Single-/Multitenant

Does AutoUpgrade support the MOVE option?

Sometimes you have different plans for the day. Or, in my case, the day just needs a few extra hours. Today, I received a very interesting question on the blog at first by a customer I know very well. Then we exchanged mails – and I was caught forgetting what I wrote on the blog a longer while ago. The core question is: Does AutoUpgrade support the MOVE option? But there was much more to discuss and figure out as you can read below.

Does AutoUpgrade support the MOVE option?

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Which options does AutoUpgrade offer?

The case here is …

Were you aware of the two hidden columns in CDB-Views?

Learning something new every day is the best part of my job. And as you can see and read on the blog, thanks to YOU, I learn a lot. This one I learned from Johannes Ahrends at my workshop for ora2know in Munich in early July this year. Were you aware of the two hidden columns in CDB-Views? I confess honestly: I wasn’t.

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Two hidden columns?

Johannes asked me whether I know the reason for the two hidden columns in every CDB-view. His question was more like: It’s super-useful but why are these hidden?…

Refreshable clone with AutoUpgrade but keep your RAC configuration?

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Single-/Multitenant 0

I had to shorten the headline a bit. It got very bulky saying at first: Use a Refreshable Clone with AutoUpgrade from non-CDB to PDB but keep your RAC configuration alive. Well, you see, that’s bulky. But it describes the case I would like to briefly show you. Helmut Pfau, a colleague of mine here in Germany asked this the other day, and it took us a bit to get the correct answer to him – I confess, simply because I didn’t know the right AutoUpgrade parameter.

Refreshable clone with AutoUpgrade but keep your RAC configuration?

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We love Refreshable Clones

You’ve …

Queries on dictionary tables are slow in Oracle Multitenant?

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Single-/Multitenant 12

I love to learn something new every day. And on Friday afternoon last week I learned something new again. It started (as often) with a very simple question from a colleague working from the Oracle Malaga office in Spain. The customer has an issues with some queries being slower than before once they moved from on-prem to the cloud into a PDB. But are queries on dictionary tables are slow in Oracle Multitenant generally?

Queries on dictionary tables are slow in Oracle Multitenant?

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What was the case?

The customer ran some queries against dictionary views in the PDB in Oracle Database …

Can I convert a non-CDB into a CDB?

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Single-/Multitenant 0

Those of you who work with the Multitenant or CDB architecture for a longer time may find this blog post title strange. But as I learned the other week at the German Oracle User Group conference (DOAG 2024), others still have this question: Can I convert a non-CDB into a CDB?

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Can you convert?

Short answer: No.

End-of-blog-post.
Well, of course, not.
Let me explain this a bit more.

When you have a non-CDB database today, you can’t convert it into a CDB (Container Database). This path isn’t possible but there is another path. …

Migrate your EM Cloud Control Repository into a PDB

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Enterprise Manager Single-/Multitenant 6

This is a question two customers asked me one or two weeks ago. Is it allowed and supported to Migrate your EM Cloud Control Repository into a PDB? And if it is supported, how do you do it?

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Is is supported?

At first, the good news, Migration your Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Repository database into a pluggable database (PDB) is fully supported. You find a section in the Cloud Control Basic Installation Guide saying:

The supported database configuration types are: pluggable database (PDB) and non-container database (non-CDB).

And you can have even …

Rolling back or removing all patch SQL changes

Posted on January 20, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Microsoft Windows Single-/Multitenant 4

This is quite an interesting case I’ve had to scratch my head at first as well. Magnus mailed me the other day asking for a client since the PDB compatibility check errored out with a patch conflict. We discussed the topic but the most easiest workaround to me was Rolling back or removing all patch SQL changes from the PDB before unplug. And since I had to look up the command I’d rather put it on the blog in case you or I need it again one day.

Rolling back or removing all patch SQL changes

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What is the case?

I …

Unplug / Plug / Upgrade with AutoUpgrade

Posted on June 7, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 31

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 …

Another surprise: DBMS_PDB in Oracle 11.2.0.4

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 4

I think I should start a blog post series of surprises. At least, this time it’s not harmful at all. But it still a surprise. And ACE Director Rodrigo Jorge reported about it and did ask me for more details. So yes, here we have Another surprise: DBMS_PDB in Oracle 11.2.0.4.

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DBMS_PDB

You use the package DBMS_PDB normally to create the so called XML manifest file which describes the physical layout of a PDB or future PDB. And it adds some markers. You can find the package since Oracle Database 12.1.0.1 …

Pitfalls: Connect to a PDB directly with ORACLE_PDB_SID

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 42

A few weeks ago I learned about the ability to connect directly into a PDB by using the environment variable ORACLE_PDB_SID. I blogged about it in Can you connect as SYSDBA without password into a PDB directly?. And today, I’d like to give you a bit more insights and warn you about the Pitfalls: Connect to a PDB directly with ORACLE_PDB_SID.

Pitfalls: Connect to a PDB directly with ORACLE_PDB_SID

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How does it work?

