Sometimes we need to recreate the oracle password
The password file on Windows is located in
- Conventional home: ORACLE_HOME/database directory
- READONLY home: ORACLE_BASE/database
How can you tell if the ORACLE_HOME is readonly:
Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:\Software\Oracleoutput:
ORACLE_HOME_READONLY : N or Y
To create the password file we need to know the Oracle Database name with CDB or Non CDB, we are talking about the name used for the main service or CDB, so if service name on windows is:
OracleServiceORCL
Our database name is ORCL for purpose of creating the password file
The password file must follow strict naming format of : PWD<lowercase dbname>.ora
So for the service above it will be called PWDorcl.ora
change directory to the location of where password file should be located
i.e.:
cd F:\WINDOWS.X64_193000_db_home\database
use orapwd: orapwd file=PWDorcl.ora password=abc123
and we get an error:
OPW-00029: Password complexity failed for SYS user : Password must contain at least 8 characters.
or
OPW-00029: Password complexity failed for SYS user : Password must contain at least 1 special character.
so lets set it to a random value that beats the check temporarily
orapwd file=PWDorcl.ora password=abc123fwwerwerasfgwas!Now lets update back to our simpler password using sqlplus as that uses windows group to authenticate
sqlplus /@orcl as sysdbaalter user sys identified by abc123;
This if applicable will update password for pdb’s as well as they share the password file.