Arctus Blog

Apart from the obvious uses, this tip is particularly useful if you’ve imported a full database from another server and don’t know the system password.

For this to work you must be authenticated with the Windows Server running Oracle as an Administrator. That is, this will only work if you are logged in to Windows as administrator. I think it’ll also work on Unixes if you use su/sudo.

Start SQL*Plus (Start -> Programs -> Oracle – Instance Name -> Application Development -> SQL Plus).

At the login prompt, in the user-name field type ”/as sysdba” (including the forward slash, but without the quotes). Click OK.

You are now connected as system, effectively, with full DBA rights.

To reset the password of the SYSTEM login (or any other user for that matter), run the following query:

alter user system identified by NewPassword;

Change the NewPassword to whatever you want it to be. Change system to another user account as required. Hit ENTER to run the query and you should receive positive affirmation of the change:

“User altered.”

I hope you find this tip useful. Adrian.