How To Change GRUB Password On Exadata Database Server?

Let's first understand what is GRUB?

GRUB is Grand Unified Boot loader. It is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Free Software Foundation's Multiboot Specification, which provides a user the choice to boot one of multiple operating systems installed on a computer or select a specific kernel configuration available on a particular operating system's partitions.

Users can dynamically configure the GRUB subsystem. GRUB loads its configuration at startup, allowing boot-time changes, such as selecting different kernels or initial RAM disks. To this end, GRUB provides a simple, bash-like, command line interface, which lets users write new boot sequences on the fly, in addition to the normal menu lists.

GRUB is highly portable. It supports multiple executable formats and is geometry-translation independent. It supports all commonly used Unix file systems, the Windows file systems FAT and NTFS, and logical block addressing (LBA). GRUB allows users to view the contents of files on any supported file system. (Ref. - wikipedia)

Procedure to change the password is not Exadata specific but it is also applicable for all the the hardware which are running with Unix operating system.

The following procedure describes how to change the GRUB account password on the database server:

1. Use the following command at the operating system prompt to change the GRUB password:

#grub-md5-crypt

The system prompts for a new password. The new password must be entered twice, and a string is displayed.



2. Copy that string to the copy buffer.

$1$cfuQg$EWDMTiWJuyXvOSAZiw2qy. - This string need to be copied

3. Locate the password line in the /boot/grub/grub.conf file. The line looks similar to the following:

#password --md5 hashed_string


4. Replace the existing hashed string with the one copied from the grub-md5-crypt command output.


5. Save the file.

You have changed the GRUB password.

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