Month: April 2010

Create System DSN with oracle

Let’s say we want to connect our oracle database server to this new local console application we are going to build, we will first need to create a System DSN with oracle via Window’s ODBC.

We will do a tnsping command in a cmd box – c:\>tnsping network.domain (for example Melliepc.mellie) to see if our connection does exist.

Used TNSNAMES adapter to resolve the alias
Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)
(HOST = Melliepc)(PORT = 1521))) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = Myoradb))) OK (220 msec)

Next step is to install the Oracle Instance Client Basic on our machine and don’t forget to install the Oracle ODBC
C:\Program Files\Oracle\instantclient_10_2\odbc_install.exe] as administrator (this is to Register Oracle ODBC).
That was not so hard, now we are gonna create a new system-DSN:
go to your Configuration screen –> administrative tools (ODBC) as administrator.

Choose System-DSN –>Add new, select the correct source, in my case this will be Oracle instantclient_10_2.

ora_dns

All that is left now is to fill in the correct values for our database and click the test button, if successful, the connection to our database is ready. Yay!

ora_dns1

Now we can start using data from the oracle database in our project, What a joy!

Tooltip of the month Part 1

As of today i will point out helpful or smart tool tips available on the on the web every month.

Today’s tool tip is all about the start-up of a Sql server migration project and is more an assist tool than a really geeky code tip, but it can be very handy when you have to plan your server migration, especially if you are working in a large or client environment.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP)
Microsoft brings you a simple quick assessment tool, a tool to assist migration planning for example..

MAP toolkit provides you with a very easy tool to find out where your servers are and provides you with an automated excel generated overview in just a few clicks from your machine:

Quick tip for SQL server overview: Select a database ‘create a new one’ and gather server information. ‘identify servers capable of running 2008’ click ’asses server hardware’ click ‘use active directory domain services’ or ‘import computernames from file’ if you already know where your servers are and just import the flat file. wmi: login for the local service as administrative
it takes about 30 minutes and you get an output of al the servers, their status and a possible migration advice.

Wow, it’s really that simple, now i can take this list to the executive and convince him/her of my consolidation plan.

The Beta review program is now open, you can register here: https://connect.microsoft.com/