orapwd and standby in 11g

I was trying to build standby for Oracle 11g database to test new
features of Data Guard and stuck with problem that archive logs had
not been transferred to standby side because of the following error:

Error 1017 received logging on to the standby
------------------------------------------------------------
Check that the primary and standby are using a password file
and remote_login_passwordfile is set to SHARED or EXCLUSIVE,
and that the SYS password is same in the password files.
      returning error ORA-16191
------------------------------------------------------------

The password files have been created on both sides using orapwd:
orapwd file=orapwdb11 password=sys
and remote_login_passwordfile parameters were set to EXCLUSIVE.
And I was able to login as sysdba to remote sites using either TNS or
easy naming methods.

After different attempts I recreated password files with password
in upper-case (thinking about case sensitivity for password in 11g):
orapwd file=orapwdb11 password=SYS force=y
and it worked - primary started to send logs to standby.

Trying to find the reason of such behavior I recognized that there is
the parameter that responsible for password sensitivity in 11g -
SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON.
I set it to FALSE, changed passwords to lower-case, bounced databases
and... the same problem as before :(

That meant the parameter does not influence on case sensitivity of
password during sysdba connection.

And only after that case I found out that there is a new parameter for
orapwd utility - ignorecase

Usage: orapwd file= password= entries= force= ignorecase= nosysdba=

  where
    file - name of password file (required),
    password - password for SYS (optional),
    entries - maximum number of distinct DBA (required),
    force - whether to overwrite existing file (optional),
    ignorecase - passwords are case-insensitive (optional),
    nosysdba - whether to shut out the SYSDBA logon (optional Database Vault only).

I changed SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON back to TRUE,
recreated password file with lower-case characters and ignorecase=y,
bounced databases and everything went smoothly!

Have a good day!

switching $ORACLE_BASE using oraenv in 11g

I recently installed a couple of Oracle 11g on VM. First one was installed
to /u01 but after testing different things I added one more to /u05.
But it does not really matter, the main thing that 11g raised importance
of $ORACLE_BASE variable added it to different places - oraenv script
(you have noticed sentence about oracle base after execution of the script)
and as parameter to init file.

All that means the $ORACLE_BASE should be dependent on
ORACLE_HOME and be saved somewhere. Moreover the script should
change it! But it was not so. Everytime I ran it $ORACLE_BASE left the
same even they based on the same path as $ORACLE_HOME:

[oracle@oel1 bin]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [db11106] ?
The Oracle base for ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1 is /u05/app/oracle
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [db11106] ? db11a
The Oracle base for ORACLE_HOME=/u05/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_2 is /u05/app/oracle
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [db11a] ? db11106
The Oracle base for ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1 is /u05/app/oracle

Checking the script I found the part that responsible for
oracle base change and comments there:


# Set the value of ORACLE_BASE in the environment. Use the orabase
# executable from the corresponding ORACLE_HOME, since the ORACLE_BASE
# of different ORACLE_HOMEs can be different.
# The return value of orabase will be determined based on the following :
#
# 1. Value of ORACLE_BASE in the environment.
# 2. Get the value of ORACLE_BASE from oraclehomeproperties.xml as
# set in the ORACLE_HOME inventory.



Going further I found that oraclehomeproperties.xml is under
$ORACLE_HOME/inventory/ContentsXML and it contains properties
and one of them is:

...
property name="ORACLE_BASE" val="/u05/app/oracle"
...

(/u01/app/oracle was for the other oracle home)

That's the place where $ORACLE_BASE and $ORACLE_HOME variable
are put together. But the script doesn't switch base if it was already set.
And the reason of it - orabase script ($ORACLE_HOME/bin).
If you have $ORACLE_BASE value set - orabase returns this value.
If not - it gets value from oraclehomeproperties.xml file:

[oracle@oel1 bin]$ . oraenv
-- switched to another home and got wrong $ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_SID = [db11a] ? db11106
The Oracle base for ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1 is /u05/app/oracle
-- wrong value
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ echo $ORACLE_BASE
/u05/app/oracle
-- orabase returns wrong value
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ which orabase
/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin/orabase
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ orabase
/u05/app/oracle
-- unset $ORACLE_BASE
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ export ORACLE_BASE=
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ echo $ORACLE_BASE

-- and now orabase returns right value
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ orabase
/u01/app/oracle

Finally I added the "export ORACLE_BASE=" entry before
"ORABASE_EXEC=$ORACLE_HOME/bin/orabase" to null the value that
orabase could accomodated the real value of $ORACLE_BASE variable.

[oracle@oel1 bin]$ vi /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin/oraenv
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ vi /u05/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_2/bin/oraenv
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [db11106] ?
The Oracle base for ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1 is /u01/app/oracle
[oracle@oel1 bin]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [db11106] ? db11a
The Oracle base for ORACLE_HOME=/u05/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_2 is /u05/app/oracle

Have a good day!