Tag Archives: Oracle Client

Oracle Client Installer crash during Installation on Windows

An old solution to  a new problem.

When running   an Oracle client (19 in my case) installation on a windows 2019 server, the installation opened a new command window and immediately crashed.

After taking a video of the crash I was able to see that the message was:

Starting  Oracle Universal Installer ..

Checking monitor: must be configure to display at least 256 colors Higher than 256. Actual 4294967296 Passed

Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from C:\Users\{username}\AppData\local\temp\ ….

Please wait … Error: Unable to access jarfile C:\{installer directory}

Google provided little help until I remembered the solution described in my own post from 14 years ago (OUI.EXE has stopped working on Windows 2008).

Apparently, The simple solution to  many Oracle Installer problems is Copying the installer directory to a location with a short path and no spaces in the directory path.

For example “C:\temp\”  instead of “C:\Users\username\Downloads\oracle installer downlod\setup.exe”.

So, 14 years have passed, Windows 2008 is now Windows 2019 and this weird bug is not fixed. At least the workaround still works

OUI.EXE has stopped working on Windows 2008

If you are trying to install Oracle 10.2.0.3 client on a Windows 2008 server and you get the following error:

OUI.EXE has stopped working
Close the program

 

For some reason, the Oracle installer is having problem with long directory structures.
To overcome this, you can simply copy the installtion directory to a location with a shorter path.

    1)create a new Temp directory on the root of your drive
    2)copy the installtion files to this directory. it is possible that windows will say that ” you need permission to perform this action”. This could be overcome by turning off the User Account Control (UAC) but a simpler soulution would be to copy the files using the command promptmove “10203_vista_w2k8_x86_production_client” c:\temp\ (weird, but it works)
    3) run the installer from the new location.

How to Configure the ODBC on Oracle XE Client

Even Oracle veterans may encounter some challenges when it comes to setting an odbc  using the Oracle XE Client.    As every DBA will tell you, you will need to configure the tnsnames.ora  (using  net configuration Assistant or by going  to oracle home\network\admin and edit it manually). After that, theTNS Service name in the ODBC will be populated with the entries from the tnsnames.ora file. You will only be required to choose the appropriate entry and you should be good to go.
This was the case in all the latest Oracle releases However If you will download the Oracle XE client you will quickly discover  that there is no tnsnames.ora under the Oracle client XE directory structure. In addition, the network\admin directory is not there as well.
Oracle documentation explains (In their usual user friendly way) how to connect to the Data Base using a connection string (username/password@[//]host[:port][/service_name] where service name is usually XE and port is 1521) but it is not that obvious how to configure the odbc to use this.
The solution is simple enough (once you find it). All that needs to be done is to type  the connection string  on the ODBC’s “ TNS Service Name” field.  Just add the line 127.0.0.1/XE (no need to use the drop down) and test the connection.
If the Data Base is on a different machine, you can replace 127.0.0.1 with the address of the remote server.

Simple solution for ORA-12638: Credential retrieval failed

If the Oracle client was installed using the domain administrator account instead of the local administrator, the following message could be displayed when trying to connect:

ORA-12638: Credential retrieval failed

From the wording of the error message one could think that this error means that he is using the wrong password but this is not the case. To solve this:

1) Go to /oracle home/network/admin and open sqlnet.ora

2) Search for  SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) and change it to
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NONE)

3) Save the file and try to connect, this should work

MSVCR71.DLL is in use during Oracle patch installation

If you are trying to upgrade the Oracle Client and an error message is displayed telling you that  msvcr71.dll is in use, try the following:

1) Verify that all Oracle services are stopped.

2) Stop the Distributed Transaction Coordinator – In most cases this will solve the issue.

3) Run Process Explorer

a) In the Find menu, click on “Find Handle or DLL” (CTRL F)

b) Type msvcr71.dll and click on Search

c) Go through the list and close the listed applications