Oracle Net8 Release Notes Release 8.0.5 ******************************************* Copyright (C) 1997 Oracle Corporation This software/documentation contains proprietary information of Oracle Corporation; it is provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and is also protected by copyright law. Reverse engineering of the software is prohibited. If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S. Government Agency of the Department of Defense, then it is delivered with Restricted Rights and the following legend is applicable: RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND: Use, duplication, or disclosure by the government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) of DFARS 252.227-7013, Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software (October 1988). If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S. Government Agency not within the Department of Defense, then it is delivered with "Restricted Rights," as defined in FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data - General, including Alternate III (June 1987). Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065. Oracle and SQL*Net are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, California. Oracle Security Server, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Net8, and Oracle8 are trademarks of Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, California. Oracle Net8 Assistant requires the Java(TM) Runtime Environment. The Java(TM) Runtime Environment, Version 1.1.1 ("The Software") is developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. 2550 Garcia Avenue, Mountain View, California 94043. Copyright (c) 1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc. The Software and documentation are the confidential and proprietary information of Sun Microsystems, Inc. ("Confidential Information"). You shall not disclose such Confidential Information and shall use it only in accordance with the terms of the license agreement provided with The Software. All other products or company names are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners. ********************************************* Overview ====== Net8 provides the networking component of Oracle8. Net8 provides transparent client-server and server-server connectivity across all major transport protocols and platforms. Net8 also provides connectivity with Rdb, Oracle Gateways, and other network services. This Read Me file supplements information found in the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide. Contents of this Read Me File ============================= - Backward Compatibility - New and Enhanced Features - Protocol Adapters Notes - Migration Notes - Known Restrictions - Documentation Corrections for Oracle Names - Oracle Net8 Assistant Usage Notes - Oracle Net8 Assistant Known Problems Backward Compatibility ====================== Net8 is the successor to SQL*Net version 2. Net8 is fully backward compatible, over the wire, with all currently supported production releases of SQL*Net version 2 (2.1, 2.2 and 2.3). Net8 clients can interact with either SQL*Net v2 or Net8 services, and SQL*Net v2 clients can interact Net8 services. The Net8 listener supports both Oracle7 and Oracle8 databases allowing for only one listener per node. New and Enhanced Features ========================= Net8 8.0.5 includes the following significant new or enhanced features. They are listed here for your convenience, and are described in detail in the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide. Net8 Connection Pooling ----------------------- The restriction of not allowing both Connection Multiplexing and Connection Pooling be configured within INIT.ORA is removed with the 8.0.4 release of Net8. MTS now can be configured to fully utilize both Connection Multiplexing and Connection Pooling at the same time. Oracle Net8 Assistant --------------------- In addition to configuring the Service Names, Profile, and Oracle Names Servers, Net8 Assistant will support the configuration of the network listeners (listener.ora). It does not yet provide configruation for Oracle Connection Managers (CMAN.ORA), nor does it yet support configuration of local service names for load balancing or Oracle Parallel Server access. Protocol Adapters Notes ======================= The Oracle LU6.2 Protocol Adapter for Solaris requires SunLink SNA 9.1. Migration Notes =============== Although Net8 is fully backward compatible with SQL*Net v2, there are some migration considerations. In addition to those listed here, see the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide. Note: Previous releases of SQL*Net included several documents. In this release of Net8, however, all generic documentation for the product is included in the Oracle Net8 Administrator's Guide. Net8 error messages are included in the Oracle8 Server Error Messages document. Oracle TRACE ------------ Oracle Trace for Net8 can only be turned on via a special configuration parameter. To enable Oracle Trace- based tracing, add the following in the appropriate component configuration file (e.g., cman.ora, sqlnet.ora, or listener.ora): USE_OTRACE=YES|ON|TRUE "YES" or "ON" or "TRUE" will suffice. This is a toggle that will turn on Oracle Trace-based tracing, turning the default tracing mechanism off. This tracing change in no way changes the usability of the Net8 Trace Assistant. Known Restrictions ================== Connection Manager: -------------------- Multiplexing to multi-threaded servers with the Connection Manager is currently supported only for TCP/IP connections, end to end. Oracle Net8 Assistant does not support Connection Manager routing and listener failover. They must be configured with a text editor. Connection Pooling to multi-threaded servers is only supported for TCP/IP and IPC connections for client/server. TNS2NIS Name Conversion Note ============================ If you are using the TNS2NIS utility to convert local names configuration files (TNSNAMES.ORA) to NIS map files, verify that the format of the file conforms to that expected as if it were generated by Oracle Network Manager