Upgrade your Database - NOW! – Mike Dietrich's Blog About Oracle Database Upgrades... Mostly

Which releases allow you to upgrade to Oracle Database 21c?

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 21c 0

As I wrote before, the release you should upgrade to is clearly Oracle Database 19c. Unless you need to use one of the new features in Oracle 21c. But as you have seen in the past, some of them get backported to 19c as well. Still, in case you can’t resists or you love upgrades as much as we do, the question may be: Which releases allow you to upgrade to Oracle Database 21c?

Upgrade-supported Releases

The Database Upgrade Guide for Oracle 21c is your best friend here. Right at the beginning in the first chapter you will find this …

Pitfall: Upgrade to 21c fails when ORDIM is present but no SDO

You may have read my previous blog post about Upgrading a non-CDB to Oracle Database 21c. And I referred to a potential Pitfall: Upgrade to 21c fails when ORDIM is present but no SDO. In this blog post I would like to explain how to avoid this pitfall beforehand and explain what needs to be done.

Pitfall: Upgrade to 21c fails when ORDIM is present but no SDO

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What’s the problem?

In my previous blog post I showed you the ideal and normal way. But during my tests I came across an issue I was not aware of – and I simply had no …

Upgrading a non-CDB to Oracle Database 21c with AutoUpgrade

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Oracle Database 21c Upgrade / Migration 0

Yesterday I wrote about the installation of Oracle Database 21c on Linux. But today it is time for Upgrading to Oracle Database 21c with AutoUpgrade.

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AutoUpgrade

You may have heard it already from us and other colleagues, but we can’t repeat it often enough: There is only one recommended tool to upgrade your databases – and this is AutoUpgrade.

In my 21c home, I’m checking the deployed version of AutoUpgrade at first:

[CDB3] oracle@hol:/u01/app/oracle/product/21/rdbms/admin
$ java -jar autoupgrade.jar -version
build.hash 57ab246
build.version 21.1.3
build.date 2021/04/21 13:32:13
build.max_target_version 21
build.supported_target_versions 12.2,18,19,21
build.type production

Now please …

Installation of Oracle Database 21c on Oracle Linux

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 21c 2

As you may have expected already since Oracle Database 21c is available for download on Linux, I will publish some additional posts this week. Today, I will give a quick insight into the installation process.

Installation of Oracle Database 21c on Oracle Linux

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CDB-only architecture

As you may or may not be aware, Oracle Database 21c is the first Oracle database release with CDB-only architecture. You can’t have a non-CDB in Oracle 21c anymore. Ah, wait a bit, didn’t I blog 1.5 years ago that Oracle Database 20c will be the first CDB-only release? True. But as you saw, there …

Oracle Database 21c is available for download on Linux

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 21c 8

It took a while into 2021 – but now Oracle Database 21c is available for download on Linux.

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Download Location

Please go to either oracle.com or edelivery:

On edelivery you need to search for “Oracle Database”:

Oracle Database 21c is available for download on Linux

On oracle.com you need to scroll down a bit:

Oracle Database 21c is available for download on Linux

Other OS Ports

As you can see in MOS Note: 742060.1 – Release Schedule of Current Database Releases – Table 2, Oracle Database 21c will be available on Linux x86-64, Microsoft Windows x64 and HP-UX Itanium. It won’t be available on SPARC or Intel Solaris, neither will it …

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and Out-Of-Place Patching

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Optimizer Patch Recommendation 4

Well, you see, this is most likely my special DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE week. And since I receive quite a number of questions, it may be good to discuss here about DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and Out-Of-Place Patching?

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Out-of-place Patching

When you patch out-of-place with a new home – which is clearly our recommendation – you may see another tiny pitfall with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE.

When you check DBA_DIRECTORIES, you will find two directories being related to DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE.

