For a linked server to Oracle using LDAP authentication, if the ldap.ora and/or sqlnet.ora files used by the SQL server are modified does the SQL Server need to be restarted?

Question

For a linked server to Oracle using LDAP authentication, if the ldap.ora and/or sqlnet.ora files used by the SQL server are modified does the SQL Server need to be restarted? We need to change the Oracle OID becuase of a corporate reorg and therefore need to update the ldap.ora file. We have seen inconsistent results in testing this in Dev/QA/UAT environments and want to know if it is a requirement that we restart the SQL Server

Answer 1

I assume that you are using Oracle's OLE DB provider for the linked server. To get an authoritative answer, you would have to ask Oracle. SQL Server as such does not know how Oracle's OLE DB provider behaves.

You say that you get inconsistent results. My interpretation is that sometimes you have tested, you have been able to change the file without having to restart SQL Server, sometimes not. I would take this that sometimes the provider reads the file, but not on every connection, but it may cache data.

Thus, if you don't want to rely on chance, you need to restart SQL Server.

Please note that I have no experience of working with Oracle at all, nor directly, nor through linked server. I'm just speculating from my experience of how stuff works in general.

Answer 2

After extensive testing, we concluded that, as Erland suggested, if the ldap.ora and/or sqlnet.ora files used by the SQL server are modified, the SQL Server may need to be restarted, although not always, and you need to allow for the possbility that they SQL Server may need to be restarted when modifying the ldap.ora and/or sqlnet.ora files.