Question

My Workspace is reading or writing to Oracle - what client do I need?

Answer

This depends upon your version of FME:
  •     If you are running 32-bit FME on a 64-bit machine then you need a 32-bit client.
  •     If you are running 64-bit FME  on a 64-bit machine then you need a 64-bit client.

Note: If you are using the Oracle 10g client or lower, you also need to install the 32-bit FME into some directory other than "C:\Program Files (x86)" as the Oracle client has an issue with path names which have parentheses "()" in them.

It is permissible to install both 32 and 64 bit clients together; for FME purposes you just have to make sure that ORACLE_HOME is *not* defined, and that the PATH includes both instant clients' installation directories (in either order).

If you want to use TNSNAMES.ORA, you need to set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable to the directory containing this file.

FME, with either client, can read and write to a 64 bit Oracle database.