Oracle: replacing tnsnames.ora with LDAP lookup?

Oracle can "officially" only use OID or AD as LDAP servers. In LDAP.ORA (in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin or $TNS_ADMIN) put:

DEFAULT_ADMIN_CONTEXT = “ou=ora,dc=company,dc=com”
DIRECTORY_SERVERS = (ldap1.company.com:389, ldap2.company.com:389)
DIRECTORY_SERVER_TYPE = OID

The type can be OID or AD. The multiple servers are for redundancy; it will not try each one in turn. Then in SQLNET.ORA:

NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH=(LDAP, TNSNAMES)

The means try LDAP first, then try TNSNAMES.ORA, then give up.

If you want to use a third-party LDAP server, Oracle has a product called Virtual Directory that will act as a proxy between them.

You do not mention, which LDAP platform you use. I use OpenLDAP for that purpose.

Basically, you need to import some pieces of oid schema. Then you need to have your tns aliases under cn=OracleContext,dc=company,dc=com node.

I created a web application http://www.tnsadmin.com for easy management of tnsnames in LDAP entries, which may be used with any LDAP server. You can also find OpenLDAP schema there.