topic Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap in Data Management Questions

SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap MXD.

ZacharyPierce — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:13:47 GMT

Hello all,

When connecting to an sde connection in ArcMap I have no issues. I can add features and see everything fine. There is no broken source links.

We have software that uses Arc MXD's, and when I open the MXD's in this software the sde features have broken links. All other features ( Shapefile and GDB Feature classes) are fine. When I try to add the sde layers from within this software I get this error:

!!Couldn't connect to the database. Please validate the integrity of the database and/or your network connection and try again.!!

Has anyone ever experienced this before? I have tested on other machines and the sde connections are fine. This seems to be an isolated problem to this computer. Could the SDE DB connection be locked to ArcCatalog and ArcMap only? What other computer security/settings should I look for that could be different than other machines on that network?

** Using Oracle, direct connect, user: sde pass: xxx. Are there any security settings within Arc or on the computer in general that could block a connection like this?

Thanks

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

MichaelVolz — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:31:57 GMT

Are you using tnsnames to identify the Oracle database you are connecting to?

Check that the Oracle Client on this machine is setup correctly.

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

ZacharyPierce — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:35:58 GMT

I believe on this machine it is set up to use LDAP first, then TNSNames.

Both TNSnames and LDAP have this DB service called the same.

So the "Instance" for the connection is just "xxxtest" which points to the database.

And like I said, this works fine when in catalog and arcmap.

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

ZacharyPierce — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:52:27 GMT

But there is another machine that uses LDAP, has the same SDE connection setup, and that works fine.

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

MichaelVolz — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:57:59 GMT

What is the name of the problematic software that you are using?

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

ZacharyPierce — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 15:19:22 GMT

Its a proprietary software for our company, so nothing others would have no knowledge of.

So I was just doing some side digging if any one else experienced similar issues with other software that uses MXD's / SDE connections.

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

VinceAngelo — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 15:24:04 GMT

You probably should be talking to the maintainers of the outside application
(which may not support Direct Connect).

Then again, you really shouldn't be using the 'sde' user login for any MXD.
Best practice includes:

Using a strong (12+ character, etc), closely held password for the

Creating one or more additional tablespaces for spatial data

Using one or more users other than 'SDE' to own spatial data (with

Managing access to tables by other users through database roles

Not using the data owner to publish services (a publishing user with

- V

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

MichaelVolz — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 15:26:24 GMT

Has SDE data ever worked in this software before? I ask because I'm wondering if you are performing this test after upgrading your SDE database.

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

ZacharyPierce — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 15:30:42 GMT

Has SDE data ever worked in this software before? I ask because I'm wondering if you are performing this test after upgrading your SDE database.

Yes.

It works on all other instances of the software. The ONLY machine we are having issues with is this one. Hundreds of other SDE connections have been successful elsewhere using the software, as well as 2 other machines on this network.

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

ZacharyPierce — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 15:54:01 GMT

If the other machine works I might think about looking for differences between the client machines. Did one of the machines get upgraded to a different version or ArcGIS, are they the exact same build and have same patches? something with the .NET framework from a windows update, etc...

That is what is scheduled for today; to compare both.

Thanks everyone for your input. Thanks ESRI Support V

Re: SDE features have broken link in outside application, but are fine within ArcMap

ZacharyPierce — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 12:47:32 GMT

The issue was resolved by the following:

ArcMap/Arc Catalog was apparently using an Oracle 10g driver to make the connection to SDE. The outside application was using an 11g driver on the machine. The 11g driver is unable to connect to the sde user. Switching the outside application settings on that machine to use the 10g driver solved the problem.

An 11g driver works fine on other machines, so it looks like this was an isolated issue with the Oracle Drivers on this box.

Thanks all who helped!

Zach