SQL> select directory_name, directory_path from dba_directories where directory_name like '%OPTIM%'

DIRECTORY_NAME	     DIRECTORY_PATH
-------------------- --------------------------------------------------
DBMS_OPTIM_LOGDIR    /u01/app/oracle/product/19/cfgtoollogs
DBMS_OPTIM_ADMINDIR  /u01/app/oracle/product/19/rdbms/admin

You see the “19” in the …

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and disabling another fix

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 0

Yes, DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE week it is. As I received so many good questions and input after my blog post whether you should enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE or not, now I can easily fill the rest of the week with new content. Today it will be about a customer’s question regarding DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and disabling another fix.

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Disabling another fix

The setup is pretty simple. Stefan wanted to disable a different fix while he had all fixes from the most recent RU enabled on purpose. Sounds simple but has a dangerous pitfall.

This is what …

Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE?

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 7

Today, Paul mailed me asking a question we internally discussed many times in the past weeks: Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE? And there is no easy simple answer. But I can give a recommendation based on my experience from many projects.

Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE?

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DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – a quick recap

Just in case you haven’t dealt with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE recently, here is a quick recap.

With below procedure, you can list the available potentially behavior changing optimizer fixes in the current patch bundle – and you can turn them on or off at will:

SQL> set serveroutput on;

We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director “Database Utilities”

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich General 0

This is the first time that I send out such a blog post. But since many of you read this blog, and a high number of people follow me on LinkendIn, maybe you’ll be interested as We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director “Database Utilities”. And it could be you!

We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director "Database Utilities"

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I can tell you by heart that you’d join one of the best teams in Oracle.

So please read the job description here – and if your profile matches plus you are looking for a new challenge, you should apply right away. You …

After patching, Spatial Index creation fails with ORA-13249

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls 8

Thanks again to Peter Lehmann from T-Systems for highlighting this issue to me. After patching, Spatial Index creation fails with ORA-13249. And Peter’s customer was quite worried. But see what may have caused this, and how we fixed it.

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What happened?

Peter patched a system from 19.10.0 to 19.11.0. This database has undergone an upgrade from 12.2.0.1 to 19.7.0 before, then got patched to 19.9.0 before. The database has the Oracle Locator only but no Spatial installed. The patching including datapatch worked fine. All seemed to be good. Until the customer tried to …

Patching all my environments with the July 2021 Patch Bundles

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 41

It’s patching day again. Hurray! Or not. I realize that at patching day, the 19c bundles are all missing. So wrote this blog post a bit after the usual release day. In my case this will include Oracle 19.12.0 RU and the July 2021 RU for Oracle 12.2.0.1. Please find the details about Patching all my environments with the July 2021 Patch Bundles below.

Patching all my environments with the July 2021 Patch Bundles

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As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to space issues. But in reality, you please patch always out-of-place with a separate home. Please see this blog post …

New version of AutoUpgrade (21.2) is available for download

Posted on July 22, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 7

As we often tell you, our Upgrade Development team is working hard to ensure an agile release cycle for AutoUpgrade. And the New version of AutoUpgrade (21.2) is available for download.

New version of AutoUpgrade (21.2) is available for download

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How to download?

As usual, you can (and should) always download the most recent version of AutoUpgrade from this MOS Note: 2485457.1. Usually the tool gets refreshed every 6-8 weeks. And the version you will download is guaranteed newer than the one you could get on disk.

New version of AutoUpgrade (21.2) is available for download

The fact the tool has a 21c versioning does not affect 19c upgrades. There …

In memory of Pieter Van Puymbroeck

Posted on July 20, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Off Topic 19

In Memory of Pieter van Puymbroeck

Dear Pieter,

I’m still in state of shock. When our dear friend Philippe called the other day around noon I knew suddenly that something terrible must have happened. I could hear it from Philippe’s voice immediately. Something was wrong. You passed away. Way too early. I still can’t believe it. I miss you.

I know you for many years now. Not as long as others. But long enough to call you a friend. We spent hours together at conferences where we often met. I remember so well when you arrived at breakfast at SlOUG in Portorož one morning complaining heavily

UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Behavior Change 11

Behavior changes introduced via a bug fix may not be something you like a lot. And thanks to Sreedhar from one of our most important customers I learned on the weekend: UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0.

UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0

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What is happening before 19.9.0?

Until Oracle 19.8.0 you could change the UNDO_RETENTION in the CDB$ROOT, and it applied to all PDBs automatically. You may or may not have cared. But there are cases when you’d like to change an undo related parameter in the CDB$ROOT without its propagation into all PDBs.

This behavior …

aioug Webinar on July 2, 2021 – Release Model and Patching Strategy

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

As you may have read already in my previous post, we will start into the July Online Summit for the aioug (All Indian Oracle User Group) this week. Roy Swonger, VP Database Upgrade, Utilities and Patching will present the aioug Webinar on July 2, 2021 – Release Model and Patching Strategy.

aioug Webinar on July 2, 2021 - Release Model and Patching Strategy

How to register?

Simply register yourself please with the following link:

Register here for:Release Model and Patching Strategy

When will it happen?

As you can see in the above picture, July 2, 2021 at 18:00h Indian Time – which converts to:

in other time zones.

Tell

aioug Webinar Series July 2021: Database Upgrade and Migrations

Posted on June 28, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

Many people on the northern hemisphere will escape during July into the summer holidays. But we won’t. Instead, thanks to Sai Penumuru, we will give seven webinars for the aioug. And we are looking forward to talk to you soon at the aioug Webinar Series July 2021: Database Upgrade and Migrations.

aioug Webinar Series July 2021: Database Upgrade and Migrations

When will it happen?

This morning I looked into my calendar. And I realized: Wow, July 2021 is just a few days away. Roy will start with the first session on Friday, July 2. And then myself, Rodrigo, Daniel, Fred and Bill will …

AutoUpgrade may run into a timeout when GI is lower than 19.10.0

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich ASM / RAC / GI Patch Recommendation 7

The other day I received a question from a colleague about the risk of having GI and database both not being on the same RU. And a long while ago I blogged about it. We recommend that you keep it in synch. But you don’t have to. At the same time I received a wish from Ernst Leber to post something on the blog he and his colleague had trouble with when upgrading to 19c in a RAC environment. AutoUpgrade hung. But he titled his email with “not an AutoUpgrade problem!”. Still I agree, it is worth to write …

Upgrade to Oracle 19c on Exadata with AutoUpgrade

Posted on June 16, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Exadata / ODA Oracle Database 19c 21

This will be a short but very important blog post for those of you with Exadata systems. Then you should Upgrade to Oracle 19c on Exadata with AutoUpgrade.

Upgrade to Oracle 19c on Exadata with AutoUpgrade

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Why is this important?

Until a week ago, the database upgrade MyOracle Support (MOS) note showed the process using the DBUA. And we had plenty of customers asking us why AutoUpgrade isn’t mentioned there. Our team worked already with some of you, and we knew that AutoUpgrade works perfectly fine and takes over some manual actions.

But our MAA team wanted a perfect solution. They …

Bug Fixing Support for Oracle 18c ends June 30, 2021

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 18c Release Schedule 0

Time flies so quickly. I remember when we had intense discussions with a very large automotive customer whether they should use Oracle 18c, or rather wait for Oracle 19c. They went straight to Oracle 19c. But I know that many customers out there are still on Oracle 18c. So this date coming up in less than 3 weeks is very important for you. Bug Fixing Support for Oracle 18c ends June 30, 2021.

Bug Fixing Support for Oracle 18c ends June 30, 2021

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Oracle Database 18c

I quickly checked on my blog. On March 20, 2018 I wrote When will Oracle Database 18c …

Welcome onboard at Oracle: Rodrigo Jorge

Posted on June 8, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich General 3

We are thrilled to announce that as of June 7, 2021 we have a new member in our Product Management team: Rodrigo Jorge joins our group as Product Manager for Database Cloud Migrations, Upgrade and Patching. Many of you may know Rodrigo already. He “was” an Oracle ACE Director until June 6, presented at many conferences and user group events – and he has an excellent technical blog. We are really excited to welcome Rodrigo at Oracle.

