ArcCatalog to Oracle Database Connection Error

[kmsmikrud]

Hi,

I recently upgraded to ArcGIS 10.5.1 and also had my desktop reimaged. In trying to establish a connection in ArcCatalog to an Oracle database I am now getting errors when this used to work. 

I get the following error, "Failed to connect to the specified server. Do you want to continue? Underlying DBMS error[ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specifiedNo extended error.]

I confirmed with our IT help that the Oracle 32 bit client is installed and the path is set in the system variable. I did find some posts relating that error to the install path of the parentheses in the ProgramFiles (x86) and so I uninstalled and tried installing to the top of the C:drive. Although I'm not 100% its installed at that location because I just see C:Desktop10.5 instead of the ArcGIS folder name but all the files look to be in that folder.

I thought by installing at the C: drive location I would eliminate the parentheses issue but after I restarted I'm still getting that connection error.

The connection used to work prior to installing 10.5.1, I think I had 10.3.x installed prior. Does anyone have any suggestions. IT staff is willing to help but the ESRI/Oracle compatibility isn't the most straightforward on how to diagnose.

Thanks kindly,

Kathy

[Asrujit_SenGupta]

Are you able to connect using SQLPlus in cmd?

Are you trying the Instant connect syntax? Or trying to connect using a NetService? If the latter, was the NetService recreated after installing Oracle client?

This article is an old one, and shouldn't cause an issue in the new versions: Error: Failed to connect to the specified server. Underlying DBMS error[ORA-12154: TNS:could not res... 

[kmsmikrud · Accepted solution]

IT staff did confirm that I could connect successfully using the SQLPlus in cmd. I can't remember what worked prior for the instance but this is what I was using for the instance.

Actually I was just putting in the entire local domain of the oracle database and my instance syntax is incorrect, it works now with just name of the database and not the entire path as I was entering. It adds the entire path name after the connection is made. So this is completely user error! I will make a note!

Thanks for the quick reply and good to know the earlier issues have been resolved with the newer versions!