Remove components from Oracle’s kernel with chopt

I’ve had an interesting discussion today. Somebody removed OLAP with chopt – and got issues afterwards. My guess: chopt will only remove the binary option and is meant to be used before a database got created. But if you use it afterwards you’ll have to make sure to remove the dictionary components as well.

A while back a blogged about chopt already:

And there are some helpful Support Notes out there:

• (KB135195) How to Check and Enable/Disable Oracle Binary Options ?
  

  This note WILL NOT address product specific scripts that are required at the database
  level for specific components to further complete the install/deinstall process. Please refer to the appropriate Oracle Component Guide or as a starting point

• (KB150807) Information On Installed Database Components and Schemas

It applies especially to OLAP. When you remove it with chopt make sure you have removed all OLAP components from the database beforehand (AMD, APS, XOQ). Check COMP_ID in DBA_REGISTRY. And extra attention is required for CDBs as removing components afterwards from the dictionary may be not straight forward.

An interesting finding on the side for Oracle Database 12.2:

chopt can now remove the following options from the database kernel:
    olap
    oaa (Advanced Analytics - this is a new chopt option in 12.2)
    partitioning
    rat

Clarification – Feb 6, 2026

At this point I’ve had a paragraph warning about unlinking “rat” which may have an effect on other tuning functionality in the database. I verified this years after writing it in Oracle Database 19c and Oracle AI Database 26ai. And in fact, the only effect I could see when you use “chopt diable rat” is that SPA (and potentially Capture/Replay) won’t work anymore. You will see errors like this one:

DECLARE
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00438: Real Application Testing Option not installed
ORA-06512: at "SYS.PRVT_SMGUTIL", line 84
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SQLPA", line 290
ORA-06512: at line 44
Help: https://docs.oracle.com/error-help/db/ora-00438/

Still, I would rather use SPA to verify your SQL Statements.

Further Links and Information

• Oracle Database 19c – chopt command
• Oracle Database 26ai – chopt tool
• (KB135195) How to Check and Enable/Disable Oracle Binary Options ?

–Mike