Oracle Database Discussions

(Oracle 9.2)

hi guys,

I am a little confused. I have read that if a user is identified externally, then it means that their password is not stored in oracle.

(1) Now, my OS user on my database server is oracle, and oracle belongs to group dba.
os_authent_prefix=""

I can log in to my unix machine as oracle, and connect as sysdba. All very well. I would expect that. If my os_authent_prefix had been 'ops$', then I would not be able to, as my unix user would need to be ops$oracle. Correct?

(2) Now, I want to be able to log in as sysdba from a remote machine. So, I set remote_login_passwordfile=EXCLUSIVE, and I use orapwd to create my file. I then grant sysdba to myUser, and this adds the user to the file. Correct?


Now, I do not see where the 'identified externally' fits in, and I have googled, and am still confused. I mean, both the user oracle in (1) and myUser in (2) are identified externally, as the password for neither is stored in the database. So what does create user identified externally mean?

Thanks.