The following section covers the client configuration required before using Database Connectors for Oracle on a new system.

Before you begin, you need to have:

• Access to an already installed and configured Oracle database.
• Configured any client software (if the server is on a remote machine), and verify a successful connection to the intended database.

The Oracle RDBMS must be installed and configured prior to this, which also includes the setting of any environment variables that may be required (such as ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID, and LD_LIBRARY_PATH) - consult your Oracle documentation for details on this.

Typically, you'll install Oracle client software to connect to a database not on the current machine, and then set up a service name that references the database that you want to connect to. The easiest way to do that is to use Oracle's Net Configuration Assistant. This tool also allows you to test the connection to the database. Some other versions of Oracle may require you to set specific environment variables (such as ORACLE_HOME, and ORACLE_SID); again, consult your Oracle documentation for further details.

Client installation can also be achieved using Instant Client - a lightweight solution to the Oracle client install. If using this client, we recommend downloading the following components to help test your connection:

• Oracle's SQL*Plus interactive query tool. SQL*Plus allows you to do database work outside of COBOL, including interactive queries, table creation, table modification, and creation of views, constraints, and relationships between tables.
• Oracle's SCOTT/Tiger test schema. This is a schema that is installed by default on older Oracle versions. It can still be downloaded and installed separately, and is used for testing purposes.

Once you have successfully connected to your Oracle database, continue with the Database Connectors-specific configuration.