In this Document

APPLIES TO:

GOAL

During the creation of a standby database or after having altered the password for any user granted the SYSDBA,SYSOPER or SYSDG privileges the password file must be copied from the primary site to the standby site.

The Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 12.1.0.1 and above can now store password files in ASM diskgroups.  By default if dbca is used to create a RAC database, the password file is created in an ASM diskgroup on the Primary site.

The documentation states that the password file must be copied from the Primary to the Standby sites:

     http://docs.oracle.com/database/121/DGBKR/concepts.htm#DGBKR015

This HOW TO details the procedure and commands for copying the password file from the Primary site to the standby site when these password files are held in an ASM diskgroup.

IMPORTANT: The ASM diskgroup used to store the password files on the standby site MUST have it's COMPATIBLE.ASM attribute set to 12.1.

SOLUTION

The procedure for copying the file across from the Primary site to the standby site is as the following:


1. On the Primary site as the grid user, copy the password file out of ASM on to a file system based location, in this case /tmp

Primary Site:

[oracle@grid2vm1 dbs]$ su - grid
Password: 

[grid@grid2vm1 ~]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [grid] ? +ASM1
The Oracle base has been set to /u01/app/grid

[grid@grid2vm1 ~]$ asmcmd

ASMCMD> pwcopy +DATA/DB121/PASSWORD/pwddb121.256.867607273 /tmp/orapwdb121
copying +DATA/DB121/PASSWORD/pwddb121.256.867607273 -> /tmp/orapwdb121
ASMCMD> exit

2. Copy the password file to one of the Standby RAC nodes   

Primary Site:

[oracle@grid2vm1 dbs]$ scp /tmp/orapwdb121 grid1vm1:/tmp/orapwdb1211
..
.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

oracle@grid1vm2's password: 
orapwdb121                           100% 7680     7.5KB/s   00:00

  

3. On the standby node that now has a copy of the password file, copy the password file into ASM as grid user.  The ASM command pwcopy can be used to perform this task.  Make sure the file is placed in the diskgroup and sub-directory for the standby identified through its db_unique_name value.  In this case +DATA and DB121STB.

Standby Site:

$ su - grid
Password: 

[grid@grid1vm1 ~]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [grid] ? +ASM1
The Oracle base has been set to /u01/app/grid

[grid@grid1vm1 ~]$ asmcmd

ASMCMD> pwcopy /tmp/orapwdb1211 +DATA/DB121STB/orapwdb1211
copying /tmp/orapwdb1211 -> +DATA/DB121STB/orapwdb1211

ASMCMD> ls -l  +DATA/DB121STB/orapwdb1211
Type      Redund  Striped  Time             Sys  Name
PASSWORD  UNPROT  COARSE   FEB 26 11:00:00  N    orapwdb1211 => +DATA/ASM/PASSWORD/pwdasm.279.872680185
ASMCMD> exit

4. As the owner of the RDBMS software for the database, update the clusterware resource for the database and set the location of the password file to be used by the database using srvctl modify database command.

Standby Site:

$ su - oracle
Password: 

[oracle@grid1vm1 ~]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [oracle] ? db1211
The Oracle base has been set to /u01/app/oracle

[oracle@grid1vm1 ~]$ srvctl modify database -d db121stb -pwfile +DATA/DB121STB/orapwdb1211

[oracle@grid1vm1 ~]$ srvctl config  database -d db121stb

Database unique name: db121stb
Database name: 
Oracle home: /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1
Oracle user: oracle
Spfile: /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/dbs/spfiledb1211.ora
Password file: +DATA/DB121STB/orapwdb1211
Domain: au.oracle.com
Start options: mount
Stop options: immediate
Database role: PHYSICAL_STANDBY
Management policy: AUTOMATIC
Server pools: 
Disk Groups: DATA,FRA
Mount point paths: 
Services: 
Type: RAC
Start concurrency: 
Stop concurrency: 
OSDBA group: dba
OSOPER group: 
Database instances: db1211,db1212
Configured nodes: grid1vm1,grid1vm2
Database is administrator managed

Note: if the --dbuniquename switch in pwcopy is used, the following errors will appear after the file has been copied.

ASMCMD> pwcopy --dbuniquename db121stb /tmp/orapwdb1211 +DATA/DB121STB/orapwdb1211
copying /tmp/orapwdb1211 -> +DATA/DB121STB/orapwdb1211
PRCD-1163 : Failed to modify database db121stb
PRCR-1071 : Failed to register or update resource ora.db121stb.db
CRS-0245:  User doesn't have enough privilege to perform the operation
ASMCMD-9453: failed to register password file as a CRS resource

These errors are expected due to user role separation. Please use steps above instead.