Does Spotlight on Oracle / Spotlight on RAC support LDAP instead of TNSNAMES? (4315101)

Users want to use LDAP instead of TNSNAMES to resolve Oracle service names.

Does Spotlight on RAC or Spotlight on Oracle support using LDAP for this?

Yes, Spotlight can work with LDAP. Assuming that there is already an LDAP server working, the steps to setup the Spotlight client to use it are as follows:

(1) Make sure the <oracle_dir>\network\admin\sqlnet.ora file is altered to point at LDAP:

# NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH=(TNSNAMES)
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH=(LDAP)

(2) Make sure there is an LDAP.ora file in the same directory (<oracle_dir>\network\admin). This will give the correct LDAP server host details.

(3) Create a Spotlight connection profile. In the drop-down list the connection string will be empty (it normally comes from the TNSNAMES.ORA file). Just enter the Oracle Service_Name by hand.

N.B.

There is a known issue whereby if you attempt an unsuccessful connection multiple times, a cryptic soo5049 message may occur. It simply means it was unable to connect (because the Service_Name was invalid). Enter a correct service name and the connection should work.