I needed to modify some of our system's password policies. So I updated the password verify function which our users' common profile points to. Unfortunately this function must be compiled under sys. So I started handing it off to our DBAs to compile for me. That got old after the 3rd or 4th time I needed to make change during debugging.
So I talked our DBA manager to give me the sys password to a local Oracle 9 database running on one of our Windows servers. Since we use a lot of legacy tools on our project, I fired up the version of SQL*Plus that comes with our ancient Oracle 8.1.6 client. I was surprised at the result.
SQL> connect sys@the_database as sysdba
Enter password: *******
ERROR:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied
At first I thought I had the wrong password. But a DBA came to my desk and had the same problem. The database is Oracle 9i (Release 9.2.0.8). Maybe you can't mix an Oracle 8 client with an Oracle 9i client when you log on as sysdba. I don't know.
The next thing I am going to try is to install the Oracle 10g client to see it makes a difference. Stay tuned and I will fill you in with my results.
