up vote 1 down vote favorite
1
share [g+] share [fb]

I got frustrated in managing the TNSNAMES.ORA for more than 300+ users using various Oracle DB versions 9i up to v11, usually I send email for all of the users to manually copy and update the TNSNAMES.ora

So I wonder If implementing Oracle Internet Directory is the proper way to do it?

  1. Is it free ?
  2. What is the prerequisite and the limitations ?
  3. Can I use it for both Oracle Server in Windows Server and Unix install ?

My understanding is that OID is like DNS to the computer systems.

Any kind of comments and help would be greatly appreciated.

link|improve this question
72% accept rate
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Although OID can be a solution deploying it just to centralize tnsnames.ora could be overkill. You may wnat to consider putting your tnsnames.ora on a file share accessible to everyone. You then have a couple of options to point clients to it. Set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable on the workstation to point to the share. If you aren't running Windows 2008 this can be a pain because it can't be done easily with group policies. Another option is to push out or have the users manually copy a new local tnanames.ora with the following content:

ifile=\fileshare\tnsnames.ora

If you have mixed Windows and Unix clients than you will need to install Services for NFS to the server with the file share, so Unix clients can mount it and access the tnsnames.ora file.

link|improve this answer
1  
oh, so why it is overkill ? is it because the price is too expensive ? or is it hard to implement ? – Albert Widjaja Apr 20 '11 at 4:59
1  
For what you want to accomplish with it it isn't necessary difficult to implement but there are licensing costs. The list cost for Directory Plus (which includes OID)is $800 per Named User Plus or $50,000 per Processor. The reality is you won't pay that but still there are not insignificant licensing costs there for the benefit you are getting. Plus you need to add an additional server and all the care and feeding that implies. Two if you want a redundant solution. Compare this to putting a shared copy of tnsnames.ora on an existing file server. – TimS Apr 30 '11 at 1:02
ah no wonder it is not yet implemented in my current company because in my previous company I can suggest and implement any Oracle features internally since it was covered under Oracle Partner licensing. – Albert Widjaja May 1 '11 at 23:22
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.