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

A change in Oracle 12.2 and 19c with MV Refresh Stats Collection

It’s not easy for me to put the topic into a searchable title for this blog post. The feature or change I will write about today came in actually with Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. But since many of you will move directly from Oracle 11.2.0.4 or 12.1.0.2 to 19c, the Long Term Support release, it may affect you as well. So let me explain a change in Oracle 12.2 and 19c with MV Refresh Stats Collection.

A change in Oracle 12.2 and 19c with MV Refresh Stats Collection

Photo by Ralph Mayhew on Unsplash

A customer story

The local Support team asked me a few weeks ago whether I have heard …

Applying the first MRP for Oracle 19.17.0

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 19

A few weeks ago I blogged about the fact that we retired the RURs, and instead release the MRPs (Monthly Recommended Patches). In my previous blog post about this topic you’ll find also an FAQ hopefully answering all the questions you may have (had). And now it is mid of November, so I can show you the process of applying the first MRP for Oracle 19.17.0.

Applying the first MRP for Oracle 19.17.0

Photo by Glenov Brankovic on Unsplash

How do you get access to the MRPs?

At the moment while I write this, you can find the MRPs only in MOS Note: 888.1 -Primary …

Patching all my environments with the October 2022 Bundle Patches

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 35

Oh yes, it is patching time (again). And this time I somehow missed the slot since the quarterly critical patch updates got released right during Oracle Cloud World. Since I didn’t want to stretch the hotel WiFi too much – and since I wouldn’t have had enough time to install and write-up this blog post, I do it now with a week of delay. So as usual every quarter, follow me for patching all my environments with the October 2022 Bundle Patches.

Patching all of my environments with the October 2022 Bundle Patches

Photo by Olga Guryanova on Unsplash

As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to …

Silent ORA-918 behavior change in RU 19.17.0 and newer

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Behavior Change Patch Recommendation 7

I think we have the best customers out there. It is incredible what some people find. We would be lost without you, and this blog would contain only a fraction of the information we can share with you. In this case let me explain the silent ORA-918 behavior change in RU 19.17.0 and newer. And all credits go to Peter Lehmann from Deutsche Telekom who found this issue only a few days after we released 19.17.0.

Silent ORA-918 behavior change in RU 19.17.0 and newer

Photo by Drew Farwell on Unsplash

What is happening?

Peter shared an awesome and simple test case with me. A query with ambiguously defined …

Patching News: RURs are gone – long live MRPs

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 21

Sorry for the headline using TLAs (three letter acronyms). But I was tempted – and those of you being interested in Oracle Database patching my quickly realize that there are some Patching News: RURs are gone – long live MRPs.

Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

RURs are gone?

Andy Mendelsohn announced the MRPs (Monthly Recommended Patches) in October at DOAG Conference in Nuernberg already. Due to Oracle Cloud World bussiness, I’ve had no time to write about it yet. And the introduction of the MRPs means that we won’t produce RURs anymore after a transition grace period.…

Oracle Cloud World 2022 – Recap and Slides

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich OOW 4

This was a wonderful but very strenuous week, no doubt. Oracle Cloud World (OCW) 2022 happened in Las Vegas. New name, new city. And even though many agreed to prefer San Francisco with an Oracle Open World instead having such an event in Sin City, there were a lot of great things happening. So let me start my personal summary here, the Oracle Cloud World 2022 – Recap and Slides.

Oracle Cloud World 2022 - Recap and Slides

Our labs and talks

It was amazing to see you all in our 4 sessions, 4 labs and 2 lightning talks. Since the registration process was a bit …

OCW 2022 – Your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Track to Success

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Conference OOW 2

Will you come to Oracle Cloud World (tcfkaOOW = the conference formerly known as Oracle Open World) 2022 in Las Vegas in the week from October 17-20, 2022? Then we hope to see you there. And we certainly hope to meet you. So in case you are looking for our technical talks and sessions at OCW 2022 – Your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Track to Success.

OCW 2022 – Your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Track to Success

Your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Track at OCW2022

As usual our promise stands.

Zero marketing. Just pure tech.

And we our proud to have lots of real …

Oracle Cloud World 2022 – Database Upgrade and Patching Labs

Posted on September 28, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich OOW 2

Oh … it’s just a few weeks left until Oracle Cloud World 2022 will start on Oct 17, 2022 in Las Vegas. If you have some final doubts whether you should go or not, let me tell you that it’s like Oracle Open World just under a different name. And in a different place. But with the same cool people and many great talks. Take the chance to meet the developers, their managers and the product managers behind the features you daily use – or miss. We’ll be there – and this is YOUR chance now to sign up for …

Intel uses AutoUpgrade to upgrade from Oracle 11.2.0.4 to 19c

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Customer Success 10

Funny, I was traveling recently with RAC PM Anil Nair – but he forgot to tell me that this cool story has been published just a few days before we took of for YATRA 2022 to India: Intel uses AutoUpgrade to upgrade from Oracle 11.2.0.4 to 19c.

