Did you try "tnsping connect_string" from a command line? This may help you identify your Oracle Home. ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Xu Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 5:03 PM To: Joel Slowik Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: ORACLE_HOME In my case below, I just want to know which tnsnames.ora file I am using. There are many tnsnames.ora files in this server and I was able to try each to figure out the one I am using. But this is not the right way to get the answer ... (I feel home when running Oracle in UNIX :) On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 3:41 PM, Joel Slowik <jslowik@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:jslowik@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote: As I am learning oracle in the windows environment, I've noticed that it usually only matters if you have more than one oracle database instance up and running on the same server. That's just my experience so far. -joel From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>] On Behalf Of Roger Xu Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 4:28 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: ORACLE_HOME As I am learning Oracle in the Windows environment, I noticed that I do not have to set ORACLE_HOME. Am I missing something? Thanks! H:\>echo %ORACLE_HOME% %ORACLE_HOME% H:\>sqlplus system/manager@triwebb<mailto:system/manager@triwebb> SQL*Plus: Release 10.1.0.4.2 - Production on Mon Jan 18 15:23:00 2010 Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options SQL> exit Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - 64 bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options H:\>set ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\rxu\Application Data CATALINA_HOME=C:\Tomcat5028 CLASSPATH=C:\j2sdk1.4.2_06;C:\Tomcat5028\webapps\WEB-INF\classes CLIENTNAME=BB011257 ClusterLog=C:\WINDOWS\Cluster\cluster.log CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files COMPUTERNAME=DRAGON ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO HOMEDRIVE=H: HOMEPATH=\ HOMESHARE=\\cbcsrv1\users$\rxu JAVA_HOME=C:\j2sdk1.4.2_06 LOGONSERVER=\\CBCADC2 NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=8 OS=Windows_NT Path=E:\OraIAS\jdk\jre\bin\classic;E:\OraIAS\jdk\jre\bin;E:\OraIAS\bin;E:\OraIAS \jlib;E:\OraPortal\bin;E:\OraPortal\jlib;D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\bin;C:\WI NDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Dell\SysMgt\ RAC5;C:\Program Files\Dell\SysMgt\oma\bin;%OMPATH%;C:\j2sdk1.4.2_06\bin PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86 PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11, GenuineIntel PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6 PROCESSOR_REVISION=0f0b ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files PROMPT=$P$G SESSIONNAME=RDP-Tcp#129 SystemDrive=C: SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\rxu\LOCALS~1\Temp\1 TMP=C:\DOCUME~1\rxu\LOCALS~1\Temp\1 USERDNSDOMAIN=CARTERBC.NET<http://carterbc.net/> USERDOMAIN=CARTERBC USERNAME=rxu USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\rxu windir=C:\WINDOWS H:\> Confidentiality Note: This electronic message transmission is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this transmission, but are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact Continuum Performance Systems at {203.245.5000} and delete and destroy the original message and all copies.