Greetings and Happy New Year.
I don't use VMWare at all, but the following might help you. It's based on the Oracle VirtualBox emulator which I use for all sorts of things!
My HOST is Linux, and is on a network with address 192.168.1.xxx.
My GUEST, where Oracle lives, is also Linux, and has a BRIDGED network adapter, so it too has an IP address of 192.168.1.xxx - in other words, both are on the same network. For the sake of example, assume it is 192.168.1.50. The HOSTNAME is DBSERVER.
My WINDOWS GUEST, where TOAD lives and runs, is surprisingly enough, in another VM, which also has abridged network adapter, and also has a further 192.168.1.xxx IP address. For the sake of example, assume it is 192.168.1.60. The hostname is VBWIN7, but that's not really relevant here.
Each VM "computer" has a static IP address and a hostname configured, I do not use DHCP to allocate IP addresses to these virtual computers.
In use, I start the VBWIN7 VM, and open TOAD.
I also start the DBSERVER VM and start the Oracle database, which happens to be 11g, in the normal manner. (SQL*PLUS / as sysdba, startup, exit.)
In my VBWIN7 VM, I've set up the hosts file, which if I remember correctly is, c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, as follows:
192.168.1.50 DBSERVER DBSERVER.DUNBAR-IT.CO.UK
My tnsnames.ora entry has the followng for the database on the DBSERVER VM:
test11g =
(description =...)(connect_data = (address = (host=DBSERVER)(port=1521)(protocol=TCP))) ...
And finally, in TOAD, I start a new connection dialogue and enter the username, password, and the "test11g" alias name in the appropriate areas, and OK. This takes me into my 11g database on the DBSERVER VM.
So, in summary:
- The Database server VM must have a static IP address, or at the very least, a known IP address;
- The VM, or computer, running TOAD must be able to connect to the network where the database server is running;
- It helps if the database server is known to the HOSTS file on the windows box running TOAD, but this is not essential;
- You might have to adjust the firewall on the database server to allow TCP traffic for Oracle.
- The windows box, with TOAD running, should have an entry in the tnsnames.ora file, to assist in connections from TOAD - again, this is not essential, but helps;
HTH.
Cheers,
Norm. [TeamT]