How to install OCI8 on Ubuntu 18.04 and PHP 7.2 (Instant Client 12.2)

install_oci8_ubuntu_18.04_php7.2.md

How to install OCI8 on Ubuntu 18.04 and PHP 7.2

Source: http://www.syahzul.com/2016/04/06/how-to-install-oci8-on-ubuntu-14-04-and-php-5-6/

Source: https://medium.com/@kabeza/setup-oracle-instant-client-with-apache-and-php-7-on-ubuntu-server-17-04-66cea2297d6f

Source: https://gist.github.com/hewerthomn/81eea2935051eb2500941a9309bca703#file-install_oci8_ubuntu_16-04_php7-1-md

Install Oracle Instant Client and SDK

Step 1

Download the Oracle Instant Client and SDK from Oracle website. (Need to login in Oracle page)

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxx86-64soft-092277.html

Files: instantclient-basic-linux.x64-12.2.0.1.0.zip and instantclient-sdk-linux.x64-12.2.0.1.0.zip.

Step 2

Create a new folder to store Oracle Instant Client zip files on your server.

Upload the Instant Clients files inside this folder.

mkdir /opt/oracle

Step 3

Now we need to extract the files.

cd /opt/oracle
unzip instantclient-basic-linux.x64-12.2.0.1.0.zip
unzip instantclient-sdk-linux.x64-12.2.0.1.0.zip

Step 4

Next, we need to create a symlink to Instant Client files.

ln -s /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libclntsh.so.12.1 /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libclntsh.so
ln -s /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libocci.so.12.1 /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2/libocci.so

Step 5

Add the folder to our ldconfig.

echo /opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2 > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle-instantclient

Step 6

Update the Dynamic Linker Run-Time Bindings

ldconfig

Done. Now we can proceed to the next part.

Install Additional Packages

To install the OCI8 extension, we need to install some additional package on our server.

Step 1

Run these command:

apt-get install php-dev php-pear build-essential libaio1

Step 2

Once installed, we need to get the OCI8 file. But, before that we need to update PECL channel.

pecl channel-update pecl.php.net

Then.

pecl install oci8

When you are prompted for the Instant Client location, enter the following:

instantclient,/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2

Step 3

We need to tell PHP to load the OCI8 extension.

echo "extension =oci8.so" >> /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini
echo "extension =oci8.so" >> /etc/php/7.2/cli/php.ini
echo "extension =oci8.so" >> /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

We also need to add on apache those environment variables.

echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2" >> /etc/apache2/envvars
echo "export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2" >> /etc/apache2/envvars

echo "LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/oracle/instantclient_12_2:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" >> /etc/environment

Step 4

Refresh the server. If you are accessing through SSH, then

exit

or

sudo shutdown -r now

Check if the extension is enabled.

php -m | grep 'oci8'

If returns oci8, its works!

Step 5

Restart the PHP-FPM

service php7.2-fpm restart

Now you can connect to Oracle DBMS from your PHP applications.

I was able to install OCI8 following this guide, but the package from Oracle needs to be updated.
OCI8 needs libaio1 module and it is discontinued on Ubuntu 24.04, replaced by libaio1t64 but there's no 'transitional' package for libaio1 -> libaio1t64, or connection to the previous module.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1512196/libaio1-on-noble

I've created a symlink and it worked, but Oracle should be making this new library compatible.