I run an instance of Oracle 11g locally on my development machine and can connect to the local instance directly via SqlPlus:
c:\>sqlplus ace
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Mon Mar 11 11:50:20 2013
Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Enter password:
Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Beta
SQL> select count(*) from my_table ;
COUNT(*)
----------
5297
But I cannot connect to it via the listener:
c:\>sqlplus -L "user/pw@(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = XE)))"
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Mon Mar 11 11:52:40 2013
Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle. All rights reserved.
ERROR:
ORA-12514: TNS:listener does not currently know of service requested in connect
descriptor
SP2-0751: Unable to connect to Oracle. Exiting SQL*Plus
Similarly, if I connect via SqlDeveloper I get an error (albeit ORA-12505, TNS:listener does not currently know of SID given in connect descriptor).
This instance has been stable and working fine for a year or more until today, a Monday morning. Our corporate IT do sometimes push new policies and updates over the weekend, so I'm assuming that something has changed, but I've not been able to work out what.
I've restarted the service and the listener several times, the listener log doesn't give any clues.
The listener seems fine:
c:\>lsnrctl status
LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Beta on 11-MAR-2013 11:55:33
Copyright (c) 1991, 2010, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias LISTENER
Version TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Beta
Start Date 11-MAR-2013 11:17:30
Uptime 0 days 0 hr. 38 min. 3 sec
Trace Level off
Security ON: Local OS Authentication
SNMP OFF
Default Service XE
Listener Parameter File C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\network\admin\listener.ora
Listener Log File C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\diag\tnslsnr\FBC305BB46560\listener\alert\log.xml
Listening Endpoints Summary...
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=machine.domain.com)(PORT=1521)))
Services Summary...
Service "CLRExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "CLRExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully
Port 1521 seems ok:
c:\>netstat -an -O | find /i "1521"
TCP 0.0.0.0:1521 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 4368
TCP 169.243.90.109:55307 159.185.207.100:1521 ESTABLISHED 12416
TCP [::]:1521 [::]:0 LISTENING 4368
(PID 4368 is TNSLSNR.exe process.)
Also, I can tnsping to the XE service:
c:\>tnsping xe
TNS Ping Utility for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Beta on 11-MAR-2013 12:27:47
Copyright (c) 1997, 2010, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Used parameter files:
C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\network\admin\sqlnet.ora
Used TNSNAMES adapter to resolve the alias
Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = machine.domain.com)(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = XE)))
OK (210 msec)
The listenerr.ora file:
SID_LIST_LISTENER =
(SID_LIST =
(SID_DESC =
(SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)
(ORACLE_HOME = C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server)
(PROGRAM = extproc)
)
(SID_DESC =
(SID_NAME = CLRExtProc)
(ORACLE_HOME = C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server)
(PROGRAM = extproc)
)
)
LISTENER =
(DESCRIPTION_LIST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = machine.domain.com)(PORT = 1521))
)
)
DEFAULT_SERVICE_LISTENER = (XE)
Additionally, and I've no idea if it is related, I can't seem to access apex on https://127.0.0.1:8080/apex (even though the permissions for that seem fine).
So where else should I be looking?
Update with requested information:
SQL> show parameter service_names
NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
service_names string XE
SQL> show parameter local_listener
NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
local_listener string
Update2: as @miracle173 correctly points out, the listener was not fine. With the updated 'local_listener' parameter now shows extra information:
Listening Endpoints Summary...
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=machine.domain.com)(PORT=1521)))
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=127.0.0.1)(PORT=1521)))
Services Summary...
Service "CLRExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "CLRExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "XEXDB" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "xe" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully
Best Answer
So, with thanks to @YasirArsanukaev for the time he put in, I have found a solution which works, but which I can't really explain.
Riffing on the
LOCAL_LISTENERthought, I was reading this other answer where it said:So I tried to ping my own hostname and couldn't - it looks like some IPv6 problem, receiving a general failure message.
So I took the advice from that answer
and it now works, presumably because it can resolve the localhost reference, where it was failing the resolve the actual hostname.