What to do when Enterprise Manager is not able to connect to the database instance (ORA-28001)

If you are trying to connect to the Oracle enterprise Manger and you get the following errors:

Enterprise Manager is not able to connect to the database instance.

And in the “Agent connection to instance” section:

Status: Failed
Details: ORA-28001: the password has expired (DBD ERROR: OCISessionBegin)

One of the reasons could be that the password for the SYSMAN user is expired. However, changing the password alone will not solve this issue. Several additional steps are required in order to make Oracle Enterprise Manager connect:

Before you start: Verify that ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID environment variables are set. – If not, set them using as  environment variables or open a command line and type SET ORACLE_SID=<The database SID>

1. Stop the dbconsole: emctl stop dbconsole (dos and Unix) or  using the windows services stop the OrcleDBConsole<The database SID>.

2. Connect to the database as a user with DBA privilege with SQL*Plus
and run the following command:

alter user sysman identified by <the new password> ;

3. Verify that the new password works
SQL> connect sysman/<the new password>

4. Go to ORACLE_HOME/<HostName_SID>/sysman/config and save a backup of the emoms.properties file.

a) Open the file emoms.properties and search for:
oracle.sysman.eml.mntr.emdRepPwd=<some encrypted value>

Replace the encrypted value with the new password value

b) Search for oracle.sysman.eml.mntr.emdRepPwdEncrypted=TRUE
and change TRUE to FALSE

c) Save and close emoms.properties

5. Restart the dbconsole:

emctl start dbconsole (dos and Unix) or  using the windows services start the OrcleDBConsole<The database SID>.

6. Open  emoms.properties again and Search for:
a)oracle.sysman.eml.mntr.emdRepPwd=
verify  that the password is encrypted

b) oracle.sysman.eml.mntr.emdRepPwdEncrypted=
verify  that the value is set to  TRUE

7. Refresh Oracle Enterprise Manager

33 thoughts on “What to do when Enterprise Manager is not able to connect to the database instance (ORA-28001)

  1. admin Post author

    Thank you,
    I have about 10 years of experience but every oracle error is different. I believe that once you know the concepts, with a lot of patience, you can solve stuff like this.
    Thanks.

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  3. hans

    For me this does not work on a oracle 11g database. The oracle.sysman.eml.mntr.emdRepPwd=
    Line is in the config file but has no encrypted password but “%em_repos_pwd%” So this password is stored somewhere else.
    Replacing the %em_repos_pwd% by the new password does not help.
    Any suggestion?
    Hans

  4. Asaf Tal Post author

    Did you create the the emca manually? You need to recreate it with the new password. Remember to set encrypted= false so Oracle will not encrypt it again.

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  6. Mwangala

    You are spot on,kindly share some of your resource materials so that we can be of help in our African communities.

  7. Kyle Funderburgh

    I have been experiencing a similar problem, but I want to know what causes it. I know how to fix it (using the procedures you’ve outlined – but I don’t know what is causing it to happen in the first place. Our passwrods are encrypted normally… But, if there is another server on the same network with the same hostname, at reboot, it causes the emoms.properties files to unencrypt the password… IF I open the file, I can see the password in the clear again!

    How is this happening?
    Thanks in advance!
    KYle

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  12. Liran Nittai Cohen

    My Database Instance, Listener and Agent Connection to Instance all green but still, I cant connect to the dbConsole 🙁
    I’m still getting “Enterprise Manager is not able to connect to the database instance. The state of the components are listed below.”

    any one ? ideas ?]
    BTW – The server was recreated and restored from cold backup files

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  14. info

    thanks for the advice

    after reading this
    i solved the problem a little bit easier
    i logged on to SQL+ as “SYSMAN”
    and it asked me to change password
    i just changed it to the same one
    and then i could log on to EM
    and it asked me to update the passw for “DBSNMP”
    and i was in

  15. Sandhya

    Your the most wonderful person in this world as you have saved the hard work of my students ……thank u a zillion times… Because of this blog of yours i was able to successfully reset the password

  16. Subu

    No words !! This really worked for us !! I am an SQL DBA and no proficiency in Oracle. But had to work on this and looks like your post saved my weekend !!

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