Steps to install oci8 on centos 8

The following steps is valid for Oracle 11g, you can modify as per your oracle version in a similar fashion.

1. Install the Oracle Instant Client:

   - Download the Oracle Instant Client RPM packages for your architecture from the Oracle website (https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/linux-x86-64-downloads.html). You'll need  oracle-instantclient-basic ,  oracle-instantclient-devel and oracle-instantclient-sqlplus packages.

   - Transfer the downloaded RPM packages to your CentOS 8 system if you downloaded them on a different machine.

Note: for centos, it is better to download “.rpm” file rather than “.zip”

2. Install the Oracle Instant Client RPM packages:

Go to the directory where you downloaded the oracle instant-client files and install those files:

Let’s take example for version oracle instant-client 11.2,

sudo dnf install oracle-instantclient11.2-basic-11.2.0.4.0-1.x86_64.rpm 

sudo dnf install oracle-instantclient11.2-devel-11.2.0.4.0-1.x86_64

sudo dnf install oracle-instantclient11.2-sqlplus-11.2.0.4.0-1.x86_64

To verify whether the Oracle Instant Client "devel" package is installed on your CentOS system, you can use the package management tool rpm or dnf. Here's how you can check for the presence of the Oracle Instant Client devel package:

Using ‘rpm’:

rpm -qa | grep oracle-instantclient-devel

Using ‘dnf’:

dnf list installed | grep oracle-instantclient-devel

 

3. Verify the ORACLE_HOME environment variable:

echo $ORACLE_HOME

Ensure that the ORACLE_HOME environment variable is set correctly and points to the location where you installed the Oracle Instant Client. If it's not set correctly, you can set it as follows:

export ORACLE_HOME=/path/to/instant/client

During the installation process, you may be prompted to provide the path to the Oracle Instant Client library. If prompted, enter the correct path:

Enter the path: instantclient,/usr/lib/oracle/19.20/client64/lib

 

4. Set the environment variables required for OCI8 and PHP:

 

$ export ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64

$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/lib

sudo ldconfig

Once you are done with above steps, the environment is set for oci8 installation, follow the bellows steps now,

5. Stop Apache and uninstall older version of OCI8 if any (stopping Apache is very important):

 service httpd stop

 pecl uninstall oci8

 

6. Install php-pear and php devel:

 sudo yum install php-pear php-devel

 pear download pecl/oci8

7. The next commands depend on the version of oci8 downloaded above.

$ tar xvzf oci8-2.2.0.tgz

$ cd oci8-2.2.0/

$ phpize

$ export PHP_DTRACE=yes

$ sudo dnf install libnsl

$ sudo dnf install epel-release

$ setenforce 0

 

8. Make sure of the instantclient path below... mine was version 11.2 so it was located in this folder... Also make note some tutorials ask for the ORACLE_HOME folder which theoretically is /usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64 but if its instantclient then put the lib folder underneath it (worked for me at least:)

$ ./configure --with-oci8=instantclient,/usr/lib/oracle/12.2/client64/lib/

$ make

$ make install

$ sudo pecl install oci8-3.3.0 instantclient,$ORACLE_HOME/lib

$ sudo systemctl restart httpd

$ sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

$ sudo systemctl restart mysqld 

9. NOW an .so file built in: /usr/lib64/php/modules/oci8.so

10. check whether oci8 has been successfully installed or not:

php -m | grep oci8

The steps may not be needed in most of the cases. If indeed, it is required in your case go through these steps as well (though it is suggested to first try running before implementing the below steps):

# THIS STEP NOT NEEDED if SELinux disabled on your server/box, but if SELinux is enabled run: setsebool -P httpd_execmem 1

# NOW add:   extension=oci8.so    at the bottom of your php.ini file (probably in /etc/php.ini)

# Add extension_dir=/usr/lib64/php/modules/