iSelfSchooling - Using Grid Control and entering the OS username and password and get - ERROR: NMO not setuid-root (Unix-only)

‘When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always.’ Gandhi

Using Grid Control and entering the OS username and password and get - ERROR: NMO not setuid-root (Unix-only)

This error can be seen in various parts of Grid Control - but only when trying to connect to the Target OS

Cause
This error can occur if an agent has been installed but the root.sh has not been run against the Agent $ORACLE_HOME

Another side effect of not running root.sh is that testing / setting the Preferred Credentials for this target will results in getting username / password incorrect error message. Even if the password is correct for this OS user.
Once root.sh is run - this problem should be resolved.

This might be a more common issue in 10.2 as Grid Control has the option to do an agent "push" - which means the agent is installed onto the target machine from within Grid Control. When using this method there is a options to run or NOT run root.sh as part of the installation. If unticked - there is more chance this required step will not take place after the installation and the above error will occur.

NB: This is Unix Generic issue - does not occur on Windows platform.

Solution
In order to fix this error, please follow the steps below.

1. Connect as oracle user to the host giving the connection error (we assume that oracle is the OS user which installed the Grid Management Agent)

2. Stop the Grid Management Agent
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ./emctl stop agent

3. Connect with the user root, keeping the oracle user environment

4. cd to the Management Agent ORACLE_HOME

5. Run the root.sh script
$ ./root.sh

6. Connect back to the oracle user

7. Restart the Grid Management Agent
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
$ ./emctl start agent