Difference between SYSDBA & SYSOPER system privileges

Even though SYSDBA & SYSOPER are two different system privileges, they share some common features:

®     Both are administrative privileges used for performing high-level administrative tasks like:

-    Create database

-    Startup/shutdown database

-    Backup database

-    Enable archivelog

-    Create spfile

-    Includes the RESTRICTED SESSION privilege

®     Both the system privileges allow connections to the database even when the database is not open.

®     Control on both these system privileges are outside the database, so that an administrator granted with any one of these system privileges will be able to start the database.

®      When you log in to the database as SYS user, you must connect to the database either as SYSDBA or as SYSOPER.

Difference between SYSDBA & SYSOPER

Sl. No.	SYSDBA	SYSOPER
1	Default schema is SYS	Default schema is PUBLIC
2	Allows most operations, including the ability to view user data. It is the most powerful administrative privilege	Allows a user to perform basic operational tasks, but without the ability to look at user data
3	Any form of incomplete recovery, such as UNTIL TIME|CHANGE|CANCEL|CONTROLFILE requires connecting as SYSDBA.	Only complete recovery using "ALTER DATABASE RECOVER;"
4	Can change character set	Changing character set is not applicable here
5	Can drop database	Dropping database is not allowed for SYSOPER

Most of the DBAs confuse SYSDBA and SYSOPER system privileges with DBA. DBA is a role in the database which includes all system privileges excluding SYSDBA and SYSOPER.