it didn't work.

We are using Oracle 8.1.7 in a OPS environment
The failover scripts try to gracefully stop the listener and database processes when failover happens

we are trying to password protect the listeners -- we have used the lsnrctl change_password command, etc.

We can start and stop the listeners by doing a interactive lsnrctl session:
ie...
lsnrctl
LSNRCTL> set current_listener lsnr_xxx
LSNRCTL> set password
xxxx
LSNRCTL> stop lsnr_xxx

the question is... is there a way to script this?

is there a way to script this is we scrap the encrypted passwords, and go to unencrypted passwords in the listener.ora file.

sometime this year, we'll be upgrading to 9i or 10g... but I need to do this now, unfortunately.

I ended up having to use the encrypted password -- not the cleartext password -- in the interactive script

ie
---------
stop_lsnr.sh
---------
#!/bin/sh
lsnrctl << EOF
set current_listener lsnr_xxx
set current_password "encrypted_password_from_listener.ora"
stop
exit
EOF
---------

instead of

---------
stop_lsnr_bad.sh
---------
#!/bin/sh
lsnrctl << EOF
set current_listener lsnr_xxx
set current_password "plain_text password"
stop
exit
EOF
---------

We would like to script the listener start/stop process. How do you set the password non-interactively (ie: within a unix script)?

Oracle 9.2.0.7 is our current release.

Thank you in advance.

If you can't script the start/stop of a password protected listener, how do you get the listener to start automatically during server boot, or during a failover situation? Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.

running 9.2.0.7 on Windows Server 2003
Is there anyway to see Listener Password set status or any flags set anywhere than can be queried??, I don't have anything in the listener.ora file after I set a lsnrctl password.
Do I have to try to issue change_password then see if it errors out to determine the password is set?

Tom,
i have the database listener stop script:
........
.......
fi

else
printf "\nShutting down listener process $listener_name ...\n\n"

lsnrctl stop $listener_name >> $LOGFILE 2>&1
exit_code=$?
fi

printf "\n$program: exiting with status $exit_code\n"

exit $exit_code

I want to use the password to protect the listener. So I changed above "lsnrctl stop $listener_name >> $LOGFILE 2>&1
" To
"
lsnrctl << EOT >> $LOGFILE
set current_listener $listener_name
set password lpwd
stop $listener_name
exit
EOT
"
when i ran the script got the error:
$ ./oraclebase/product/8.1.7/appsutil/scripts/DBT3/addlnctl.sh stop DBT3



/oraclebase/product/8.1.7/appsutil/scripts/DBT3/addlnctl.sh: syntax error at line 114: `end of file' unexpected

I know this' a unix scipting problem. could you point out how can it be fixed?

TIA

<<Using current software, you can use OS authentication. Which means no nasty
trying to put passwords into scripts which sort of defeats having passwords.>>

what is that? example will help.

What is the difference between lsnctl

reload Vs <stop and start>

Do they achive the same goal ?

Is it preferred to use reload over stop/start when the system needs to be online.

Then i prefer to use "lsnrctl reload" to avoid downtime of application.

Is there any know issue of issuing "reload" instead of "stop/start" which you are aware of.

I only started writing shell scripts and I've got a script that stops/starts the password enabled listener with no password hardcoding. It took me a weekend of googling shell script commands but it's not that complex. I was a developer before becoming a DBA so I know a little bit about writing code. Have I misunderstood the discussion?

Regarding reload vs stop/start, it's been my observation that reload does not read the listener.ora file if you have one. Try corrupting your listener.ora file. You should still be able to reload but your lsnrctl start will fail after the stop.

The script below just does a start. Easy enough to clone into one that just does a stop or combine the two into one.

#!/bin/sh
#
# this script only works with password enabled listeners
#
. /home/oracle/work/oraenv.10g
#
RTC=1
# each password enabled listener will have an entry in listener.ora
# that reads PASSWORDS_listener_name = xxxxxxxxx
PASSWDS=PASSWORDS_
# check for specific listener input parameter and append to search string
if [ "$1" ]
then
PASSWDS=$PASSWDS$1
LISTIN=$1
else
LISTIN=A
fi
# spool the listener password lines into a file cutting out the first
# ten columns (PASSWORDS_)
cd $TNS_ADMIN
grep $PASSWDS listener.ora | cut -c11-80 > $HOME/xx.lst
XX=$HOME/xx.lst
# process the file
# if at least one entry processed set the return code to 0
cat $XX | while read LINE
do
# first field is listener name, second is =, third is password
LISTENER=`echo $LINE | awk '{print $1}' -`
LISTPASS=`echo $LINE | awk '{print $3}' -`
# retest because greping LISTENER also retrieves LISTENER1
# or if no listener specified process all listeners
if [ "$1" ] && [ $LISTIN = $LISTENER ] || [ $# = 0 ]
then
RTC=0
lsnrctl <<EOF
set current_listener $LISTENER
set password $LISTPASS
start
exit
EOF
fi
done
# temp file cleanup
rm $HOME/xx.lst
if [ $RTC = 1 ]
then
echo "Listener " $1 " not found"
fi
exit $RTC

Forget my comments about the reload not reading listener.ora. Thought it happened but I can't reproduce it.

Hi Tom,

For one of our client, one application member has set a password for a database for listener and now we are not able to trace the person who set the same or what is the password atleast. Now we want to remove the password and make the listener as it was before. Please let me know the best wayout for the same. We are on HP-UX with Oracle 9i.

we are using 9.2.0.7.
There has been a recommendation to set password for listener. If we use non-default port number and also my understanding is that only Oracle user can start and stop the listener, then why do we need to set password for listener. One can log on to the server only if one knows password for user oracle..only then listener can be stopped..then is it redundant to have password for listener ? Thanks.

I could stop a listener on server A from server B as long as the name of the listener is LISTENER. Example:

serverB>lsnrctl stop serverA

The above command stops the listener from serverB. This is considered as a security issue in 9i and below 9i versions.

Howvere, If I had a named listener (LISTENER_somename), can i stop it from another server? I tried with the following syntax.

serverB>lsnrctl stop LISTENER_somename serverA

It results in error as below.

LSNRCTL for IBM/AIX RISC System/6000: Version 9.2.0.7.0 - Production on 07-SEP-2007 20:52:35

Copyright (c) 1991, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

NL-00857: wrong number (0 - 1 needed) of arguments to "stop"

If one cannot stop a named listener remotely, then password for listener is not needed. correct? My database version is 9.2.0.7. Thanks.

Regarding above, what should I do to protect the listener on serverA from getting stopped remotely from serverB? Thanks,

I have a "named" listener that listens on a non-default port number. I will be starting/stopping the listener only using oracle user account on the server. Do I still need a password to secure the listener? we are on 9.2.0.7 RDBMS. With non-default name for the listener that listens on non-default port number, can the listener be stopped from a remote server? Thanks.

Regarding your answer above..is this true in 10g as well that listener must have a password? Thanks.

If I can't stop a listener because it has a password, I would do this.
ps -ef | grep list
kill <process_id>

Does this have any side effects?