When I wrote the blog post Can you connect as SYSDBA without password into a PDB directly? I haven’t dug into the technique behind the ability …

Transportable Tablespaces – Example and strange error with a PDB

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Single-/Multitenant Transportable 6

Yesterday I was browsing around for a useful simple example to test Transportable Tablespaces. A colleague mailed with the other day with a strange error message. The attempt to import into a PDB in Oracle 19c failed. My first thought: Oh, this is simple. But I failed, too. And even worse, I couldn’t find a single useful note in MyOracle Support (MOS) for ORA-31640, ORA-27037, Linux-x86_64 Error: 2 with Additional information: 7. So I decided to summarize this in Transportable Tablespaces – Example and strange error with a PDB.

Transportable Tablespaces - Example and strange error with a PDB

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A simple Transportable Tablespace

AutoUpgrade and Plug In to a CDB – with a single command (and video)

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Single-/Multitenant 71

I have to confess, this feature is out and available for quite a while. But only unofficially. AutoUpgrade can upgrade and plug in a non-CDB into a CDB. But it lacked flexibility. And we didn’t test it a lot. Hence, you could find it documented in our Hands-On Lab instructions. And we did this exercise with you already in our sold-out labs at OOW 2019 as well. But since a week and a bit, it is officially supported: AutoUpgrade and Plug In to a CDB – with a single command (and video).

AutoUpgrade and Plug In to a CDB - with a single command (and video)

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Create

Can you connect as SYSDBA without password into a PDB directly?

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 28

I’m happy when I learn something new every day. And today, right before I wanted to turn my computer into “sleep”, I learned something which surprises me a lot. Have you ever asked the question: Can you connect as SYSDBA without password into a PDB directly? Of course with the usual way of “sqlplus / as sysdba”.

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Can you?

Our answer always was: No. You can’t. There is no bequeath connection available.

Today somebody asked a similar question internally. And the answer caught Roy, Daniel, Bill and myself by surprise. There is an …

Upgrade Testing with a Refreshable PDB – does this work?

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 13

Yesterday, Daniel pinged me to discuss an upgrade testing scenario I had evaluated briefly by myself a while ago. I can’t remember why I gave up. But Daniel had some great ideas and tried already a lot in our OCI cloud. We want to use a refreshable PDB. And keep it up to date, then upgrade it. The idea of this approach: Whereas a CLONE or RELOCATE uses the initial command as the marker, a REFRESH would allow me to be way more in synch. So the question is: Upgrade Testing with a Refreshable PDB – does this work?

Upgrade Testing with a Refreshable PDB - does this work?

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Online Clone a PDB and synch with Oracle GoldenGate?

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 4

A few weeks ago I published two blog posts, one about Online Cloning and one about Relocate for PDBs. As in many cases, the blog posts got triggered by actual customer questions – and of course out of my own curiosity. In addition, we received the ultimate question: Can I Online Clone a PDB and synch with Oracle GoldenGate? And while my answer would have been “Of course!” a few doubts came up. But read below …

Online Clone a PDB and synch with Oracle GoldenGate?

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Online Clone versus Relocate of PDBs

I received very good ideas and feedbacks from you regarding …

Upgrade Testing – Online Clone a PDB to 19c

Posted on March 6, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant Upgrade / Migration 46

In the past I wrote some articles about cloning PDBs to new environments. And I added a post about RELOCATE as well. But I realized that I have no specific blog post about a very typical scenario: Upgrade Testing – Online Clone a PDB to 19c.

Upgrade Testing - Online Clone a PDB to Oracle 19c

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My Setup

I have an Oracle 12.2.0.1 CDB with a PDB, and another Oracle 19.6.0 CDB. I will hot clone the PDB from 12.2.0.1 to the higher version CDB, and then upgrade the PDB.

Upgrade Testing - Online Clone a PDB to Oracle 19c

The motivation to do it this way is to allow testing for the application …

Oracle Multitenant: Be aware of the silent COMPATIBLE change

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 5

This topic is included in our Multitenant slides for a long time. But whenever I want to point somebody to the blog post, I realize that it’s not on the blog yet. Actually I discussed this topic recently during a customer visit again. It’s time to put it on the blog. When you use Oracle Multitenant: Be aware of the silent COMPATIBLE change.

Oracle Multitenant: Be aware of the silent COMPATIBLE change

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Mixed version environments

When you work with Oracle Multitenant, the sooner or later you will have mixed version environments. This may be CDBs with Oracle 12.1.0.2 or Oracle 12.2.0.1 together with …

Upgrade PDBs with RELOCATE – How does it work?

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant Upgrade / Migration 16

Today Roy and I received a question from a colleague about the RELOCATE feature in Multitenant. And I’d like to shed some light and this topic a bit more. Upgrade PDBs with RELOCATE – How does it work?

Upgrade PDBs with RELOCATE - How does it work?

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RELOCATE and UPGRADE?

