The problem is that you have two places where you are setting the global value of runas_default for user devaxs. Instead of: Defaults:ORAGRP runas_default=oracle Try: Defaults!/saga/app/oracle/proc_gen/proc.shl runas_default=oracle Or just remove the runas_default=oracle line and run $ sudo -u oracle /saga/app/oracle/proc_gen/proc.shl - todd