I have a system with two computers (x86 servers running Solaris 11), each hosting an Oracle 8i database (old stuff, I know!). The two databases access each others data by means of database links.
Sometimes, one of the computers will be turned off, for whatever reason. The remaining system is still operational, but can of course not access data from the other database. This is an expected situation, and logically it works fine. A remote query comes back with the error "ORA-12535: TNS:operation timed out", and we can handle that.
The problem is that it takes well over 7 minutes for this timeout to occur! If the query originates from a user interface, this is of course not practical. I would like it to be just a few seconds.
Googling around for a bit, I found out about the sqlnet.ora parameter SQLNET.OUTBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT. By the description, it sounded like it would fit the bill exactly. So I included it in my sqlnet.ora file and set it to 5, for 5 seconds. But there was no change in behaviour.
To force a re-read of sqlnet.ora, I tried to shut down and start up the database. Still no change.
Could it be that the OUTBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT parameter did not exist in Oracle 8? Or does it not do what I think? Or is there another way to achieve a shorter timeout?