How to connect to an Oracle database installed on a VM?

Question

Oracle

Good afternoon.
The Oracle 18c database is installed on the VM. I installed Oracle Instant Client + ODBC on the local PC. I
copied the files to a folder on the 'C' drive as instructed, set PATH, and I get an error in creating the user's DNS where the test connection button is. ORA - 12154. I think that this is due to the fact that I have not specified the ip of the virtual machine to which I need to connect anywhere. I found on the Internet that ip needs to be registered in the tnsnames.ora file, which I don’t have, maybe it needs to be created.
Tell me, at this stage, what other steps are needed to connect to the VM database?

Answer 1

tnsnames.ora should be located in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin. $ORACLE_HOME is the path to your instantclient installation. It is in this file that you specify the connection settings

%alias%=
    (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=%vm_ip%)(PORT=1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=%db-name%))
)

what other steps are needed to connect to the VM database

Check the ability to connect to the VM on port 1521 (permissions in the firewall, port forwarding (if necessary))