ORA-12154 could not resolve the connect identifier specified

I am going to assume you are using the tnsnames.ora file to specify your available database services. If so connection errors usually come down to two things.

1. The application cannot find the TNS entry you specified in the connection string.

2. The TNS entry was found, but the IP or host is not correct in the tnsnames.ora file.

To expand on number 1 (which I think is your problem). When you tell Oracle to connect using something like:

sqlplus user/pass@service

The service is defined in the tnsnames.ora file. If I attempt to connect with a service that is not defined in my tnsnames.ora, I get the error you get:

[sodonnel@home ~]$ sqlplus sodonnel/sodonnel@nowhere

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 Production on Mon Oct 31 21:42:15 2011Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle.  All rights reserved.ERROR:ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified

So you need to check a few things:

1. Is there a tnsnames.ora file - I think yes because your console can connect
2. Is there an entry in the file for the service - I think also yes as the console connects
3. Can the application find the tnsnames.ora?

Your problem may well be number 3 - does the application run as a different user than when you run the console?

Oracle looks for the tnsnames.ora file in the directory defined in the TNS_ADMIN environment variable - If you are running as different users, then maybe the TNS_ADMIN environment variable is not set, and therefore it cannot find the file?

Had a similar issue, only my web app was fine and it was SQLPlus that was giving me issues connecting, and the ORA-12154 could not resolve the connect identifier specified error. I had 11g and 12 Oracle clients installed. My environment variables were all set to point at my 12 instance:

• ORACLE_HOME = C:\oracle\product\12
• PATH = C:\oracle\product\12\bin;....
• TNS_ADMIN = C:\oracle\product\12\network\admin

There is also a registry entry required at HKLM\Software\Oracle\KEY_OraClient12Home1, a string entry of TNS_ADMIN with the same path as the environment variable.

I have a tnsnames.ora at both C:\oracle\product\11\network\admin and C:\oracle\product\12\network\admin. As far as I know, both my web app and the 12 SQLPlus client I was using should have been using all 12 version variables.

My troubleshooting steps:

• Change all environmental variables above from 12 to 11.
• Connect with 11g's SQLPlus (worked!)
• Change all environmental variables above back from 11 to 12.
• Connect with 12's SQLPlus again (worked!)

So I don't really know what caused 12's SQLPlus to stop connecting, but this kind of reset may work for someone, so thought I'd document it here.

There can be so many issues but if you are using oracle 10g , uninstall oracle 10g and also remove the value from registry and install oracle 11g. But if you are using oracle 11g , first go and check on registry if it is pointing to right home. Sometimes there can be more than one home because you install sql developer again and again . In that case either you can remove unnecessary home registry value or you can add tns and sql.net file to all of those home, that might resolve the issue. I resolved mine in that way.