Iam curious for your findings .. iam surprised though no one else answered as solaris 64 is a very common platform and I am sure tons of people must be using php on solaris64 .
I have downloaded 32 bit oracle client and will try to install it when I go home.
I am sure by then you would be done with your installation and we would have the answer

thanks again for your time

Iam getting there slowly , oci8 extenstions are loaded but I think iam missing some env settings as I cant connect to a valid tns entry via this script

<?php
// Set Oracle Environment
PutEnv("ORACLE_HOME=/u03/oracle/10203");
PutEnv("TNS_ADMIN=/u03/oracle/10203/network/admin");
PutEnv("LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/instantclient_10_2:/u03/oracle/10203/lib");
$conn = oci_connect('SAMI', 'SAMI', 'emrep');
?>

Warning: oci_connect() http://function.oci-connect: ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified in /usr/local/apache/htdocs/testoci.php on line 6

NOTE: from oracle account I can connect to "emrep" using sqlplus so i know its working.

Yes.


How many Oracle clients (including instant clients) is installed on your system?

Note if you set enviroment for Oracle in "apachectl" or in apache configuration then you don't need to setup environment in PHP scripts.

Avoid PutEnv in scripts to set environment variables. There's a convoluted description of why not in http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/php/htdocs/php_troubleshooting_faq.html#envvars
The bottom line is that when PHP starts, it may load and initialize OCI8 using different values than you put in your script.

Set environment variables in the shell that starts Apache; see the example in the above reference.

On Windows, you'll probably find that the registry has the correct values set. And/or the library loading differs.

A general reference is Underground PHP and Oracle Manual

-- cj

So that means you have two oracle products on one machine. So that probably means your PHP (which is using instant client) gets ORA-12154.
And when you do test case using sqlplus (which is probably using Oracle server files/libraries and settings) it is working.

So there are several options:
1. you need to copy tnsnames.ora (from server install) and put it to one of expected (by instant client) locations: $HOME/.tnsnames.ora (Note Apache by default runs under user "nobody". Of course don't change it to "root"!), /etc/tnsnames.ora / $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora (in your case /instantclient_10_2/network/admin/tnsnames.ora)
2. OR you need to set TNS_ADMIN variable with path to Oracle Server Home/network/admin directory. In this case your existing tnsnames.ora will be used for resolution.

I believe your environment is still misconfigured (and so was the other guy's).

Have you run:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

to see what environment variables are set?

At the risk of destabilizing where you currently have got to, I wonder if you really need Instant Client? PHP will link against a normal Oracle home.

-- cj

For a configure command, see the bottom of page 79 in The Underground PHP and Oracle Manual

we can close this thread as I am going to use ZEND , which I installed and its working great.
thanks for your help.