[Informix] Incorrect password or user x@y is not known on the database server

While trying to connect remotely to a Informix DB I have encounter this error message
Incorrect password or user user06@informix-class2 is not known on the database server.

while i was able to connect via dbaccess tool from the command (locally).

looking into the log file at $INFORMIXDIR/tmp/online.log  , showed this error lines for each connection attempt

17:48:31  Get Shadow Password for user [user06] failed!
17:48:31  Check for password aging/account lock-out.
17:48:31  listener-thread: err = -951: oserr = 0: errstr = user06@informix-class2: Incorrect password or user user06@informix-class2 is not known on the database server.

At first i was searching Google for the original error message i got, and found a lots links which didn’t help in my case.

But after searching for

Get Shadow Password for user * failed

I found my answer on the first page. in IBM support site. basically it was wrong permission on the oninit file

CAUSE

$INFORMIXDIR/bin/oninit has wrong permissions and/or attributes

SOLUTION

Assign $INFORMIXDIR/bin/oninit to user root and group informix, permissions 6754 by executing the following command as user root or user with root privileges

chown root:informix $INFORMIXDIR/bin/oninit
chmod 6754          $INFORMIXDIR/bin/oninit

And thats all,

Source

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5 Responses

  1. Amrita Pandey says:

    I am getting the below error line while connecting to database.
    951: Incorrect password or user username@server-name is not known on the database server.
    Instead of username@informix, I get the error for username@server-name. Could you advise what should be done here?

    • Rabin says:

      IBM have a FAQ on this error, try and look here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21588239

      Several symptoms can cause such behaviour:

      1. SQLHOSTS file mispelled entries;
      2. DBSERVERNAME or DBSERVERALIASES onconfig parameters have no related entries in the SQLHOSTS file;
      3. NIS or LDAP servers misconfiguration or maintenance;
      4. INFORMIXDIR filesystem and/or its subdirectories have wrong permissions or ownership;
      5. User is locked or expired;
      6. oninit binary is somehow damaged or have wrong permissions.
  2. Diego says:

    Please check pwd_algorithm atributte in /etc/security/login.cfg file, I have problems with sha256 value

  3. Marcos Castellon says:

    Excelente, ese era el problema…

  4. Marco says:

    Exacto, me paso lo mismo y lo solucione con esos dos pasos….muchas gracias!

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