Dennis, For the same reasons that you mention, we implemented Oracle Names here just last year, despite Oracle's proclamation that it is going away in 10i. ( or whatever the next version is )
Since we will be upgrading to Oracle 9i later this year, I'm not too worried about the depracation of Oracle Names. While Oracle Names is easy to setup, ODI is not. Oracle Names need not be a single point of failure, you can have multiple name servers running. It's a pretty lightweight process, so you can proliferate it to multiple servers without too much concern. It is *much* better than multiple tnsnames.ora files. Jared DENNIS WILLIAMS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/12/2003 10:49 AM Please respond to ORACLE-L To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> cc: Subject: Oracle Names We are starting a project that will eventually have 500 laptops wandering around in the wild. These will have an Access database for untethered use, and will periodically connect to Oracle via Net8 to resynchronize itself. The idea of changing 500 tnsnames.ora files sometime down the line is daunting. I've been studying for the OCP Net8 exam, and they mention Oracle Names. 1. Are any of you using the Oracle Names? 2. Is it as easy to configure as Oracle makes it sound, or is it difficult? 3. Is Names reasonably robust? I can see this as yet another single point of failure. 4. Oracle hinted that Oracle Names is going away in favor of LDAP. Is this imminent, or just a scare tactic? I had held off using Names because of this, but the company has made a commitment to MS Active Directory, which I gather from the list postings isn't very compatible with Oracle's LDAP. Dennis Williams DBA, 80%OCP, 100% DBA Lifetouch, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).