonaEvans]

Thanks for your response.  I am not using the Instant Client from ESRI.  I am using the regular Oracle Client.  I've rebooted the machine and I still have the problem.  Catalog and Desktop have no problem with the database connection.  I use the same connection string in those for the connection in Server.  I get an error that says "NameISpecified: The data item is inaccessible."  That makes me think there is a permissions issue.  I've set the folder permissions where the database is.....is there more to this?  It's just weird that Desktop and Catalog are fine but not Server.
Thanks again.

[RichardWatson]

One thing that is different is that server is running under the "arcgis" account.  For example, it won't see any environment variables that are not defined at the System level.  Certainly this account is different than the one that you are using when you use ArcMap interactively.

You could try literally logging in using the arcgis account and see if ArcMap works.  It might be something like non-system environment variables which are only defined for your interactive account.  It might relate to finding the right Oracle client bits or something like TNSNames.  Look at your environment variables.