Oracle TNS: net service name is incorrecly specified - oracle

I'm trying to access an Oracle database on an old server we inherited for a client.
I'm confident I have the Oracle database and listener started and working, but when trying to access sqlplus or the exp commands, I'm getting the following error:
ORA-12162: TNS:net service name is incorrectly specified
I have edited the tnsnames.ora file to change the host to 127.0.0.1 rather than an external URL and I am able to successfully tnsping my connection, but am not getting much further.

Try setting the Oracle SID
set ORACLE_SID=database name

export ORACLE_SID=bvteng worked for me, where bvteng was the service name.

Are you trying a local connection (e.g. "sqlplus u/p") or a network connection (e.g. "sqlplus u/p#pnews10s.world")? Are they both giving you the same error?
The TNSPING by definition is using a network connection. I see some references that indicate you can get the 12612 error when using a local connection. So that is a possible explanation why you are seeing the error from SQLPlus but not TNSPING. If so, try doing a network connection instead.
The local connection not working is probably due to ORACLE_SID not being set correctly as John suggested, but his syntax may not be the right method for whatever shell you are using. Make sure you are using the correct method for the given shell, such as "export ORACLE_SID=name" or "setenv ORACLE_SID name".

I have edited the tnsnames.ora file to change the host to 127.0.0.1 rather
than an external url and am able to successfully tnsping my connection, but am not getting much further.
The last time that happened to me (tnsping works but sqlplus does not, same error message you got), the issue was that someone had copied the tnsnames.ora file from a Windows machine, and left the wrong line feed codes in.
If that is the case, you need to do some dos2unix.
These files are very sensitive to "correct" white-space and tabbing.
Someone should complain to Oracle about that.

Dave Costa has presented you with 2 important question. Are you trying to connect via net8 or locally via extproc? Is the listener on the local machine(127.0.0.1 -- loop back device) setup for extproc connection?
To use the net8 or tcp connection protocol, you need to specify user/pw#tns_alias. To connect locally via extproc you should specify the oracle_sid parameter and then connect via name/pw.
I also notice the tnsalias has the .world domain appended to it, but the sqlnet.ora file does not contain a reference to NAMES.DEFAULT_DOMAIN as being "world".
Also what is the env parameter for TNS_ADMIN? Make sure your tools are looking at the correct tnsnames.ora file. Too many time people modify one tnsnames.ora and the programs/software is looking at another.

Check the tnsnames.ora file, in my case, took me days to find out there were either tab characters in the connection string or other invisible special characters that were causing it to fail.

In my case, the problem was that the DSN and the ServiceName was configured as the same in the odbc.ini file.This should not be a problem, but only after changing the DSN name, I was able to connect to the database through isql.

Related

Need to Connect by Proxy with ODP.NET Using My Certificate

I'm having an issue making a proxy database connection to an ORACLE database using ODP.net. I need my program to attempt the proxy connection but then prompt me for my certificate and authenticate me with that.
I have a Perl script that does this and it only requires me to specify the name of the TNS entry and the user I want proxying in for me.
I also have my SQL Developer doing the same thing, pointing to the same TNS entry.
But when I try to attempt the same approach with ODP.NET it just gives me the ORA-12154 error, "TNS: Could not resolve the connect identifier specified."
From my limited knowledge of Oracle I ASSUME that the error means that it couldn't find that TNS entry. And I've verified that the entry DOES exist in my tnsnames.ora file and proved I could proxy to it via my Perl script and SQL Developer. Even put a breakpoint in my VB code to ensure I was specify the correct TNS Entry.
I've even stripped down the connection string to JUST the datasource to see what error I get. So I'm not sure if I have the connection string wrong or if it needs to be in a different format. But I DO know that the solution HAS to allow me to specify the TNS alias and the connection HAS to prompt me for my certificate. No password.
So I guess I'm trying to find out what the appropriate connection string would look like to do this and why .NET can't seem to figure out what this TNS alias is.
I've tried setting the USER ID attribute to the account I want proxying for me, set the PROXY USER ID attribute the same way as well as also tried "/", set the DATA SOURCE attribute to the TNS alias.
This program will be deployed to four different environments that have the same TNS alias in them but point to different servers. So I really need to be able to specify the TNS alias.

