Which database version can be used with Grid Infrastructure 19c?

Posted on October 6, 2020 by ASM / RAC / GI 17

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.

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

–Mike

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17 Responses

  1. Miguel Anjo says:
    October 6, 2020 at 12:35

    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

    Reply
  2. AGUSTINN says:
    October 7, 2020 at 20:36

    Thanks so much.

    Reply
  3. els says:
    October 22, 2020 at 10:58

    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

    Reply
    • Mike.Dietrich says:
      October 26, 2020 at 18:40

      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

      Reply
  4. Els says:
    October 27, 2020 at 10:07

    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

    Reply
    • Mike.Dietrich says:
      October 27, 2020 at 18:51

      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

      Reply
  5. ed says:
    January 11, 2021 at 12:21

    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?

    Reply
  6. Rafael says:
    February 2, 2021 at 13:40

    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

    Reply
    • Mike.Dietrich says:
      February 7, 2021 at 22:02

      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

      Reply
  7. Thanasis says:
    March 7, 2021 at 10:47

    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

    Reply
    • Mike.Dietrich says:
      March 9, 2021 at 10:06

      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

      Reply
  8. Thanasis says:
    March 9, 2021 at 12:23

    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

    Reply
    • Mike.Dietrich says:
      March 10, 2021 at 19:34

      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

      Reply
  9. Walters Feh says:
    March 10, 2021 at 05:10

    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.

    Reply
    • Mike.Dietrich says:
      March 10, 2021 at 19:39

      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

      Reply

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