6
Configuring Oracle Net8

• Supplemental Documentation
• Core Net8 Products and Features
• Oracle Net8 Protocol Adapters
• The BEQ Protocol Adapter
• The IPC Protocol Adapter
• The RAW Protocol Adapter
• The TCP/IP Protocol Adapter
• The SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter
• The APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter
• Net8 Naming Adapters
• Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) Intelligent Agent
• Oracle Advanced Networking Option

Supplemental Documentation

See Also: The following documents provide a full discussion of Oracle Net8 features: Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide Oracle Networking Quick Reference Card for Net8 Oracle Advanced Networking Option Administrator's Guide Oracle Security Server Guide Oracle Cryptographic Toolkit Programmer's Guide

Supplementary Information in README Files

Table 6-1 shows the location of README files for various bundled products. The README files describe changes since the last release.

Table 6-1 Location of README Files for Oracle Products

Core Net8 Products and Features

See Also: Sample files can be found in the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide.

Net8 Files and Utilities

Location of Net8 Configuration Files

The default directory for global Oracle Net8 and Connection Manager files is /var/opt/oracle on Solaris.

Oracle Net8 and Connection Manager search for global files in the following order:

1. The directory specified by the environment variable, TNS_ADMIN, if set.
2. The /var/opt/oracle directory.
3. $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin.

If your files are not in the default directory, use the TNS_ADMIN environment variable in the startup files of all network users to specify a different location:

For the C shell, enter:

% setenv TNS_ADMIN new_default

For each system level configuration file, users may have a corresponding local private configuration file (stored in the user's home directory). The settings in the private file override the settings in the system level file. The private configuration file for sqlnet.ora is $HOME/.sqlnet.ora. The private configuration file for tnsnames.ora is $HOME/.tnsnames.ora. Syntax for these files is identical to that of the corresponding system files.

Sample Configuration Files

Examples of the cman.ora, listner.ora, names.ora, sqlnet.ora, and tnsnames.ora configuration files are located in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/samples.

The adapters Utility

To display installed Oracle Net8 adapters, enter:

% adapters

To display adapters linked with a specific executable, enter:

% adapters executable

For example, the following command displays the adapters linked with the oracle executable:

% adapters oracle
Protocol Adapters linked with oracle are:

BEQ Protocol Adapter
IPC Protocol Adapter
TCP/IP Protocol Adapter
RAW Protocol Adapter

Net8 Naming Adapters linked with oracle are:

Oracle TNS Naming Adapter
Oracle Naming Adapter

Advanced Networking Option/Network Security products linked with oracle are:

Oracle Security Server Authentication Adapter

Oracle Connection Manager

For information on the Oracle Connection Manager see the Net8 Administrator's Guide.

Multi-Threaded Server

For information on the Multi-Threaded Server see the Oracle8 Server Concepts and Oracle8 Administrator's Guide.

Oracle Names

For information on Oracle Names see the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide.

Net8 Assistant

The Net8 Assistant ($ORACLE_HOME/bin/net8asst.sh) requires Java 1.1.1. When installing Net8 on Solaris, the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.1.1 is installed automatically in $ORACLE_HOME/network/jre11. When the Net8 Assistant command script is executed, the java command script supplied with JRE 1.1.1 ($ORACLE_HOME/network/jre11/bin/java) is called explicitly, regardless of other Java installations on the system.

For further information on Net8 Assistant see the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide.

Oracle Net8 Protocol Adapters

The supported Protocol Adapters for Net8 version 8.0.4 on Solaris 2.x are BEQ Protocol Adapter, IPC Protocol Adapter, RAW Protocol Adapter, TCP/IP Protocol Adapter, SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter, APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter.

Prior to installing the TCP/IP, APPC/LU6.2, or SPX/IPX Net8 Protocol Adapters, the appropriate operating system software must be installed and configured. Refer to the Oracle8 Installation Guide for Sun SPARC Solaris 2.x for requirements details. The BEQ and IPC Net8 Protocol Adapters do not have any specific operating system requirement.

