You need to tell SQLPlus which database you want to log on to. Host String needs to be either a connection string or an alias configured in your TNSNames.ora file.
Quite often this means that the listener hasn't started. Check the Services panel.
On Windows (as you are) another common cause is that the ORACLE_SID is not defined in the registry. Either edit the registry or set the ORACLE_SID in a CMD box. (Because you want to run sqlplusw.exe I suggest you edit the registry.)
Go to the windows machine that hosts the Oracle database server
Go to Start -> Run -> Services.msc in Windows.
Locate OracleService < SID > (here OracleServiceORCL) and click on Start to start the oracle database service (if not already running)
Once it is up and running, from the command prompt run the following:
tnsping < tnsalias >
(tnsalias entry you can find it in tnsnames.ora file)
Seems like database is not up. It might be due to restarting machine and the instance is not set to autostart and it so not started munually after starting from services Screen.
Just goto Command prompt
Set Oracle SID
C:>set oracle_sid=ORCL
Now run Net start command.
C:>net start oracleserviceORCL
I have solved the problem the easy way. My oracle was running just fine in the past. After I installed MS SQL Server was when I noticed this problem. I just uninstalled MS SQL Server on my machine then the problem was gone. Make sure you restart your computer after that. Now I can connect to Oracle database through SQLPlus again. My guess is that there's some conflict between the two. Hope this helps.
If none the above work, then try this :
Modify the LISTENER.ora (mine is found in : oracle\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\NETWORK\ADMIN\listener.ora) ==> add a custom listener that points to your database(SID), example my SID is XZ0301, so :
For Windows 7, use the following to modify the LISTENER.ora:
- Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories
- Right click Notepad and then click Run as Administrator .
- File>open and navigate to the tnsnames.ora file.
- Make the changes then it should allow you to save
After searching alot got a simple way to solve it.
Just follow the steps.
Check status of your listener.
open command prompt and type lsnrctl status
You will get no listener.
Now open listener.ora file which is present in following directory: C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\network\ADMIN
Open that file and change the host parameter with you computer name
You can get your computer name by right click on My Computer and check you computer name, and replace host parameter with your computer name as follows:
Another possible solution that just worked for me...considering I was using my local login as the dba permissions.
Follow the steps to get to Services. Right click on the instance and go to 'Log On'? (might not be the name but it's one of the tabs containing permissions). Change the settings to use LOCAL.
In my case (for OracleExpress) the service was running, but I got this issue when trying to access the database via sqlplus without connection identifier:
sqlplus sys/mypassword as sysdba
To make it work I needed to add the connection identifier (XE for Oracle Express), so following command worked ok:
sqlplus sys/mypassword@XE as sysdba
If you still get ORA-12560, make sure you can ping the XE service. Use:
tnsping XE
And you should get OK message along with full connection string (tnsping command is located in oracle's installation dir: [oracle express installation dir]\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\bin). If you can not ping make sure your tnsnames.ora file is reachable for sqlplus. You might need to set TNS_ADMIN environment variable pointing to your ADMIN directory, where the file is located, for example:
set Environment Variables: ORACLE_BASE, ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID
make sure your user is part of ORACLE_GROUP_NAME (Windows)
make sure the file ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/sqlnet.ora is:
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (NTS)
(Windows) Be carefull when you add a new Oracle client: adding a new path to the PATH env. variable can mess things up. The first entry in this variable makes a difference: certify that the sqlplus executable in the ORACLE_HOME (ORACLE_HOME/bin) comes first in the PATH env. variable.