Re: Incomplete/Broken Oracle 8i Client Connection?

Kathy Frisk wrote:
> Hi All,
>

[snip]
>
> A missing dll is required to run this application.
>
> TWO QUESTIONS:
>
> 1.) Since the same error message is showing up in two applications(Toad
> and the BDE) and in the same labeled window(OCI.DLL). Isn't this an
> Oracle connection issue. Is this error coming from the Oracle Call
> Interface and not a Toad error or a BDE app error?

I don't use Delphi, so I'm just guessing here.

Does the client computer from which you're trying to establish a connection have multiple ORACLE_HOMEs (don't even know if this was possible in Win98)? I have multiple homes and when I open a DOS window and issue the following:

cd oracle
dir /s oci.dll

I find three copies (yours will most likely be in different dirs):

10/03/2001 38,160  (c:\oracle\deshome\bin)
11/05/2000 89,088  (c:\oracle\des_817\bin)
11/05/2000 89,088  (c:\oracle\ora81\bin)

Maybe your client machine is having trouble locating the "correct" one. In your DOS window, type 'path' to see which one is being used.

> 2.) Does a successful(ok) tnsping on the service name and not the global
> name in the tnsnames.ora file mean that it is a valid connection?

As already mentioned, this means you've contacted the listener on the server. The 'ok' means it replied to the 'are you there?' question from tnsping. The '.world' domain is from the pre-8i days (it was the default in Oracle7).

Do you have a hosts file? In Win2k (sorry, that's what I have here at work) it's in c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts ... don't know where it is in Win98. Do you have a conflict there? Something like the IP you've specified in your tnsnames.ora pointing to another server. Okay, I know ... that's a long shot. :)

> 3.) Are there any other utilities that I can use in the oracle client
> that will tell me beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a successful
> oracle connection using the global service name(I must reference this in
> the BDE).

Sadly, none that I'm aware of. You can turn on tnsping or listener tracing (can't remember syntax ... and my books have been packed ... moving day at the office). Trace files are difficult to read, but might give you a clue (hint: look near the end of the trace file).

> Thanks in advance for any Oracle/OCI expertise you can offer!
>
> Kathy
>
>

You've probably already uncovered everything I've mentioned.

-Roger Crowley Received on Fri Jul 26 2002 - 16:37:41 CDT