Fix ORA-01017: ASMSNMP User Missing After Grid Infrastructure Install

By: Mahmoud Darwish

Recently, I was trying to install a single Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 11.2.0.4 with ASM. Everything completed successfully from the RAW device format through to the grid infrastructure and database software installation. But when I started to create the database using DBCA, I got this error:

Can not use ASM for database storage due to the following reason:
Could not connect to ASM due to the following error:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied.

Everyone will say there is a wrong provided password — that was my first thought too. But I found the ASMSNMP user simply was not created.

Diagnosis

-- Step 1: Recreate the password file (this did NOT fix it)
orapwd file=$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw+ASM password=oracle entries=5

-- Step 2: Try connecting as ASMSNMP (fails)
sqlplus asmsnmp/oracle@+ASM as sysdba

-- Step 3: Check existing ASM users
$ asmcmd
ASMCMD> lspwusr
Username  sysdba  sysoper  sysasm
     SYS    TRUE     TRUE   FALSE
-- Only SYS exists. ASMSNMP is missing.

The Fix

-- Login to +ASM instance using SYSASM privilege
sqlplus / as sysasm

SQL> CREATE USER asmsnmp IDENTIFIED BY oracle;
User created.

SQL> GRANT sysdba TO asmsnmp;
Grant succeeded.

-- Verify
ASMCMD> lspwusr
Username  sysdba  sysoper  sysasm
     SYS    TRUE     TRUE   FALSE
 ASMSNMP    TRUE    FALSE   FALSE

After creating the ASMSNMP user and granting SYSDBA, DBCA was able to connect to ASM and the database creation completed successfully. The root cause appears to be a bug in certain 11.2.0.4 grid infrastructure installations where the ASMSNMP user is not automatically created.