ORA-01031: insufficient privileges

command 'sqlplus system/manager' works fine. But in case connect system/manager as sysdba, it will tell me "ORA-01031: insufficient privileges" error.

[oracle@bej301441 ~]$ sqlplus system/manager as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 10.1.0.5.0 - Production on Wed Mar 6 08:13:11 2013

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

ERROR:
ORA-01031: insufficient privileges

Solution

This is not the sqlplus which under $RDBMS_ORACLE_HOME.We need switch ORACLE_HOME to real DB HOME,and use sqlplus which in DB HOME to connect.

[oracle@bej301441 ~]$ which sqlplus
/u01/oracle/mc3yd213/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/sqlplus

cd to DB home,and run env file, this will set required env parameters.

[oracle@bej301441 11.1.0]$cd /u01/oracle/mc3yd213/db/tech_st/11.1.0
[oracle@bej301441 11.1.0]$ . ./mc3yd213_bej301441.env

Now you can check $ORACLE_HOME, and sqlplus directory

[oracle@bej301441 11.1.0]$ echo $ORACLE_HOME
/u01/oracle/mc3yd213/db/tech_st/11.1.0
[oracle@bej301441 11.1.0]$ which sqlplus
/u01/oracle/mc3yd213/db/tech_st/11.1.0/bin/sqlplus
[oracle@bej301441 11.1.0]$ sqlplus system/manager as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on Wed Mar 6 08:18:55 2013

Copyright (c) 1982, 2008, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.7.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL>