RE: tnsnames.ora file maintenance

  • From: Eugene Pipko <eugene.pipko@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: 'Jared Still' <jkstill@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 10:51:11 -0800

I forgot to mention that I only have 4 Linux boxes and the rest are Windows.

Eugene Pipko
Seattle Pacific Industries
office: 253.872.5243
cell: 206.304.7726
P  Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

From: Jared Still [mailto:jkstill@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 10:47 AM
To: Eugene Pipko
Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: tnsnames.ora file maintenance


On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Eugene Pipko 
<eugene.pipko@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:eugene.pipko@xxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

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.

If you must use tnsnames.ora files, something like rsync comes to mind.

Personally I prefer to not use tnsname.ora unless absolutely necessary.

Some apps (SAP, Oracle Apps) require one.

Oracle OID is preferable IMO for oracle name resolution, as it is centrally
administered.

Oracle Names was the pre 10g method for centralizing names resolution.

We are using OID, with an Oracle Names Proxy (uses OID as source) for
legacy reasons.

OID is much simpler to administer than Oracle Names.

Even for apps that require a tnsnames.ora file, sqlnet.ora can be adjusted
to also search LDAP directories (OID) so that the only entries in the 
tnsnames.ora
files are those required by the local app.

That said, there may be good reason to use tnsnames.ora.  You just need
to use an effective means to administer it..

Amazon.com used to use rsync with tnsnames.ora files - they may still, I don't 
know.


Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist

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