ODBC Connection - Oracle 8 Drivers To ACD Oracle 7 DB

[dass2]

Hi,

I want to connect Crystal Reports Developer edition to the Aspect Oracle ACD. We have recently upgraded from ACD 7 to ACD 9 but the database still remains the same (Oracle 7). I have installed Oracle Client Admin on my laptop so I can test the connection then obviously connect Crystal Reports (which is also on my laptop). Its prooving very difficult though. I have tried the following...

a) ODBC Microsoft connection - No Joy
b) Oracle 8 drivers connection - No Joy

The only thing I can think of at present is

a) Drivers are not correct, the Oracle 7 ODBC ones are needed
b) My IP wont go through the firewall thus preventing connection

Now both theories above do make sense however I have some other facts which may disproove them.

a) These drivers came on the ACD upgrade CD and Aspect never once mentioned upgrading the Database to 8,9,10 etc therefore the drivers must work.

b) I already connect, from my laptop to custom view producer which drags real time data from the ACD to my machine. I do know a reserved IP was required in order to do this therefore it must connect to the ACD

Im confused Aspect people???

I would appreciate any help...

Thanks

Ben

 

[HardCoal99]

Try to connect to the aspect ACD through your Oracle client (SQL Plus). If you can't connect, Oracle will give you an error that will point you in the right direction. I know that Oracle clients 9i and above are NOT compatable with V7.X Oracle databases which the ACD has.

You can also try using the Oracle ODBC test tool on your PC. The executable for the test tool is ODBCTST.exe.

 

[dass2]

I have tried to connect using SQL plus, I did this prior to emailing on this forum. We can connnect an older PC running Win Nt and the Oracle 7 Drivers (The reporting PC with report runner on it). I get errors sayin

i) Connection refused - when putting the IP of the ACD in
ii) Name could not be resolved - When putting a DNS Hostname in

Also, if I put a server in that runs SQL Server 2000 (Just to see what message I got) it comes back, no TNS listner which makes me inclined to think it must be finding a listener on the ACD???

 

[HardCoal99]

It sounds like your TNSNAMES.ORA file needs to be updated with the ACD Database information.

 

[chris13]

shure, there is an oracle(!) listener running on the server, waiting for your client to knock on the door and answer to a connection request

Yes, look in
%oracle_home%\net80\admin\tnsnames.ora

There must be an entry containing the IP or hostname of your ACD in the field (HOST = ...).

The name of the entry -first field, something like NAMEOFYOURACD.WORLD = ... at the beginning of an entry - is very important.

The name of the ACD entry in your tnsnames.ora must be used as "service name" in the definition of your ODBC datasource, which in turn is used by RR, Crystal Reports etc.

You can test the Oracle connectivity using that name:
tnsping80 <name of entry in tnsnames.ora>.
If that doesn't work, the problem is within the tnsnames.ora or tcp/ip (ip-adress, hostname, firewall).
Ask your IT dep. if they have changed something. It is possible to setup "oracle names server" (something like DNS but for DB-resources). The client may be configured to ignore the tnsnames.ora and use the oracle names server only (this is done in sqlnet.ora).

 

[dass2]

Its ok guys, I sorted it.

It was infact a network issue, my ip address didnt have the policy as did the report runner PC thus connection was refused. But an important thing I learned was that in order to connect to the ACD Database after this you need to put the service name down as servicename.world, when declaring the ODBC entry, otherwise it doesnt work This isnt the case for Oracle 7 so confused me a little, it must be a new thing for Oracle 8 RDBMS ODBC settings Onwards...

Cheers for ur help folks...

Ben

 

[chris13]

hi, the service name in the ODBC entry has to be the same as in the tnsnames.ora. If it's defined as xyz.moon there, you'll have to use it in the ODBS entry, too.