ORA-01994: GRANT failed: password file missing or disabled

Symptoms of The Error:
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In unix system whenever you tried to grant sysdba privilege to a user it returns with error.

ORA-01994: GRANT failed: password file missing or disabled.

Cause of The Problem:
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The oracle software owner is not the owner of the passwordfile.

Solutions of The Problem:
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1)Log on to Unix box as the same user who owns the file $ORACLE_HOME and create the password file as follows.

$orapwd file=$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID password=password entries=4 force=y

2)Now grant sysdba privilege to the users that you need. Check V$PWFILE_USERS about the entry.

SQL>GRANT SYSDBA to SYSTEM;

3)Check the owner of $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID

This would typically,

SQL> !ls -l $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall 1536 Apr 23 16:31 /oracle/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/dbs/orapwdata1

4)If it is not to dba then change the ownership by

$chown oracle:dba $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID

Also change permission by,

$chmod 4640 $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID

Related Documents:
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What isRemote Login Passwordfile
Abour Database Authentication