In our LINUX box, due to some security reasons we need to test out a Database connectivity using an alternative tnsnames.ora file, instead of making changes directly in the default file under /network/admin. For this reason, after setting $ORACLE_HOME, we are also setting TNS_ADMIN, which points to a dummy tnsnames which we need to use. For example : export TNS_ADMIN=/psapps/admin/tnsnames.ora However, even after setting this file, when tried to tnsping, Oracle still uses the default tnsnames.ora
Any suggestions in this matter ?
TNS_ADMIN should point onto a directory, not onto a particular file.
There can be other files in this directory, for example sqlnet.ora.