Session reconnect after 8i Data Guard Switchover

My goal is to have currently connected sessions reconnect (conn user@sid) to the "new" primary thru Net8 successfully, and brand new connections connect to the "new" primary as well. My connect tool of choice is SLQ*Plus. I would like to achieve this without having to modify all my tnsnames.ora files after the switchover. Isn't this the definition of Net8 failover or TAF?

I have tried all the flavors of the tnsnames.ora file that are found on metalink, all five of them. Anybody got a version that works. I am on db version 8.1.7.0.

None of them work reliably although I have had some more success with Oracle9i networking than with 8i. Just remember that there are "some" (a lot in my opinion) provisos with TAF and connect-time failover. Have you read the following link?:

http://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/...1&p_showHelp=1

Unfortunately to achieve this the tnsnames.ora will need to be modified as the tool uses that to determine availability of the instance. So all of the tnsnames.ora would need to be updated (maybe update one then distribute this through some batch file on the a login?)

Here's a sample of one that worked for me (remember it's for a 9i client):



RIMCLUS1.RIM.NET =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ENABLE=BROKEN)
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(LOAD_BALANCE=OFF)
(FAILOVER=ON)
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = (ip 1))(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = (ip 2))(PORT = 1522))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME =rimclus)
(INSTANCE_NAME=rimclus1)
(SERVER=SHARED)
(FAILOVER_MODE =
(BACKUP=RIMCLUS2.RIM.NET)
(TYPE=basic)
(METHOD=PRECONNECT)
(RETRIES=3))
)
)

RIMCLUS2.RIM.NET =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ENABLE=BROKEN)
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(LOAD_BALANCE=OFF)
(FAILOVER=ON)
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = (ip 2))(PORT = 1522))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = (ip 1))(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME =rimclus)
(instance_name=rimclus2)
(SERVER=SHARED)
(FAILOVER_MODE =
(BACKUP=RIMCLUS1.RIM.NET)
(TYPE=select)
(METHOD=preconnect)
(RETRIES=3))
)
)

did you use two separate init.ora files? one specifically for after switchover or did you add the instance name with an alter system command?