Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting

Chapter 7. Oracle Names

Oracle Names is a Net8 component that provides for the centralized resolution of net service names. Using Oracle Names, you can eliminate the need to create and maintain a tnsnames.ora file on each client PC. Changes to net service names become easier because they only need to be made in one central repository.

To take advantage of Oracle Names, you’ll need to configure at least one Names server. For purposes of redundancy, you should usually create at least two. That way, you eliminate Oracle Names as a single point of failure. If one Names server goes down, clients will automatically contact the remaining one.

You have a choice, when using Oracle Names, of where your net service name definitions are stored. You can choose to have Oracle Names store net service name definitions in a checkpoint file that gets read every time the Oracle Names service is started, or you can choose to have Oracle Names use an Oracle database as a net service name repository. For all but the most trivial of applications, you should use a repository database.

Tip

If you are thinking of implementing Oracle Names, consider the possibility of using the Oracle Internet Directory (OID) instead. OID is an LDAP-based directory server that can be used for name resolution. The use of OID for name resolution is described in Chapter 6. OID is standards-based, and it represents the future in terms of centralized name resolution. OID is not yet available on all platforms, but if it is available ...