The IPC, TCP/IP, APPC/LU6.2, or SPX/IPX Net8 Protocol Adapters each have a protocol-specific ADDRESS specification that is used for Net8 configuration files and for the MTS_LISTENER_ADDRESS database initialization parameter (init.ora). See the ADDRESS specification heading under each Protocol Adapter section in this chapter for details.

Table 6-2 ADDRESS Specification Summary

(PROTOCOL = BEQ)
(PROGRAM = ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle)
(ARGV0 = oracleORACLE_SID)
(ARGS = '(DESCRIPTION=(LOCAL=YES)(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=BEQ)))')
(ENVS = 'ORACLE_HOME=ORACLE_HOME,ORACLE_SID=ORACLE_SID')

(PROTOCOL=IPC)
(KEY=key)

(PROTOCOL=TCP) 
(HOST=hostname) 
(PORT=port_id)

(PROTOCOL=SPX)
(SERVICE=servicename)

(PROTOCOL=LU62) 
(TP_NAME=transaction_program_name) 
(LU_NAME=logical_unit_name) 
(MODE=mode_name) 
(PLU=partner_lu_name)

The BEQ Protocol Adapter

Overview of the BEQ Protocol Adapter

The BEQ Protocol Adapter, is both a communications mechanism and a process spawning mechanism. If a service name is not specified, either directly by the user on the command line or the login screen, or indirectly through an environment variable such as TWO_TASK, then the BEQ Protocol Adapter will be used. In which case, a dedicated server will always be used, and the multi-threaded server will never be used. This dedicated server is started automatically by the BEQ Protocol Adapter, which waits for the server process to start and attach to an existing SGA. If the startup of the server process is successful, the BEQ Protocol Adapter then provides inter-process communication via UNIX pipes.

An important feature of the BEQ Protocol Adapter is that no network Listener is required for its operation, since the adapter is linked into the client tools and directly starts its own server process with no outside interaction. However, the BEQ Protocol Adapter can only used when the client program and the Oracle8 server reside on the same machine. The BEQ Protocol Adapter is always installed, and always linked in to all client tools and to the Oracle8 server.

Specifying a BEQ ADDRESS

The BEQ Protocol Adapter connection parameters are part of the ADDRESS keyword-value pair. You can enter the parameters in any order.

(ADDRESS =

(PROTOCOL = BEQ)
(PROGRAM = ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle)
(ARGV0 = oracleORACLE_SID)
(ARGS = '(DESCRIPTION=(LOCAL=YES)(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=BEQ)))')
(ENVS = 'ORACLE_HOME=ORACLE_HOME,ORACLE_SID=ORACLE_SID')

)

Syntax for BEQ Protocol Adapter connection parameters is described in Table 6-3.

Table 6-3 Syntax for BEQ Protocol Adapter Connection Parameters

Example 6-1 BEQ ADDRESS Specifying a Client

The following is an example of an BEQ ADDRESS:

(ADDRESS =

(PROTOCOL = BEQ)
(PROGRAM = /u01/app/oracle/product/8.0.4/bin/oracle)
(ARGV0 = oracleV804)
(ARGS = '(DESCRIPTION=(LOCAL=YES)(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=BEQ)))')
(ENVS = 'ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/8.0.4,ORACLE_SID=V804')

)

The ADDRESS is commonly part of a larger construct such as a connect descriptor or configuration file.

The IPC Protocol Adapter

Overview of the IPC Protocol Adapter

The IPC Protocol Adapter, is similar to the BEQ Protocol Adapter in that it can only be used when the client program and the Oracle8 server reside on the same machine. The IPC Protocol Adapter differs from the BEQ Protocol Adapter in that it can be used with dedicated server and multi-threaded server configurations. The IPC Protocol Adapter requires a network listener for its operation. The IPC Protocol Adapter is always installed, and always linked in to all client tools and to the Oracle8 server.

For the IPC Protocol Adapter, the location of the UNIX Domain Socket (IPC) file on UNIX systems changed after Oracle7 7.1. Thus, if you have Oracle7 7.1 installed on the same machine as Oracle8, and you attempt to make an IPC connection between the two instances, the connection may fail. The solution to this problem is to make a symbolic link between the directory where the IPC file used to be (/var/tmp/o) to where it now resides (/var/tmp/.oracle).

