ping, tnsping

http://www.oracleutilities.com/OSUtil/ping.html

ping, tnsping
The three main things to check for diagnosing remote database connection problems are the machine, the listener, and the database. The utilities that can be used to test each one of these include ping , tnsping , and a database connection, as depicted below:

The ping utility is used to test the connectivity to a remote machine. ping will indicate whether a remote server is accessible and responding. If the ping command indicates that a machine cannot be accessed, the other connectivity tests will also fail. The ping utility is usually found in /usr/sbin on UNIX machines and simply reports the health of the remote machine specified:
$ ping asgard asgard is alive

Used with the s option, ping will show the packets received and timing information.
oracle@asgard:/usr/sbin > ping -s grace PING gracelan: 56 data bytes 64 bytes from grace.bmc.com (172.18.16.215): 64 bytes from grace.bmc.com (172.18.16.215): 64 bytes from grace.bmc.com (172.18.16.215): 64 bytes from grace.bmc.com (172.18.16.215): 64 bytes from grace.bmc.com (172.18.16.215): 64 bytes from grace.bmc.com (172.18.16.215):

icmp_seq=0. icmp_seq=1. icmp_seq=2. icmp_seq=3. icmp_seq=4. icmp_seq=5.

time=0. time=0. time=2. time=0. time=0. time=0.

ms ms ms ms ms ms

----gracelan PING Statistics---6 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 0/0/2

The ping command can also be executed at the DOS prompt on Windows machines to test client-to-server connectivity:
D:\> ping asgard Pinging asgard.bmc.com [198.64.245.67] with 32 bytes of data: Reply Reply Reply Reply from from from from 198.64.245.67: 198.64.245.67: 198.64.245.67: 198.64.245.67: bytes=32 bytes=32 bytes=32 bytes=32 time<10ms time<10ms time<10ms time<10ms TTL=254 TTL=254 TTL=254 TTL=254

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ping, tnsping

http://www.oracleutilities.com/OSUtil/ping.html

Once connectivity to the host is confirmed with ping, the next connection to test is the listener. The tnsping utility is used to determine whether or not an Oracle service can be successfully reached. If a connection can be established from a client to a server (or server to server), tnsping will report the number of milliseconds it took to reach the remote ser vice. If unsuccessful, a network error will be displayed. However, tnsping will only report if the listener process is up and provides no indication of the state of the database.
$ tnsping <net service name> <count>

The net service name must exist in the tnsnames.ora file. This file is used by clients and database servers to identify server destinations. It stores the service names and database addresses. The count parameter is optional and will show the number of times the command should try to connect to the specified service name.
$ tnsping GRACELANV8_GRA901m 5 TNS Ping Utility for Solaris: Version 9.2.0.1.0 - Production on 03-JAN-2003 14:47:09 Copyright (c) 1997 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Used parameter files: /usr/oracle/9.2.0/network/admin/sqlnet.ora Used TNSNAMES adapter to resolve the alias Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION= (ADDRESS= (PROTOCOL=TCP) (HOST=gracelan) (PORT=1525)) (CONNECT_DATA= (SID=GRA901m))) OK (80 msec) OK (10 msec) OK (10 msec) OK (0 msec) OK (10 msec)

The result from the tnsping command above shows 80 milliseconds (ms) were required for the first ping. During this time period, the alias GRACELANV8_GRA901m from the local tnsnames.ora file was retrieved, a DNS of the host gracelan was resolved, and the TNS connect and refuse packets were transported. The second trip took only 10 ms because all of the connection information was already cached. tnsping can be used to test listener connectivity but not database performance. While ping usually returns faster than tnsping, it gives no indication whether or not SQL*Net is performing. The ping utility simply uses IP to try to reach a destination, whereas tnsping uses TCP (a socket) and transfers data between two nodes. As a result, the ping utility will always be faster. A slow tnsping round trip could indicate any number of problems, including a very active server or a slow network. To reach an Oracle Names Server with tnsping, the command can be formatted as shown below:
$ tnsping (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=onames-server)(PORT=1575))

Once the host and listener connectivity have been verified, the final connectivity test is the database itself. The host could be accessible and the listener active, yet the database might still be inaccessible. Granted, this final test could be performed first and the others (ping, tnsping) performed only if this test fails, since if the database is accessible, so are the database host and listener. Any type of database connection can be used to confirm database connectivity (SQL*Plus, JDBC, ODBC, Pro*C).
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ping, tnsping

http://www.oracleutilities.com/OSUtil/ping.html

The Java program (ConnectionTest.java) will parse a tnsnames.ora file and display the connectivity status of every entry in the file. It does this by establishing a JDBC connection with each entry in the file. The tnsnames.ora file must be in the same directory as the Java program in order to be found and parsed. In addition, the program requires that the same username and password be used for all connections.

< ConnectionTest.java

(not listed See online code depot)

The Java program can be used to regularly monitor the availability of all databases in the tnsnames.ora file. It requires that the JDBC driver be listed in the CLASSPATH. The tnsnames.ora entries are typically in the following format and are easily parsed by ConnectionTest.java:
ASGARDV8_ASG817t= (DESCRIPTION= (ADDRESS= (PROTOCOL=TCP) (HOST=asgard) (PORT=1525) ) (CONNECT_DATA= (SID=ASG817t) ) )

When the program is executed, it will display the status of each connection listed in the file:
$java ConnectionTest system manager FENRISV8_FEN920wa MINOTAURV8_MIN817wa MINOTAURV8_MIN8173x NT817LEE ANGUSV8_ANG817us JARAIXV8_AIX817r ASGARDV8_ASG806r Successful Unsuccessful Successful Successful Successful Successful Successful

Each entry in the file takes between 3 and 5 seconds to process. environments with many entries to test.

This may or may not be feasible in

Copyright 2003, Rampant Tech Press, Dave Moore - All Rights Reserved. All product names and trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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