Re: Problem solved, but WHY??? (Long)

Server had not been touched for over a day. Network\Admin directory has = never been in the path. That is the oracle default so that may be in the = registry. Bin directory always is in the path I think, which may be why it = worked.

The support person I was talking with said something about how it would = look in a couple different places for the files. We just had no idea why = it suddenly couldn't find them where they had always been.

What process on the server reads the sqlnet.ora file for each connection?

Michael Ray
Oracle DBA
TRW, Marshall, IL
217-826-3011 x2438

>>> rockyw_99_at_yahoo.com 11/10/00 11:57AM >>> Path or permissions perhaps?

• Michael Ray <Michael.Ray_at_trw.com> wrote:
  > I hope some bright Oracle networking guru out there can explain WHY our
  > problem was solved the way it was. PLEASE!
  >=20
  > You can read the initial plea for help at the bottom if you wish. This
  > is what solved it as I explained it to my boss:
  > "I have no idea and neither did support. Chalk it up to a freaky NT
  > thing. Either the registry got confused on it's own or the memory is
  > whacked out. Nothing had changed and everything was running fine, new
  > users just couldn't connect. What finally solved it was moving 2 Oracle
  > networking config files (sqlnet.ora and tnsnames.ora) to a different
  > directory (oracle_home\bin) from the default directory
  > (oracle_home\network\admin) per support's stab-in-the-dark suggestion.
  > Without restarting anything after moving them, connections could be
  > made. If I moved them back, zippo."
  >=20
  > Why would moving these 2 files fix it when it had been running fine for
  > months????!!!!! My instructor for Network Admin said there was some
  > server functionality for sqlnet.ora (aside from the obvious like
  > connecting at the server or turning on tracing I assume), but we never
  > discussed it and it didn't come up in the coursebook. However, it is
  > obvious something on the server reads it every time a connection is
  > attempted. Is it listener when it attempts to spawn a session? Yet it
  > could read the listener.ora file from the same default directory. I
  > would really like to understand this better because I would never have
  > thought of moving those files. I would have prayed and rebooted the
  > server, which potentially would have taken down the whole plant rather