fix

Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade

This morning I received a very reasonable question from a customer who has a time zone mismatch between source and target database. And he wants to transport into a PDB on Exadata. Even though, this sounds trivial at first sight, unfortunately it isn’t. But a bug fix done recently for a German automotive customer is very handy here. So let me show you how you can Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade.

Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade

Photo by Vince Veras on Unsplash

Where does the problem start?

In this particular – and not unusual case – the customer wants to migrate …

Oracle Optimizer Statistics Advisor in Oracle 19c

Christian Pfundtner pointed me to the fact that my old blog post about the Statistics Advisor from 2017 may not be up to date anymore. And he further pointed out that some of his clients still suffer from issues with the tool. Hence, let me refresh the topic with Oracle Optimizer Statistics Advisor in Oracle 19c. And thanks to Christian for the pointers.

Oracle Optimizer Statistics Advisor in Oracle 19c

Photo by Tobias Keller on Unsplash

Overview

At first, I won’t rewrite the entire blog post but instead focus on recent findings. Therefore, you may please want to read my previous blog post about the …

ORA-13516 “CATPROC not valid” during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 18

I thought I could relax this week using my leftover vacation days from 2022. But this issue is triggering me since some of you mailed me already. Maybe this blog post can prevent others from being trapped by this issue: ORA-13516 “CATPROC not valid” during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0. And as a prolog, you will NOT see the below issue when you started your database in NORMAL mode for the execution of datapatch.

ORA-13516 "CATPROC not valid" during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0

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What is the symptom?

Regardless of whether you patch to Oracle Database RU 19.18.0 manually or with …

Hide and Seek with RU 19.18.0

Posted on February 2, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 46

One and a half weeks ago we released the Database and Grid Infrastructure Release Updates (RU) 19.18.0. You could read on the blog how to apply it, and you could read also about an alert. So far, all was more or less transparent but apparently sort of an Hide and Seek with RU 19.18.0 has happened. So let me shed some light.

Photo by Braydon Anderson on Unsplash

Heads Up!

I am just the messenger trying to bring some light into the topic. Neither is our team responsible nor do we have any sort of control on this process. I …

Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 30

Mid-of January. It’s patching time again. So let me show you the quarterly exercise of Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches. Let’s see this time if I will have to remove my Data Pump Bundle Patch and the 19.17.0 MRP2 at first when I patch in-place.

Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches

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As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to space issues. But in reality, you please patch always out-of-place with a separate home. Please see this blog post about how to apply the RU directly when you provision a new home with OUI…

Simple database installation with applyRU and applyOneOffs

Posted on May 17, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Installation Patch Recommendation 30

Some of you may remember my blog post from April 22, 2021 about issues I saw with the unattended installation using applyRU and applyOneOffs switches. The installation failed with a strange jox error when I passed on the OJVM bundle to my installation queue. But there is relief – finally, after almost one year. So let me give you some background, and of course show you the workaround for the Simple database installation with applyRU and applyOneOffs.

Simple database installation with applyRU and applyOneOffs

Photo by Xan Griffin on Unsplash

What has happened?

A longer while ago, we introduced the very convenient ability to install patches …

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and disabling another fix

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 6

Yes, DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE week it is. As I received so many good questions and input after my blog post whether you should enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE or not, now I can easily fill the rest of the week with new content. Today it will be about a customer’s question regarding DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE and disabling another fix.

Photo by Drew Patrick Miller on Unsplash

Disabling another fix

The setup is pretty simple. Stefan wanted to disable a different fix while he had all fixes from the most recent RU enabled on purpose. Sounds simple but has a dangerous pitfall.

This is what …

ORA-1422 and ORA-6512 from SYS.DBMS_STATS in Post Upgrade

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 3

Ernst Leber sent me an email today. He hit an error at a customer upgrading to Oracle 19.9.0 on Exadata with AutoUpgrade. ORA-1422 and ORA-6512 from SYS.DBMS_STATS in Post Upgrade were signaled – and he better flashed back to the Guaranteed Restore Point. He found even a MOS note but still had questions. So time to blog about it in case you hit this error sequence as well.

ORA-1422 and ORA-6512 from SYS.DBMS_STATS in Post Upgrade Phase

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

What happens, and when does it happen?

At first, this is not an AutoUpgrade issue. You may see the same error stack in the post upgrade …

You may need a one-off for DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE in 19.10.0

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 22

It’s been a while since I blogged about the DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – and to me, the package is still sort of a mystery. Ideally you can least and enable or disable behavior changing optimizer fixes per RU. And in Oracle 19.10.0, you will find a new surprise. So You may need a one-off for DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE in 19.10.0.

You may need a one-off for DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE in 19.10.0

Photo by Jonas Denil on Unsplash

Quick Recap

Just in case you haven’t dealt with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE yet or for a while, a quick recap.

