Monday, August 29, 2011

Setting Up Oracle Connection Manager

The Problem

It seems really simple. We have an Oracle database (on all nodes of a full rack Exadata, to be exact), which a lot of end-users connect to through apps designed in a rather adhoc and haphazard manner - on Excel spreadsheets, Access forms, TOAD reports and other assorted tools. We want to control the access from these machines and streamline them.

The database machine sits behind a firewall. To allow the adhoc tools accessing the database from the client machines mean we have to change the firewall rules. Had it been one or two clients, it would have been reasonable; but with 1000+ client machines, it becomes impractical. So I was asked to provide an alternative solution.

The Solution

This is not a unique problem; it's the same problem when the machines need to access resources that exist across firewalls. The easy solution is to punch a hole through the firewall to allow that access; but is not desirable for obvious security reasons. A better solution, often implemented, is to have a proxy server. The proxy sits between the two layers of access and can access the servers behind the firewall. Clients make the request to the proxy which it passes on to the server.

Such a proxy solves the problem; but we are looking for a simpler solution. Does one exist?

Yes, it does. The answer is Connection Manager from Oracle. Among its many functions, one stands out - it acts as a proxy between the different layers of access and passes through the request. It's not a separate product; but is an option in the Oracle Client software (not the database or grid infrastructure software). This  option is not automatically installed. When installing the client software, choose "Custom" and explicitly select "Connection Manager" from the list.

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