Welcome onboard at Oracle: Rodrigo Jorge

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Who is Rodrigo?

Rodrigo is joining us from Accenture / Enkitec. He’s very well known in

Unplug / Plug / Upgrade with AutoUpgrade

Posted on June 7, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 9

When we launched AutoUpgrade, it could upgrade non-CDBs and CDBs with all PDBs. Soon after, it learned to upgrade a non-CDB and plug it into an existing CDB as a new PDB. And then, as next step, we added Unplug / Plug / Upgrade with AutoUpgrade. In this case you have a PDB (or hopefully more than one), and you’d like to upgrade one or many PDBs by moving them to a new CDB with a higher database version.

Unplug / Plug / Upgrade with AutoUpgrade

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Test Setup

As test setup I use our Hands-On Lab.

I will …

Some very important MOS Notes when you upgrade and patch

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 14

Today, I would like to publish only a short blog post with some hints to MyOracle Support (MOS) notes we find quite helpful. The idea of all these notes I will list below is to help you finding the right patches before you upgrade or patch to Oracle 19c. So see our collection of Some very important MOS Notes when you upgrade and patch below.

Some very important MOS Note when you upgrade and patch

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Why do you need patch bundles?

At first, it is always our recommendation to upgrade to the most recent Release Update (RU). This is currently Oracle 19.11.0 while I’m …

This MOS note is not available anymore??!?

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich MyOracle Support 5

Let me craft a very short Tuesday evening blog post as this happened quite often to me. We promote a MOS note, either via our blogs or in our Virtual Classroom seminars and workshops. And when you try to access it, the note is gone. Plus, MyOracle Support (MOS) gives you no indication why it has disappeared or what has happened.

This MOS note is not available anymore??!?

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One of the many cases …

Chris commented on the blog here saying:

Hello Mike,

Unfortunately document “MOS Note: 2720807.1 – Oracle Database 19c Important Recommended One-off Patches” is not available anymore as

Messaging Gateway – Upgrade can’t find mgwu122.sql

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Oracle Database 18c Oracle Database 19c 2

Thanks to Christian Ballweg from Optiz Consulting who brought this issue to my attention. I haven’t seen it before since I haven’t installed it but you may encounter this if you have the Messaging Gateway – Upgrade can’t find mgwu122.sql.

Messaging Gateway - Upgrade can't find mgwu122.sql

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What is the Messaging Gateway?

Actually I steal this from the documentation:

Messaging Gateway enables communication between applications based on non-Oracle messaging systems and Oracle Database Advanced Queuing.

Oracle Database Advanced Queuing provides propagation between two Oracle Database Advanced Queuing queues to enable e-business (HTTP through IDAP). Messaging Gateway extends

ORA-1422 and ORA-6512 from SYS.DBMS_STATS in Post Upgrade

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 3

Ernst Leber sent me an email today. He hit an error at a customer upgrading to Oracle 19.9.0 on Exadata with AutoUpgrade. ORA-1422 and ORA-6512 from SYS.DBMS_STATS in Post Upgrade were signaled – and he better flashed back to the Guaranteed Restore Point. He found even a MOS note but still had questions. So time to blog about it in case you hit this error sequence as well.

ORA-1422 and ORA-6512 from SYS.DBMS_STATS in Post Upgrade Phase

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

What happens, and when does it happen?

At first, this is not an AutoUpgrade issue. You may see the same error stack in the post upgrade …

Upgrade-supported Releases

What’s the problem?

AutoUpgrade

CDB-only architecture

Download Location

Other OS Ports

Out-of-place Patching

Disabling another fix

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – a quick recap

What happened?

How to download?

What is happening before 19.9.0?

How to register?

When will it happen?

Tell

When will it happen?

Why is this important?

Oracle Database 18c

Who is Rodrigo?

Test Setup

Why do you need patch bundles?

One of the many cases …

What is the Messaging Gateway?

What happens, and when does it happen?

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