IBM Support

Password Authentication Failure for User

Troubleshooting


Problem

Password authentication may fail if passwords are cached using the nzpassword command while the default environment variable for NZ_PASSWORD is defined.

Symptom

After setting up my database account such that it uses the nzpassword command, you are getting an 'Password authentication failed' error.

Scenario:
1. Log in as the nz user 
2. Create the stored password by running the following command:
nzpassword add -u testuser -pw 
[my_password] -host [hostname] 

No error appears.

3. Check that the password file was created:
ls -lart .nzpassword


Example output follows: 

[nz@nzhostha2 ~]$ ls -lart .nzpassword
-r-------- 1 nz nz 62 Apr 16 22:24 .nzpassword
[nz@nzhostha2 ~]$ nzpassword show

Host      User
-------- ------------
nzhostha2 testuser


4. However, when you try to log in to nzsql using the following commands, it does not work: 


[nz@nzhostha2 ~]$ nzsql nzsql: Password authentication failed for user 'testuser'

Resolving The Problem

The error may occur because the NZ_PASSWORD environment variable is set. This setting causes NPS to use the admin password which likely does not match with any other user account. 

To resolve this error, do the following: 
1. Open the  ~/.bashrc file for editing and comment out the setting of the NZ_PASSWORD environment variable.
2. Use the nzpassword command to add the password for admin. The following is an example: 

nzpassword add -u ADMIN -pw
 my_admin_password -host nzhostha2 

where my_admin_password is the password for the admin account and nzhostha2 is the hostname or IP address.

3. You should be able to log in using one of the following commands: 

nzsql
 (will log in as admin) or 

nzsql -u testuser
 (will log in as testuser)

[{"Product":{"code":"SSULQD","label":"IBM PureData System"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":null,"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"1.0.0","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Historical Number

NZ799953

Document Information

More support for:
IBM PureData System

Software version:
1.0.0

Document number:
461211

Modified date:
17 October 2019

UID

swg21568828