Intel uses AutoUpgrade to upgrade from Oracle 11.2.0.4 to 19c

Photo by Daniel Pantu on Unsplash

What’s the story?

Gagan Singh, Enterprise Architect at Intel, shared it with me last week. The goal was to upgrade from Oracle 11.2.0.4 to Oracle 19c with the least amount of downtime to minimize the impact on factory operations. Oracle ACS and the RAC PM team …

Why I love the German, Austrian and Swiss customers – a DOAG 2022 conference recap

Posted on September 26, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Conference 0

Wow – this was a tough week in Nürnberg at DOAG 2022 Conference. It started with a lot of rain. And I mean RAIN. Luckily I packed my umbrella last minute before going to the train station. But before I tell you a bit about this week, and why it was so incredibly important to be at DOAG 2022, let me tell you at first why I love the German, Austrian and Swiss customers – a DOAG 2022 conference recap.

At first, a big THANK YOU

And before I write something about “my” week, let me give a …

Certifying an application on a specific RU-only is wrong

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Best Practice Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 15

Well, there are still 80+ comments I need to answer and reply to on the blog. So please be patient – nothing gets deleted or ignored. But it happens that a topic crosses my inbox, and I need to blog about it right now. Today, it is a case where a customer asked me for advice, and mentioned on the side that they are going to 19.6.0 in OCI. In this relation I’d like to explain why Certifying an application on a specific RU- only is wrong.

Certifying an application on a specific RU only is wrong

Photo by Sigurdur Fjalar Jonsson on Unsplash

What’s the story?

At first, …

DOAG Conference 2022 is next week already

Posted on September 13, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Conference 6

I’m scared – time flies so quickly. Yesterday evening I returned from vacation, and this morning I spoke to Daniel and we both realized: There is only one week to go since DOAG Conference 2022 is next week already. Yes, in September 2022. Not as usually in November – September it will be this year. And we hope to see you there next week in my hometown, Nürnberg for another great DOAG conference.

DOAG Conference 2022 is next week already

Tuesday

Tuesday will be a theme day this year – and we’ll have two talks there. We? Yes, Daniel and I will do all sessions together this …

OC YATRA Tour 2022 – It was a blast. Or: Why conferences are so important

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Conference 0

For a change, this isn’t a Monday morning rant. Instead, it is the opposite. It’s a summary of my late July trip to India to OC YATRA Tour 2022 – It was a blast. Or: Why conferences are so important.

OC YATRA Tour 2022 - It was a blast. Or: Why conferences are so important

OC YATRA 2002 – India, Begaluru, Sunday, July 24, 2022

How did it start?

Months ago, Sai Penumuru and the AIOUG organizers asked whether I’d be willing to come to India for the 2022 Oracle Community YATRA tour. The last time it happened – before the world knew about Covid – Roy was traveling and doing part of the …

This is for a friend.

Posted on August 18, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Off Topic

This is for a friend. A dear friend. A friend who disappeared way too early.

Today we’ve got together to say goodbye to a colleague and a dear friend. Last week when I was in Switzerland I received this call nobody wants to receive. You went to the other side. I was in shock. I’m still in shock. I can’t believe it. I know, that is life. We need to accept it. But I’m in tears. And I miss you, my dear friend.

Flashback

We first met in 2003 I think when you picked up my team mate Ulrike for …

Two recent issues you may need one-off patches for

Posted on August 15, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 8

Uh … my blog counter tells me I have 57 unanswered comments in the queue at the moment. Forgive me, but July and August so far were really very busy months with some travel activity as well. And another proof that I’m not used to travel anymore: Last week I forgot the power adapter for my Mac at home and just realized it when I pulled out my Mac to do emails. Anyhow, this is a short Monday-vacation-time-blog post about two recent issues you may need one-off patches for since you otherwise may get trapped by them as well. Both …

Virtual Patching – the biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard about

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 0

It’s time for my Monday morning rant. I guess, I’m turning slowly into a grumpy old man. And today, it is about something which came on my radar some weeks ago. After understanding what it means, I declare Virtual Patching – the biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard about.

Photo by Trym Nilsen on Unsplash

Virtual Patching??

If you read this term for the first time, you may scratch your eyes at first as I did weeks ago when I read “Virtual Patching” in a brochure from a company offering Oracle services. I did ask the person …

Why you simply can’t upgrade from Oracle 11g or 12c to Oracle 23c

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 2

It’s time for a Monday morning rant. I receive more and more questions which all start similar. “My customer is on Oracle 11g and/or 12c, and want to know whether the next long term support release …“. Now let me clarify Why you simply can’t upgrade from Oracle 11g or 12c to Oracle 23c. And why you MUST upgrade to Oracle Database 19c.

Why you simply can't upgrade from Oracle 11g or 12c to Oracle 23c

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

What is the intention?

