Re: The Chronicles of Oracle: the Client, the TNSnames.ora, and a DB cluster

Isabel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have just recentely become an Oracle 10g database administrator and I
> have been having problems connecting a clients to our DB.
> I have installed the instant client but I am getting the ora-12514
> errors (unable to resolve the TNSnames, etc...)
>
> After searching the internet, I realize that I need to get an
> tnsnames.ora, listener.ora and a sqlnet.ora file and get them
> configured correctly.
>
> Where do I get these files? and how do they get configured? and where
> do I put them?
>
> On one client, I was able to connect to one of our instances without
> using a tnsnames.ora file (I think i did the easy connect method)
> ...but we have a cluster of 8 instances and I need to connect to all of
> them for load balancing!
>
> I have read that there is an wizard in the OEM that will create these
> but I have unable to find it....
> (I need an "Intro to client configuration" guide)
>
> Thank you if anyone can point me in the right direction!
>

Hi Isabel, I'm in a very similar situation - I'm a sysadmin who recently got DBA added to her workload, and I'm working without a net (no pun intended).

netca (Network Configuration Assistant, generally found in $ORACLE_HOME\bin) is the application you're looking for - use the "Local Net Service Name configuration" option to create a TNSNAMES.ORA. Once you've done that, you can copy the file to other computers that need to connect to the database. It generally lives in $ORACLE_HOME\network\admin.

The best place to start looking/learning is Oracle's documentation home:

Oracle 10gR2 Documentation Library
http://www.oracle.com/pls/db102/homepage?remark=tahiti

Under "Getting Started," I'd check out the "2 Day DBA," "Administrator's Guide," and "Concepts" is a nice reference guide.

Best wishes to you!

  ~ Hope Dundas
    Database/Systems Administrator
    Housing Information Technology Office     University of Michigan Received on Thu Apr 27 2006 - 13:57:17 CDT