18c

Should you attempt double-hop Oracle Database upgrades?

A long while ago I wrote a blog post about multiple-hop upgrades. And just recently I received many questions about whether one could skip Oracle Database 19c, and rather move into Oracle Database 23ai directly. So, the ask is: Should you attempt double-hop Oracle Database upgrades?

Should you attempt double-hop Oracle Database upgrades?

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What is a double-hop or multiple-hop upgrade?

Let me clarify the self-invented term here at first. In every Oracle database release we define the minimum database version you can directly upgrade from. With “upgrade” we refer to using the scripts or tools such as AutoUpgrade. Please …

Certifying an application on a specific RU-only is wrong

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Best Practice Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 15

Well, there are still 80+ comments I need to answer and reply to on the blog. So please be patient – nothing gets deleted or ignored. But it happens that a topic crosses my inbox, and I need to blog about it right now. Today, it is a case where a customer asked me for advice, and mentioned on the side that they are going to 19.6.0 in OCI. In this relation I’d like to explain why Certifying an application on a specific RU- only is wrong.

Certifying an application on a specific RU only is wrong

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What’s the story?

At first, …

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

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 5

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

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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 …

Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 – End of Support and Patch Bundles

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 1

This will be a short blog post but since I received a number of messages yesterday after I published my usual Patching all my environments with the April 2022 Patch Bundles blog post I need to clarify a few things regarding Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 – End of Support and Patch Bundles.

Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 - End of Support and Patch Bundles

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Premier Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

If you remember this, the Premier Support period for Oracle 12.2.0.1 ended on November 30, 2020.

Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

Since many of you were still on Oracle 12.2.0.1 when the end of Premier Support …

Migrating Flashback Data Archive (FDA) tables

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Export - Import 17

This morning I received an email question from a customer asking whether there is support for the Migrating Flashback Data Archive (FDA) tables in Oracle 19c. And since this is not the first time I received this question, I thought it may be good to have a blog post about it.

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What is Flashback Data Archive (FDA)?

Well, google it. Actually I was looking for a link in our documentation but to my surprise I found the usual suspects such as Tim Hall’s excellent oracle-base page – but not much in our own doc …

Why you can’t stay on Oracle Database 11g forever

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 24

Oracle Database 11g? In 2022? Yes, I know – and you know too – there are Oracle 11g databases out there in production. And blindly I’d say: Too many. Of course, we are the “upgrade guys” trying to convince you to move to Oracle Database 19c. And I bet, for each of your 11g databases there’s a valid and legit reason why they haven’t upgraded yet. But there is one often neglected technical reason Why you can’t stay on Oracle Database 11g forever. So let me explain this below.

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Oracle Database 11g?

Bug Fixing Support for Oracle 18c ends June 30, 2021

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 18c Release Schedule 0

Time flies so quickly. I remember when we had intense discussions with a very large automotive customer whether they should use Oracle 18c, or rather wait for Oracle 19c. They went straight to Oracle 19c. But I know that many customers out there are still on Oracle 18c. So this date coming up in less than 3 weeks is very important for you. Bug Fixing Support for Oracle 18c ends June 30, 2021.

Bug Fixing Support for Oracle 18c ends June 30, 2021

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Oracle Database 18c

I quickly checked on my blog. On March 20, 2018 I wrote When will Oracle Database 18c …

Messaging Gateway – Upgrade can’t find mgwu122.sql

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Oracle Database 18c Oracle Database 19c 6

Thanks to Christian Ballweg from Optiz Consulting who brought this issue to my attention. I haven’t seen it before since I haven’t installed it but you may encounter this if you have the Messaging Gateway – Upgrade can’t find mgwu122.sql.

Messaging Gateway - Upgrade can't find mgwu122.sql

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What is the Messaging Gateway?

Actually I steal this from the documentation:

Messaging Gateway enables communication between applications based on non-Oracle messaging systems and Oracle Database Advanced Queuing.

Oracle Database Advanced Queuing provides propagation between two Oracle Database Advanced Queuing queues to enable e-business (HTTP through IDAP). Messaging Gateway extends

Where are AutoUpgrade error codes documented?

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 2

I know, I didn’t blog for a while due to seminar preparations and holidays. But as I’m going through the open comments on the blog trying to answer them, I came across a question regarding the strange UPG error codes, AutoUpgrade is printing sometimes. And of course, where are AutoUpgrade error codes documented?

Where are AutoUpgrade error codes documented?

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The UPG errors

Once AutoUpgrade hits an error condition, it prints an error code such as UPG-1400 or UPG-1303. And often, this error code is not very meaningful. In the comments section, somebody asked where to fine more information about these …

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

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

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.