Oracle SQL Developer 12505 error since change of network

since I changed my standard landline connection with a wireless one via a 3g hotspot I cannot open my db in Sql Developer. I get the error :
"Listener refused the connection with the following error: ORA-12505 TNS:listener does not currently know of SID given in the connect descriptor"
I changed the hostname values in the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files and I think it has something to do with the hostname given there. Also I have 2 copies of listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files. 1 copy in the admin folder and another in the sample folder it contains. Should I modify all files?
Files in the sample folder are just that - samples. Oracle never actually uses them. The error you are getting is definitive proof that your request actually reached a listener. So I'd expect that you changed something besides just your underlying network. You said you changed your hostname in tnsnames.ora. Why? If you changed it to some other machine, one that obviously happens to have an oracle listener (else you could not have gotten ORA-12505), then I would not expect that listener to know about about your database, which resides on the host that was originally specified in your tnsnames, before you changed it. And why change HOSTNAME in your listener.ora file? Changing from a "landline" to a wifi connection does not change the names of the servers or the databases, or anything else.

ORA-12154 error TNS could not resolve the connect identified specified

while running a java application,I am getting ORA- 12154 error.
In the java application we have to Login using our Database credentials. For some user credentials the application is running successfuly but for others it's throwing error ORA-12154:TNS:could not resolve the connect identifer specified.
Can someone please help me with the issue.
The most usual cause for that is that database alias (you're connecting to) isn't included into the TNSNAMES.ORA file.
If you have several Oracle software products, there's a good chance that each of them has its own TNSNAMES.ORA file (usually located in its \network\admin directory). The way of it is to simultaneously edit all those files (which is stupid), or create a TNS_ADMIN environment variable which will point to a directory that contains your "master" TNSNAMES.ORA file, such as I have:
M:\>set tns_admin
TNS_ADMIN=C:\0_Oracle_library
Therefore, every time I have to add a new database, I edit that TNSNAMES.ORA file and all my Oracle programs (Forms, Reports, SQL Developer, TOAD, SQL*Plus, ...) access it and use it.
The Oracle error code documentation has some helpful troubleshooting tips (the following is from 12.1):
ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified
Cause: A connection to a database or other service was requested using a connect identifier, and the connect identifier specified could not be resolved into a connect descriptor using one of the naming methods configured. For example, if the type of connect identifier used was a net service name then the net service name could not be found in a naming method repository, or the repository could not be located or reached.
Action:
If you are using local naming (TNSNAMES.ORA file):
- Make sure that "TNSNAMES" is listed as one of the values of the NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH parameter in the Oracle Net profile (SQLNET.ORA)
- Verify that a TNSNAMES.ORA file exists and is in the proper directory and is accessible.
- Check that the net service name used as the connect identifier exists in the TNSNAMES.ORA file.
- Make sure there are no syntax errors anywhere in the TNSNAMES.ORA file. Look for unmatched parentheses or stray characters. Errors in a TNSNAMES.ORA file may make it unusable.
If you are using directory naming:
- Verify that "LDAP" is listed as one of the values of the NAMES.DIRETORY_PATH parameter in the Oracle Net profile (SQLNET.ORA).
- Verify that the LDAP directory server is up and that it is accessible.
- Verify that the net service name or database name used as the connect identifier is configured in the directory.
- Verify that the default context being used is correct by specifying a fully qualified net service name or a full LDAP DN as the connect identifier.
If you are using easy connect naming:
- Verify that "EZCONNECT" is listed as one of the values of the NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH parameter in the Oracle Net profile (SQLNET.ORA).
- Make sure the host, port and service name specified are correct.
- Try enclosing the connect identifier in quote marks. See the Oracle Net Services Administrators Guide or the Oracle operating system specific guide for more information on naming.
Start by checking whether you can tnsping the specified service (tnsping is a utility included in the Oracle Client). For example, if connecting as x/y#zzz fails with ORA-12154, then
tnsping zzz
This will probably give
TNS-03505: Failed to resolve name
but it will also display the path of the local sqlnet.ora parameter file mentioned above. Depending on your setup there should be other .ora files in the same location.
There are a number of ways this can be configured depending on your OS, Oracle client and name resolution setup. (Note that a tnsnames.ora file is not the only naming method.) If you share some more details it should be straightforward to resolve the issue.

