Where is TNSNAMES.ORA?

Question

I am working on a Windows server and access Oracle databases using the Oracle ODBC driver. I have Oracle ODBC connections that work fine on this machine.

However I want to add a new connection, and when testing it I get the error

Unable to connect
SQL State=S1000
[Oracle][ODBC][Ora] ORA-12170: TNS: Connect timeout occurred

I presume, though I am no DBA, that this has something to do with my TNS Service Name not being in TNSNAMES.ORA which points oracle toward the right server, port, etc.

However I cannot find TNSNAMES.ORA

I have an ORACLE_HOME environment variable, but it is empty.

Where can I find this file or otherwise configure my TNS names?

Solution 1

tnsnames.ora is located in the ORACLE_HOME\network\admin directory on Windows. Oracle home path is usually C:\app\oracle_account\product\12.1.0\dbhome_1 in windows.

Solution 2

How to find 'TNSNAMES.ORA' on Windows

Step 1) Please check if Oracle has been installed on your system. On Cmd, Type 'sql plus'

2. Then Control Panel -> Advanced System Settings ->

3)On the 'Advanced' tab, select 'Environment Variables' Then check 'Oracle ' or 'TNS_ADMIN' on System Variables.

4. Here, on 'TNS_ADMIN' will get the path for TNS file

Comments

[shree.pat18]

Did you check this? docs.oracle.com/database/121/NETRF/tnsnames.htm#NETRF259

[Shannon Severance]

attrib /s tnsnames.ora

[Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні]

cd c:\ then dir /s tnsnames.ora

[Alexis Eggermont]

Yes but it refers either to the TNS_ADMIN environment variable, which I don't have, or to ORACLE_HOME, which is empty

[Alexis Eggermont]

both of these get me 'file not found', and yet I definitely have working processes which use the ODBC driver configured with a TNS Service Name.

[Alexis Eggermont]

Solved. I was able to use IP:port/service name instead of the TNSNAME. I think there is simply no TNSNAMES.ORA on that computer.

[Wernfried Domscheit]

TNS: Connect timeout occurred sounds more like a network problem or firewall issue, not a missing tnsnames.ora file.

[Christopher Jones]

That's a good general solution. The interesting thing about the actual value in your answer is that it appears to be a default location that the Oracle libraries will use anyway. I.e you don't need to set TNS_ADMIN at all for ODBC in this case.