12c

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

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 …

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Cool Features not only for DBAs – Virtual Classroom Series No.7

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope you are all well. After an heavily active 2020 with more virtual seminars than ever before it’s time to start in 2021 with Cool Features not only for DBAs – Virtual Classroom Series No.7 on Jan 14, 2021.

Why Cool Features for DBAs?

Actually the idea is not new. And we’ve included some slides into our workshops already for quite a while. But there are simply too many cool features. Our focus is in features which usually don’t make it into advertising or …

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How long can you provision database version X in the Cloud?

That’s a question I have gotten several times already: How long can you provision database version X in the Cloud? Meaning, is there a fixed date when you’ll be unable to provision an instance containing Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 for instance?

How long can you provision database version X in the Cloud?

Please find the updated blog post here:

–Mike…

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Create Multitenant databases with DBCA – Things to Know

Create Multitenant databases with DBCA - Things to KnowWhen you create Multitenant databases with DBCA there are some Things to Know. And in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1’s Database Creation Assistant (DBCA) there is a common pitfall in the “Options” screen. It was grayed out in the previous release but when you choose to create a “custom” database you can select the options/components now. Be careful …

Previous posts

I did blog several times about the DBCA already:

And …

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Always create databases as CUSTOM databases

I’m giving this advice to customers for many years:
When you create a fresh Oracle database ALWAYS create databases as CUSTOM databases. Via template or not doesn’t matter.

Always create CUSTOMER databasesIn the DBCA better use your own and wisely configured template rather than the prebuilt (we used to call them: seed) databases. The seed databases for “Data Warehouse” and “General Purpose or Transaction Processing” have all options and components included. I use them for testing from time to time.

As the upgrade duration mainly depends on the number of installed components I’d recommend to choose the components to install, and …

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Why does the upgrade of PDB$SEED always take longer?

Upgrading the PDB$SEED takes always longer than any other container.
What is the reason for an upgrade of the PDB$SEED taking so much longer in a real world environment?

How does an upgrade with Oracle Multitenant work?

Upgrading the PDB$SEED takes always longerI have written several blog posts in the past about the different techniques to upgrade an Oracle Multitenant environment:

  1. Upgrade Everything At Once
  2. Upgrade via Unplug/Plug/Upgrade

The interesting case happens in the “Everything At Once“. The PDB$SEED takes significantly longer to upgrade than any other container.

Upgrading the PDB$SEED takes always longer?

Quick recap: The PDB$SEED is the (I call it) blueprint

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DBUA and Read-Only Tablespaces – Things to Know II

Related Blog Posts:


Thanks to Rodolfo Baselli commenting on a previous blog post about the DBUA and Read-Only Tablespaces I dug a bit deeper and found out that “assuming silently” does not mean “works as intended“.

But one piece after another.

Rodolfo commented that if he

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Upcoming Upgrade Workshops in Prague and Bucharest

Oracle Upgrade Workshops Fall 2015

I’ve just returned from a work intense week from Seoul, South Korea – and there are upcoming Upgrade / Migrate /Consolidate to Oracle Database 12c workshops already on my radar – and both are almost booked out completely. So if you are either based in the Prague or the Bucharest region you may quickly sign up (and show up as well) 🙂

  • Upgrade / Migrate / Consolidate to Oracle Database 12cWednesday, October, 7, 2015
    Prague, Czech Republic
    @Oracle Czech
    Registration Link is here
  • Upgrade / Migrate / Consolidate to Oracle Database 12cTuesday, October 13, 2015
    Bucharest,
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Can you have Oracle Multitenant in Oracle 12.1.0.2 SE2?

Please find all our articles about Oracle Database Standard Edition 12.1.0.2 SE2:

 

 

 

Can you have Oracle Multitenant in Oracle Standard Edition 12.1.0.2 SE2?

No, you can’t as Oracle Multitenant is a licensable option for Enterprise Edition (EE) databases only.

But wait a second …

You can do Oracle Single

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Ouch, this hurts: bug 17325413 – patch BEFORE upgrade!

PatchI really don’t want to turn this blog into something making our database look bad. But in this case it is really necessary as it is VERY UNUSUAL that we recommend to patch the database BEFORE upgrade.


Just for clarification:

The following topic will affect all databases between 11.1.0.6 and 11.2.0.4.1 – those (and only those) need to be patched BEFORE upgrade. The topic is fixed in 12.1.0.2 but as it gets introduced with the BEFORE upgrade database version you’ll have to apply the fix before upgrade. The inclusion of the fix in 12.1.0.2 means only that the

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DBCA 12c and “datapatch.pl” – things to know

A few weeks ago I did blog about the DBUA (Database Upgrade Assistant) not executing ‘datapatch’ (i.e. not applying the SQL changes involved with a SPU/PSU/BP) automatically:

For DBUA, please note that this behavior DOES NOT APPLY to command line upgrades done with catctl.pl – as you can see from this somewhat disturbing messages during the upgrade in phase 65 and phase 69 (which are not errors but just informational messages for datapatch’s execution):

Datapatch phases command line upgrade catctl.pl

But afterwards I have learned that things are worse.
The same behavior is true when you create

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Removing Options from the Oracle Database kernel in 12c

Remove Options from the Oracle Database Kernel - chopt

Sometimes people have the desire to remove options from the database kernel (i.e. from the oracle executable).

It’s a matter of fact that by default you’ll get plenty of things linked into your kernel in Oracle Database 12c.

In case you’d like to remove things the chopt utility does still exist in Oracle Database 12c – but you may recognize a difference between Oracle 11.2 and Oracle 12.1. Anyhow, ideally you’ll do these changes before you create a database directly after the installation has been completed. See the documentation for Post Installation Tasks first:

  • Oracle 11.2 – chopt utility
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