This will be a very short blog post today. But a colleague asked me this question just a few minutes ago: Which database version can be used with Grid Infrastructure 19c? And I realized that I neither put it on the blog yet nor did I bookmark it. But I answered this question several times already.
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Which database version can be used with Grid Infrastructure 19c?
There are 4 sources I did check:
- MOS Notes on MyOracle Support
- Oracle Documentation
- Certification Information on MyOracle Support
- Database Upgrade Blog
At first, I answered with MOS Note: 337737.1 – Oracle Clusterware (CRS/GI) – ASM – Database Version Compatibility, especially as the title of the note sounds like it would exactly answer the question.
But in this case, the colleague read the note carefully and replied:
“Fine – that’s for ASM only!”
And he is correct – MOS Note: 337737.1 says clearly: “This MOS note is only for ASM compatibility.”
I must have overlooked this detail. And even though I could argue with “you need to put your database into ASM anyway, and hence it does apply to the database as well as there is a column for DATABASE in the matrix”, I remembered that it is in the documentation as well.
The Grid Infrastructure Installation and Upgrade Guide has this information:
You can use Oracle Database 19c, 18c, Oracle Database 12c releases 1 and 2, and Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2.0.3 or later) with Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c.
The Certification Information on MOS by the way does not provide this – and it isn’t intended to.
Annotation:
As my colleague Davide mailed me on right after the blog post, 11.2.0.3 is obviously not certified with OL7/RHEL7. Hence, I can’t tell you how realistic it is to have an 11.2.0.3 database in ASM 19c. Maybe this is possible on SLES. So be aware about this fuzziness.
And needless to say that you should upgrade your database(s) to Oracle 19c. But in case you’d like to mix different RU levels than, please read this blog post as well: Does your GI patch level need to match your database’s patch level?
Further Information and Links
- MOS Note: 337737.1 – Oracle Clusterware (CRS/GI) – ASM – Database Version Compatibility
- Upgrade Blog: Does your GI patch level need to match your database’s patch level?
- Oracle 19c Grid Infrastructure Installation and Upgrade Guide for Linux – Database Certification
–Mike
Hi Mike,
Maybe worth to note that if you use GI 19c with ASMFD, then you cannot create/install 11.2 databases, as mentioned at Doc 2341119.1.
Cheers,
Miguel Anjo
Thanks Miguel!
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks so much.
Hi Mike,
Is this also valid for db registration in listener as listener is part of ASM ?
Most of our databases have been migrated to 19c but for one of the last 11.2.0.4 database on our 19c RAC cluster we have this error:
The DBMS driver exception was: IO Error: Socket read timed out
I am not sure if the issue is on db/listener level, could also be coming from application server.
thanks,
els
Hi Els,
I’m not sure either about the error – but my 11g databases run perfectly will with a 19c listener.
You may please need to check with Support via an SR.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
12 days ago a colleague opened SR 3-24285005571 for this issue.
We uploaded a listener trace file, asked to analyze that trace file, but we are still waiting for the results….
cheers,
Els
Hi Els,
increase the severity to Sev.1 (but “non 24×7”), then update the SR several times asking for feedback.
In addition, escalate the SR by writing it into the SR, and request a management callback within a given amount of time.
Sorry to hear that 🙁
Mike
we have 19c GI and 12c RAC database/ Could you advice, which version of GI OCW patch we need to apply into 12c db home?
Hi Ed,
this may help you:
Oracle Support Document 2539751.1 (Patches to apply before upgrading Oracle GI and DB to 19c or downgrading to previous release) can be found at: https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?id=2539751.1
—
But ignore the recommendations for the database. They are incorrect.
Otherwise, please open an SR and check with Oracle Support.
Cheers,
Mike
Hello Mike,
We are on way to upgrade our 11gR2 RAC to 19c.
Some of the 11.2.0.4 databases may stay on place some more time (out of support I know), we plan to apply the necessary patches on them to run fine on top of 19c GI.
Can you explain a little more the “But ignore the recommendations for the database. They are incorrect.” about the note 2539751.1 in a previous comment?
Regards,
Rafael
Hi Rafael,
very simple – and sorry for the inconvenience.
All the patches mentioned under:
DB Upgrades to 19c
Note: following patches needed if you have GI Setup
in the MOS note are GI patches. None of them needs to be applied to a DB Home in order to do an upgrade to 19c. So the note is misleading. But Daniel and I gave up in explaining this the note owners and trying to convince them to change the note. Hence, sorry for the recommendations – but they don’t make sense.
