'Io exception: NL Exception was generated' running IRCA

Shahed pinged me about this during SOA installation:

$ sh irca.sh
Integration Repository Creation Assistant (IRCA) 10.1.3.1.0
(c) Copyright 2006 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter database "host port serviceName" [localhost 1521 orcl]: justanexample 1521 soa11g
Enter sys password:
Running IRCA for all product(s):
connection="justanexample 1521 soa11g", , orabpelUser=ORABPEL, esbUser=ORAESB, orawsmUser=ORAWSM

ERROR: Failed to establish database connection due to the following error:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

Please check your connection parameters and try again.

I tried it and got different result:

$ sh irca.sh
Integration Repository Creation Assistant (IRCA) 10.1.3.1.0
(c) Copyright 2006 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter database "host port serviceName" [localhost 1521 orcl]: "justanexample 1521 soa11g"
Enter sys password:
Running IRCA for all product(s):
connection=""justanexample 1521 soa11g"", , orabpelUser=ORABPEL, esbUser=ORAESB, orawsmUser=ORAWSM

ERROR: Failed to establish database connection due to the following error:
Io exception: NL Exception was generated
Please check your connection parameters and try again.

A search on My Oracle Support showed up Article [ID 580448.1]

Cause

A valid connection 'as sysdba' could not be established to the Oracle RDBMS instance.

Testing a connection from a JDeveloper client to the target RDBMS shows that a SYSTEM schema can
create a connection, but SYS is also unable to create a regular rdbms connection. Therefore
JDeveloper is having the same problem making a 'SYS as sysdba' connection over jdbc thin.

Solution

Create a password file and ensure that your RDBMS allows remote connections as sysdba.

Issue was resolved after creating passwordfile by running orapwd :
Usage: orapwd file= password= entries= force= ignorecase= nosysdba=