Sql*Plus ERROR: ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified

oracleoracle-11gsqlplus

I installed Sql*PLUS on a cloud Oracle Linux Environment in order to access an remote database. I used the installation instructions provided as an answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23488394/how-to-install-sql-plus-client-in-linux

My connection string is correct, but I get the error

ERROR: ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified

I tried resolving this issue by attempting to looking at my tnsnames.ora, but it did not exist and the path connected to my $ORACLE_HOME did not have the subfolders "/network/admin/". In order to resolve this, I created both folders and created a tnsnames.ora file in the new admin/ containing my connection string. Unfortunately, I still get the same error.

The path to my new tnsnames.ora file being:
/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/network/admin/tnsnames.ora

For reference my connection string is structured the following way:

(DESCRIPTION=
     (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST= asdasdasd.com)(PORT=1524))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SID = AARCER1)
    )
  )

And my command I am putting into my terminal is:
sqlplus "userName/myPassword@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=asdasdasd.com)(PORT=1524))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=AARCER1)))"

What should I do to resolve this error?

Best Answer

When you use sqlplus userName/myPassword@"(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=asdasdasd.com)(PORT=1524))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=AARCER1)))" then you don't need any tnsnames.ora file.

Your entry in tnsnames.ora file should be like this:

AARCER1 = (DESCRIPTION=
     (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST= asdasdasd.com)(PORT=1524))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SID = AARCER1)
    )
  )

Then you can shorten your command to sqlplus userName/myPassword@AARCER1 - that is the purpose of tnsnames.ora.

In order to use tnsnames.ora you must also have file sqlnet.ora. There you need an entry like this:

NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH = (TNSNAMES)

However, default value is NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH=(tnsnames, ldap, ezconnect), so actually you can skip it.

Set environment variable TNS_ADMIN to location of these files, i.e.

export TNS_ADMIN=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client64/network/admin

Related Solutions

Oracle 11g Listener not working

The error message means that one (or more) of the shared libraries required for TCP communications to work could not be loaded, perhaps due to o/s package updates? or it can mean that the /tmp/.oracle directory is not writeable by the oracle user (or doesn't exist perhaps because someone did some 'housekeeping' on /tmp . In either case tracing the listener at level 16 as Gaius suggested should reveal the issue.

Check listener status other than 1521

Run:

lsnrctl status LISTENERNAME

... where LISTENERNAME is the name of the listener that is listening on port 1531. You can get this name from your $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora file.

For example:

LISTENER1531 =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS_LIST =
        (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = node1)(PORT = 1531))
      )
    )
  )

LISTENER1531 would be the listener name for the above listener.ora entry.

If you need to add databases to the listener, add an entry to the listener.ora, as follows:

SID_LIST_LISTENER1531 =
  (SID_LIST =
    (SID_DESC =
      (GLOBAL_DBNAME = YOURDB)
      (ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1)
      (PROGRAM = extproc)
      (SID_NAME = YOURDB)
    )
  )

Obviously you'll need to add your own database and listener names & change the path to your $ORACLE_HOME.

You can reload the listener config with:

lsnrctl reload LISTENER1531

The above works fine for me with a `tnsnames.ora as follows:

YOURDB =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS_LIST =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(Host = node1)(Port = 1531))
   )
 (CONNECT_DATA =
   (SERVICE_NAME = YOURDB)
 )
)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Oracle 11g Listener not working

Check listener status other than 1521

Related Question