| This section describes some common problems related to the use of Oracle Names. 11.4.1 Discovery Does Not Work 11.4.1.1 Symptom Automatic discovery of Names servers does not work. You issue the REORDER_NS command from Names Control, or you choose the Discover Oracle Names Servers menu option from Net8 Assistant, but no Names servers are found. 11.4.1.2 Possible solution Autodiscovery is a Names feature that has historically been buggy . It worked for us in Release 8.1.5, but not in Release 8.1.6. You may find it more trouble than it's worth to get discovery to work. Setting NAMES.PREFERRED_SERVERS in your sqlnet.ora file represents an easy and more reliable alternative. See Chapter 3 and Chapter 7, for more information on that parameter. 11.4.2 DUMP_TNSNAMES Does Not Work 11.4.2.1 Symptom You issue a DUMP_TNSNAMES command from the Names Control utility, but with no apparent results. 11.4.2.2 Possible solution There have been several bugs related to the DUMP_TNSNAMES command in various releases of Oracle Names. In some cases, the command simply does not work, and you either get no file or an empty file. In other cases (Release 8.1.5), you may be able to get the command to work by setting the TNS_ADMIN environment variable. 11.4.3 Names Servers Do Not Access the Repository Database 11.4.3.1 Symptom Your Oracle Names repository database went down. You brought it back up, but now your Names server refuses to access the repository. Instead, it is using only the data already in its cache. 11.4.3.2 Possible solution This is a known bug that is supposed to be fixed in Release 8.1.7. The solution is to restart your Names server (using NAMESCTL RESTART) after bringing the repository database back online. Some sites automate this through a cron job that periodically restarts each Names server to ensure that they are always in synch with each other. 11.4.4 You Can't Unregister a Service 11.4.4.1 Symptom You are issuing the UNREGISTER command from Names Control to unregister a net service name; you get no error message, but the name persists. The unregistration was unsuccessful . 11.4.4.2 Possible solution The UNREGISTER command is case-sensitive. The service name definition that you pass in using UNREGISTER must match, character for character, the definition used originally with the REGISTER command. Even the case counts. Try the UNREGISTER command again, making sure that the service name you type in exactly matches the existing definition. 11.4.5 Your .sdns.ora File Is Corrupt 11.4.5.1 Symptom When you invoke Net8 Assistant, you get a dialog informing you that your .sdns.ora file is corrupt. You dismiss the dialog, and Net8 Assistant proceeds as usual. Upon examination, you see no apparent corruption in .sdns.ora . 11.4.5.2 Possible solution Net8 Assistant is very picky about blank lines. Look in your .sdns.ora file and be sure that there are no trailing blank lines following the last entry. Such lines will cause Net8 Assistant to report the file as corrupt. | 
