Oracle 12c: Dataguard Setup: Password File Issues Invalid Username/Password during initial setup. In some cases ORA-65500: could not modify DB_UNIQUE_NAME, resource exists

While duplicate/standby creation using RMAN from a active database 12c with ASM, password file in ASM we hit ORA-65500: could not modify DB_UNIQUE_NAME, resource exists when we use srvctl to setup standby database.

Issue 1: Password file not getting recognized in dbs location

Password file does not get recognized on standby site if we dont place the password file in ASM.

To address this use this paramter which will resolve the issue.

remote_login_passwordfile=EXCLUSIVE in the init file.The default value is different which will not recognize the password file if its in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs,

So the init file for the duplicate database to startup in nomount mode should be -

DB_NAME=<Same as primary DB_NAME>
DB_UNIQUE_NAME={DB_NAME}_{DR SITE NAME} eg, DB_UNIQUE_NAME=DGTST_DFW
CLUSTER_DATABASE=FALSE
remote_login_passwordfile=EXCLUSIVE

Issue 2: ORA-65500: could not modify DB_UNIQUE_NAME if using srvctl.


This is when you configure the standby/duplicate database in srvctl before running your rman duplicate script.

So, do not configure db in srvctl before running rman duplicate ,

use the below init file in dbs.

DB_NAME=<Same as primary DB_NAME>
DB_UNIQUE_NAME={DB_NAME}_{DR SITE NAME} eg, DB_UNIQUE_NAME=DGTST_DFW
CLUSTER_DATABASE=FALSE
remote_login_passwordfile=EXCLUSIVE


sqlplus / as sysdba
startup nomount

sqlplus sys/<password>@tns_standby as sysdba

-----This should connect you to standby if the password file is copied properly from Primary (Normally we use pwcopy from ASM to filesystem, then scp to stanbdy site). Also the tns entry of standby should be good,

----Do not use scan entries in tns for standby,

Now you can run the  rman duplicate