Re: Strange TNSNAMES.ORA problem

Adam Ruth wrote:
>
> I'm using OCI on Mac OS X and I've run into a strange problem with my
> TNSNAMES.ORA file.
>
> My TNSNAMES.ORA file has one entry INV4II and it works fine. However,
> it will only work if that is the name of the entry. If I use any
> other name for that entry I get the dreaded ORA-12154. For example:
>
> TNSNAMES.ORA -> INV4II Application -> INV4II :: works fine
> TNSNAMES.ORA -> INV4DEV Application -> INV4DEV :: ORA-12154
> TNSNAMES.ORA -> INV4DEV Application -> INV4II :: ORA-12154
> TNSNAMES.ORA -> INV4II Application -> INV4DEV :: ORA-12154
>
> It's almost like that name is referenced somewhere else and so
> changing tnsnames.ora isn't sufficient. But I cannot find any other
> file anywhere (client or server) that that contains INV4II.
>
> I'm a bit confused, and any help would be appreciated.
>
> Adam Ruth

My way of looking at the TNSNAMES (and other SQLNet) stuff

TNSNAMES.ora = client file to help find the server. - should be on any client machine that wants to find a database using "local naming"
- may be eliminated if using 'host', 'ldap' or 'Oracle Names' naming. - effectively says 'when user requests this "alias", ask the following host for the following service'

LISTENER.ora = server file to listen for client requests. - should be on any server machine that wants to listen for DB requests - needs to have a match between a service (db-instance) and the requested service in the client's TNSNAMES.ora file

(Latest versions of Oracle permit the database to self-register with the listener, so it doesn't need to be listed in LISTENER.ora. I find this causes a LOT of headache - it's assumptions and mine almost never match.)

My suspicion - your LISTENER.ora is not set up and you are assuming self-registering databases.

HTH
/Hans Received on Thu Feb 05 2004 - 00:04:49 CET