Specifying an IPC ADDRESS

The IPC Protocol Adapter connection parameters are part of the ADDRESS keyword-value pair. You can enter the parameters in any order.

(ADDRESS=

(PROTOCOL=IPC)
(KEY=key)

)

Syntax for IPC Protocol Adapter connection parameters is described in Table 6-4.

Table 6-4 Syntax for IPC Protocol Adapter Connection Parameters

Example 6-2 IPC ADDRESS Specifying a Client

The following is an example of an IPC ADDRESS:

(ADDRESS=

(PROTOCOL=IPC)
(KEY=PROD)

)

The ADDRESS is commonly part of a larger construct such as a connect descriptor or configuration file.

The RAW Protocol Adapter

When data is transferred back and forth between a client and a server, Net8 adds its own header information onto every packet (a block of information sent over the network). Through the Raw Transport feature, Net8 can now minimize transmitting header information on each packet going over the network.

After the connection is established, two types of information flow over the network: data and break handling. The connection packets need to have the Net8 header information on them to establish the connection correctly. However, after the connection is established, all data packets for sending or receiving data, or packets for breaking or resetting the connection, are stripped of their Net8 header information and passed directly to the operating system, bypassing Net8's NT and Oracle Protocol Adapter layers. The performance of the connection is increased because of fewer protocol stack layers for the data to flow through and fewer bytes that are transmitted over the network.

This feature is transparently turned on whenever it is appropriate. That is, if no existing features require that header information be transmitted, the headers are stripped off. For example, encryption and authentication require certain information to be sent along with each packet of information; so, raw transport would not be turned on in this scenario.

This feature requires no configuration to be enabled. Net8 determines if the conditions are met and then transparently switches to Raw Transport mode.

The TCP/IP Protocol Adapter

Overview of the TCP/IP Protocol Adapter

Oracle Corporation recommends that you reserve a port for your Oracle Net8 listener in the /etc/services file of each node on the network that defines the Oracle Net8 listener port. The port is commonly 1521. The entry should list the listener name and the port number, for example:

listener     1521/tcp

where listener is the name of the listener, as defined in listener.ora.

Reserve more than one port to start more than one listener.

Specifying a TCP/IP ADDRESS

The TCP/IP Protocol Adapter connection parameters are part of the ADDRESS keyword-value pair. You can enter the three parameters in any order.

(ADDRESS=

(PROTOCOL=TCP)
(HOST=hostname)
(PORT=port_id)

)

Syntax for TCP/IP Protocol Adapter connection parameters is described in Table 6-5.

Table 6-5 Syntax for TCP/IP Protocol Adapter Connection Parameters

Example 6-3 TCP/IP ADDRESS Specifying a Client

Following is an example of the TCP/IP ADDRESS specifying a client on the MADRID host:

(ADDRESS=

(PROTOCOL=TCP)
(HOST=MADRID)
(PORT=1521)

)

The last field could be specified by name, for example, (PORT=listener). The ADDRESS is commonly part of a larger construct such as a connect descriptor or configuration file.

The SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter

The help command summary for the SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter is shown in Table 6-6.

The ntisbsdm Broadcast Daemon

A client uses a name and translates the name into an SPX address to identify a server and communicate with it. The netware bindery is a directory service that provides the translation mechanism. When a server is registered with the bindery, it periodically notifies the bindery of its address. This is done using the Server Advertising Protocol (SAP).

The server broadcasts a SAP packet in an IPX datagram every 60 seconds. This SAP packet contains all relevant addressing information. Any client can then query its nearest server for the address of the required server.

The Oracle SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter broadcasts using the ntisbsdm broadcast daemon in $ORACLE_HOME/bin. The ntspxctl utility starts and stops ntisbsdm.

The ntspxctl Utility

The ntspxctl utility contains functions to register and remove names, and to query a bindery. It can also be used to stop and start the broadcast daemon. (The listener automatically uses the daemon to auto-register service names in use.)

Example 6-4 demonstrates several uses of the ntspxctl utility.

Example 6-4 Using the ntspxctl Utility

The ntspxctl utility reads commands from the command line. If parameters are missing, it prompts for them.

