How to obtain the list of Oracle's SIDs

Question

I have the host, port, user id and password but missing SID for connecting to Oracle DBMS. How can I find the list of SIDs on that server?

Answer 1

A better way is, if you have access to the host machine and the Oracle install is to use the command: lsnrctl status. This works on both Unix, Linux, and Windows machines. The status command will show you all the listeners (and their associated SIDs).

C:\>lsnrctl status

LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 15-JUN-2009 16:16:34
Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC_FOR_XE)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
Start Date                13-JUN-2009 12:04:14
Uptime                    2 days 4 hr. 12 min. 19 sec
Trace Level               off
Security                  ON: Local OS Authentication
SNMP                      OFF
Default Service           XE
Listener Parameter File   C:\oracle\XE\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\network\admin\listener.ora
Listener Log File         C:\oracle\XE\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\network\log\listener.log
Listening Endpoints Summary...
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC_FOR_XEipc)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=ThinkpadT61)(PORT=1521)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=127.0.0.1)(PORT=8080))(Presentation=HTTP)(Session=RAW))
Services Summary...
Service "CLRExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
    Instance "CLRExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
   Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "XEXDB" has 1 instance(s).
   Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "XE_XPT" has 1 instance(s).
   Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "xe" has 1 instance(s).
   Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully

In the above example you can connect to the XE database using the Conect Strings XEXDB, XE_XPT or XE.