Installing Oracle ODBC driver on uBuntu 16.04 server

Note: Following steps are for ubuntu 16.04 server. Change the steps based on your Linux flavor

First start with unixodbc installation
$sudo apt-get install unixodbc
To conform the installation just type in isql from the shell and should work.

Install the alien utility (You need to install local .rpm packages)
$sudo apt-get install alien

Install libaio1 64 bit$sudo apt-get install libaio1

I have followed the steps from this post. But simplified it little bit.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Oracle%20Instant%20Client

You need to first download them from Oracle site.

Instant Client Home page:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/instant-client/index-097480.html
Download page: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxx86-64soft-092277.html (Linux 64 bit)

I went with the following packages

Instant Client Package - Basic Instant Client Package - JDBC Supplement Instant Client Package - SQL*Plus Instant Client Package - ODBC

Download the above .rpm files locally on your machine and upload it to the Linux server or directly download it on your Linux server. wget won't work since it requires you to sign in to Oracle site.

Next install the rpm's using the alien utility.

sudo alien -i oracle-instantclient12.1-basic-12.1.0.2.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Install the other rpms in the same way

Setup the Oracle environment variables globally. You can do it in your user .profile as well.

Create a file "sudo vi /etc/profile.d/oracle.sh" with the following content.

export ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64

export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/lib/${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}

logoff and login back and try sqlplus

user@ubuntu:~$ which sqlplus

/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/bin/sqlplus

user@ubuntu:~$ sqlplus

SQL*Plus: Release 12.1.0.2.0 Production on Wed Jan 18 12:14:14 2017

Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Enter user-name: 

If you get the above response, you are almost done. At this stage you can connect to your Oracle database using EZConnect string

$ sqlplus scott/tiger@myoracledb.example.com:1521/ORCL

SQL*Plus: Release 12.1.0.2.0 Production on Wed Jan 18 12:17:00 2017

Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Last Successful login time: Wed Jan 18 2017 02:22:27 -05:00

Connected to:

Oracle Database 12c Standard Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production

SQL> 

Just finish it up by setting up sqlnet.ora and tnsnames.ora

Create /network/admin directory under $ORACLE_HOME (/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64) folder

Under the same create sqlnet.ora. Sample below

names.directory_path = (EZCONNECT, LDAP, TNSNAMES, HOSTNAME)

Create tnsnames.ora Sample content below

MY_ORACLE_DB= (description=   (address_list=     (address = (protocol = TCP)(host = myoracledb.example.com)(port = 1521))   ) (connect_data =   (service_name=ORCL) ))

Now you can connect using $sqlplus scott/tiger@MY_ORACLE_DB

You are done and enjoy.