ORA-02082: a loopback database link must have a connection qualifier

Problem Description
You are trying to create or drop a database link to the same database name. This may be true if you have a database that was cloned from another database on a different machine and now you try to create or drop a database link with the name of the original database. Below is an example.

SQL> create database link tiger;
create database link tiger
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02082: a loopback database link must have a connection qualifier


SQL> drop database link tiger;
drop database link tiger
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02082: a loopback database link must have a connection qualifier

Cause of the Problem
This is an expected behavior if database global name match with the database link creation name. Now let's see the global_name of the database.

SQL> select * from global_name;

GLOBAL_NAME
---------------------------------------
TIGER.REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM

We see the global name of the database is started with tiger(db_name) and the default db_domain is REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM.

Now whenever we try to create a database link named TIGER (without any domain) it takes name as TIGER.REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM (original database link name+ default domain) which is equivalent to global_name of the database and thus error will occur because database link name must not be equal to the global database name.

Solution of the Problem
Two different solution of this problem.
1)Change the database link name so that it is different from global database name.

SQL> create database link tiger.net connect to user_name identified by password using 'TNS_NAME';

Database link created.

2)Change the global name of the database, create/drop database link and then back to global name of the database to the original name.
i)Error when creating database link name with same of global_name.

SQL> create database link tiger connect to user_name identified by password using 'TNS_NAME';
create database link tiger connect to user_name identified by password using 'TNS_NAME'
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02082: a loopback database link must have a connection qualifier

ii)Change the global database name.
SQL> alter database rename global_name to test;
Database altered.

iii)Now dropping the database link tiger will work as now it (TIGER.REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM) is not same as the global name (TEST.REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM)

SQL> select * from global_name;

GLOBAL_NAME
---------------------------------------
TEST.REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM

SQL> drop database link tiger;
Database link dropped.

iv)Also creating the database link with named Tiger (by default take as TIGER.REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM) will work.
SQL> create database link tiger connect to user_name identified by password using 'TNS_NAME';

Database link created.

You can check it by,

SQL>  col host for a10
SQL>  set lines 140
SQL>  col owner for a10
SQL>  col db_link for a40
SQL> select * from dba_db_links where host='TNS_NAME';

OWNER      DB_LINK                                  USERNAME         HOST       CREATED
---------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------- ---------- ---------
MAXIMSG    TIGER.REGRESS.RDBMS.DEV.US.ORACLE.COM    USER_NAME        TNS_NAME   24-JAN-09
MAXIMSG    TIGER.NET                                USER_NAME        TNS_NAME   24-JAN-09

v)Back to the original global database name.
SQL> alter database rename global_name to tiger;

Database altered.

Related Documents
Troubleshooting ORA-2085 "database link %s connects to %s"
ORA-02070: database does not support in this context