OraOLEDB.Oracle Linked Server

Do you want to use Oracle’s driver to directly connect to an Oracle database instead of using ODBC (DSN)? Is it any faster? You be the judge!

Step 1

Make sure you have Oracle 12g drivers installed on the server. This could be any version of Oracle

Step 2

Make a note as to where your Oracle installation path is. You’ll need a few information from the TNSADMIN.ora file. For example, my path is C:\Oracle\Ora12\Network\Admin\tnsadmin.ora

Inside tnsadmin.ora, you’ll need the HOST, PORT, and SERVICE_NAME

Step 3

In SSMS, navigate to the OraOLEDB.Oracle providers and open up the properties

Enable Allow inprocess

Step 4

Create a Linked Server

1. Linked Server: Call this Linked Server whatever you want
2. Provider: Select Oracle Provider for OLEDB
3. Product name: Call this whatever you want
4. Data source: This information comes from Step 2 in this format HOST:PORT/SERVICE_NAME i.e.(My_Host.afterowl.com:1571/My_Service_Name.afterowl.com)
   
5.  Click on the Security tab on the left and use Be made using the security context. Then click OK to create the Linked Server

Step 5

This is how you would use your new shiny Oracle Linked Server

SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY(“ORACLE”, ‘SELECT * FROM MyTable’) AS MyTable