At first, it looks very promising to me. RELOCATE uses the HOT CLONE functionality of Multitenant but then relocates the PDB from one to another CDB. You need to fulfill a few important requirements, for instance:

Local Undo must be enabled in both CDBs
- This limits the technique to at least Oracle

Can you have more than 1 PDB with Standard Edition 2 (SE2)?

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich SE2 - Standard Edition 2 Single-/Multitenant 0

When we announced the 3-PDB-Support with Oracle Database 19c onward at OpenWorld 2019, I was very excited. According to the license documentation, this applies to Standard Edition 2 (SE2) as well. But does it work? Can you have more than 1 PDB with Standard Edition 2 (SE2)?

Can you have more than 1 PDB with Standard Edition 2 (SE2)?

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The license documentation is pretty clear about 3 user-created PDBs:

https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/19/dblic/Licensing-Information.html#GUID-0F9EB85D-4610-4EDF-89C2-4916A0E7AC87

Check with Oracle Database 19.5.0 SE2

It’s been a while since I installed SE2 instead of EE. But everything goes smoothly. You just need to select “Standard Edition 2” in the OUI. The image you …

Save Patching Downtime with Oracle Multitenant?

Posted on December 2, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Best Practice Patch Recommendation Single-/Multitenant 8

At OOW 2019 we announced that you can have up to 3 user-created pluggable databases (PDBs) per container database (CDB) without having a Multitenant license. And in this blog post I’d like to demonstrate how you can save patching downtime with Oracle Multitenant.

The Concept

The idea this entire process settles on is very simple. When you create a fresh container database in the target (already patched!) environment, you don’t have to patch this one. You only have to relocate the PDB from the source into the target CDB. In addition, only datapatch needs to be executed. As the …

DBMS_PDB.DESCRIBE – Something to be aware of

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 2

When I wrote up my long blog post series about how to migrate to Multitenant, I came across an interesting behavior. I could create the XML manifest file to plugin without putting the database in read-only mode. But I learned afterwards that there are is a pitfall. Hence, this blog post will talk about DBMS_PDB.DESCRIBE – Something to be aware of.

DBMS_PDB.DESCRIBE - Something to be aware of

DBMS_PDB.DESCRIBE – why and when?

You will use the DBMS_PDB.DESCRIBE call for the sole purpose to create the so called XML manifest file. This file contains information about the non-CDB to plugin afterwards. You either generate it check …

3 PDBs included with Oracle 19c and desupport of non-CDBs with 21c

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 47

It’s Oracle Open World week in San Francisco. and it is time for announcements of course.

3 PDBs included with Oracle 19c and desupport of non-CDBs with 20c

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What has been announced?

Today at OOW 2019, Jenny Tsai-Smith and Dominic Giles announced in their talk that the non-CDB architecture will be desupported from Oracle 21c on. But VERY IMPORTANT, from Oracle 19c on you can have 3 user-created pluggable databases of any type without a Multitenant license. As soon as you have need for 4 or more PDBs within one container database, you will need a Multitenant license.

License Guide

You can find the update …

Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – Migration with Data Pump

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Single-/Multitenant 16

You may have realized that there are a few techniques missing describing how to do a Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – Migration with Data Pump is one of them. I will explain the most simple approach of going to Single- or Multitenant. It isn’t the coolest – and it isn’t very fast as soon as your database has a significant size. But it is not complex. And it allows you to move even from very old versions directly into an Oracle 19c PDB – regardless of patch levels or source and destination platform.

Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – Migration with Data Pump

High Level Overview

Endianness change

Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – The Minimal Downtime Challenge

Posted on August 13, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Minimal Downtime Single-/Multitenant 6

There are several pitfalls when you plugin a non-CDB into a CDB environment. I’d like to highlight some of them – and show you potential workarounds as well. This is part of a series of blog posts to make your migration from non-CDB to PDB a bit smoother.

Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – The Minimal Downtime Challenge

When we start to look at a migration from non-CDB to PDB for an important system, regardless of migrating on-prem or to the cloud, reducing the downtime is very important. In this blog post I’d like to highlight the different aspects …

Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – The Fallback Challenge

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Fallback Single-/Multitenant 2

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Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – The Fallback Challenge

As I work with customers on upgrades and migrations for a very long time, I know how important a proper fallback is.

When you attempt a migration from a non-CDB to PDB, you need to plan …

Single-/Multitenant

Which options does AutoUpgrade offer?

Two hidden columns?

We love Refreshable Clones

What was the case?

Can you convert?

Is is supported?

What is the case?

Test Setup

DBMS_PDB

How does it work?

A simple Transportable Tablespace

Create

Can you?

Online Clone versus Relocate of PDBs

My Setup

Mixed version environments

RELOCATE and UPGRADE?

Check with Oracle Database 19.5.0 SE2

The Concept

DBMS_PDB.DESCRIBE – why and when?

What has been announced?

License Guide

High Level Overview

Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – The Minimal Downtime Challenge

Database Migration from non-CDB to PDB – The Fallback Challenge

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