Oracle client requirements for SDL Tridion 2013 SP1

Question

We performed an upgrade from SDL Tridion 2011 SP1 HR#2 to SDL Tridion 2013 SP1. Please refer to Failed upgrade from SDL Tridion 2011 SP1 HR2 to Tridion 2013 SP1 for details regarding the upgrade. This was a test upgrade on our development environment.

This weekend we tried performing the same upgrade on the production environment following the below steps:

1. Apply 11.2.0.4 patch to CMS DB
2. Uninstall Oracle 11g Client (both 32 bit and 64 bit) from CMS server
3. Install .Net Framework (4.5.1) on CMS server
4. Install Oracle 12c Client (64 bit only) on CMS server
5. Upgrade the Tridion databases using Powershell scripts provided by SDL Tridion
6. Run the SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 CM installer
7. Restart Server

After the restart we started getting the following error in the CMS GUI:

Could not load file or assembly 'Oracle.DataAccess, Version=4.112.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Following this error we reinstalled the 64 bit Oracle 12c client on the CMS server as mentioned in the other link I mentioned above. But we were still getting the same error. We also installed 64bit version of 12c ODAC but to no avail. Then we also tried installing the 32 bit version of Oracle Client and ODAC (based on http://sdltridionworld.com/articles/sdltridion2011/tutorials/tridion-2011-oracle-11g-3.aspx).

After installing the 32 bit client we started getting the below error:

The type initializer for 'Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleConnectionStringBuilder' threw an exception. The provider is not compatible with the version of Oracle client

Then we uninstalled all Oracle client and ODAC components from the CMS box and reinstalled the 64 bit client. But the error persisted.

After comparing this with the development setup we noticed that the development environment still has Oracle 11g client (both 32 & 64 bit versions) installed. My question is:

1. Does SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 need Oracle 11g client also if I have Oracle 12c client installed?
2. Does SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 need both 32 and 64 versions of Oracle client?
3. Does SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 need ODAC if the Oracle client is installed and ODP.NET was selected during the client install?

Answer 1

I haven't done any Oracle install on Tridion 2013 SP1, but I can only assume that the 32 bit client is required if you're using the LEGACY pack. The old COM interface used 32 bit, and IIRC, we had to install them in a particular order (first the 64 bit client, then the 32 bit).

This might have changed with Tridion 2013, as I said, I haven't done an Oracle install myself.

Probably worth double-checking the oracle client version and the official documentation, as there are several topics related to the Oracle client and ODAC:

• ODAC 12.1.0.1 required (and only this one)
• Only 64 bit client required (see my note above about Legacy pack, not 100% sure the documentation is accurate here)

Answer 2

Does SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 need Oracle 11g client also if I have Oracle 12c client installed? Is not necessary, with 12c client could work fine, but it's not sure.

Does SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 need both 32 and 64 versions of Oracle client? yes because some Tridion services like workflow or transport uses 32 bits client, but core service or deployer uses x64 client.

Does SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 need ODAC if the Oracle client is installed and ODP.NET was selected during the client install?

I suggest uninstall all Oracle Client on your server and check if there are any oracle.dataaccess.dll on GAC. (c:\windows\assembly and Microsoft.NET\assembly...)

If you installed Oracle Client before to install .NET Framework 4 the DLL will be on c:\windows\assembly.

I had several problems with Oracle client. For your version, Oracle 11.2.0.4 I use the next versions:

-ODAC112030_x64 -ODTwithODAC112012

hope that hepls you.