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Manager or the Net8 Assistant. However, all the .ora network configuration files can be manually created and edited.

To configure a Names server using Network Manager, use the following steps:

  1. Start Network Manager and open your network configuration file.
  2. Press the Names Server button. Enter the Name, Node, and Password in the General tab. You can also choose to disable Dynamic Discovery on this tab.
  3. Press the Addresses tab. The settings on this tab will determine the TCP/IP port the Names server will listen on. In most cases you can accept the default by clicking the Create button and pressing OK.
  4. If you want, you can enable or disable optional settings such as trace levels and directories with the additional tabs. Press OK at the bottom of the Names Server window to accept the defaults. Your Names server is created.

The same process can be done using the Net8 Assistant; however, because the application is written in Java, the graphical user interface is somewhat different. The steps to configure a Names server using this tool are as follows:

  1. Expand the Names server. If there is not one created, one is created automatically.
  2. Select the server. There will be a form on the right side of the page. Select the option Configure Server.
  3. Provide a name; use the default if desired. Provide an address. As in the network manager, if there are multiple communities, be sure to provide all the addresses.
  4. Choose a node for the server.
  5. Choose Save.

Configuring Clients to Use the Names Server

The usage of the different directory services is controlled on the client by the value of certain sqlnet.ora parameters. If a comprehensive Names server installation is performed, a tnsnames.ora file may not be needed at all by the client. The two sqlnet.ora parameters of most interest when configuring the Names server are NAMES.PREFERRED_SERVERS and NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH.

The NAMES.PREFERRED_SERVERS parameter specifies one or more Names servers to consult when resolving database aliases. Each Names server will be consulted in turn, until a suc-cessful name lookup takes place or all lookups have failed. The format of this parameter is as follows:

names.preferred_servers =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS =
(COMMUNITY = community)(PROTOCOL = protocol)(HOST = hostname)(PORT = portnumber)
)
(ADDRESS =

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(COMMUNITY = community)(PROTOCOL = protocol)(HOST = hostname)(PORT = portnumber)
)
)

The NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH parameter specifies the order in which directory services will be consulted when attempting to resolve a name. The format is as follows:

Names.directory_path = (tnsnames, onames, hostname)

here tnsnames refers to tnsnames.ora file lookups, onames refers to an Oracle Names server, and hostname refers to the database on the host. You can use this parameter to customize your naming service lookups.

An additional parameter to note is NAMES.DEFAULT_DOMAIN. You can use this parameter to specify a domain to append to all name resolutions. For example, in a flat hierarchy configured as the default, the domain is world. To connect to a database, you have to specify the entire database name,—prod.world, for example. By setting NAMES.DEFAULT_DOMAIN to world, you can specify the prod database to connect to, and Oracle networking will automatically append the world to the name before attempting to resolve.

Configuring the Names Server for Dynamic Discovery

By enabling the Dynamic Discovery option, new Oracle resources that come online are automatically registered by Names servers. Dynamic Discovery is available beginning with version 2 of the Names server. Net8 expands upon this concept in that Net8 network resources will automatically register themselves to Names servers when they are started. This makes administration of the Names server quick and easy, involving little more than creating the initial Names server.

To configure Dynamic Discovery, you must configure your Names servers as well-known Names servers, and you must configure your Listeners to forward information on the databases they serve to these well-known Names addresses. A Names server is well known if it is listening on TCP/IP port 1575 of the computer it is running on, and if the computer it is running on has a DNS, NIS, or hosts file entry that resolves its IP address to oranamesrvr0, oranamesrvr1, oranamesrvr2, oranamesrvr3, or oranamesrvr4. Both these host names and ports are hard coded within the client and Listener code, which means there is no configuration that needs to be done to allow clients or Listeners to find these Names servers. A Listener will attempt to find and forward its database information to well-known Names servers if the listener.ora configuration parameter USE_PLUG_AND_PLAY_LISTENER is set to TRUE.

Using the Advanced Networking Option

The Oracle Advanced Networking Option encompasses a range of tools that provide a level of data security and integrity not found in the standard Oracle networking toolset. While some of the features are enabled in the Oracle software, the majority of the functionality comes from

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integrating Oracle networking with other third-party security and authentication products. The functionality provide by the Advanced Networking Option are:

Configuring the third-party authentication adapters and the DCE adapter are beyond the scope of this book. For information on configuring these items, refer to the Oracle Advanced Networking Option Administrator's Guide, as well as the documentation specific to the adapter you are trying to install.

NOTE
There are two versions of the Oracle Advanced Networking Option: one is for domestic use (USA and Canada), the other is for other countries. The latter is referred to as the Export Use version. Check with your Oracle vendor to determine which is the appropriate software for your site.n

Enabling Data Encryption and Checksums

To enable data stream encryption or the data checksums, you must set several parameters in the client and server's sqlnet.ora file. There are one set of parameters for the client, and one set for the server. Note that if a database server is also acting as a client, both the client and server parameters must be set. You can configure sqlnet.ora by editing the file with a text editor, or by using Network Manager or Net8 Assistant to edit the default Profile.

The SQLNET.ENCRYPTION_SERVER and SQLNET.ENCRYPTION_CLIENT parameters specify whether a connection will be encrypted or not. The value of the both the server and client machine evaluated together will decide the session configuration. The valid values are:

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