Hi Gene, After much experimenting w/ OID, I discovered a much simpler solution, called tnsManager. See: http://www.shutdownabort.com/tnsmanager/ I've been running it a few months now. Simple to setup and configure, runs great, and it MUCH MUCH lighter weight and far less complex than OID. OID can do a TON of stuff tnsManager can't. But, if all you want is centralized tnsnames.ora, this is the way to go! I love it! -Mark From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Eugene Pipko Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 1:26 PM To: 'oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: tnsnames.ora file maintenance 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. Thanks, Eugene Pipko Seattle Pacific Industries office: 253.872.5243 cell: 206.304.7726 P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.