CentOS 6: Set up Oracle Instant Client and Python package cx_Oracle

centos_cx_Oracle

#!/bin/bash

# INSTALL ORACLE INSTANT CLIENT #
#################################

# NOTE: Oracle requires at least 1176 MB of swap (or something around there).
# If you are using CentOS in a VMWare VM, there's a good chance that you don't have enough by default.
# If this describes you and you need to add more swap, see the
# "Adding a Swap File to a CentOS System" section, here:
# http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Adding_and_Managing_CentOS_Swap_Space

# Install basic dependencies
sudo yum -y install libaio bc flex

echo "Now go get some the following two RPMs ..."
echo "- basic: oracle-instantclient11.2-basic-11.2.0.3.0-1.x86_64.rpm"
echo "- SDK/devel: oracle-instantclient11.2-devel-11.2.0.3.0-1.x86_64.rpm"
echo "... from this URL: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxx86-64soft-092277.html"
echo "WARNING: It's pretty annoying, they make you sign up for an Oracle account, etc."
echo 'I will assume you have put these two files are into ~/Downloads'
echo "Press any key once you're ready" && read -n 1 -s

sudo rpm -ivh ~/Downloads/oracle-instantclient11.2-basic-*
sudo rpm -ivh ~/Downloads/oracle-instantclient11.2-devel-*

# SET ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES #
#############################

# Source for this section: http://cx-oracle.sourceforge.net/BUILD.txt

# (SIDENOTE: I had to alter it by doing some digging around for where the Oracle RPMs really installed to;
# if you ever need to do this, do a command like this:
#     rpm -qlp <rpm_file_of_concern.rpm>)

echo '# Convoluted undocumented Oracle bullshit.' >> $HOME/.bashrc
echo 'export ORACLE_VERSION="11.2"' >> $HOME/.bashrc
echo 'export ORACLE_HOME="/usr/lib/oracle/$ORACLE_VERSION/client64/"' >> $HOME/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:"$ORACLE_HOME/bin"' >> $HOME/.bashrc
echo 'export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:"$ORACLE_HOME/lib"' >> $HOME/.bashrc
. $HOME/.bashrc

# INSTALL cx_Oracle #
#####################

pip install cx_Oracle

This was really helpful, thank you. I can confirm it works on Oracle v12.1 (with RHEL6) as well. For the record (and to help future searchers), the error I was getting before I followed these instructions was something like:

... "/site/python2.7" failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-MBbOFN/cx-Oracle

If you are facing the problem of unable to find oci.h like i do, you need to install the SDK for instant client packge, apparently in the new version the headers has been separated into a different download.

Instant Client Package - SDK: Additional header files and an example makefile for developing Oracle applications with Instant Client

This article and the comments were really helpful. @2 hours 21 minutes of frustration could have been avoided if I found this earlier/
Thanks