You may come across a situation where you need to set up a DSN for Oracle database(RAC) using service name instead of SID. In such scenario, you could use JDBC connection string to define the DSN. In this article, we will see how to set up DSN using service name in two simple steps.

1. Log in to CF admin page -> Navigate to Data Sources-> Create a new DSN -> Select “Other” as  driver.
2. Specify the following settings:
   jdbc:macromedia:oracle://hostname:port;ServiceName=servicename;AlternateServers=(alternatehostname:port);ConnectionRetryCount=2; ConnectionRetryDelay=5 (servicename, a name that is typically composed of the database name and domain name, is used to specify connections to Oracle RAC because the nodes in a RAC system share a common service name. AlternateServers is a comma separated list of servers and port names.)

• Driver class – macromedia.jdbc.MacromediaDriver
• Enter the name of the driver in the Driver Name field(Optional).
• Username – A user defined to the database
• Password – The password for the username

Click on Submit button. Voila! You are all set!