For all of the databases that HammerDB supports it is necessary to have a third-party client library installed that HammerDB can use to connect and interact with the database. Note that if you use the official HammerDB Docker images this step has already been done for you and all of the third-party client libraries have been pre-installed. This client library will also typically be installed with database server software. HammerDB does not statically link the 3rd party libraries to minimise executable size and provide flexibility in the third-party libraries used. For example if a bug is detected in a particular library then this can be upgraded without requiring the HammerDB libraries to be rebuilt. However as the client libraries are dynamically linked it is essential that the correct client libraries are already installed and environment variables set to ensure that HammerDB can find the correct libraries. Note that it is only necessary to load the libraries for the database that your are testing.
The HammerDB command line tool can be used to check the status of library availability for all databases.
To run this utility run the following command
./hammerdbcli
and type librarycheck, with the following example on Linux
ubuntu@ubuntu22:/opt/HammerDB-5.0$ ./hammerdbcli HammerDB CLI v5.0 Copyright © HammerDB Ltd hosted by tpc.org 2019-2025 Type "help" for a list of commands Initialized Jobs on-disk database /tmp/hammer.DB using existing tables (69,632 bytes) hammerdb>librarycheck Checking database library for Oracle Success ... loaded library Oratcl for Oracle Checking database library for MSSQLServer Success ... loaded library tdbc::odbc for MSSQLServer Checking database library for Db2 Success ... loaded library db2tcl for Db2 Checking database library for MySQL Success ... loaded library mysqltcl for MySQL Checking database library for PostgreSQL Success ... loaded library Pgtcl for PostgreSQL Checking database library for MariaDB Success ... loaded library mariatcl for MariaDB hammerdb>
and the following example on Windows
C:\Program Files\HammerDB-5.0>hammerdbcli HammerDB CLI v5.0 Copyright © HammerDB Ltd hosted by tpc.org 2019-2025 Type "help" for a list of commands Initialized Jobs on-disk database C:/Temp/hammer.DB using existing tables (2,048,000 bytes) hammerdb>librarycheck Checking database library for Oracle Success ... loaded library Oratcl for Oracle Checking database library for MSSQLServer Success ... loaded library tdbc::odbc for MSSQLServer Checking database library for Db2 Success ... loaded library db2tcl for Db2 Checking database library for MySQL Success ... loaded library mysqltcl for MySQL Checking database library for PostgreSQL Success ... loaded library Pgtcl for PostgreSQL Checking database library for MariaDB Success ... loaded library mariatcl for MariaDB
In the examples it can be seen that all required libraries are loaded. If the libraries do not load successfully, they will report the name of the library that is required but cannot be found.
Checking database library for Db2 Error: failed to load db2tcl - couldn't load file "/tmp/tcl_POJlXA": libdb2.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Ensure that Db2 client libraries are installed and the location in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable Checking database library for MySQL Error: failed to load mysqltcl - couldn't load file "/tmp/tcl_EN8Ifg": libmysqlclient.so.24: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Ensure that MySQL client libraries are installed and the location in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable
On Windows library locations are set in the Environment Variables under the PATH option.
.The following examples shows the settings for the IBM Db2, PostgreSQL and MySQL libraries.
On Linux the library locations are set in LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable the .profile file in the home directory.
# The following three lines have been added by IBM DB2 instance utilities.
if [ -f /home/ubuntu/sqllib/db2profile ]; then
. /home/ubuntu/sqllib/db2profile
fi
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/mariadb-11.4.4/lib:/opt/postgresql-17.2/lib:/opt/mysql-8.4.4-linux-glibc2.28-x86_64/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
The following table shows the libraries that are required for each database version and the versions that HammerDB v5.0 have been built against. All libraries are 64-bit. Note that some databases are considerably more flexible than others in library versions and therefore the following section is important to ensure that you install the correct library for your needs. If you need to change a required client library than you may do so by building from source against a client library of your choosing.
