How Oracle Searches for Configuration Files
By: Troy Campano
(2005-06-28)
Filed under Articles > Databases > Oracle

Introduction
Do you have trouble finding which tnsnames.ora or listener.ora is the one on your computer that Oracle is actually looking at? There's a few places that Oracle looks for its configuration files (tnsnames.ora, sqlnet.ora, listener.ora, and oratab).

Where does Oracle search for these files?
Oracle will search for these configuration files in the following locations in the following order:
1. $TNS_ADMIN
2. /etc (or /var/opt/oracle on Solaris)
3. $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin


The TNS_ADMIN ($TNS_ADMIN in Unix/Linux and %TNS_ADMIN% in Windows) environment variable allows you to point to any directory you wish the files to be located at. By default the files get installed to <ORACLE_HOME>/network/admin/.

~ Troy Campano ~



Reader's Comments - Add Comment