After a lot of discussions across many regions, especially in JAPAC during the past weeks I realized that there is a reason for all …

Patching most of my environments with the July 2022 Bundle Patches

Posted on July 21, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 4

It’s brutally hot out there. It must be July. And I sit in my cool basement office and start my quarterly patching journey hoping that you can enjoy the sun and the sea somewhere. It is time to do my usual exercise, this time Patching most of my environments with the July 2022 Patch Bundles.

Patching most of my environments with the July 2022 Bundle Patches

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

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 about how to apply the RU directly …

OC YATRA 2022 visiting 6 cities in India in July 2022

Posted on July 19, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

Yes, you read correctly in my blog post’s title: OC YATRA 2022 visiting 6 cities in India in July 2022. And it is already July. Just a few days to sign up – if you haven’t already. So please register here: https://www.aioug.org/ocyatra-2022

Just pick one of the six cities from the agenda page:

23 July 2022, Saturday – Chennai
24 July 2022, Sunday – Bengaluru
26 July 2022, Tuesday – Mumbai
28 July 2022, Thursday – Pune
30 July 2022, Saturday – Delhi
31 July 2022, Sunday – Hyderabad

And register yourself.

Please check out the awesome agenda with …

Upgrade from 11.2.0.4 to 19c with Label Security Policies

Posted on July 6, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls 4

I remember, I have a blog. Forgive me that I don’t write a lot at the moment even though I still have a long queue of “future posts to write”. It is just too busy, and I was away for almost two full weeks in June as well. But let me briefly drop information on an issue I learned about recently. It just affects your when Upgrade from 11.2.0.4 to 19c with Label Security Policies. All other readers may simply ignore this blog post.

Upgrade from 11.2.0.4 to 19c with Label Security Policies

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

What happens?

You are using Oracle Label Security, and …

How to speed up datapatch – and much more information

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 12

Ok, I promised to write more about patching speed. And this blog post will be just the root post targeting datapatch speed. I will link also to blog posts I’ve written before but also share knowledge which may not be obvious at first stage. The overall topic will be How to speed up datapatch – and much more information.

How to speed up datapatch - and much more information

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

What is datapatch

Let me start at the ground level and explain what datapatch is and why it exists.

When you are still on Oracle Database 11g, you may wonder what datapatch …

Simple database installation with applyRU and applyOneOffs

Posted on May 17, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Installation Patch Recommendation 20

Some of you may remember my blog post from April 22, 2021 about issues I saw with the unattended installation using applyRU and applyOneOffs switches. The installation failed with a strange jox error when I passed on the OJVM bundle to my installation queue. But there is relief – finally, after almost one year. So let me give you some background, and of course show you the workaround for the Simple database installation with applyRU and applyOneOffs.

Simple database installation with applyRU and applyOneOffs

Photo by Xan Griffin on Unsplash

What has happened?

A longer while ago, we introduced the very convenient ability to install patches …

A new version of AutoUpgrade has been released

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 20

Yes, we did it again. A new version of AutoUpgrade has been released. With important fixes.

A new version of AutoUpgrade has been released

Download the May 2022 version

So it is time to update your AutoUpgrade and download the most recent version.

MOS Note: 2485457.1 – AutoUpgrade Tool

Changes / Fixes / Enhancements

As usual, we document the changes and fixes as well as the enhancements in the change log you’ll find in MOS.

At first, this is the new build:

build.version 22.3.220503
build.date 2022/05/03 11:55:20 -0400
build.hash 9e84e228
build.hash_date 2022/05/03 11:37:00 -0400
build.supported_target_versions 12.2,18,19,21
build.type production
20 bug fixes since v22.2 release
Tag: V22.3
Description:

Binary patching is slow because of the inventory

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 33

The headline of this blog post may sound a bit cryptic: Binary patching is slow because of the inventory. But actually this seems to be one of the main causes when your binary patching gets slower and slower with every patch you apply.

Photo by Valdemaras D. on Unsplash

The more you patch, the worse it gets

Well, this is a tough headline. But you may have read my blog posts about my quarterly patching experience. It actually started with the July 2021 RU in my 19c environment when I wrote:

At least in my environment, both checks with the

How to speed up your database and GI patching

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 10

Several of you mailed me already and commented. And I know that I promised this blog post for weeks, if not longer. So let me try to explain How to speed up your database and GI patching. Since this blog post has a longer history, I’d say far over 6 months, it will be a bit longer than the usual posts. At when I started writing it, I decided to split it up into several pieces to make it more digestible but also to allow easier finding of certain topics. I hope it may help easing some recent patching …

A customer story

How do you get access to the MRPs?

What is happening?

RURs are gone?

Our labs and talks

Your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Track at OCW2022

What’s the story?

At first, a big THANK YOU

What’s the story?

Tuesday

How did it start?

Flashback

Virtual Patching??

What is the intention?

What happens?

What is datapatch

What has happened?

Download the May 2022 version

Changes / Fixes / Enhancements

The more you patch, the worse it gets

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