I had not seen this problem for a long time so, when it happened yesterday, it took me a while to see the cause. I therefore decided to record it for future reference. First I created a database link:
ORCL /export/home/oracle/andrew > sqlplus /
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Wed Apr 17 11:55:54 2013
Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
SQL> create database link link1.world
2 connect to andrew
3 identified by reid
4 using 'REMOTEDB'
5 /
Database link created.
SQL>
… but when I tried to use the link, I got an ORA-02019:
SQL> select * from dual@link1
2 /
select * from dual@link1
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02019: connection description for remote database not found
SQL>
I checked the database’s GLOBAL_NAME:
SQL> l
1* select * from global_name
SQL> /
GLOBAL_NAME
------------------------------
ORCL
SQL>
I changed it as follows:
SQL> alter database rename global_name to ORCL.WORLD
2 /
Database altered.
SQL> select * from global_name
2 /
GLOBAL_NAME
------------------------------
ORCL.WORLD
SQL>
… and the database link worked:
SQL> select * from dual@link1
2 /
D
-
X
SQL>