DBCA

Datapatch may be slower when Traditional and Unified Auditing are on

I wrote several times especially about Unified Auditing in the past. It is a very efficient and useful way to audit operations in the database. But you need to be a bit careful about what’s on, and what isn’t. Now we recently had a customer case where it was clearly proven that Datapatch may be slower when Traditional and Unified Auditing are on. But how can this happen?

Recapping Traditional Auditing

At first, I am neither a security not an auditing expert. But I played quite a bit with Unified Auditing over the …

Continue reading...

Upgrading a non-CDB to Oracle Database 21c with AutoUpgrade

Yesterday I wrote about the installation of Oracle Database 21c on Linux. But today it is time for Upgrading to Oracle Database 21c with AutoUpgrade.

Upgrading a non-CDB to Oracle Database 21c with AutoUpgrade

Photo by Arjun MJ on Unsplash

AutoUpgrade

You may have heard it already from us and other colleagues, but we can’t repeat it often enough: There is only one recommended tool to upgrade your databases – and this is AutoUpgrade.

In my 21c home, I’m checking the deployed version of AutoUpgrade at first:

[CDB3] oracle@hol:/u01/app/oracle/product/21/rdbms/admin
$ java -jar autoupgrade.jar -version
build.hash 57ab246
build.version 21.1.3
build.date 2021/04/21 13:32:13
build.max_target_version 21
build.supported_target_versions 12.2,18,19,21
build.type production

Now please …

Continue reading...

Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE?

Today, Paul mailed me asking a question we internally discussed many times in the past weeks: Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE? And there is no easy simple answer. But I can give a recommendation based on my experience from many projects.

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – a quick recap

Just in case you haven’t dealt with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE recently, here is a quick recap.

With below procedure, you can list the available potentially behavior changing optimizer fixes in the current patch bundle – and you can turn them on or off at will:

SQL> set serveroutput on;
Continue reading...

Issues with seed databases, patch bundles and OJVM in 19c

I really rely on people telling me about issues they saw. And in this case, it happened twice within a few days. At OOW London, a customer came after my talk and told me about invalid objects and an incredible long recompilation time. In fact, he had to apply an OJVM patch in order to solve this. When I returned home, Jure commented on the blog about a very similar issue. I spent some time on the weekend to check it out. And I realized: There are issues with prebuilt seed databases and OJVM in 19c.

Issues with seed databases, patch bundles and OJVM in 19c

Photo by Max

Continue reading...

Be aware of database options selections for PDBs in DBCA

I did blog about several things-to-know with DBCA (Database Configuration Assistant) in the past. And one issue came up in our internal mailing list the other day. Be aware of database options selections for PDBs in DBCA. Missing one or the other “click” may bring you in trouble later on. I blogged about this already a while ago but this was only part of a larger post: Create Multitenant Databases with DBCA – Things to Know.

Be aware of database options selections for PDBs in DBCA

When you create a custom container database with DBCA you will see this …

Continue reading...

Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?

Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?Roberto Valsania asked this question once he read my blog post about whether you have to execute datapatch after creating a new 12c database: Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?

I’d bet you all are aware that Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 will go out of Waived Extended Support by end of 2018. But that doesn’t answer the question. So I did a quick experiment and created a fresh 11.2.0.4 database to answer the question.

Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?

First of all, let me clarify …

Continue reading...

DBCA 12.2 does not update /etc/oratab in GI / RAC

DBCA 12.2 does not update /etc/oratab in GI / RACInteresting things happen. And I learned (credits to Arun Gupta and others) that there is a change in Oracle Database 12.2 environments I wasn’t aware: The DBCA 12.2 does not update /etc/oratab in GI / RAC environments. Let me give you some extra information and hints on this topic as it may cause some strange situations.

DBCA 12.2 does not update /etc/oratab in GI / RAC

Arun Gupta commented on the blog:

Another case in point. DBCA fails to update the /etc/oratab file in 12.2 when a database is created. There is no documentation of this behavior. So, I opened

Continue reading...

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 …

Continue reading...

Use your own templates in DBCA to create databases

Use your own templates in DBCA to create databasesAnother advice regarding database creation:
Use your own templates in DBCA to create databases.

This way you can configure not only the options and components to create but also redo log layout, your set of parameters and much more. And it is less error prone than a “create database” script.

Use your own template in DBCA

Creating your own template in DBCA (Database Configuration Assistant) is quite easy and straight forward. In DBCA select “Manage Templates”:

Use your own templates in DBCA to create databases

DBCA – Choose “Manage Templates” to create a new template

and create a new template:

Use your own templates in DBCA to create databases

DBCA – Specify a name for your new templateDBCA-Templates

Continue reading...

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 …

Continue reading...

Does DBCA execute “datapatch” in Oracle 12.2?

Does the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) execute “datapatch -verbose” in Oracle 12.2 when you create a new database?

Does DBCA in Oracle 12.2 execute datapatch when you create new database? I was curious if this misbehavior from the previous release has been fixed. Good news: It got fixed with Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. The DBCA does execute “datapatch -verboseautomatically now when you create a new database. In the previous release this did not happen – you had to execute it manually after creating a new database.

Quick Test Scenario

I …

Continue reading...

No OS Authentication? datapatch will fail in every upgrade

Thanks to Daniel from SimCorp for bringing this to my attention:Patch
Actually, command line upgrades are affected as well, if you do not use OS authentication.
Apparently, datapatch is not able to execute in non-OS authentication mode.
See MOS note 1635007.1.

Symptom:

You are doing a command line upgrade to Oracle Database 12c with catctl.pl – and you don’t use OS authentication allowing connections with “/ as sysdba” then datapatch.pl won’t be able to execute the SPU/PSU/BP related SQL commands as it will fail to connect to your database with an ORA-1017 (invalid username/password) error.

Solution:

Bug 18361221 …

Continue reading...

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

Continue reading...

Create Container Databases (CDB) with less options – it’s now supported in Oracle 12.1.0.2

When Oracle Multitenant was launched Roy and I amongst many other people always mentioned that the requirement of having all options in a Container Database (CDB$ROOT), and therefore also for the PDB$SEED with the immediate result that all PDBs provisioned from the PDB$SEED will have all options as well, will hinder customer adoption significantly. But this has been changed now. You can create Container Databases (CDB) with less options – it’s now supported in Oracle 12.1.0.2.

Create Container Databases (CDB) with less options – it’s now supported in Oracle 12.1.0.2

Almost all customers I have talked to in the …

Continue reading...