cx_Oracle & Connecting to Oracle DB Remotely

Question

How do you connect to a remote server via IP address in the manner that TOAD, SqlDeveloper, are able to connect to databases with just the ip address, username, SID and pass

Answer 1

Instead of specifying the SID, you can create a dsn and connect via service_name like:

import cx_Oracle
ip = '192.168.0.1'
port = 1521
service_name = 'my_service'
dsn = cx_Oracle.makedsn(ip, port, service_name=service_name)

db = cx_Oracle.connect('user', 'password', dsn)

The benefit of using the service name instead of the specific instance identifier (SID), is that it will work in a RAC environment as well (using a SID won't). This parameter is available as of cx_Oracle version 5.1.1 (Aug 28, 2011)