Oracle Client on W2K8 Server

834810

I have installed an application suite (AppX) on Windows 2008 Server (x64) which has both Windows applications and a web GUI element (ASP.NET running through IIS 7.5).

The Windows apps are in both VB and .NET and compiled specifically for x86 (due to COM component dependencies).

I have installed the "Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.3/10.2.0.4) Enterprise/Standard Edition for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7" Oracle Client on the Windows 2008 Server.

After installation AppX windows modules all worked fine with the Oracle Db but the Web Application was getting the following error:

System.Data.OracleClient requires Oracle client software version 8.1.7 or greater.

After a bit of research I found a few articles suggesting setting up the ORACLE_HOME directory in the Windows Environment variables. These articles were:
http://www.dotnetmonster.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/dotnet-ado-net/13324/System-Data-OracleClient-requires-Oracle-client-software
http://www.ureader.com/msg/14161776.aspx

So I tried setting up the ORACLE_HOME environment setting and had some success as the AppX web application worked fine!
However, the Windows apps of AppX were now broken and returning the error:

System.Exception: OCIEnvCreate failed with return code -1 but error message text was not available.
at System.Data.OracleClient.OciHandle..ctor(OciHandle parentHandle, HTYPE handleType, MODE ocimode, HANDLEFLAG handleflags)
at System.Data.OracleClient.OciEnvironmentHandle..ctor(MODE environmentMode, Boolean unicode)
at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleInternalConnection.OpenOnLocalTransaction(String userName, String password, String serverName, Boolean integratedSecurity, Boolean unicode, Boolean omitOracleConnectionName)
at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleInternalConnection..ctor(OracleConnectionString connectionOptions)
at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningObject)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreatePooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnectionOptions options)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.CreateObject(DbConnection owningObject)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.UserCreateRequest(DbConnection owningObject)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.GetConnection(DbConnection owningObject)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)
at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleConnection.Open()

So I am struggling to get both the Windows and Web App both working on the same Windows 2008 Server. Is this possible? I'm hoping its just a configuration issue.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.