Communication between two databases (Oracle, VirtualBox)

Currently I am trying to understand how can two databases communicate to each other (for instance: get data from one to another).
Detailed description
I have two Oracle databases, one on Windows and latter on Oracle VirtualBox. On Windows DB I have one user (PAI) with single table called TESTME. On VirtualBox, only user (PAI_VB) was created. Now, I want to display the content of the TESTME table from SQL Developer from VB.
I have done
I want to display table TESTME using LINK statement:
CREATE DATABASE LINK LINK_TO_PAI
CONNECT TO PAI IDENTIFIED BY PAI
USING 'DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=myIP)(PORT=1521))
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=XE))';
Note: data from 'DESCRIPTION' section were taken from tnsname.ora file on Windows.
Having that, via following query I will manage to display table:
SELECT * FROM PAI.TESTME#LINK_TO_PAI;
Unfortunately, it does not work.
Error from console
ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified
12154. 00000 - "TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified"
*Cause: A connection to a database or other service was requested using
a connect identifier, and the connect identifier specified could not
be resolved into a connect descriptor using one of the naming methods
configured. For example, if the type of connect identifier used was a
net service name then the net service name could not be found in a
naming method repository, or the repository could not be
located or reached.
*Action:
- If you are using local naming (TNSNAMES.ORA file):
- Make sure that "TNSNAMES" is listed as one of the values of the
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH parameter in the Oracle Net profile
Questions
Could you please propose solution to my problem (I know that in *Action section there is a hint but still I cannot solve it).
Maybe, you could introduce me another way to make communication between two databases possible.
EDIT
I managed to connect from my VB machine to one on Win10 via SQLDeveloper and SQLPlus. Unfortunately, using Oracle LINK I can not access data from database.
SOLVED !!
I managed to solve my issue. The problem laid in LINK. Since following part:
'DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=myIP)(PORT=1521))
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=XE))'
was inside tnsnames.ora file i should define my link as follows:
CREATE DATABASE LINK LINK_TO_PAI
CONNECT TO PAI IDENTIFIED BY PAI
USING 'xe';
After that minor change, I was able to freely us LINK in my example. Cheers :)
Here's what you need to have for a working database link:
Network connectivity between the two hosts.
Oracle Listener process running on the host you want to connect to.
Correct TNS entry while creating the link.
Correct username and password to connect to the remote database.
The TNS-12154 error you're getting means the database running on the virtual host can't get to XE's listener using the description you gave it.
Make sure you're using the correct IP address when trying to connect to your Windows host from your virtual machine.
Run tnsping from your virtual environment to see if it can get to the Windows host listener.
tnsping 'DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=your_windows_host_ip_from_step_1)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=XE))'
or just tnsping XE if you have the TNS entry stored as XE in tnsnames.ora file on your virtual machine.
See also: Oracle documentation — Testing Connections.
Once you get OK response from tnsping try connecting to XE with sqlplus (sqlplus PAI/PAI#XE) or via SQL Developer running on the virtual host. If you can connect that way your database link should also work with the same TNS entry.
This is a tricky part of oracle because there are a number of diverent ways to make a connection.
I suggest that you begin to make sure that you have a tnsnames.ora file both on windows and in your virtualbox environment. What os are you running in VirtualBox by the way?
In both tnsnames.ora files both databases should be named. Easiest to make them identical.
Then connect with sql*plus from windows to your database in VirtualBox and from VirtualBox to your database on Windows.
Just to make sure your network and tns config are OK.
If this works recreate your db-link with the servce alias from tnsnames after using. This should work.

I can access my oracle database by command line, but cannot by navicat, ORA-12514 error

I use the command prompt to connect my Oracle database. All functions work, but when I try to use my Navicat to connect to the database, it shows the following error message:
ORA-12514:TNS:listener does not currently know of service requested in
connect descriptor.
My general settings for Navicat are:
host type:basic
ip address:127.0.0.1(also try my ip, but still have same problem)
port:1521
service name:orcl
By "all functions work", I assume you mean you are able to connect to the database and query.
Can you show us the connect that you use.
If you are using sqlplus in this fashion,
sqlplus userid/password#database1
it means your current client is pointing to the correct tnsnames.ora. May be navicat does not point to the correct tnsnames.ora file? The error indicates that you want to connect to, say database1, and Oracle is not able to map "database1" to the correct server, host and port number.
Have you gone through the connectiond details here?
http://www.navicat.com/en/products/navicat_oracle/oracle_detail_win.html
What is your operating system version and oracle version?

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