Before you can complete the configuration of the client on the local machine, you must install and configure the ArcSDE server to which the client will connect. An ArcSDE client does not have to be the same version as the ArcSDE server. Connecting an ArcSDE 9.0 or 9.1 client to an ArcSDE 8.3 server has been tested. Not all possible configurations are known.
It is possible for an ArcSDE client to connect directly to an Oracle or SQL Server database provided the required drivers are installed. This type of ‘direct’ connection has not been tested with the ArcSDE Provider, and so is not supported.
An ArcSDE server connects to only one kind of RDBMS. The ArcSDE Server for Oracle can connect to an Oracle database and the ArcSDE Server for SQL Server can connect to a Sql Server database. There are post-installations actions that you must take to create ArcSDE-specific tables in the target RDBMS before you can connect to the “ArcSDE-aware” database.
When you install an ArcSDE server, you configure it to listen on a port for database connect requests. Each ArcSDE server listens on its own dedicated listener port.
The ArcSDE client needs to know the number of the server’s listener port and the protocol to use for sending requests to that port. The listener port and protocol is what the ArcSDE client needs to get from the ArcSDE provider in order to connect to the ArcSDE server. The ArcSDE provider API requires that the user put this information in the Instance connection property. The user can provide the information either directly or indirectly.
The direct way is simply the listener port and protocol. The syntax is “<port>/<protocol>”, for example, “5151/tcp”.
The indirect way is a symbolic name, for example, “esri_sde_oracle.” The ArcSDE provider translates the symbolic name into a port and protocol by looking the symbolic name up in the C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\services file. An example of an entry in the services file is esri_sde_oracle 5151/tcp.
You must also create usernames and passwords in each of the databases that you plan to connect to. You or your database administrator must connect to the database using an account with sufficient privileges to create a new user account and to grant the appropriate privileges to the new user.