Exadata: ssh to oracle account gives access denied.

https://bandrtpeg.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/exadata-ssh-to-oracle-account-gives-access-denied/

[root@ndcxdb01 log]# pam_tally2
Login           Failures Latest failure     From
oracle             53    12/15/11 16:12:05  10.108.26.153

From above its clear that account was locked due to 53 number of failure attempts.

In Exadata( Linux), ssh behavior is  mainly control by file /etc/pam.d/sshd and login by /etc/pam.d/login.

pam_tally2 -r -u oracle  # this will reset oracle account.