For anyone looking to have Python (CentOS 5.8) connect to an Oracle instance (RDS): $ yum install python26 python26-devel (I was using a Rightscale instance that already had the EPEL repository loaded, otherwise see: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL) $ wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/2.6/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg#md5=bfa92100bd772d5a213eedd356d64086 $ sh setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg $ easy_install-2.6 pip $ pip-2.6 install virtualenvwrapper Add to /etc/profile export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python2.6 . /usr/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh   export ...