I'm having a problem connecting through CA ERwin Data Modeler to my Oracle 11g Database. The error message is: Unable to locate client connectivity software ora7nt.dll.

Description:

I'm having a problem connecting through CA ERwin Data Modeler to my Oracle 11g DB. The error message is: "Unable to locate client connectivity software ora7nt.dll". I'm running 32 bit CA ERwin 7.3.8.2235 SP2 and 32 bit Oracle Express under 64 bit Windows 7. What do I need to do to get beyond this connectivity error?

Solution:

When ERwin is installed on a 64-bit OS (in this case Windows 7) the default directory is c:\Program Files (x86)\. When trying to connect from ERwin to Oracle the part (x86) is not handled correctly and as a result ERwin can't find the client connectivity (OCI.dll) and gives the error: "Unable to locate client connectivity software ora7nt.dll". To get beyond this error, uninstall ERwin and then reinstall it in a different folder (without x86). For example - c:\ERwin.