Forum Discussion
PowerBI desktop 64Bit oracle connection error Object reference not set to an instance of an object
Hi Viveka,
I'm definitely not an expert on Oracle databases or connecting to them. I can only tell you what worked for me. One thing I notice is that you installed the "Xcopy" files and I'm wondering if for some reason you didn't get all the files you need.
Also, there are several posts under the subject "Oracle" that have useful info that may help you. If you do decide to reinstall the Oracle components, you need to uninstall what you've already done first.
Here's what I recently did on one of our machines that worked for me.
- I downloaded the 64-bit ODAC121024_x64.zip file rather than the "Xcopy" file.
- Put the zip file into a temporary directory and unzip it there. Make sure that there are no spaces in the directory name or path to it.
- When you've unzipped it, you should see the "setup" application. Run that and eventually you'll see the "configuration installer". You should be able to stay with the defaults for most steps.
- When you get to the "DB Connection Configuration" step, it's important that you fill in the requested information. Here are some tips.
Connection Alias
Enter what you want to name this database. When you get data in Power BI, you’ll use this as the “Server Name”.
Port Number
(default 1521) only change if necessary for your database
Database Host Name
This is how the database is found in your network. May be an IP address for the database server.
Database Service Name
(default to ORCL) This may be different for your database
This is important since the installer sets up the tnsnames.ora file that the database client uses to connect with the Oracle database. - After you made the entries, finish the installation process and reboot your machine.
You should now be able to get to your Oracle database with Power BI when you use "Get Data" and select the "Oracle" database option.
Hi Bfrancis,
Thanks a lot for your valuable solution and it works for me. I have uninstalled all oracle components and then install the ODAC121024_x64.zip and it works for me like a charm.
Earlirt I have installed 64-bit ODAC 12c Release 4 (12.1.0.2.4) Xcopy for Windows x64 as recommended by Power BI, Link
Regards,
Viveka
,
Hi Viveka,
I'm definitely not an expert on Oracle databases or connecting to them. I can only tell you what worked for me. One thing I notice is that you installed the "Xcopy" files and I'm wondering if for some reason you didn't get all the files you need.
Also, there are several posts under the subject "Oracle" that have useful info that may help you. If you do decide to reinstall the Oracle components, you need to uninstall what you've already done first.
Here's what I recently did on one of our machines that worked for me.
- I downloaded the 64-bit ODAC121024_x64.zip file rather than the "Xcopy" file.
- Put the zip file into a temporary directory and unzip it there. Make sure that there are no spaces in the directory name or path to it.
- When you've unzipped it, you should see the "setup" application. Run that and eventually you'll see the "configuration installer". You should be able to stay with the defaults for most steps.
- When you get to the "DB Connection Configuration" step, it's important that you fill in the requested information. Here are some tips.
Connection Alias
Enter what you want to name this database. When you get data in Power BI, you’ll use this as the “Server Name”.
Port Number
(default 1521) only change if necessary for your database
Database Host Name
This is how the database is found in your network. May be an IP address for the database server.
Database Service Name
(default to ORCL) This may be different for your database
This is important since the installer sets up the tnsnames.ora file that the database client uses to connect with the Oracle database. - After you made the entries, finish the installation process and reboot your machine.
You should now be able to get to your Oracle database with Power BI when you use "Get Data" and select the "Oracle" database option.
thanks this solution solved by issue, basically re-installing the oracle ODAC components solved the issue. Dont use the Xcopy version
The XCopy version works just fine, but you then have to manually
1) Add the ODAC root and \bin folder to your PATH environment variable.
2) Put a TNSNAMES.ora file in the Instant client's network\admin folder *OR* set up the TNSADMIN environment variable to point to your TNSNAMES.ora directory.
Hope this helps anyone else who doesn't need GBs of Oracle program bloat on their machine just to connect to a database!
I was really hoping to get away with the XCOPY version as well, as all I need to do is set it up for use by the gateway and don't want to download and install GB's but so far unsuccessful. I get all kinds of "regedit" errors when I run the "install.bat" as admin in a command prompt. Forcing you to sign up for an account and then have this poorly documented process for installing drivers - clearly Oracle does not want people to use their software and I'll happily be migrating users. Almost as bad as SAP drivers (except them I could get to work in the end). Even PostgreSQL install was quick and easy.
How do you do nr2 you mention? I can't seem to find any files with extension .ora in the folder I extracted the source
"2) Put a TNSNAMES.ora file in the Instant client's network\admin folder *OR* set up the TNSADMIN environment variable to point to your TNSNAMES.ora directory.
Just been fighting with the above, on a current Windows 10 laptop, with the full 64-bit ODAC 12c (12.1.0.2.4) installed.
The fix for me was to install the PowerBI desktop version, and not the version from the Windows Store.
No more error message. Can finally get to grips with my data :)
