Connecting Django to Oracle database using service name

These are steps for connecting Django to Oracle database using service name. It is tested with Django 1.7 running on Ubuntu 14.04.

1. Ensure that cx_oracle is installed (Please see the References section for details).
2. Locate/ create file tnsnames.ora
   In case Oracle DB or client is installed, you can try to locate the file under ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/
   
3. Add an entry for the target host and service name to tnsnames.ora
   Example:
4. Ensure that TNS_ADMIN environment variable is set to the folder containing tnsnames.ora
5. Change the database connection in Django settings file to
   
6. Now, you are ready to connect to Oracle db.

References:

• http://codeforaliving.blogspot.com/2015/02/installing-cxoracle-on-ubuntu_73.html
• http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Tnsnames.ora
• https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/ref/databases/ (Please see the section related to Oracle)