Oracle orapwd to Connect Remotely as SYSDBA

Using orapwd to Connect Remotely as SYSDBA

The Oracle orapwd utility assists the DBA with granting SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges to other users. By default, the user SYS is the only user that has these privileges. Creating a password file via orapwd enables remote users to connect with administrative privileges through SQL*Net.

The SYSOPER privilege allows instance startup, shutdown, mount, and dismount. It allows the DBA to perform general database maintenance without viewing user data. The SYSDBA privilege is the same as connect internal was in prior versions. It provides the ability to do everything, unrestricted.

If orapwd has not yet been executed, attempting to grant SYSDBA or SYSOPER privileges will result in the following error:

SQL> grant sysdba to scott;
ORA-01994: GRANT failed: cannot add users to public password file

The following steps can be performed to grant other users these privileges:

1. Create the password file. This is done by executing the following command:
$ orapwd file=filename password=password entries=max_users

The filename is the name of the file that will hold the password information. The file location will default to the current directory unless the full path is specified. The contents are encrypted and are unreadable. The password required is the one for the SYS user of the database.

The max_users is the number of database users that can be granted SYSDBA or SYSOPER. This parameter should be set to a higher value than the number of anticipated users to prevent having to delete and recreate the password file.

2. Edit the init.ora parameter remote_login_passwordfile. This parameter must be set to either SHARED or EXCLUSIVE. When set to SHARED, the password file can be used by multiple databases, yet only the SYS user is recognized. When set to EXCLUSIVE, the file can be used by only one database, yet multiple users can exist in the file. The parameter setting can be confirmed by:

 

The above is an excerpt from Oracle Utilities - Using Hidden Programs, Import/Export, SQL Loader, oradebug, Dbverify, Tkprof and More by Rampant TechPress (Dave Moore).

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