Question:
I have a large set of systems and a very large tnsnames.ora
file that is getting hard to manage.
Are there alternatives to using tnsnames.ora which you
would recommend?
Answer:
Yes, there are several options for tnsnames.ora management,
depending on your version:
- Use local naming: tnsnames.ora
- Use external naming: This is similar to Network Information
Service (NIS)
- Use a propagation software package: This will blast changes
in tnsnames.ora to all affected clients
- Place a common tnsnames.ora on shared disk
and set your global tns_admin variable to point to this
location
Some of these options are version specific and might not apply to
more recent releases. For example, ONS does not exist in the
last couple of releases. If your set of systems spans a number
of versions, that will also limit your options.
