| Host naming is a TCP/IP-only solution that uses your existing IP address resolution method. To connect to a database, you simply specify the hostname of the database server. Net8 connects to that server and expects to find a database with a name matching the hosthence the term host naming . Figure 2.5 illustrates the process. Figure 2.5. When host naming is used, Net8 expects to find a database with the same name as the server  The following rules apply to hostname resolution: -
Host naming may only be used in TCP/IP environments. -
Host naming requires the Domain Name Service (DNS) or some other TCP/IP name resolution mechanismpossibly a hosts fileto be in place to translate hostnames to network addresses. -
The database name must match the name of the server hosting the database. The last point (the database name and the server name have to match) is the most important. It is the fully qualified database name, which includes the domain, that must match the server name. Thus, if you are connecting to a server named jeff.gennick.org , your database parameter file must contain the following entries: db_name = jeff db_domain = gennick.org Since the database and server names must match, it appears at first glance that you can have only one database per server. That's not entirely true. You can have multiple databases per server, but you have to define multiple names for the server in order to make that work. Figure 2.6 shows a hostnames configuration supporting two databases on one server. Figure 2.6. Defining multiple hostnames allows you to have multiple databases on one server  The main advantage of host naming is its simplicity. Unlike Oracle Names, it requires little administrative overhead and, unlike local naming, there is no tnsnames.ora file to distribute to your clients . In fact, you don't need to distribute any files to your client machines. The drawback of host naming is that it only gives you connectivityyou lose access to other Net8 features such as failover or connection pooling. Host naming is best suited to very simple TCP/IP environments that do not need any of Net8's advanced features.  | 
