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TNSNAV.ORA— This file is used in multi-protocol (community) networks using one or more Oracle MultiProtocol Interchanges. It lists network navigation information such as communities and the names and addresses of Interchanges to reach these other communities. This file is created by Network Manager and should never be edited manually.
PROTOCOL.ORA— This file contains protocol-specific options for LAN protocols that require them (for example, Async and APPC/LU6.2). If needed, this file must be created manually. The database server machine will also contain a configuration file for the TNS Listener. This file is appropriately called LISTENER.ORA. LISTENER.ORA— This file contains the names and addresses of all listeners on a machine, the system identifiers (SIDs) of the databases, and control parameters used by the Listener Control Utility.

Preparing to Install SQL*Net

The Oracle Installer product is used for installing all client Oracle products, including all networking products. The Oracle Installer also includes the Oracle Client Software Manager (OCSM) to allow you to install 16-bit (Windows 3.x) applications on a shared file server for use by any Windows client platform. This does not imply that you can't run the standard installation of Oracle products from a shared server directory—you can! OCSM goes beyond a shared directory by supporting the delivery file updates directly to the client hard drive.

Not all SQL*Net configurations are created equal. There are two distinct versions of Oracle Network Products and Oracle Applications. There is a 16-bit version that supports Windows 3.1 clients. There are also 32-bit versions for Windows 95 and Windows NT. The 16-bit and 32-bit versions have very different sets of DLLs, and applications and tools compiled for the 16-bit SQL*Net will not work with the 32-bit versions.

There is good news, however. The 16-bit and 32-bit versions of Oracle Network Products can be installed on the same PC. Two separate Oracle homes can exist, and will not conflict with each other. This will be described in more detail shortly.

It is important to note here that there are two different 32-bit versions of Oracle Installer and Oracle products: one 32-bit installer for Windows 95 and one 32-bit installer for Windows NT. You must run the correct installer for the operating system you are using. Windows 95 Installer can be found in the Oracle Product Media's \WIN95 directory, and Windows NT Installer is found in the \WIN32 directory.

Another big difference between the 16-bit and 32-bit versions is maturity. The following tools are provided in the 16-bit version but are missing from the 32-bit version:

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One major difference between the 16-bit version and the 32-bit version is the location of client configuration information. The 16-bit version of SQL*Net stores its configuration information in a file named ORACLE.INI. The location of this file is referenced by a parameter, ORA_CONFIG, in Windows's WIN.INI file under the [Oracle] section. The 32-bit version stores all configuration information in the Windows Registry.

Determining Your Oracle Home Location The most critical decision to be made when installing SQL*Net on your client PC is the choice of your Oracle home. This is the location of all Oracle Networking and Application products. It also includes important client and network configuration files. For non-OCSM installations, the two predominate schemes are to install your Oracle home on the primary hard drive of the client PC or to install your Oracle home into a common, shared file server directory. The former scheme offers the highest performance possible and greatest simplicity with a loss of centralized configuration control, while the latter is just the opposite.

Since performance and simplicity are a lot to give up for centralized configuration control, why bother? Aside from being able to deploy updates and patches quickly to a central, shared Oracle home, there is the group of four critical configuration files stored in the \ORAWIN\NETWORK\ADMIN directory of the Oracle home.

TNSNAMES.ORA
SQLNET.ORA
TNSNAV.ORA
PROTOCOL.ORA

Since these files are manipulated using Oracle Network Manager, they get changed every time a new database service name or server name gets added or changed. Having these files in one central location is very advantageous.

Choosing a Standalone, Non-OCSM Oracle Home If you choose to install Oracle to your local hard drive, remember that you will need to copy the *.ORA files from a central repository of network configuration files. These files should be copied into the \ORAWIN\NETWORK\ ADMIN directory.

Choosing a Shared, Non-OCSM Oracle Home There are several steps and caveats to take care of if you choose to load files to a shared network drive, a configuration I will call a shared, non-OCSM Oracle home.

  1. During installation of the Oracle products, some DLL files are written to the \WINDOWS and \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directories. These files have to be identified and copied to each user. A quick way to identify these files is to turn off the archive bit on all files in the Windows and System directories using the ATTRIB command:
    ATTRIB C:\WINDOWS\*.* -A /S
    

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  1. After running the install, search for files with their archive bits turned on. These files have been written to during the install.
  2. Copy the ORACLE.INI file to the C: drive and put it in the Windows directory.
  3. Edit WIN.INI in the C:\WINDOWS directory so that there exists an [Oracle] section, and the key ORA_CONFIG=C:\WINDOWS\ORACLE.INI exists. Change the key to point to the location of your ORACLE.INI file.
  4. Add the path to the \ORAWIN\BIN directory to your search path. This is normally done in the network login script.

The previous steps will aid in having a smooth install of the configuration files to a shared network drive.

Choosing Local DLL/EXE with a Shared, Non-OCSM Oracle Home This is an improvement over the previous configuration. In this configuration, a copy of the shared \ORAWIN\BIN directory is made on the local C: drive. Change the path from the shared directory to the local directory in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or network login script. This local bin directory will need to be updated each time the shared bin directory is updated.

Installing 16-Bit SQL*Net (Non-OCSM)

This description assumes that you will be installing a local version of the 16-bit SQL*Net on your local hard drive. If you are running Windows 95 or Windows NT, your PC will probably "autorun" the installer for the appropriate 32-bit version of SQL*Net for your operating system. Since you are installing the 16-bit version, cancel out of this installation if autorun is enabled on your PC. Autorun can also be disabled by holding down the Shift key while loading the CD-ROM. Instead of using autorun, follow these steps to install 16-bit SQL*Net:

  1. Start the Oracle Installer. The install directory on the CD-ROM for the 16-bit version is called \WINDOWS. Change to this directory and run the program SETUP.EXE. To start Oracle Installer under Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, select Start, Run from the taskbar and type the following (substituting your CD-ROM drive letter for D): D:\WINDOWS\SETUP.EXE. Confirm the selection by clicking OK.
    To start Oracle Installer under Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.51, choose File, Run from Program Manager and type the following (again substituting your CD-ROM drive letter for D): D:\WINDOWS\SETUP.EXE. Confirm by clicking OK.
    Select Oracle Installation Settings.
  2. Next you will be prompted for the language being used for the installation. After choosing a language and selecting OK, you will be presented with an Oracle Installation Settings dialog box.
  3. The selection of your Oracle home is a very critical choice. In this example you will be installing to the local hard drive. The default path for Oracle home is C:\ORAWIN for the 16-bit version.
  4. The next screen is a wizard to automatically install products such as Oracle Networking, SQL*Plus, Documentation, and so on.

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