Re: ORA-28000: the account is locked

From: Charles Hooper <hooperc2000_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 04:52:51 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <2a333614-6eec-4e6d-b5fb-8cef82aa21a7_at_k4g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>

On Oct 1, 6:47 am, ilbmbo <ilbi..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1 Ott, 12:39, Charles Hooper <hooperc2..._at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> > If you are able to connect as the SYS user with SQL*Plus (or another
> > tool which allows executing SQL statements), execute the following:
> > ALTER USER SYSTEM ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
>
> > Charles Hooper
> > IT Manager/Oracle DBA
> > K&M Machine-Fabricating, Inc.
>
> With ALTER USER SYSTEM ACCOUNT UNLOCK;  in sqlplus
>
> i have this error:
>
> ORA-01034: ORACLE not available

Interesting. I think that I am able to reproduce the problem that you are experiencing by shutting down the database:

SQL> connect sys/SecretSYSPass_at_MyDB as sysdba Connected.

SQL> shutdown immediate;
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.

SQL> alter user system account unlock;
alter user system account unlock
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available
Process ID: 5476
Session ID: 144 Serial number: 6

I think that the error message above is what you are seeing. Now, while still connected as the SYS user, I start up the database and unlock the SYSTEM account:

SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 627732480 bytes

Fixed Size                  1349124 bytes
Variable Size             268438012 bytes
Database Buffers          352321536 bytes
Redo Buffers                5623808 bytes

Database mounted.
Database opened.

SQL> alter user system account unlock;

User altered.

---

Something apparently caused the database to shut down (dismount), but the database instance is still running. While logged in as the SYS user, try executing the STARTUP command as shown above. Check the alert log for the database to see why it was shut down - you will find it in the bdump directory on the server.

Charles Hooper
IT Manager/Oracle DBA
K&M Machine-Fabricating, Inc. Received on Thu Oct 01 2009 - 06:52:51 CDT