To start ntspxctl, enter:

$ ntspxctl

Output similar to the following is displayed:

ntspxctl: Version 2.0.12.1 - on
Fri Jul 3 11:43:50 1992

To start the broadcast daemon, enter:

ntspxctl> startup

Output similar to the following is displayed:

ntisbsdm started at Fri Jul 3 11:43:47 1992

A system message is displayed if the daemon has already been started.

Startup of the broadcast daemon should be automated, so it is always started when the machine is started. Automate daemon startup by adding an entry to the /etc/inittab file. For example, to start the ntisbsdm on system startup add the following line to /etc/inittab :

ntspxctl:2:once:/u/oracle/bin/ntisbsdm &

where /u/oracle is the full path to $ORACLE_HOME.

To register a name for testing, enter register and the name:

ntspxctl> register stet

This creates a socket owned by ntisbsdm, and registers it.

A message similar to the following is displayed:

Name YYY successfully registered
YYY address 00eee045:000000000001:4454

To check the status of ntisbsdm, enter:

ntspxctl> status

A message similar to the following is displayed:

ntisbsdm started at Fri Jul 3 11:43:47 1992
Tracing is off
Pid: 14784 YYY

A shorter status can be obtained by entering:

ntspxctl> summary

A message similar to the following is displayed:

ntisbsdm started at Fri Jul 3 11:43:47 1992
Tracing is off
1 names are registered

SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter Command Summary

Table 6-6 shows the help command summary for the SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter.

Table 6-6 help Command Summary

The getname Command

The getname command asks the Novell system for names. It does not involve the broadcast daemon.

Enter:

getname name servicetype

A message similar to the following is displayed:

getname name servicetype (address number_of_hops)

The syntax for the getname command is explained in Table 6-7.

Table 6-7 Syntax for the getname Command

To see all possible names, enter:

getname * *

Example 6-5 shows names obtained using the getname command.

Example 6-5 Using the getname Command

ntspxctl> getname YYY *
YYY  servertype x0103 address 00eee045:000000000001:
    4465 hops 0000
ntspxctl> getname * 103
LSNR servertype x0103 address 00eee053:000000000001:
    502c hops 0000
IBM6 servertype x0103 address 00eee058:000000000001:
    507f hops 0000
DESK servertype x0004 address 00eee055:000000000001:
    5451 hops 0000
DESK servertype x0107 address 00eee055:000000000001:
    5104 hops 0000
CXY4 servertype x009e address 00eee055:000000000001:
    5063 hops 0000
IBM2 servertype x0004 address 00eee057:000000000001:
    5451 hops 0000

To stop ntisbsdm, enter:

ntspxctl> shutdown

The daemon will not be stopped if names are still registered. A message similar to the following is displayed:

1 names are registered
ntisbsdm not stopped

To remove a name, enter remove and the name. Following is an example for the name YYY:

ntspxctl> remove YYY

A message similar to the following is displayed:

Name xxx removed.
ntspxctl> shutdown
ntisbsdm stopped

To force a stop, enter:

ntspxctl> shutdown force

A message similar to the following is displayed:

ntisbsdm stopped

Specifying the SPX/IPX ADDRESS

After the SPX/IPX protocol and Oracle SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter are installed on your system, you can use the SPX/IPX parameters with the TNS connect descriptors to identify SPX/IPX community nodes.

The SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter parameters are part of the ADDRESS keyword-value pairs.

(ADDRESS=

(PROTOCOL=SPX)
(SERVICE=servicename)

)





Table  6-8 explains the syntax for the SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter connection.



Table 6-8 Syntax for SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter Connection






PROTOCOL

  



Specifies the adapter name. For SPX/IPX, the value is spx.

  




SERVICE

  



A unique name (up to 30 characters) identifying an application on the network. The service is named during startup and is available to the entire network. Client references to the service are made using lookup in the bindery, a network directory.

  










Example  6-6 shows an SPX/IPX ADDRESS specifying service MAILDB1 on a remote server.



Example 6-6 SPX/IPX Protocol Adapter Connection 

(ADDRESS=

(PROTOCOL=SPX)
(SERVICE=MAILDB1)

)





This ADDRESS is commonly part of a larger construct such as a connect descriptor or configuration file.




