tnsnames.ora

[Miori]

Dear all,
We use TCP/IP for our Oracle networking to the database server but I see
2 formats for specifying the definition of a connection string of a
database in tnsnames.ora.

format 1:
testdb =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myhost)(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = testdb)
)
)

format 2:
testdb =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(Host = myhost)(Port = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SID = test)
(GLOBAL_NAME = testdb.mydomain)
)
)

What is the difference between these 2 formats, is one for a certain
Oracle DB version and the other for another version for example? I mean
when to use which format or are both of them interchangable?

Many thanks for the replies,
Miori

[Artur Karazniewicz]

Miori wrote:

This is for >=9i

format 1:
testdb =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myhost)(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = testdb)
)
)
This is for Oracle < 9i
format 2:
testdb =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(Host = myhost)(Port = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SID = test)
(GLOBAL_NAME = testdb.mydomain)
)
)

Artur

[mayankparmar2000]

Will you please paste your tnsnames.ora here? I get error ORA-12203 TNS: unable to connect to destination