Connecting to an Oracle database from Altair SLC on Linux

Ian Balanzá-Davis · September 10

If you have data stored in an Oracle database, you can connect using the Oracle Instant Client. To install the client you need to:

Download the Basic Package Oracle Instant Client for Linux from the Instant Client download page of the Oracle website.
Make sure you select the correct Linux distribution and architecture to match the Altair SLC installation.
Once the zip file is downloaded, change directory to the /opt folder and extract the contents using the following command:
```
unzip download-path/instantclient-basic-version.zip
```
- Where download path is the absolute path to the download location, and version is the downloaded version of the Oracle Instant Client.
- When complete, the Oracle connector archive is unzipped into the /opt folder.
Create a symbolic link called oracle that links to the extracted folder using the following command:
```
ln -s instantclient-basic-version oracle
```
Add the Oracle libraries to the shared library cache:
- Change directory (cd) to the /etc folder.
- View the contents of the ld.so.conf file.
  - If ld.so.conf references a separate folder through an include statement:
    Create a file called slc.conf in the referenced folder, and add the line /opt/oracle to the slc.conf file.
  - If ld.so.conf contains a list of folders:
    Add the line /opt/oracle to the file.
  - Run ldconfig.

Once the client has been downloaded, test the database connectivity with the following SAS language program:

LIBNAME DATASRC ORACLE USER=user-name PASSWORD=password PATH=remote-id;
PROC DATASETS LIBRARY=DATASRC;
RUN;

In the LIBNAME statement, replace user-name and password with your user name and password for the server, the PATH option contains the server name specified as remote-id and, optionally, a TNS name (that is, Oracle SID).
The DATASETS procedure returns the names of all tables in the selected database; for databases with large numbers of tables, this program might take some time to run.