RE: tnsnames.ora file maintenance

From: Eugene Pipko <eugene.pipko_at_unionbay.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 10:51:11 -0800
Message-ID: <34DB87F47199374280ADFD2968CDBCFA87D5B5B8D1_at_MAIL01KT.seattlepacificindustries.com>



I forgot to mention that I only have 4 Linux boxes and the rest are Windows.

Eugene Pipko
Seattle Pacific Industries
office: 253.872.5243
cell: 206.304.7726
P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

From: Jared Still [mailto:jkstill_at_gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 10:47 AM
To: Eugene Pipko
Cc: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Re: tnsnames.ora file maintenance

On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Eugene Pipko <eugene.pipko_at_unionbay.com<mailto:eugene.pipko_at_unionbay.com>> wrote:

Hi all,

I wonder if you can share how you manage your tnsnames.ora file.

I currently have about a dozen database servers and each one has tnsnames.ora locally.

Whenever IP, server name, ... gets changed I have to remember to update that file accordingly on every box.

I am not even mentioning user machines and the fact that not every box needs to have a full set of connections on it.

If you must use tnsnames.ora files, something like rsync comes to mind.

Personally I prefer to not use tnsname.ora unless absolutely necessary.

Some apps (SAP, Oracle Apps) require one.

Oracle OID is preferable IMO for oracle name resolution, as it is centrally administered.

Oracle Names was the pre 10g method for centralizing names resolution.

We are using OID, with an Oracle Names Proxy (uses OID as source) for legacy reasons.

OID is much simpler to administer than Oracle Names.

Even for apps that require a tnsnames.ora file, sqlnet.ora can be adjusted to also search LDAP directories (OID) so that the only entries in the tnsnames.ora files are those required by the local app.

That said, there may be good reason to use tnsnames.ora. You just need to use an effective means to administer it..

Amazon.com used to use rsync with tnsnames.ora files - they may still, I don't know.

Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist

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Received on Tue Mar 03 2009 - 12:51:11 CST

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