Oracle client for Linux for some reason requires 1GB of swap space, and will refuse to install, even if you have 9999999999TB of RAM, but 0 swap. Go figure.

Anyway, an OpenVZ container created with Proxmox will by default have 0 swap allocated, despite the Web UI allowing you to specify swap space.

In order to add swap to the container, from a shell prompt, run

On a somewhat related note, here’s how to install oracle client on Debian:

debian + php5 + oracle (oci8)

vzctl set 213 –swappages 262144 –save

Where 213 is your CTID, and 262144 is the amount of swappages you want. 1 page=4096 bytes , so 262144 = rougly 1024MB.

Also, Oracle installer detects 262144 swappages as 1023MB and change, so you will have to put something like 262200 instead.