It is highly probable you already have MS AD in your company. Probably you use a local tnsnames.ora. Apart from setting a Oracle Internet Directory or Oracle Virtual Directory, there is one more option that you may want to consider : AD.

Ok, here is a bit of a road map :

- Schema Extension :
extending the schema is irreversible and you will have to test this properly and explain why you need this (remove the need of distributing a tnsnames, central administration) to your Microsoft Admin friends. To extend the schema, use Oracle Network Configuration Assistant. The step-by-step guide is there

- Anonymous or authenticated bind
prior to 11g, you needed to allow anonymous bind on the AD server. Your Security Admin friends will probably prefer the 11g approach of setting NAMES.LDAP_AUTHENTICATE_BIND to true. If you set NAMES.LDAP_AUTHENTICATE_BIND to true, the Oracle clients will use your windows credentials to do the tnsnames resolution.

For sql developer, use Connection Type=TNS, Connect Identifier=DB01. connection type=Ldap does not work with authenticated bind

- Import the tnsnames and / or create new entries
all done with Net Manager and pretty intuitively. Except that you will use “Directory –> Export Net Service Names” to import the tnsnames in AD

- Configure the clients
sqlnet.ora
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (LDAP)
NAMES.LDAP_AUTHENTICATE_BIND=1

ldap.ora
DEFAULT_ADMIN_CONTEXT = “DC=example,DC=com”
DIRECTORY_SERVER_TYPE = AD

- test it!
tnsping first

C:\> tnsping db01

TNS Ping Utility for 64-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on 10-NOV-2011 14:42:16

Copyright (c) 1997, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Used parameter files:
C:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_3\network\admin\sqlnet.ora

Used LDAP adapter to resolve the alias
Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(Host=srv01)(Port=1521)))(CONNECT
_DATA=(SID=DB01)))
OK (20 msec)

I wrote a simple java program to check the connection :

import java.sql.*;
import oracle.jdbc.pool.*;
public class HelloWorld {
  public  static void main(String[] args) throws SQLException {
    OracleDataSource ods = new OracleDataSource();
    ods.setDriverType("oci");
    ods.setTNSEntryName("DB01");
    ods.setUser("scott");
    ods.setPassword("tiger");
    ResultSet res = ods.
      getConnection().
        prepareCall("select 'Hello World' txt from dual").
          executeQuery();
    res.next();
    System.out.println(res.getString("TXT"));
  }
}

C:\> set PATH=C:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_3\bin
C:\> javac -classpath .;C:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_3\jdbc\lib\ojdbc6.jar HelloWorld.java
C:\> java -classpath .;C:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_3\jdbc\lib\ojdbc6.jar -Doracle.net.tns_admin=C:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_3\network\admin HelloWorld
Hello World

If you get and issue with ocijdbc11, you either do not have the *ocijdbc11* driver in your PATH / LD_LIBRARY_PATH / LIBPATH or the use the wrong driver. For instance if you compile with java 32bits, you cannot use the oci 64 bit.

If you use a jdbc thin ldap resolution and have no anonymous bind, it will return an error

import java.sql.*;
public class HelloWorld {
  public  static void main(String[] args) throws SQLException {
    DriverManager.registerDriver(new oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver());
    ResultSet res = DriverManager.
      getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@ldap://example.com:389/db01,cn=OracleContext", "scott", "tiger").
      prepareCall("select 'Hello World' txt from dual").
      executeQuery();
    res.next();
    System.out.println(res.getString("TXT"));
  }
}

C:\>java -classpath .;C:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_3\jdbc\lib\ojdbc6.jar HelloWorld
Exception in thread "main" java.sql.SQLException: I/O-Fehler: JNDI Package failure avax.naming.NamingException: [LDAP:error code 1 - 000004DC: LdapErr: DSID-0C0906DC, comment: In order to perform this operation a successful bind must be completed on the connection., data 0, v1db0 ]; remaining name 'cn=db01,cn=OracleContext'
        at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CConnection.logon(T4CConnection.java:419)
        at oracle.jdbc.driver.PhysicalConnection.<init>(PhysicalConnection.java:536)
        at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CConnection.<init>(T4CConnection.java:228)
        at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CDriverExtension.getConnection(T4CDriverExtension.java:32)
        at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.connect(OracleDriver.java:521)
        at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:525)
        at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:171)
        at HelloWorld.main(HelloWorld.java:5)

As the error message says, the ldap server requires a bind

Let’s try to bind

import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;
import oracle.jdbc.pool.*;
public class HelloWorld {
  public  static void main(String[] args) throws SQLException {
    OracleDataSource ods = new OracleDataSource();
    ods.setDriverType("thin");
    Properties prop = new Properties();
    prop.put("java.naming.security.authentication", "simple");
    prop.put("java.naming.security.principal","CN=Laurent Schneider,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com");
    prop.put("java.naming.security.credentials", "my_ad_pw");
 
    ods.setConnectionProperties(prop);

    ods.setURL("jdbc:oracle:thin:@ldap://w2k8.local:389/db01,cn=OracleContext,DC=example,DC=com");
    ods.setUser("scott");
    ods.setPassword("tiger");
    ResultSet res = ods.
      getConnection().
        prepareCall("select 'Hello World' txt from dual").
          executeQuery();
    res.next();
    System.out.println(res.getString("TXT"));
  }
}

This works!