title: How to connect to PDB in Oracle 12c
body: <p>I'm running a fresh installation of Oracle 12c on Solaris 10 and I can connect to the CDB using toad just fine, please tell me how can I now connect to the PDB database named PDBORCL as mentioned in the guide: <a href="https://oracle-base.com/articles/12c/multitenant-connecting-to-cdb-and-pdb-12cr1" rel="nofollow">https://oracle-base.com/articles/12c/multitenant-connecting-to-cdb-and-pdb-12cr1</a></p>
  
  <p>Following are the contents of my tnsnames.ora file:</p>
  
  <pre><code># tnsnames.ora Network Configuration File: /bkofa/oracle/app/oracle  
  
  /product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/network/admin/tnsnames.ora
  # Generated by Oracle configuration tools.
  
  ORCL12 =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = afxortsts)(PORT = 1523))
      (CONNECT_DATA =
        (SERVER = DEDICATED)
        (SERVICE_NAME = orcl12)
      )
    )
  pdbORCL =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = afxortsts)(PORT = 1523))
      (CONNECT_DATA =
        (SERVER = DEDICATED)
        (SERVICE_NAME = pdborcl)
      )
    )
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here are the contents of my listener.ora file:</p>
  
  <pre><code># listener.ora Network Configuration File: /bkofa/oracle/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/network/admin/listener.ora
  # Generated by Oracle configuration tools.
  
  LISTENER =
    (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
      (DESCRIPTION =
        (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = afxortsts)(PORT = 1523))
        (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
      )
    )
  
  SID_LIST_LISTENER =
    (SID_LIST =
      (SID_DESC =
        (GLOBAL_DBNAME = orcl12)
        (SID_NAME = orcl12)
      )
      (SID_DESC =
        (GLOBAL_DBNAME = pdborcl)      
        (SID_NAME = pdborcl)
      )
    )
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>These are the containers by the way:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT name, pdb    
  FROM   v$services    
  ORDER BY name;    
  
  NAME              PDB    
  
  SYS$BACKGROUND    CDB$ROOT    
  SYS$USERS         CDB$ROOT    
  orcl12            CDB$ROOT    
  orcl12XDB         CDB$ROOT    
  pdborcl           PDBORCL    
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Still when I try to connect to PDB using any combination of commands this is what I get:</p>
  
  <pre><code>bash-3.2$ lsnrctl status  
  
  LSNRCTL for Solaris: Version 12.1.0.2.0 - Production on 13-APR-2016 15:42:28  
  
  Copyright (c) 1991, 2014, Oracle.  All rights reserved.  
  
  Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=afxortsts)(PORT=1523)))  
  STATUS of the LISTENER  
  ------------------------  
  Alias                     LISTENER  
  Version                   TNSLSNR for Solaris: Version 12.1.0.2.0 - Production  
  Start Date                12-APR-2016 13:56:56  
  Uptime                    1 days 1 hr. 45 min. 36 sec  
  Trace Level               off  
  Security                  ON: Local OS Authentication  
  SNMP                      OFF  
  Listener Parameter File   /bkofa/oracle/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/network/admin/listener.ora  
  Listener Log File         /bkofa/oracle/app/oracle/diag/tnslsnr/afxortsts/listener/alert/log.xml  
  Listening Endpoints Summary...  
    (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=afxortsts)(PORT=1523)))  
    (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC1521)))  
  Services Summary...  
  Service "orcl12" has 1 instance(s).  
    Instance "orcl12", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...  
  Service "pdborcl" has 1 instance(s).  
    Instance "pdborcl", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...  
  The command completed successfully  
  bash-3.2$ sqlplus '/ as sysdba'  
  
  SQL*Plus: Release 12.1.0.2.0 Production on Wed Apr 13 15:42:44 2016  
  
  Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle.  All rights reserved.  
  
  
  Connected to:  
  Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production  
  With the Partitioning, OLAP, Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options  
  
  SQL&gt; connect sys/oracle123@172.16.1.118:1523/pdborcl as sysdba  
  ERROR:  
  ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied  
  
  
  Warning: You are no longer connected to ORACLE.  
  SQL&gt; connect sys@pdborcl  
  Enter password:  
  ERROR:  
  ORA-01034: ORACLE not available  
  ORA-27101: shared memory realm does not exist  
  SVR4 Error: 2: No such file or directory  
  Additional information: 2581  
  Additional information: -2057892281  
  Process ID: 0  
  Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0  
  
  
  SQL&gt; connect sys@172.16.1.118:1523/pdborcl as sysdba  
  ERROR:  
  ORA-12504: TNS:listener was not given the SERVICE_NAME in CONNECT_DATA  
  
  
  SQL&gt;  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Oh I should make this clear that I'm using port 1523 because there is another instance of older Oracle 10g already running on the system that uses this port so I wanted to avoid any conflict with that.</p>