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

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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 …

When Fixed Object Stats Gathering takes very long during upgrade …

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Auditing AutoUpgrade Flaws and Pitfalls 12

Over the past days I exchanged several emails with a very important customer regarding Fixed Objects Stats gathering in relation to database upgrade. The customer found out that it takes very long in their environment – over an hour to be precise. Relaxing on the weekend helped me a bit. And this morning, it dawned me that I’ve had two similar cases before already. Plus I didn’t blog about it yet. Now it’s time to tell you a little but about Unified Auditing and the situation when Fixed Object Stats Gathering takes very long during upgrade …

When Fixed Object Stats Gathering takes very long during upgrade ...

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Does Data Pump import only serially into PDBs?

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump 7

Daniel and I did Web Seminars this week. One of them was about the different migration strategies. We did talk a lot about Data Pump. One attendee mentioned that Data Pump Import does not work parallel into PDBs in Oracle 12.2.0.1 and Oracle 18c. We were skeptical, and today I tried out to check: Does Data Pump import only serially into PDBs?

Does Data Pump import only serially into PDBs?

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Very simple test setup

For this test, I take a schema export from an 11.2.0.4 database in our Hands-On Lab, the TPCC user HammerORA uses in the UPGR database.…

Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 certified on Oracle Linux 8 and RHEL8

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Operating System 12

The other day I received a question on Twitter regarding my experience with Oracle 12.1.0.2 on Linux 8. I first thought this may be an error. Why should Oracle 12.1.0.2 been certified on Linux 8. And I didn’t see anything internally about Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 certified on Oracle Linux 8 and RHEL8.

Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 certified on Oracle Linux 8 and RHEL8

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But it is true …

Thanks to Marian Bednar (Thanks a lot!!) who couldn’t find any information on my blog, now I know. Marian pointed me to the Release Notes Oracle Database 12.1.0.2. They’ve got updated in July 2020 already …

Does your GI RU/RUR patch level has to match your database’s?

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich ASM / RAC / GI 5

A long while ago I blogged about whether you should keep your patch versions between Grid Infrastructure and Databases Homes in synch, or not. And today, Daniel dropped me a note mentioning that this old blog post may need an update for 18c/19c. He’s right. And as I’ve had trouble finding my old blog post, I title this one a bit more obvious: Does your GI RU/RUR patch level has to match your database’s?

Does your GI RU/RUR patch level has to match your database's?

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Before Oracle Database 18c

Since Oracle 18c we move from a 5-number release schema to a 3-number one. …

APEX is invalid after upgrading to 12.2 – ORA-20001

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich APEX Flaws and Pitfalls 0

We are running the AutoUpgrade-for-RAC beta test since last week. And the first issue one customer encountered … is neither an AutoUpgrade nor a RAC issue. It has to do with APEX and SPATIAL, and missing grants. APEX is invalid after upgrading to 12.2 – ORA-20001

APEX is invalid after upgrading to 12.2 - ORA-20001

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What is happening?

You are doing an upgrade to Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. And you receive a number of errors during the component validation phase.

19:04:14 SQL> EXECUTE dbms_registry_sys.validate_components;
...(19:04:15) Starting validate_apex for APEX_180100
ORA-20001: MISSING GRANT: grant execute on "MDSYS"."SDO_DIM_ARRAY" to APEX_180100
ORA-20001: MISSING GRANT: grant execute on

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

Do we offer patched Gold Images already?

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Installation 13

Internally we can use a Gold Image service at Oracle. I can download a zip with 19.6.0 included. But externally for you as customers, the download of 19.6.0 required that you download 19.3.0 at first, then apply 19.6.0 on top of it. But a day ago, a tweet by my Belgium friend Philippe Fierens caught my attention. Do we offer patched Gold Images already?

Do we offer patched Gold Images already?

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What is a Gold Image?

Since Oracle 18c, the installation routine has changed to the better. You download zip file containing the Gold Image, you create a directory and …

Extended Support for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 extended

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 13

These are good new in case you plan to use Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 longer in production. Just last week we extended the Extended Support for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 by one additional year.

Extended Support for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 extended

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Extended Support Extension for Oracle 12.1.0.2

Before, the Extended Support for Oracle 12.1.0.2 ended end of July 2021. Now you can purchase it until end of July 2022. For those of you who have it included in your contract anyway (for instance if you have a ULA or PULA), these are great news.

Please see:

MOS Note: 742060.1 – Release Schedule of

AutoUpgrade and Data Guard, RAC, Restart and non-CDB to PDB

Posted on July 19, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 53

I need to bring this blog post forward about AutoUpgrade and Data Guard, RAC, Restart and non-CDB to PDB. Initially I planned to write this a bit later. But some of you had questions or were wondering why AutoUpgrade hasn’t done certain tasks. Hence, I’d like to clarify what AutoUpgrade can do, what it can’t and what you’ll have to do at the moment.

