I've seen two different times where the tnsnames.ora file had some type of invisible control character in it and the file would not work.
We'd re-type it and try again and it worked - even though the files would be identical to visual inspection and were checked by multiple people. If you're on Unix you might want to run dos2unix on the file. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Grooms, Frederick W Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2014 3:51 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Slightly OT: Connecting SQL*Plus client to an Oracle Database.. ** Ok ... Since you can connect to other databases listed in the TNSNAMES.ORA file that should rule that out Since you have SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) I wonder if there is a permissions issue with the user and password you were given. NTS uses Windows native authentication to allow access to a database. If you are specifying a user and password yourself I usually prefer to set this to NONE or comment out that line in the sqlnet.ora file. Fred From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Joe D'Souza Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2014 3:25 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Slightly OT: Connecting SQL*Plus client to an Oracle Database.. ** I can connect to other databases whose connection strings are defined in that tnsnames.ora file. So that rules out the client not being able to find the tnsnames.ora file or any permission related issue to that file. I haven't made any changes to the sqlnet.ora file. The only two non commented lines in it are: SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, EZCONNECT) Cheers ________________________________ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Grooms, Frederick W Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2014 12:20 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG<mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG> Subject: Re: Slightly OT: Connecting SQL*Plus client to an Oracle Database.. I can think of 2 possible reasons off the top of my head. One reason is that SQLPLUS could not find the TNSNAMES.ORA file. Do you have an environment variable of TNS_ADMIN? In my systems I have that environment variable pointing to the folder where the tnsnames.ora file is located. SQLPLUS (and the Oracle client in general) use this environment variable to find the tnsnames.ora configuration file. Another possible reason could be a default domain setting. In your Oracle Client configuration do you have an SQLNET.ORA configuration file that defines? names.default_domain = world In those cases the TNSNAMES entry wanted to be: CONNENTRY.WORLD = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 111.111.11.111)(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = connentry) ) ) And then my login using SQLPLUS would be sqlplus user@CONNENTRY.WORLD<mailto:user@CONNENTRY.WORLD> Fred From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Joe D'Souza Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2014 10:44 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG<mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG> Subject: Slightly OT: Connecting SQL*Plus client to an Oracle Database.. ** We have our Remedy database on Oracle 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production server. I am using SQL*Plus Release 10.2.0.1.0 client to connect to it but am unable to connect with a connection error that reads as: ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified I have checked my tnsnames.ora file for any possible errors in the connection string and can't seem to find one. This is the contents of the entry (I have replaced the actual IP and the service name and what not with fictitious names for security reasons - the port is 1521 which is the default port.) ## Remedy ITSM db - Devl - Used IP instead of hostname CONNENTRY = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 111.111.11.111)(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = connentry) ) ) While connecting I use the username & password as given to me and connentry as the host string. What could possibly be the causes of ORA-12154 that I ought to check for? I suspect something wrong with my connection string in my tnsnames.ora file but can't figure what it is. I checked with the DBA's for the exact IP, port, service name and they say it all checks out. I was also suspecting that perhaps Oracle client 10.2.0.1.0 may not be compatible with Oracle Database version 11.2.0.3.0, but I do not think that could be the problem as Oracle clients are usually compatible with at least 1 version forward or backward. Any insights as to what I and my DBA's may be missing may help.. Thanks.. Joe ________________________________ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com<http://www.avg.com> Version: 2014.0.4716 / Virus Database: 3986/7812 - Release Date: 07/07/14 _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
