TIP: How to change ORACLE INTERNAL password on windows operating system.

This short story will guide you step by step to deal with the situation where you lost your internal password or your password file is deleted by mistake then probably you will get the following error

SVRMGR> connect internal/oracle

ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

Now what you will do ? How do you login now ?

But do not panic, here are the some simple steps to do this critical but simple task. In short we have to recreate our password file to solve this.

STEP 1 :- Stop the Oracle Service which is having problem.

On Windows NT : Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Services and stop the oracle service which is having a problem.

STEP 2: - Rename the existing password file.

Rename existing password file to some other name. Password file is in ORACLE_HOME\DATABASE

directory and it is in the format of PWD<ORACLESID>.ora .

If your SID is ORA816 and ORACLE_HOME is E:\ORA816 , you will found the Password file in

E:\ORA816\database\PWDora816.ora.

Figure ii shows renaming of PWDora816.ora to OLDPWDora816.ora

(Figure ii) Rename PWDora816.ora to OLDPWDora816.ora

Step 3: If you have multiple oracle home proceed with this step otherwise jump to step 4.

In case of multiple oracle home , invoke Oracle Home selector and select the

required home of your instance as shown In figure (iii)

( Figure iii Change the Oracle Home)

Step 4:- Run the OraPWD utility

Now you are prepared to create a new password file with the OraPWD utility.

C:\>orapwd

Usage: orapwd file=<fname> password=<password> entries=<users>

where

file - name of password file (mand),

password - password for SYS and INTERNAL (mand),

entries - maximum number of distinct DBA and OPERs (opt),

There are no spaces around the equal-to (=) character.

(i) Set the oracle_sid as follows :-

C:\>SET ORACLE_SID=ora816

(ii) Now execute the orapwd to create the password file as :-

C:\>Orapwd file=e:\ora816\Database\PWDora816.ora password=SAMDBA ENTRIES=10

The new password for my internal account is now SAMDBA and new password file has created in e:\ora816\database directory where e:\ora816 is my oracle home.

Password may be any alphanumeric character of max 30 chars. It is always

advisable to put password file in oracle_home\database directory because this is

the place where oracle looks for it.

Step 5: Automatic startup from services.

You have created a password file in step 4 , but to tell the oracle services that you have new password ,you have to run the oradim utility as follows :-.

C:\>oradim

ORADIM: <command> [options]. Please refer to the manual.

Edit an instance by specifying the following parameters:

-EDIT -SID sid [-NEWSID sid] [-INTPWD password] [-STARTMODE auto|manual] [-PFILE filename]

[-SHUTMODE a|i|n] [-SHUTTYPE srvc|inst|srvc,inst] [-TIMEOUT seconds]

C:\>oradim -EDIT -SID ora816 -INTPWD SAMDBA -STARTMODE auto -pfile e:\ora816\database\initora816.ora

Make sure you specified the correct oracle SID and pfile location.

The above command configure oracle services to take care of new password and oracle

will start automatically when services starts.

Start 6: Start the oracle service from control panel

Step 7 : Test connection with new password.

Your new password that is in our case SAMDBA is set now . you can test this by connecting with svrmgrl

C:>SET ORACLE_SID=ORA816

C:>svrmgrl

Svrmgr>connect internal/SAMDBA

Connected

 Note :- If remote_login_passwordfile = EXCLUSIVE is set in init parameter file . You can change 
 The internal password by altering the sys password as alter user sys identified by samdba;
 But do not forget to do step 5.

Conclusion : By following these steps it is very easy to change the oracle internal password , But be sure about your OS account as if someone login to OS server , can change the oracle password and break your security .

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Sameer Wadhwa	Copyright © Oracle Techniques All Rights Reserved