Connecting Locally using OS Authentication

When you install Oracle Database Free, your Windows user is automatically added to the ORA_DBA operating system group, which grants you the SYSDBA privileges. You can use the following commands to connect to the database. In the commands, replace "oracle_home" with the path to your Oracle Home; see Table 4-1 for more details about the Oracle Home:

cd oracle_home\bin
sqlplus / as sysdba

These commands connect you to the root container CDB$ROOT of the multitenant database (CDB) as database user SYS. This method of connecting to the database works even if the Net Services listener is not running.

Connecting to Oracle Database Using Easy Connect Naming Method

FREEPDB1 is the service name defined for the first PDB created by default. You can replace FREEPDB1 with the name of another PDB you want to connect to.

Specifying the port is optional when the listener is setup with the default port 1521. You must specify the port number if you use another port.

Connection strings for local connections were provided on the final screen of the install. If you are connecting from a remote computer, you need to provide the hostname (where Free is installed) instead of localhost.

Please note that, Net Services database listener must be running on the database host on the specified port for the connections to succeed.

cd oracle_home\bin
sqlplus system@dbhost.example.com:1521

cd oracle_home\bin
sqlplus system@dbhost.example.com:1521/FREEPDB1

Replace dbhost.example.com with your database host name. If needed, replace 1521 with the port number the listener listens on. You can replace FREEPDB1 with the name of another PDB you want to connect to.

To shorten connect strings or to avoid hardcoding host name and port in application code and DBA scripts, you can define an alias for the connect string in the configuration file oracle_base_home\network\admin\tnsnames.ora on database clients. See Configuring the Local Naming Method for more details.

Net Services Listener and Default Services

The Net Services database listener for Oracle Database Free allows you to connect to the database over TCP/IP from the same machine or other machines on the network. The configuration of the Listener can be viewed using the following commands run from the command prompt:

cd oracle_home\bin
lsnrctl status

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=dbhost.example.com)(PORT=1521)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 23.0.0.0.0 - Development
Trace Level               off
Security                  ON: Local OS Authentication
SNMP                      OFF
Default Service           FREE
Listener Parameter File   C:\install_dir\dbhomeFree\network\admin\listener.ora
Listener Log File         C:\install_dir\diag\tnslsnr\dbhost\listener\alert\log.xml
Listening Endpoints Summary...
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=dbhost.example.com)(PORT=1521)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC1521)))
Services Summary...
Service "dbhost.example.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "FREE", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "FREE.dbhost.example.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "FREE", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "FREEXDB.dbhost.example.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "FREE", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "freepdb1.dbhost.example.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "FREE", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully

You specify a service when connecting to the database through the listener. The default services created by Oracle Database FREE are FREE and FREEPDB1. The FREE service connects you to the root container of the database (CDB$ROOT) and the FREEPDB1 service connects you to the default pluggable database (FREEPDB1) created at the installation time. For each new pluggable database (PDB) in the database, there will be a new default service created with the same name as the PDB.