Best practice for Oracle clients with a single instance database

Hi,
Having over  the past couple of years started to work with RAC, where
the application code runs from another server with an Oracle client
install, I am back setting up a single instance where the application
code will run on the
same machine. It occurred to me that it might make sense to still
install an Oracle runtime or instant client for the application to
use,  as well as the database install, because that way I could
upgrade one without interfering with the other. On the down side it
means there will be an extra oracle home to maintain and if the
releases are different, I might run into issues with the oraenv/dbhome
programmes.

What do most people out there do, with single instance set-ups?

Thanks
Pete
--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l

Other related posts: