Hi Jared and all, We want to use local tnsnames and use LDAP for user authentication only. As always money is an issue here so I am not a liberty to consider solution that requires additional money. Here is what I did. update sqlnet.ora on database server NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES,LDAP) On database : create user LDAPTEST identified globally as 'CN=LDAPTEST,ou=Service Accounts,ou=Users,ou=Administrative,ou=.Lazard,dc=lazard,dc=com'; Specification sting was given to me by LDAP admin. I am sure I need to do more then this as above is not working. I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this matter and really appreciate help from you all. Regards Mayen "Jared Still" <jkstill@xxxxxxxxx> Jan 11 2008 07:00 PM To Mayen Shah/ITS/Lazard@Lazard NYC cc oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject Re: How to setup LDAP Our management has decided to have all authentication done through (existing) LDAP. Please forgive my ignorance, but I do not have any idea how to set/test in test environment. If it is just for database authentication, it's a simple entry in sqlnet.ora. Most of search directs me to OID. I am not sure I need to use OID. Do we need license to use LDAP? You can use OID for database authentication without any extra licensing fees. See the Oracle Software Investment Guide for details. (sorry, you'll have to google for that yourself) -- Jared Still Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist