Receiving Failed to Login to APEX / HTMLDB Page - You Don't Have Permission to Access /pls/apex
APPLIES TO:
Oracle Application Express (formerly HTML DB) - Version 1.5 and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.
SYMPTOMS:
APEX (formerly HTML DB) has been installed with no errors in the installation log. When trying to access the APEX admin page after the install using the APEX URL
http://machine:port/pls/apex/apex_admin
or:
http://machine:port/pls/apex/apex
Gives the following error:
"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /pls/apex on this server"
Other URLs within this configuration work successfully. For example:
http://machine:port brings up the Oracle HTTP Server Welcome page, and the links and tabs for Demonstrations / Key Features are also working.
CAUSE:
The error_log shows the following errors:
[Tue Sep 14 09:34:03 2004] [error] [client 111.111.111.10] [ecid: 1095168843:121.121.121.12:2764:0:431,0] mod_plsql: /pls/apex/apex HTTP-403 ORA-1017
The database password that is provided in the Database Access Descriptor definition file (dads.conf or marvel.conf) in $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/modplsql/conf is incorrect.
SOLUTION:
1. Verify the APEX_PUBLIC_USER (or HTMLDB_PUBLIC_USER) password. By default, it will be the same password defined for the APEX ADMIN user.
If you are unable to login as the APEX_PUBLIC_USER, modify the password as the SYS user using the following command:
alter user APEX_PUBLIC_USER identified by <password>;
2. Make a backup of the file containing the Database Access Descriptor (DAD) definition for APEX- tyically marvel.conf or dads.conf.
3. Modify the value PlsqlDatabasePassword in to reflect the password identified in step 1. For this example, let's say the password is manager1:
PlsqlDatabaseUsername APEX_PUBLIC_USER
PlsqlDatabasePassword manager1
The password must be entered in clear text.
4. Restart the Oracle HTTP Server.
opmnctl stop
opmnctl start
5. Test to verify that you can login to APEX / HTML DB successfully.
Once you can successfully login to APEX / HTML DB , you can encrypt the password by using the dadTool.pl perl script provided with the 10g HTTP Server installation.