Preface

The Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide provides the information you need to understand and use Oracle Net Services and its related applications and components.

This document describes the features of Oracle Database 11g software that apply to the UNIX, Linux, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

This preface contains these topics:

• Audience

• Documentation Accessibility

• Related Documentation

• Conventions

Audience

Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide is intended for the following kinds of readers:

• Network administrators

• Directory server administrators

• Database administrators

• Decision makers

This guide is especially targeted for network administrators who are responsible for ensuring connectivity. For network administrators, Oracle Corporation recommends:

• For a conceptual understanding of Oracle Net Services, read all of Part I, "Getting Started with Oracle Net Services"

• For essential configuration instructions, read Chapter 3, "Connectivity Concepts" in Part I and all of Part II, "Configuration and Administration of Oracle Net Services"

• For troubleshooting, read Part III, "Testing and Troubleshooting Oracle Net Services"

For directory administrators, Oracle Corporation recommends:

• To understand how Oracle Net Services uses a directory server, read Chapter 3, "Connectivity Concepts" in Part I

• For instructions for configuring naming information in a directory server, as well as exporting existing naming data to a directory server, read Chapter 8, "Configuring Naming Methods" in Part II

For database administrators, Oracle Corporation recommends:

• To gain an understanding of the big networking picture, read Chapter 1, "Introduction to Oracle Net Services" and Chapter 2, "Quick Start to Oracle Net Connections"

• To get an overview of networking tools, read Chapter 5, "Architecture of Oracle Net Services"

• To understand how to configure Oracle database server features that require listener and shared server configuration, read Chapter 7, "Planning the Network", Chapter 10, "Configuring and Administering Oracle Net Listener", Chapter 12, "Configuring Dispatchers", and Chapter 14, "Optimizing Performance"

For decision makers, Oracle Corporation recommends reading Chapter 1, "Introduction to Oracle Net Services", Chapter 2, "Quick Start to Oracle Net Connections", Chapter 4, "Configuration Management Concepts", and Chapter 7, "Planning the Network" to gain an understanding of how Oracle Net Services fits into the overall network architecture and for explaining the basics of Oracle Net Services.

Oracle Corporation recommends that all readers skim Part I, to ensure that they have the background required to benefit from the rest of the guide.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

TTY Access to Oracle Support Services

Oracle provides dedicated Text Telephone (TTY) access to Oracle Support Services within the United States of America 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For TTY support, call 800.446.2398. Outside the United States, call +1.407.458.2479.

Related Documentation

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

• Oracle Database Net Services Reference

• Oracle Database 11g documentation set

Many books in the documentation set use the sample schemas of the seed database, which is installed by default when you install Oracle. Refer to Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information on how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.

Printed documentation is available for sale in the Oracle Store at

http://oraclestore.oracle.com

To download free release notes, installation documentation, white papers, or other collateral, please visit the Oracle Technology Network. You must register online before using Oracle Technology Network; registration is free and can be done at

http://otn.oracle.com/membership

If you already have a user name and password for Oracle Technology Network, you can go directly to the documentation section of the Oracle Technology Network Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation

For additional information about the OSI, see:

http://www.ietf.org

Oracle error message documentation is only available in HTML. If you only have access to the Oracle Documentation CD, you can browse the error messages by range. Once you find the specific range, use your browser's "find in page" feature to locate the specific message. When connected to the Internet, you can search for a specific error message using the error message search feature of the Oracle online documentation.

Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document: