Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting

Larger Cover

By Hugo Toledo, Jonathan Gennick

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: December 2000

Pages: 408

Net8 is the fundamental Oracle technology that allows Oracle services and clients to communicate with each other over a network. Net8 is most often used to connect client software to Oracle database servers. It may also be used to connect database servers to one another, allowing communication between distributed databases.

This practical guide provides the information that readers, especially database administrators, need to know in order to install configure, tune, and troubleshoot Net8. It discusses how Oracle's network architecture, products, and name resolution methods work, and it provides the details of client and server configuration using a variety of Oracle protocols and networking products, including:

The Oracle Internet Directory (OID), Oracle's implementation of the standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). This directory can be used to maintain a central repository of net service names that can be referenced by all clients.
Oracle Names, a networking component used mainly in earlier versions of Oracle, that allows net service names to be defined centrally.
Multi-Threaded Server (MTS), an environment in which the client connections share access to a pool of shared server processes.
Oracle Connection Manager, a Net8 component that acts much like a router and provides protocol conversion, connection concentration, and access control.

The book also describes the utilities Oracle provides to help manage a Net8 environment; these include the Listener Control Utility (lsnrctl), the Oracle Names Control Utility (namesctl), the Oracle Connection Manager Control Utility (cmctl), tnsping, and Net8 Assistant. In addition, it provides a variety of networking troubleshooting techniques and commonly encountered Net8 configuration problems, and provides complete syntax for all networking files and commands.

How Net8 Works
1. Chapter 1 Oracle’s Network Architecture and Products
  1. Goals of Net8
  2. Net8 Components
  3. Stack Communications
  4. Management Utilities
2. Chapter 2 Name Resolution
  1. Local Naming
  2. Directory Naming
  3. Centralized Naming
  4. Host Naming
  5. External Name Resolution
  6. Choosing the Method to Use
Net8 Configuration
1. Chapter 3 Client Configuration
  1. The Overall Process
  2. Installing the Net8 Client Software
  3. Configuring Your Profile
  4. Defining Net Service Names
  5. Using LDAP
  6. Using Oracle Names
  7. Using External Naming Methods
  8. Testing Client Connectivity
2. Chapter 4 Basic Server Configuration
  1. The Overall Process
  2. Software to Install
  3. Configuring a Listener
  4. The Listener Control Utility
  5. Securing a Listener
  6. Modifying and Deleting a Listener
  7. Detecting Dead Connections
3. Chapter 5 Multi-Threaded Server
  1. Understanding MTS
  2. Planning for MTS
  3. Database Initialization File Changes
  4. Forcing a Dedicated Server Connection
  5. Viewing MTS Status
  6. Online MTS Modifications
4. Chapter 6 Net8 and LDAP
  1. What Is LDAP?
  2. Client Configuration for LDAP
  3. Defining Net Service Names in an LDAP Directory
5. Chapter 7 Oracle Names
  1. Configuring a Names Server
  2. Managing a Names Server
  3. Discovery and Client Configuration
  4. Domains and Regions
6. Chapter 8 Net8 Failover and Load Balancing
  1. Failover
  2. Load Balancing
7. Chapter 9 Connection Manager
  1. Connection Manager Benefits
  2. Connection Manager Architecture
  3. Configuring Connection Manager
  4. Configuring a Client
  5. Managing Connection Manager
Net8 Troubleshooting
1. Chapter 10 Net8 Troubleshooting Techniques
  1. Testing Connectivity to the Server
  2. Looking at Net8 Log Files
  3. Generating Net8 Trace Files
2. Chapter 11 Solutions to Common Problems
  1. Net8 General Problems
  2. Connection Manager Problems
  3. Multi-Threaded Server Problems
  4. Oracle Names Problems
Appendixes
1. Appendix The sqlnet.ora File
2. Appendix The tnsnames.ora File
  1. Net Service Name Definitions
  2. The Parameters
3. Appendix The listener.ora File
  1. Listener Addresses
  2. Static Services
  3. Control Parameters
4. Appendix The names.ora File
5. Appendix Environment and Registry Variables
  1. Net8 Environment Variables
  2. Net8 Variables and Windows NT
6. Appendix MTS Initialization Parameters
7. Appendix MTS Performance Views

Colophon

Title:

Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting

By:

Hugo Toledo, Jonathan Gennick

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Safari Books Online

Print:

December 2000

Pages:

408

Print ISBN:

978-1-56592-753-7

| ISBN 10:

1-56592-753-2

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The insects on the cover of Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting are silk moths (Bombyx mori). Once wild throughout eastern Asia, silk moths now exist only for sericulture—silk manufacturing for human use. However, by the time a silk moth is an actual moth, it no longer produces silk, does not eat, and has only a couple of weeks to live. Silk factories breed the moths for their larvae, silkworm caterpillars, which spin silk cocoons to enshroud and protect themselves during their development into moths. One cocoon yields nearly a half-mile of strong fiber, which can be woven into the silk thread and fabric used for clothing and other textiles.

A silk moth pupa's metamorphosis involves histolysis-self-digestion that makes room for the development of a dramatically different body. No longer a worm, the pupa emerges from its silk cocoon a winged moth. Darren Kelly was the production editor, Catherine Morris was the copyeditor, and Ellie Cutler was the proofreader for Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting. Linley Dolby, Sarah Jane Shangraw, Madeleine Newell, and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Joe Wizda wrote the index. Interior composition was done by Deborah Smith, Matthew Hutchinson, and Rachel Wheeler.

Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from Johnson's Natural History: The Animal Kingdom Illustrated. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1, using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

Melanie Wang and David Futato designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. Mike Sierra implemented the design in FrameMaker 5.5.6. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book; the code font is Constant Willison. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano, using Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Sarah Jane Shangraw.

Description

Table of Contents

Product Details

Colophon

Recommended for You

Recently Viewed

Windows 7: The Definitive Guide

The Essential Resource for Professionals and Power Users

By William R. Stanek

October 2009

Ebook: $47.99

Print & Ebook: $65.99

Print: $59.99

Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

By Deke McClelland

November 2010

Print: $49.99

Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

By Jim Elferdink

March 2008

Ebook: $27.99

Print & Ebook: $38.49

Print: $34.99

Customer Reviews

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews

O'Reilly Media Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting

3.0

(based on 3 reviews)

Reviews

Reviewed by 3 customers

Sort by

Displaying reviews 1-3

6/17/2001

4.0

Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting Review

By Brian O'Neill

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting:

This book is very well written; explaining Oracle networking technologies in a clear and concise manner. In my opinion, Oracle's Net8 documentation is very poor when compared to some of the other Oracle documentation. Reading this book filled in the gaps where the Net8 manual was vague and unclear. I highly recommend it.

4/24/2001

4.0

Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting Review

By John Peterson

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting:

I give this book a very good rating, pretty easy to read after spending hours reading the technical documents from Oracle NET8 cd. There is a good deal of excellent information about NET8 in the book. Some great examples in every chapter. Net8 seems to be growing and enhancing with every release, books on the subject are somewhat rare, keeping up with this technology is becoming very challenging, these guys have done a good job.

My hopes for the next edition would be the addition of yet more examples, case studies and explanations of those oracle errors, especially for MTS and OID.

Addressing Oracle Networking with some of the industry applications such as Oracle's eBusiness Suite, Peoplesoft, SAP for large scale networks would be a fantastic plus.

John E. Peterson

4/12/2001

1.0

Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting Review

By Jed S. Baer

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Oracle Net8 Configuration and Troubleshooting:

The Official Blurb:

Describes everything DBAs need to know to install configure, tune, and troubleshoot Net8, Oracle's networking technology. It covers the Oracle Internet Directory (OID)

This book fails at providing everything a DBA needs to know about OID. I am sorry to have to say that this is the first O'Reilly book which, after reading the appropriate chapters, leaves me almost as mystified as before reading it. No information is supplied for server-side installation and startup for OID, that I could find.

In chapter 6, p. 164 and following, it would be helpful if the figures appeared in the book in the same order they appear when running the Directory Manager. Transposing 6-7 and 6-6 would resolve a discontinuous flow which is currently the case.

Most troubling is that the book tells me to use a domain "orclContext" which doesn't appear in the SuperClass Selector window. Maybe that's a version problem.

The review option of "Wasn't for Me" isn't really appropriate. A more appropriate review option would be "Not up to O'Reilly Standards". Yes, there is much good information in various places in the book, but with the "Covers LDAP" banner on the cover, I expected a better treatment, and OID is why I bought the book.