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Preface:

There are many howtos on building Apache with PHP, MYSQL support, but it is very rare to find some document on OCI8 support with Apache Build, recently I was building a web server in my data center and I was really in trouble when I was searching some installation document, there are few documents , but most of them are using either RPM version of packages or they are missing some of the essential steps. I am trying to write a howto that will help you to at least understand the installation with step-by-step method.

Plateform:

I am using IBM x system x86_64 bit server with RHEL 4 Update Level 4.

So it begins :

1.Download Oracle Instant Client.

First of all you have to download Oracle Instant Client, here is the link to download it, I am downloading for Linux x86_64, you can adjust according to your hardware.

Here is the link where you can find exact Installer for your hardware.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/oci/instantclient/index.html

As I am doing it on Linux x86_64, so i will use following link:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/oci/instantclient/htdocs/linuxx86_64soft.html

Here you have to download following packges.

1. instantclient-basic-linux-x86-64-10.2.0.2-20060228.zip

2. instantclient-basic-linux-x86-64-10.2.0.2-20060228.zip

3. instantclient-sdk-linux-x86-64-10.2.0.2-20060228.zip

After downloading to your local directory you have to unzip them, as:

assuming you have downloaded in your user home.

These will unzip to $HOME/instantclient_10_2.

Create the client library symbolic link:

assuming you have downloaded in your user home.

These will unzip to $HOME/instantclient_10_2.

Create the client library symbolic link:

2. Setting up enviroment:
If you are installing all this from oracle user who is suppose to be owner of your database server then you have to make changes in oracle user .bash_profile, it is most likely that you have DB Server and Apache on same server then you might have set some of the variables otherwise you have to write them in oracle .bash_profile, but some time you may have a situation where your Web Server i.e. Apache Server is seperate then Oracle DB Server, I mean both of them are on seperate servers (machines) then you will just need to add LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable in your current user .bash_profile, i.e. the user who is installing all this here.

Now if you are installing through oracle user :

and add/edit following lines,

But if you are not installing from oracle user, the case above discussed then:

Now are done with environment setup.

3. Installing Apache:
Now you have download Apache source to compile on your machine, here is the link to download:

http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

I am using Apache1.3. Now it depends on you, which apache version you wish to download, but still people recommend Apache1.3, and I will stick to this recommendation.

To open the Apache tar, change filename according to your apache release:

You can change port according to your need, even 80, but never try this on production server.

Now we are done with Apache for now.

4. Installing PHP:
You can download your selected version of php source from,

http://www.php.net/downloads.php

My recommedation is PHP4.3.X I am using PHP 4.3.4 for my server. Now to open tar, do this:

Add these lines to the $HOME/apache/conf/httpd.conf file:

Restart Apache:

To check the extension is configured, create a simple PHP script phpinfo.php where the web server can read it.

Load the script into a browser using an “http://” URL. The browser page should contain an “oci8″ section saying “OCI8 Support enabled”.

- Nayyar Ahmad