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1. O/S Authentication on Windows Networking Tips
How can I get Oracle on Windows to accept my Windows login
credentials?
The real question here is this: you make sure you’re a member of the ORA_DBA local group
on your Windows server. That gives you the right to connect to the database as a
privileged User (one who is able to perform the 5 privileged actions –startup, shutdown,
backup, recover and create) using Operating System authentication. You fire up server
manager (or SQL*Plus) and type the usual O/S authentication connect string:
Connect / as sysdba
Whereupon you get an ORA-01031: insufficient privileges error message!
What is going on? Surely, membership of the ORA_DBA group (or the ORA_<sid>_DBA
equivalent) should be sufficient to allow O/S authentication connections?
Unfortunately not, and it’s all to do with the pesky sqlnet.ora file. For Windows
installations, it may include the following line:
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS)
That value NTS may also be set to NONE. Or the line may be missing entirely. Whatever,
the problem is that unless it does exist, and unless it is set to NTS, then Operating System
authentication won’t work, even if you are member of the ORA_DBA group.
As proof, I offer the following small demonstration:
D:oracleora91networkadmin>type sqlnet.ora
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NONE)
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, ONAMES, HOSTNAME)
D:oracleora91networkadmin>sqlplus "/ as sysdba"
SQL*Plus: Release 9.0.1.0.1 - Production on Tue Mar 19 06:06:18 2002
(c) Copyright 2001 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
ERROR:
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
D:oracleora91networkadmin>type sqlnet.ora
<==note the missing line!
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, ONAMES, HOSTNAME)
D:oracleora91networkadmin>sqlplus "/ as sysdba"
SQL*Plus: Release 9.0.1.0.1 - Production on Tue Mar 19 06:06:42 2002
(c) Copyright 2001 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
ERROR:
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges
Copyright © Howard Rogers 2002 19/03/2002 Page 1 of 2

2. O/S Authentication on Windows Networking Tips
D:oracleora91networkadmin>type sqlnet.ora
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS)
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, ONAMES, HOSTNAME)
D:oracleora91networkadmin>sqlplus "/ as sysdba"
SQL*Plus: Release 9.0.1.0.1 - Production on Tue Mar 19 06:07:03 2002
(c) Copyright 2001 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.0.1.1.1 - Production
With the Partitioning option
JServer Release 9.0.1.1.1 – Production
Here the three cases are demonstrated one after the other. In the first, the sqlnet.ora
parameter is set to NONE. The request to connect ‘AS SYSDBA’ using O/S authentication
fails. In the second, the relevant parameter is missing entirely; again the connection
attempt fails. Only in the third, when the parameter is set to NTS does the connection
succeed.
This isn’t an issue on Unix. There, membership of the dba group in /etc/groups is
sufficient in and of itself to switch on O/S authentication. It’s purely a Windows problem.
Copyright © Howard Rogers 2002 19/03/2002 Page 2 of 2