Table 1.3. 3rd party libraries
| Database / OS | Database version | Library |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux | Version independent build | libclntsh.so |
| Oracle Windows | Version independent build | OCI.DLL |
| SQL Server Linux | Version independent build | libodbc.so |
| SQL Server Windows | Version independent build | ODBC32.DLL |
| Db2 Linux | 12.1 | libdb2.so |
| Db2 Windows | 12.1 | DB2CLI64.DLL |
| MySQL Linux | 8.4.4 | libmysqlclient.so (libmysqlclient.so.24) |
| MySQL Windows | 8.4.4 | LIBMYSQL.DLL |
| MariaDB Linux | 11.4.4 | libmariadb.so (libmariadb.so.3) |
| MariaDB Windows | 11.4.4 | LIBMARIADB.DLL |
| PostgreSQL Linux | 17.2 | libpq.so (libpq.so.5) |
| PostgreSQL Windows | 17.2 | LIBPQ.DLL |
When using the Oracle instant client Oratcl uses the additional environment variable ORACLE_LIBRARY to identify the Oracle client library. On the Windows the Oracle client library is called oci.dll in a location such as: C:\Oracle\WINDOWS.X64_213000_db_home\bin. On Linux the library is called libclntsh.so where this is typically a symbolic link to a product specific name such as libclntsh.so.21.1 for Oracle 21c. A freely downloadable Oracle client from Oralce is called the Oracle Instant Client, for example:
instantclient-basic-linux.x64-21.17.0.0.0dbru.zip
Extract, this into a chosen directory, the following example, extracts the instant client into a newly created lib directory under the HammerDB directory. Note HammerDB will look for the libraries under a lib directory under the ORACLE_HOME as per a full Oracle Database install, therefore rename the extracted instant client directory to lib.
mv instantclient_21_17/ lib
It will contain libclntsh links and a library file such as follows:
ubuntu@ubuntu22:/opt/HammerDB-5.0/lib$ ls -l libclntsh.so* lrwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 17 Apr 9 16:10 libclntsh.so -> libclntsh.so.21.1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 17 Apr 9 16:10 libclntsh.so.10.1 -> libclntsh.so.21.1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 17 Apr 9 16:10 libclntsh.so.11.1 -> libclntsh.so.21.1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 17 Apr 9 16:10 libclntsh.so.12.1 -> libclntsh.so.21.1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 17 Apr 9 16:10 libclntsh.so.18.1 -> libclntsh.so.21.1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 17 Apr 9 16:10 libclntsh.so.19.1 -> libclntsh.so.21.1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 17 Apr 9 16:10 libclntsh.so.20.1 -> libclntsh.so.21.1 -rwxr-xr-x 1 ubuntu ubuntu 84281056 Dec 23 14:16 libclntsh.so.21.1
In your .profile file set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH, ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_LIB to this location.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/HammerDB-5.0/lib export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/HammerDB-5.0/lib export ORACLE_LIBRARY=/opt/HammerDB-5.0/lib/libclntsh.so
On SQL Server on Windows the client libraries and necessary environment variables are set automatically during the SQL Server installation. Note that on 64-bit Windows the 64-bit ODBC client library is named ODBC32.DLL in the following location. C:\Windows\System32\odbc32.dll. On Linux follow the SQL Server on Linux installation guide to install 'mssql-tools' with the unixODBC developer package. On Linux refer to the release notes on compiling unixODBC with the fastvalidate option.
For DB2 on Linux the client library libdb2.so.1 is required either in the lib64 directory for 32. Similarly on Windows the db2cli64.dll is required. These libraries are included with a standard DB2 installation or also with a standalone DB2 client install.
HammerDB version 5.0 has been built and tested against a MySQL 8.4 client installation. On Linux this means that HammerDB will require a MySQL client library called libmysqlclient.so.24. This client library needs to be referenced in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH as shown previously in this section. On Windows libmysqll.dll is required and should be referenced in the PATH environment variable.
HammerDB version 5.0 has been built and tested against MariaDB 11.4.4 client installation. On Linux this means that HammerDB will require a MariaDB client library called libmariadb.so.3. This client library needs to be referenced in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH as shown previously in this section. On Windows the client library is called libmariadb.dll and should be referenced in the PATH environment variable.
For PostgreSQL the client library is called libpq.dll on Windows and libpq.so on Linux however note that additional libraries are also required. For Windows this means setting your PATH environment variable such as the following: D:\PostgreSQL\pgsql\bin; On Linux it is required to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable in the same way described for Oracle previously in this section to the location of the PostgreSQL lib directory. Alternatively for installations of EnterpriseDB the client directory also contains the necessary files for a HammerDB installation.