Furthermore, the list of fixes for GI does not have any update in which GI those are fixed.
If you need details, open an SR and question Support on which patches you really need.
Cheers,
Mike
Hello Mike,
We are planning to upgrade our environment 11.2.0.3 RAC
SPARC/Solaris to 19c.
So we consider two upgrade options,
(A) GI upgrade to 11.2.0.4 then to 19c
Keep all 11.2.0.3 DBs running on top of GI 19c
for some months and then go for
the DB upgrades first to 11.2.0.4 and then to 19c.
(B) GI upgrade to 11.2.0.4
Keep all 11.2.0.3 DBs running on top of GI 11.2.0.4
for some months and then go for
the GI upgrade to 19c and DB upgrades first to 11.2.0.4
and then to 19c.
Any advice?
Regards,
Thanasis
Hi Thanasis,
just a hint: 11.2.0.3 is out of any bug fixing support since Aug 28, 2015 – almost since 6 years. Hence, I’m worried when you write “… Keep all 11.2.0.3 DBs running on top of GI 19c
for some months …”. But up to you 😉
And if the only option you give is A or B, then go with A.
I’m not exactly sure if GI 19c lets you upgrade directly from 11.2.0.3 GI – but I think this may work.
For the database certainly you need to patch to 11.2.0.4, and then upgrade to 19.10 or later.
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks Mike ,
to be honest I’ve been confused regarding the
directly upgrade from 11.2.0.3 GI to 19c because
on oracle documentation (April 2019)
http://ora-srv.wlv.ac.uk/oracle19c_doc/
for solaris mention both 11.2.0.3 & 11.2.0.4 but
on the current oracle documentation (Nov 2019)
mention only 11.2.0.4.
Also on MOS (Doc ID 2539751.1) for Solaris
Sparc 64 bit GI mention only 11.2.0.4 with
Latest GI PSU.
Regards,
Thanasis
Hi Thanasis,
I guess this has been restricted in a later stage. As far as I know, GI upgrades were supported from 11.2.0.3 already.
For Linux, the restriction from Day 1 was that 19c required OL7 / RHEL7 whereas 11.2.0.3 couldn’t be installed on RHEL7 or OL7.
For SPARC, this may be different. If you have a test cluster, you may try it, maybe with “-ignoreSysPreReqs” switch. But I guess the currently supported way will involve going to 11.2.0.4 at first.
Cheers,
Mike
Hello Mike.
Thanks again for your amazing 2020/2021 Virtual Classroom Series on Upgrade to Oracle 19c.
I attended the first 2 this year and they were quite resourceful.
I have a question and need your expert advice.
We upgraded our Database Servers to RHEL (Linux) 7.9 and Upgraded our ASM/GRID Infrastructure to 19.7.0.0.
We run Single Tenant CDB/PDBs, most of which are Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 and a couple of which are still 11.2.0.4.
I am about to start testing the AutoUpgrade Tool to Upgrade All our Databases to 19c.
If we are not in a position to patch the Grid Infrastructure/+ASM to 19.9, can we still upgrade the Databases to 19.9 on 19.7 grid/asm or we should end the database patch at 19.7? And how would the Latest AutoUpgrade Tool not patch to the latest version? (That’s like asking if the Database version/patch could be higher than that of the GI/+ASM on which the database runs? I know that the reverse is valid, where lower database versions can run on a higher GI)
Also, after such AutoUpgrade of Oracle Database on GI, are there any specific Post-Upgrade Configs or recommendations.
Hi Walters (hope this is your firstname and not the last name),
you can go to Oracle 19.10.0 straight for the database – and this should work within GI 19.7.0 as well for sure.
No specific steps from the database necessary.
Cheers,
Mike
Hello Mike, we are moving to a new Exadata with 19c GRID but the database version has to stay at 11.2.0.4 for a while. During installation of the database software (19c GRID is in place) I got an error “[INS-30501] Automatic Storage Management software is not configured on this system.”. Is there any special prerequisite to follow? Thank you!
Hi Charles,
while I hope you’ve solved the issues already, I recommend to open an SR if you haven’t down yet. Unfortunately I can’t debug such installs via the blog.
By default, ASM compatible settings are low enough to ensure that 11.2.0.4 database will operate safely, too, with 19c GI.
Hope this helps – cheers,
Mike
Thanks Mike — I did figure it out. The trick is that we cannot run software installation and also create the first database at the same time. It should be (1) runInstaller; once done then (2) run dbca to create the database. Then it ran smoothly.
Charles
Thanks Charles!
Cheers,
Mike