Re: oracle's use of NT Registry

In article <95f5gt$jn0$1_at_nnrp1.deja.com>,   Ed Stevens <ed.stevens_at_home.com> wrote:
> We are a bit confused about some of the uses Oracle makes of the NT
> Registry. (Well, actually I am confused about a lot of things, most
 of
> which have nothing to do with Oracle, but that's a different story!
 ;-)
>
> Specifically, we're wondering why the same string values appear in
> HKLM\SOFTWARE\ORACLE and also in HKLM\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOME0 -- and,
 in
> a multi-home system, in HKLM\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOME1 thru HOMEn.
>
> Of particular interest is the use of TNS_ADMIN to point to
 TNSNAMES.ORA
> and SQLNET.ORA. We have had some inconsistent results in trying to
> determine which leaf of the registry is being used. This may be a
 poor
> example of the more general question because TNS_ADMIN is not created
 by
> default at installation time. But the general question becomes "how
> does Oracle determine which registry leaf (\ORACLE vs. \ORACLE\HOMEx)
 it
> is going to look to for any particular key value?" And as a follow-on
> question, " if it is always going to look in \ORACLE\HOMEx, why does
 it
> bother putting any string values at all in \ORACLE ?
>
> TIA.
>
> --
> - Ed Stevens
>
> Sent via Deja.com
> http://www.deja.com/
>

Hopefully, you don't have too many oracle homes. Each time you install the client (or server) a HOMEn leaf MAY be produced. If you specify using the same direcory, then it will use the same oracle home. If you start loading to 3 different dierctories then you'll have HOME1 HOME2 and HOME3. This was done so that multiple versions could coexist on the same box. I have 7.3, 8.0 and 8i on my workstation in three homes. Sounds like you've done a few installs to new locations.

Oracle keeps track of which homes are used by which versions under the ..\oracle\all homes\IDx leaves.

As for TNS_ADMIN, it is done at the ..\ORACLE level and not the HOME leaves.

I have had to clean out everything a reinstall a few times and when I do, I always delete the ..\ORACLE key and all under it to make sure everything is clean. Here is were the standard 'don't try this at home' message about touching the registry should appear. :-) Tread careful here.

Hope this helps.

--
Doug Coan
Oracle Certified Professional DBA


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