 The APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter 




The Oracle APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter is available on networks that use LU6.2 services for communication between Oracle programs. For example, APPC/LU6.2 allows TNS applications to use API as a standard interface.




Figure  6-1 shows the communication layers between Oracle programs using the LU6.2 communications services and the Oracle APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter:



Figure 6-1 Communication Layers between Oracle programs and LU6.2 



 Solaris 2.x-Specific Listener 




Solaris 2.x does not support the generic listener. To bring up the listener on the server side, run the ntllsnr command.


ntllsnr start|stop -l luname -t tpname -m modename






Syntax for the ntllsnr command is explained in Table  6-9 



Table 6-9 Syntax for the ntllsnr Command






luname

  



in tnsnames.ora, this specifies the name for the remote partner LU. When this keyword appears in listener.ora, it specifies the name of the local LU. LU_NAME can be ignored on many platforms or overridden by the values in other parameters. Due to the requirements of some APPC/LU6.2 implementations, LU_NAME should always specify the fully qualified LU name (that is, netid.lu_name). 

  




tpname

  



specifies the name of the transaction program to run at the target or the transaction program name to use when listening for incoming connection requests.

  




modename

  



Defines the characteristics of sessions between logical units. The mode, along with the partner LU and the transaction program name, is specified in the ALLOCATE segments. The modename must be common to both the local and partner LU.

  










 Specifying an APPC/LU6.2 ADDRESS 




The APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter parameters are defined in a connect descriptor for each node. Each connect descriptor contains several keyword=value pairs. The APPC/LU6.2-specific keywords can be entered in any order within the connect descriptor. 


(ADDRESS=

(PROTOCOL=LU62)
(TP_NAME=transaction_program_name)
(LU_NAME=logical_unit_name)
(MODE=mode_name)
(PLU=partner_lu_name)

)






The syntax for the APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter connection is described in Table  6-10.



Table 6-10 Syntax for the APPC/LU6.2 Protocol Adapter






PROTOCOL

  



Specifies the Protocol Adapter to be used. The value can be uppercase or lowercase. For APPC/LU6.2, the value is lu62.

  




TP_NAME

  



Specifies the name of the transaction program to run at the target or the transaction program name to use when listening for incoming connection requests. This value is required.

  




LU_NAME

  



With reference to tnsnames.ora, it specifies the name for the remote partner LU. When this keyword appears in listener.ora, it specifies the name of the local LU. LU_NAME can be ignored on many platforms or overridden by the values in other parameters. Due to the requirements of some APPC/LU6.2 implementations, LU_NAME should always specify the fully qualified LU name (that is, netid.lu_name).

  




MODE

  



Defines the characteristics of sessions between logical units. The mode, along with the partner LU and the transaction program name, is specified in the ALLOCATE segments. The mode name must be common to both the local and partner LU. This value is required.

  




PLU

  



Specifies the name of the partner LU. This value is required on Solaris, and can be set to the TP_NAME/transaction_program_name.

  










 Net8 Naming Adapters 




 NIS Naming Adapter




For details on configuring the NIS Naming Adapter, see the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide, Release 8.0




 Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) Intelligent Agent 




 Agent Service Discovery and Auto-Configuration 




See Also:



The Oracle Enterprise Manager Configuration Guide.

  










 Debugging Tcl Scripts 




The executable oratclsh is provided for debugging your Tcl scripts. Before executing oratclsh, set the environment variable TCL_LIBRARY to point to $ORACLE_HOME/network/agent/tcl.




See Also:



The Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Developer's Guide for additional details.

  










 Oracle Advanced Networking Option 




 .bak Files 




During Oracle Advanced Networking Option installation, three .bak files are created: naeet.o.bak, naect.o.bak, and naedhs.o.bak. They are located in $ORACLE_HOME/lib. These files are required for relinking during Oracle Advanced Networking Option deinstall and should not be deleted.




 Security and Single Sign-On 




For details on configuring Security and Single Sign-On, see the Oracle Advanced Networking Option Administrator's Guide, Release 8.0.




 DCE Integration 




For details on configuring DCE Integration, see the Oracle Advanced Networking Option Administrator's Guide, Release 8.0.