Oracle Network Products Troubleshooting Guide
Providing Troubleshooting Information
Connection problems may be caused by a number of things. Perhaps a needed Oracle product is not installed. Perhaps the necessary configuration files are missing, or are not in the correct directories. Perhaps your environment variables are incorrectly set. You can choose to look at the following aspects of your environment:
- environment Information (not available in MS Windows version of Client Status Monitor)
- installed Oracle products
- paths and names of all SQL*Net configuration files
- general SQL*Net properties
General properties include what version of SQL*Net (TNS) you are running, and the names and paths of some critical files. The level of tracing currently turned on is also shown. You can change the trace level by editing the SQLNET.ORA file.
- Protocol Adapters available
Client-server connections are made using SQL*Net over a transport layer protocol. A protocol adapter is needed as an interface between the protocol and SQL*Net. The Client Status Monitor enables you to see what protocol adapters are available.
- Secure Network Services installed and selected
Secure Network Services enables several encryption, checksumming, and authentication services. The Client Status Monitor enables you to see what security services are installed and selected on the client.
- name resolution services installed and their priority
There are several different ways that a service's name can be resolved to its network address. You can see what name-address resolution alternatives are available to the client, and also see in what order they are used.
The Client Status Monitor enables you to see the address of the service name you are trying to reach. It also enables you to attempt a connection to that service and to trace the connection attempt.
Contacting Oracle Customer Support
The Client Status Monitor includes a form suitable for faxing to Oracle Customer Support. If you cannot resolve your problem yourself, the fax report form provides information generated by the Client Status Monitor in a convenient format to send to Oracle Customer Support. Sending the fax report form can speed the resolution of your problem by providing answers to many of the support analyst's questions before they are even asked.
Editing Individual SQLNET.ORA Files
The Client Status Monitor enables you to access the SQLNET.ORA Editor to change some of the optional parameters in the SQLNET.ORA file. You might want to do this to change the trace level or the name and location of the trace file, to change the TNSPING trace level, or to make other changes. The Client Status Monitor's SQLNET.ORA Editor is an efficient way to make changes that affect only the individual client in whose SQLNET.ORA file the changes are made.
Note: There may be more than one SQLNET.ORA file available, a system-level and a user-level file. If both are available, the values for the variables in the user-level file take priority over those in the system-level file.