DevOps, CI/CD and Automation

Hi there,

I encountered a problem that I have spent hours fixing that. Here is the problem:

I am trying to connect to a remote Oracle 8i server using Oracle 11g client: here is my connection string in PHP:

$conn = oci_connect('db_user', 'db_pass', "db_ip");

db_host is the ip of the server, such as "12.34.56.78".

The error shown is "*ORA-12514: TNS:listener does not currently know of service requested in connect descriptor*"

I could use the same client to connect to another oracle 10g server. The php code is same, only change the db_user or db_pass or db_ip.

I dont use tnsnames.ora for either oracle 10g server or oracle 8i server. I just use the simple IP of server. Does this matter?

Server using: Windows Server 2008 R2
PHP: php 5.2.17
Oracle Instant Client: 11_2

Any ideas will be appreciated.

Best,
Sam