Before install, you need that the ORACLE_CLIENT_HOME environment variable has been loaded correctly, that variable is set in profile.d file, from oracle-instantclient-basic package, that is a requirement of oracle-instantclient-devel package. You can logout and login again or simply run: # source /etc/profile.d/oracle-instantclient-basic.sh To enable the oci8 extension for php, go to /etc/php/oci8.ini and uncomment the line: ; extension=oci8.so