With this procedure, you can list the available patches to turn on or off at will:

SQL> set serveroutput

No RURs for 12.2.0.1 – and Oracle 11.2.0.4 left Extended Support

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 0

Last week I blogged about the quarterly patching fun when applying the Release Updates to my environments. But I completely forget to mention and explain a few things. There are No RURs for 12.2.0.1 – and Oracle 11.2.0.4 left Extended Support.

No RURs for 12.2.0.1 - and Oracle 11.2.0.4 left Extended Support

Photo by Md Mahdi on Unsplash

No Release Update Revisions for Oracle 12.2.0.1

Thanks to my friend Rodrigo Jorge who messaged me on the weekend. He goes way deeper with applying the quarterly patches and highlights the differences. And he recognized and blogged already about the fact that there are no RURs available for Oracle 12.2.0.1.

And …

ORA-29702 – and your instance does not startup in the cluster anymore

Posted on November 13, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich ASM / RAC / GI Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 11

This is the right blog post for a Friday 13th. And please forgive me – I wanted to put this on the blog earlier as two of my customers hit this weeks ago already. But it must have fallen through the cracks. Still, now it is hopefully not too late to tell you what you should do if you hit ORA-29702 – and your instance does not startup in the cluster anymore. Especially when you tested a database upgrade – and after a restore, the database doesn’t want to start, no matter what you try.

ORA-29702 - and your instance does not startup in the cluster anymore

Photo by Nadine Shaabana

Solution for ORA-02303 from JSON_OBJECT_INVALID in upgrade to 19c

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls 0

I just learned yesterday about this error – and as it seems to happen occasionally, you may want to read more about the Solution for ORA-02303 from JSON_OBJECT_INVALID in upgrade to 19c.

Solution for ORA-02303 from JSON_OBJECT_INVALID in upgrade to 19c

Photo by Pankaj Patel on Unsplash

What happens?

You are upgrading a database to Oracle 19c, and you see this error pattern:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE JSON_Object_T AUTHID CURRENT_USER UNDER JSON_Element_T(
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02303: cannot drop or replace a type with type or table dependents

This is coming when catjson.sql gets executed.

Why does it happen?

Unfortunately the FORCE option is missing when we create …

MGA Issue – and it is fixed with Oracle 19.8.0 and newer

Posted on August 20, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich ASM / RAC / GI Flaws and Pitfalls 6

Where do I start? One of the customer accounts I worked the longest time with recently upgraded to Oracle 19c on Exadata. They are an Exadata customer since 2009. After going live on 19c, a few days later they hit an MGA Issue – and it is fixed with Oracle 19.8.0 and newer. But question no.1 was: Why hasn’t Oracle warned us – and how could we have learned about it?

MGA Issue - and it is fixed with Oracle 19.8.0 and newer

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

What is the MGA?

OK, I have heard of SGA and PGA. But MGA? The first two hits when I search with …

OJVM datapatch fails with ORA-29532 – but the root cause is noncdb_to_pdb.sql

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls JVM 2

Kudos to Robert Ortel who brought this nice misbehavior to my attention. And even though it looks like this would be an OJVM issue, it is caused by noncdb_to_pdb,sql, the script which is used to convert a non-CDB to a PDB. When you apply an OJVM patch, OJVM datapatch fails with ORA-29532 – but the root cause is noncdb_to_pdb.sql.

OJVM datapatch fails with ORA-29532 - but the root cause is noncdb_to_pdb.sql

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

It’s a bit tricky

First things first. This is not a blog post to blame OJVM. The problem just happens because datapatch for an OJVM patch touches data in the dictionary which hasn’t …

AutoUpgrade may fail when patch ID column is NULL

Posted on November 25, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 39

Monday morning – it’s time to write a new blog post. And actually I will set priorities based on what you reported to me in the past week. This way it may prevent others from hitting the same pitfall. The AutoUpgrade may fail when patch ID column is NULL in REGISTRY$HISTORY.

AutoUpgrade may fail when patch ID column is NULL

Photo by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash

What is happening?

You start a database upgrade with autoupgrade. But the initial check will fail with a message like this:

AutoUpgrade tool launched with default options
There was an error initializing the patching information for entry upg2

The AutoUpgrade won’t kick …

Data Pump 12.1.0.2 – Wrong Dump File Version – ORA-39142

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 2

Data Pump 12.1.0.2 - Wrong Dump File Version - ORA-39142 Again I’ll have to thank my colleague Roland Gräff from the German ACS Support team in Stuttgart for bringing this into our radar. Roland alerted me a week ago about an issue with exports in Oracle 12.1.0.2 only when you are on a certain patch level. I summarize the issue here under Data Pump 12.1.0.2 – Wrong Dump File Version – ORA-39142.