and ensure that the name "tnsnames.ora" appears in the second line of the file. Oracle Net8 Assistant Usage Notes ================================= Oracle recommends that you follow standard practice and make backup copies of your current SQL*Net version 2 configuration files before you begin updating them using the Oracle Net8 Assistant. When opening a network configuration or doing a Save As operation, specify the directory in which the network configuration files are stored, not a specific configuration file. However, if you choose the browse button to find the directory you want to specify, you must select or enter a file name. The name you enter can be the name of a file that exists or does not exist; it does not matter. Note: if you are running the Oracle Net8 Assistant in a language other than English, Net8 keywords will appear in English. Keywords are not translated. Oracle Net8 Assistant Known Problems ==================================== This section lists known problems, ways to avoid them, and bug numbers logged because of them. 1. The Oracle Net8 Assistant and the Oracle Net8 Easy Configuration Tool do not support configuring local service names in a TNSNAMES.ORA file for load balancing or Oracle Parallel Server access. In other words, they do not support description lists. However, you can create service names with description lists by editing the TNSNAMES.ORA file directly. Service names with description lists will not be displayed by the Net8 Assistant but they will be preserved if you use the Net8 Assistant to create or change other service names. (484298) 2. The Oracle Net8 Assistant does basic validity checking of the information you enter and where possible will warn you of invalid entries. However, some fields are not validated. Currently there is no validity checking on directory paths and some file names. (499699, 500058, 500827) 3. If two instances of Net8 Assistant are running, one can overwrite the other's network configuration changes. At this time it is not possible to lock the configuration so that only one instance can modify the configuration. We recommend that you avoid running more than one instance of Oracle Net8 Assistant on any one set of network configuration files. (484369) 4. In the Oracle Net8 Assistant you cannot modify the name of a Service Name. If you wish to modify the name of a Service Name, use the Oracle Net8 Easy Configuration Tool by selecting it from the Oracle program group on Windows NT/95 or by running the shell script net8wiz.sh on UNIX. Otherwise, do this directly by editing the TNSNAMES.ORA file with an editor of your choice. (484350) 5. The Oracle Net8 Assistant cannot create a Service Name having the same name as one which has just been deleted without first saving the network configuration. (484473) 6. In the Oracle Net8 Assistant you cannot explicitly specify a dedicated or a dispatched server on a specific Service Name. If you want to configure this we recommend that you configure this directly into the TNSNAMES.ORA file by using an editor of your choice. (493676) 7. In the network configuration files generated by the Oracle Net8 Assistant there may be an unprintable character at the end of each line in the files. Some editors may display this character as a box. This character can be ignored. It causes no ill effects. (459718) 8. When you save a file, the Oracle Net8 Assistant does not warn you if you are about to overwrite an existing file. Be sure that you want to overwrite any previous version of a file before you save it, or save it to a different location.(484373) 9. Oracle Net8 Assistant fails to display the new Names Server name in the tree structure after it has been changed. You can verify that the name has been changed by checking the NAMES.ORA file, and if necessary, edit the file with a text editor. (500176) 10. If you use the Net8 Assistant to manage a Names Server, and make a change (such as changing the trace level or trace file name), the Net8 Assistant requests that the Names Server also write this change into the NAMES.ORA file. However, if the Net8 Assistant is on the same machine as the Names Server, subsequently saving the network configuration will overwrite the changes which the Names Server made to NAMES.ORA. To avoid this problem, after making changes in the Manage Server panels which you want to make permanent, exit and restart the Net8 Assistant before saving the configuration.(500798) 11. The Japanese version of Net8 Assistant displays some Names Server messages as unreadable characters. These error messages indicate that the Names Server cannot be contacted.(501430) 12. If more than seven addresses are specified for a service name, not all Address tab panels can be viewed even though they can be added. To view any Address tab, click on any tab in the Tab panel and use the keyboard right and left arrow keys to move to any other Address panel. (484316) 13. The Net8 Assistant on Solaris may not display on an X terminal if the font being used by the Java Virtual Machine is not a font which is displayable by the X terminal. To fix this change the default font used by the Java Virtual Machine (font.properties file) to a font which can be displayed by your X terminal. (506114). 14. The Net8 Assistant only supports configuration for one Oracle Names Server on the node where both the names server and the Net8 Assistant are running. Trying to create a second names server will result in an error message. Creating a second names server manually will confuse the Net8 Assistant. 15. It is not possible to delete a names server from the Net8 Assistant once it has been added. To remove a names server make sure that the names server is not started, perform a "Discover Names Servers" operation from the Net8 Assistant Tools menu, and then delete the names server from the names.ora file. (666691) 16. On Windows NT/95, when creating a Service Name using the wizard and doing a test of the new Service Name the Net8 Assistant may hang after Finished is pressed and the Service Name is created. The workaround is the not test the connection from within the Service Name wizard. (614414)