What causes ORA-12154?

Service name in the connection string is misspelled or not defined in tnsnames.ora. tnsnames.ora file is missing, corrupt, or in the wrong directory. TNS_ADMIN environment variable points to the wrong directory. Using an alias that exists only on the developer's machine but not on the pipeline server. ADF self-hosted integration runtime does not have Oracle client configured

How do I fix ORA-12154?

Step 1: Test the connection string with tnsping: `tnsping `.. Step 2: Verify the service name entry in tnsnames.ora: `cat $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora`.. Step 3: Set TNS_ADMIN environment variable to the directory containing tnsnames.ora.. Step 4: Alternatively, use Easy Connect syntax to avoid tnsnames.ora: `host:port/service_name`.. Step 5: On ADF self-hosted IR, install Oracle client with correct tnsnames.ora and verify TNS_ADMIN.

Critical severityconnectivity

Oracle Database Error:
ORA-12154

What does this error mean?

The TNS listener could not find the service name or alias specified in the connection string in the tnsnames.ora file or LDAP directory.

Common causes

1Service name in the connection string is misspelled or not defined in tnsnames.ora
2tnsnames.ora file is missing, corrupt, or in the wrong directory
3TNS_ADMIN environment variable points to the wrong directory
4Using an alias that exists only on the developer's machine but not on the pipeline server
5ADF self-hosted integration runtime does not have Oracle client configured

How to fix it

1Step 1: Test the connection string with tnsping: `tnsping <service_name>`.
2Step 2: Verify the service name entry in tnsnames.ora: `cat $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora`.
3Step 3: Set TNS_ADMIN environment variable to the directory containing tnsnames.ora.
4Step 4: Alternatively, use Easy Connect syntax to avoid tnsnames.ora: `host:port/service_name`.
5Step 5: On ADF self-hosted IR, install Oracle client with correct tnsnames.ora and verify TNS_ADMIN.

Example log output

ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified
ADF: UserErrorInvalidLinkedServiceConfig - Cannot connect to Oracle: ORA-12154

Frequently asked questions

How do I avoid tnsnames.ora in ADF?

Use the JDBC connection string with Easy Connect format: jdbc:oracle:thin:@host:1521/service_name. This eliminates the tnsnames.ora dependency entirely.

Source · docs.oracle.com/error-help/db/ora-12154