Oracle Listener.ora ignored I have the following listener.ora file located in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/ :

TESTSID = (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SID_NAME = TESTSID)
    )
  )


When I run dbstart, I am able to connect to some of the instances, but not the TESTSID one specified. Also, there is no error when I change that listener.ora to be an invalid entry.

When I run lsnrctl status, the other instances are listed. After running lsnrctl stop and lsnrctl start I can no longer connect to any of them and they are missing when I check the status again. I believe that this means that the database instances are registering with the listener. However, when I run status both before and after restarting the listener, both state the following (which is the correct file):

Listener Parameter File  /u01/app/oracle/product/12.0.1/dbhome_1/network/admin/listener.ora


How do I get it to work so that the listener.ora is the file that is used instead?
That is a TNS entry that should be in tnsnames.ora. Listener can't do anything with that. If you want to do static registration, this is what you should put in listener.ora:

LISTENER =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
    )
  )

SID_LIST_LISTENER =
  (SID_LIST =
    (SID_DESC =
      (ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1)
      (SID_NAME = TESTSID)
    )
  )