oracle11g - Oracle Instant Client for ARM based Debian device

Question

As the title suggest Oracle doesn't provide a ARM based instant client. Which is necessary to communicate with the DB server. (this is the only way we need for our project) So can any one help us to install/compile/modify the oracle instant client to make it work on Debian arm based system ? Targer oracle database 11g

Instant Client for Microsoft Windows (x32)
Instant Client for Microsoft Windows 64-bit Itanium
Instant Client for Microsoft Windows (x64)
Instant Client for Linux x86
Instant Client for Linux x86-64
Instant Client for Linux Itanium
Instant Client for Linux AMD64 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Instant Client for Linux on Power (32-bit)
Instant Client for Linux on Power (64-bit)
Instant Client for z/Linux (31-bit and 64-bit)
Instant Client for Mac OS X (Intel x86) (32-bit and 64-bit)
Instant Client for Mac OS X (PPC)
Instant Client for Solaris Operating System (SPARC) (64-bit)
Instant Client for Solaris Operating System (SPARC) (32-bit)
Instant Client for Solaris x86
Instant Client for Solaris x86-64
Instant Client for HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit)
Instant Client for HP-UX PA-RISC (32-bit)
Instant Client for AIX5L (64-bit)
Instant Client for AIX5L (32-bit)
Instant Client for HP Tru64 UNIX
Instant Client for HP-UX Itanium (64-bit)
Instant Client for HP-UX Itanium (32-bit)

Last questions i check on this were very old like 2-3 yrs back i guess there might be some method now ?

Answer 1

As far as I know, Oracle does not, and never has, and probably never will in a near future provide an Instant Client for ARM-based Linux. As it is a proprietary software, there is little chances that you could "compile" it...

1. An option would be to write your own driver implementing of Oracle's wire-protocol. But this is far from trivial. Not mentioning the (possible) legal implications as this is a proprietary protocol.

2. For now, your best bet if you want to connect directly from your ARM box to an Oracle server, is probably to use the JDBC thin-driver as it is pure-java and should run on a JVM for ARM. If your application is not written in Java, you will probably need to write some kind of gateway yourself -- or wrap your own stuff through JNI maybe (sounds like a kludge, no?)

3. Depending on your needs and your project requirements, maybe you should investigate the option of having some kind of "web service" acting as a gateway to Oracle and running on an x86/amd64 box somewhere on your network. Then your clients (ARM-based or not) would access to the underlying DB through it.

4. There are many clients for open-sources RDMBS that you can use on ARM devices. Maybe you could manage to synchronize data between Oracle an one of these RDBMS ?

As of myself, I would push toward the third solution. But once again, this is all depending on your actual needs.

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Given your various comments below, I would say that the choice of an ARM target was an error given your absolute need to embed instant client to connect to an Oracle RDBMS.

Maybe a small form-factor Intel's Atom based board would have been a better choice here? A Take a look for example at MinnowBoard or even Intel Galileao. Those are only suggestions. And I never worked with any of them. You will probably be able to find other/better options by googling a little. Check for the Linux compatibility/ease of install -- and you will have a full fledged x86 architecture at hand.