In the below blog post you will learn about the actual issue, where it happens and when, and of course how to workaround it.

When does it happen?

The issue I will describe below happens only with …

Special characters show junk in CLOB columns after upgrade to Oracle 12.2.0.1 with JDBC

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 8

Thanks to my support colleague Roland Graeff who told me about this issue at a customer today. And I consider this a pretty serious issue. It can happen that Special characters show junk in CLOB columns after upgrade to Oracle 12.2.0.1. with JDBC.

This is as bad as it sounds. Roland told me about a case where the application showed weird characters instead of German umlauts (ä, ö, ü, Ä, Ö, Ü) after an upgrade from Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 to 12.2.0.1.

Special characters show junk in CLOB columns after upgrade to Oracle 12.2.0.1 with JDBC

Roland explained to me that …

Additional Info for Adaptive Features Fixes in Oracle 12.1.0.2

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 0

I blogged about the Adaptive Features fixes in the past several times. But following some of the comments readers had I believe there’s some additional info for Adaptive Feature Fixes in Oracle 12.1.0.2 necessary.

What happened so far?

We delivered the most important fixes not only for adaptive features but only for dynamic sampling and some other things with the Database Bundle Patch in October 2017 for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2. The fixes got delivered on MS Windows a bit earlier.

Enabling Oracle 12.2 ADAPTIVE Features in Oracle 12.1.0.2

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Oracle Database 12c Parameters 10

Oracle Database 12.2 introduces the new split-up adaptive parameters, OPTIMIZER_ADAPTIVE_PLANS and OPTIMITER_ADAPTIVE_STATISTICS. And the key trigger to cure potential and known performance issues in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 is enabling Oracle 12.2 ADAPTIVE Features in Oracle 12.1.0.2

For more information please see:

Enabling Oracle 12.2 ADAPTIVE Features in Oracle 12.1.0.2

But Oracle Database 12.2 on-premises is not out yet – so what should you do when upgrading to Oracle Database 12.1 – or struggling with some of the “adaptive” features in Oracle 12.1?

MOS Note: 2187449.1
Oracle Highly Recommended Adaptive Feature Configuration Parameter Settings for 12.1.0.2.0

OPTIMIZER_ADAPTIVE_FEATURES obsolete in Oracle 12.2

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Parameters 10

The Oracle Database 12.1 parameter OPTIMIZER_ADAPTIVE_FEATURES has been made OBSOLETE (i.e. must be removed from the SPFILE when upgrading) in Oracle Database 12.2.

It gets replaced with two parameters of whom one is enabled, the other one is disabled by default:

OPTIMIZER_ADAPTIVE_PLANS=TRUE by default
OPTIMIZER_ADAPTIVE_STATISTICS=FALSE by default

Nigel Bayliss, our “Optimizer” Product Manager has blogged about it already with way more detailed insights.

https://blogs.oracle.com/optimizer/entry/optimizer_adaptive_features_in_the

But as Oracle Database 12.2 on-premises is not available how should you deal with this feature in Oracle Database 12.1?

Enabling Oracle 12.2 ADAPTIVE Features in Oracle 12.1.0.2

…

RMAN Recovery Catalog with July PSU: How to resolve RASCHEMAVER and BASCHEMAVER schema mismatch

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation RMAN 3

Problem and Analysis

You’d apply the July 2016 PSU or BP. According to the readme you are required to upgrade your RMAN catalog afterwards. The …

Invalid Table Data before Upgrade to 12.1.0.2?

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Oracle Database 12c Upgrade / Migration 3

You plan to upgrade your database(s) to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2,?

You did run the preupgrd.sql including the preupgrade package in your current database already?

But in the preupgrade.log you’ll see the following ERROR:

ERROR: --> Invalid Oracle supplied table data found in your database.

     Invalid data can be seen prior to the database upgrade
     or during PDB plug in.  This table data must be made
     valid BEFORE upgrade or plug in.

   - To fix the data, load the Preupgrade package and execute
     the fixup routine.
     For plug in, execute the fix up routine in the PDB.

    @?/rdbms/admin/utluppkg.sql
SET SERVEROUTPUT

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

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Oracle Database 11g Patch Recommendation Upgrade / Migration 15

Patch I 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 …

fix

Where does the problem start?

Overview

What is the symptom?

Heads Up!

What has happened?

Disabling another fix

What happens, and when does it happen?

Quick Recap

No Release Update Revisions for Oracle 12.2.0.1

What happens?

Why does it happen?

What is the MGA?

It’s a bit tricky

What is happening?

When does it happen?

Special characters show junk in CLOB columns after upgrade to Oracle 12.2.0.1 with JDBC

What happened so far?

Enabling Oracle 12.2 ADAPTIVE Features in Oracle 12.1.0.2

Problem and Analysis

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