If you've already got the Oracle client installed and you're using TNSNAMES.ORA for name resolution (or Oracle Directory, for that matter) you should be able to use: $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:Oracle:your_db_alias",$dbUser, $dbPwd); where your_db_alias is the same database name you'd type in on the sqlplus connect command. The Oracle drivers are wise enough to suss it out. In fact, you can specify the driver and get a list of what you can connect to: use DBI; my @datasources = DBI->data_sources( "Oracle" ); for my $dsn (@datasources){print "$dsn\n";} If your database appears in the list, snag it and go (if it doesn't well, you're on your own).