I refer to the AutoUpgrade tool as of July 2019. In later versions, one or the other restriction may be lifted. I will blog about it then as well.

AutoUpgrade and Data Guard, RAC, Restart and non-CDB to PDB

AutoUpgrade – Step-by-step

The new AutoUpgrade

Please download the new July 2019 (20190715) AutoUpgrade

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 7

Since last night, the new version of the AutoUpgrade utility is available. Please download the new July 2019 (20190715) AutoUpgrade and exchange your previous version in your destination $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin with this one.

Download

Please download the tool from: MOS Note: 2485457.1 – AutoUpgrade Tool

When you copied the new tool, call it for a version check to make sure you are using the most recent one:

$ java -jar $OH19/rdbms/admin/autoupgrade.jar -version
build.version 20190715
build.date 2019/07/15 12:45:48

Please notice that the tool allows you to upgrade to Oracle 12.2.0.1 and Oracle 18c as well:

Please download the new July 2019 (20190715) AutoUpgrade

The listed releases are the minimum …

AutoUpgrade: Where do you find all the logfiles?

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 16

AutoUpgrade: Where do you find all the logfiles? In the previous blog posts you could read about how to create the configuration file, adjust it and tweak the init parameters for the AutoUpgrade tool. And then I described the different modes of it. In this blog post I’d like to give you some insights into AutoUpgrade: Where do you find all the logfiles?

AutoUpgrade: Where do you find all the logfiles?

AutoUpgrade – Step-by-step

Behavior Change in Oracle 18c/19c: No symbolic links for Data Pump directories

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Behavior Change 8

Most of you may have recognized the desupport of UTL_FILE_DIR with Oracle Database 18c. Reason is mostly that UTL_FILE_DIR opens a lot of possibilities to do insecure things. But this has another effect which may not be obvious to you. There’s a behavior change in Oracle 18c/19c: No symbolic links for Data Pump directories. Read further to learn more about it.

UTL_FILE_DIR Desupport

In Oracle Database 18c we announced the desupport of UTL_FILE_DIR initialization parameter. But as you can read as well in the Database Upgrade Guide, there’s this remark:

UTL_FILE Package Symbolic Link in Directory Paths Not Supported

AutoUpgrade: ANALYZE, FIXUPS, UPGRADE and DEPLOY modes

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 57

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In the previous blog posts I explained mainly how to create, alter and tweak the configuration file for the AutoUpgrade tool. By now you should have your config file set up and adjusted for your environment(s). Let me go a step further and explain the different processing modes of AutoUpgrade: ANALYZE, FIXUPS, UPGRADE and DEPLOY modes. Then you’ll have a precise idea what the tool is actually doing, and how it operates.

AutoUpgrade – Step-by-step

Config file for AutoUpgrade – Tweaking init parameters

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 3

In the previous blog posts I explained how to generate a sample config file for the AutoUpgrade tool and how to adjust it. Then I gave you an overview about the most important Advanced Options you may want or need to deal with when using the utility. And in the below blog post I would like to show you have you need to edit the Config file for AutoUpgrade – Tweaking init parameters is an important topic.

This is the forth post of a series of blog posts regarding the new AutoUpgrade tool. Please find all the other available …

The new AutoUpgrade utility in Oracle 19c

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 312

The new AutoUpgrade utility in Oracle 19c Oracle Database 19c on premises is available – and one of the key features is the new AutoUpgrade utility. In the following days I will publish several blog posts explaining and showcasing the new AutoUpgrade.

What is the AutoUpgrade?

The Oracle Database AutoUpgrade utility is a new tiny little command line tool which allows you to upgrade your databases in an unattended way. I call it the Hands-Free Upgrade. The idea of the tool is to run the prechecks against multiple databases, fix 99% of the potential issues, set a restore point in case something goes wrong …

18c

What is a double-hop or multiple-hop upgrade?

What’s the story?

What is the intention?

Premier Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

What is Flashback Data Archive (FDA)?

Oracle Database 11g?

Oracle Database 18c

What is the Messaging Gateway?

The UPG errors

Why Cool Features for DBAs?

Very simple test setup

But it is true …

Before Oracle Database 18c

What is happening?

RELOCATE and UPGRADE?

What is a Gold Image?

Extended Support Extension for Oracle 12.1.0.2

AutoUpgrade – Step-by-step

Download

AutoUpgrade – Step-by-step

UTL_FILE_DIR Desupport

AutoUpgrade – Step-by-step

What is the AutoUpgrade?

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