Change Oracle DB name using NID

Details:

Environment: RAC
Source name: orclA
Target name: orcl

1. Make sure that you have a recoverable whole database backup.

2. In Real Application Cluster we need to set cluster_database parameter to false and mount an instance on only one node:

[oracle@primrac1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> alter system set cluster_database=false scope=spfile;

[oracle@primrac1 ~]$ srvctl stop database orclA
[oracle@primrac1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> startup mount;

3. From the 1st node run nid utility. Specify username with sysdba privilege, target database name, and SETNAME parameter to yes.

[oracle@primrac1 ~]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [oracle] ? orclA1
The Oracle base remains unchanged with value /u01/app/oracle

[oracle@primrac1 ~]$ nid TARGET=SYS DBNAME=orcl SETNAME=YES
DBNEWID: Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production on Mon Dec 16 16:54:36 2019
Copyright (c) 1982, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
Password:
Connected to database ORCLA (DBID=3133348785)
Connected to server version 19.4.0
Control Files in database:
    +DATA/ORCLA/CONTROLFILE/current.290.1020357617
Change database name of database ORCLA to ORCL? (Y/[N]) => Y
Proceeding with operation
Changing database name from ORCLA to ORCL
     Control File +DATA/ORCLA/CONTROLFILE/current.290.1020357617 - modified
     Datafile +DATA/ORCLA/DATAFILE/system.283.102035744 - wrote new name
     Datafile +DATA/ORCLA/DATAFILE/sysaux.286.102035749 - wrote new name
     Datafile +DATA/ORCLA/DATAFILE/undotbs1.287.102035753 - wrote new name
     Datafile +DATA/ORCLA/DATAFILE/undotbs2.300.102035839 - wrote new name
     Datafile +DATA/ORCLA/DATAFILE/users.288.102035754 - wrote new name
     Datafile +DATA/ORCLA/TEMPFILE/temp.296.102035765 - wrote new name
     Control File +DATA/ORCLA/CONTROLFILE/current.290.1020357617 - wrote new name
     Instance shut down
 Database name changed to ORCL.
 Modify parameter file and generate a new password file before restarting.
 Succesfully changed database name.
 DBNEWID - Completed succesfully.

5. Change db_name parameter in the initialization parameter file:

[oracle@primrac1 dbs]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [orcl1] ? orclA1

[oracle@primrac1 dbs]$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> startup nomount;
SQL> alter system set db_name=orcl scope=spfile;
SQL> alter system set cluster_database=true scope=spfile;
SQL> shut immediate;

6. Modify database name in srvctl:

[oracle@primrac1 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -db orclA -dbname orcl

7. Remove existing password file entry and create a new one:

[oracle@primrac1 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -db orclA -pwfile

[oracle@primrac1 dbs]$ orapwd  dbuniquename=orclA file='+DATA/ORCLA/PASSWORD/pwdorcl.ora'
Enter password for SYS:

8. Start the database using srvctl:

[oracle@primrac1 dbs]$ srvctl start database -db orclA

Depending on your needs you may also update instance names. If so, please make sure that you don’t have instance-specific parameters (e.g orclA1.instance_number), otherwise, it’s better to recreate the parameter file with the correct instance names.

I’ve shown you just a simple example of the database name change. In your specific case, there may be other things that depend on the database name.