%META:TOPICPARENT{name="ErrorMessagesO"}%
=ORA-28546: connection initialization failed, probable Net8 admin error=

When using Oracle Heterogeneous Services with Oracle Release 9.2 and up, on Unix (Solaris, HP, AIX, etc.) systems, the {{{tnsnames.ora}}} entry may be incorrectly formatted, resulting in errors like
{{{
ERROR at line 1:
  ORA-28546: connection initialization failed, probable Net8 admin error
  ORA-02068: following severe error from HSODBC
  ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel
}}}

Note the following syntax, differing from that used with Oracle 9.1 and earlier, is required as of Oracle 9.2:</p>
{{{
hsodbc =
    (description=
      (address_list =
        (address=(protocol=tcp)(host=hostname)(port=1521))
      )
      (connect_data=
        (SID=hsodbc)
      )
      (HS=)
    )
}}}

To resolve the error, edit your {{{$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora}}} file to more closely resemble the above, substituting your actual values for {{{hostname}}} and {{{SID}}} as appropriate.