Working with Oracle on 64-bit Machines (Magic xpa 3.x)
This Technical Note explains how you can work with Oracle on 64-bit machines.
When using Oracle 10g on a 64-bit operating system, the operating system uses it in 32-bit compatibility.
This configuration requires some modifications to enable communication to the Oracle 10g client.
There are 2 options to communicate:
1. The Oracle client and Oracle native gateway
This configuration encounters the “ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified” error.
The cause is that Magic xpa is located by default in "Program Files (x86)". The Oracle TNS cannot handle the parenthesis ( ) used in Program Files (x86).
The solution is to install Magic xpa to a non-default location that has no parentheses in its path.
2. ODBC Access
The Oracle 10g ODBC driver is located by default in %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN\sqora32.dll and is registered as a 32-bit driver.
The default ODBC Data Source Administrator only shows the 64-bit drivers on the machine. Therefore, the Oracle ODBC driver is missing from the drivers list.
To overcome this, use the 32-bit version of the ODBC Data Source Administrator under %windir%\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe (unlike the default 64-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator located under %windir%\system32\odbcad32.exe).
