Oracle Instant 10g client

Question

Hi,
I am trying to connect my remote oracle server through linux client machine.
The connectivity of the application with the server is through ODBC.
In order to establish the connectivity, I downloaded the following things:-
i) unixodbc
ii) Oracle Instant Client Package - Basic Lite (Version 10.2.0.1)
iii) Oracle Instant Client Package - ODBC
On installing the ODBC client it made entries in the odbc.ini file and odbcinst.ini
Now I have the following questions:-
i) Am I still required to install the Oracle client software?
ii) If not, than how to create the connectivity, what will be the connection parameters.
- specifying IP, port etc. in odbc.ini file
- or, need to manually create the tns.ora file and specify the Net service name
iii) Is any help file or something provided anywhere.
Please throw some light on this. I am really confused on how to proceed.
I believe it will be really helpful for hundreds of people around.
Also if you can provide examples of configuration file or steps it will be worth to spend time.
Thanks & Regards,
Bhishm

Answer 1

* You specify a net service name in the "ServerName"
line of the .odbc.ini file, so I believe you do have
to create a tnsnames.ora file to specify the
connection parameters for that service name. You can
just create the file wherever you like, and then
point the TNS_ADMIN environment variable to the
directory it's contained in.I just did some more testing and discovered that you do NOT need to reference a net service name (as defined in tnsnames.ora) in the .odbc.ini file when using the Instant Client ODBC driver -- you can use the "Easy Connect" naming method instead.
Specifically, I just edited my ini file entry so that the ServerName line was:
ServerName             = //dbserver.company.com/sid_nameand was able to connect using "isql".
So I think you should be able to use the Instant Client ODBC without creating a tnsnames.ora or setting the TNS_ADMIN environment variable.
From what I've read the Easy Connect syntax appears to be available only when using the Instant Client version of the ODBC driver (but I haven't tried installing the full client myself to test this.)
The syntax is is described in "How do I specify connection strings in Instant Client mode?" section of the Instant Client FAQ:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/ic-faq.html#A4428
as well in section 4.2.3.1 of the "Postinstallation Tasks" chapter of the Oracle® Database Client Installation Guide:
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/install.102/b15662/post_inst_task.htm#CHDFJHJG
(though it doesn't specifically mention in either place that the syntax can also be used in the ServerName line of the .odbc.ini file).
Nathan