Oracle 12.2.0.1

Patching all my environments with the October 2021 Patch Bundles

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 20

My calendar has no error or NLS conversion issue – I was just way to busy the past two months with seminars. But today a colleague asked me whether my 21.4 install reports a 21.3 Build Label in the trace files. And this reminded me that I should now finally apply the patch bundles from October 2021 to our Hands-On Lab environment. So again, another blog post about Patching all my environments with the October 2021 Patch Bundles.

Patching all my environments with the October 2021 Patch Bundles

Photo by NCI on Unsplash

As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to space issues. But in reality, you …

No RURs for 12.2.0.1 – and Oracle 11.2.0.4 left Extended Support

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 …

Oracle 12.2.0.1 – Clarification for Limited Error Correction Support

Posted on June 3, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 4

A few weeks ago, you read the announcement of the availability of Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. But many of you had some questions right away. I could answer most of them easily. But it was clear to us that there was more information needed. Hence, we published more information for Oracle 12.2.0.1 – Clarification for Limited Error Correction Support.

Oracle 12.2.0.1 - Clarification for Limited Error Correction Support

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What has been announced in April 2020?

Just a few weeks ago we announced the availability of Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1 after November 2020. You could find …

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 …

Oracle 12.2.0.1 Support extended with Limited Error Correction Support

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Release Schedule 14

There was sort of a rumor already as some customers sent mail to me last week whether we may extend the support period for Oracle 12.2.0.1. And thanks to my friend, Robert Pastijn, who alerted me minutes ago, you can find this information now as well in the single source of truth, MOS Note:742060.1.

Oracle 12.2.0.1 Support extended with Limited Error Correction Support

Photo by Francisco Gonzalez on Unsplash

Limited Error Correction announced for 12.2.0.1 Database

There are three important bullet points in the Patching End Dates table for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1:

Error Correction / Patching is available until Nov 30, 2020
Limited Error Correction (Sev 1 and

To which release should you upgrade to? Revisited …

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 0

I’ve had so many discussions with customers and partners, and also with colleagues in the past weeks and months about the support time frames for Oracle Database 12.2. Now I checked the blog, and I found so many posts about support periods. And I wrote a similar blog post already 1.5 years ago. I think it’s time to summarize all that. And give you some guidance as well about to which release should you upgrade to? Revisited …

To which release should you upgrade to? Revisited ...

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

Overview

Basically there are 2 sources to learn about Support time frames for the database release:…

Is Oracle Fail Safe 4.2.1 certified with Oracle Database 19c?

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Fail Safe 2

From time to time I get questions regarding the certification of Oracle Fail Safe. And just the other day, a customer asked: Is Oracle Fail Safe 4.2.1 certified with Oracle Database 19c? I briefly browsed my blog posts about Oracle Fail Safe from the past, and even though I mentioned that the certification for 4.2.1 on Oracle 12.2.0.1 may apply to later versions, I never updated it.

Is Oracle Fail Safe 4.2.1 certified with Oracle Database 19c?

Yes, it is. But you may want to know where you can read and find this information.

The latest version of Oracle Fail …

A new version (June 2019) of the AutoUpgrade is available for download

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 0

My team mates worked very hard – and many customers did the same. Thanks for all your feedbacks. We tried to help and assist everybody where possible. And here it is. A new version (June 2019) of the AutoUpgrade is available for download.

A new version of the AutoUpgrade is available for download

Download the new AutoUpgrade

Please download the newest version 20190620 of the AutoUpograde from:

MOS Note:2485457.1. – AutoUpgrade Tool

and replace your current version with the new one (20190620..

The new version has 51 additional fixes. At the end of MOS Note: you’ll find a list of bugs fixed on X64_190620 update file.

Where

How long will Oracle Database 12.2 be supported?

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 19

This question sounds very simple: How long will Oracle Database 12.2 be supported? Right? But I learned at a customer site recently that the information about the support periods for Oracle 12.2 may puzzle people sometimes. Hence I thought some clarification may be useful.

Lifetime Support Policy Brochure

First of all, when you have a look into the Lifetime Support Policy brochure the answer you’ll read there is:

Premier Support until March 2023
Extended Support until March 2026

How long will Oracle Database 12.2 be supported?

But this doesn’t give you any distinction between Oracle 12.2.0.1, Oracle 18c and Oracle 19c. These three releases fall under the Oracle …

Premier Support Extension for Oracle 19c – and more

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 2

Wait a bit. Oracle Database 19c is not out yet (only in beta right now) but how can we initiate a Premier Support Extension for Oracle 19c already? Well, Oracle 12.2.0.1, Oracle 18c and Oracle 19c all together sail under the cover of the “Oracle 12.2 Release Family” and hence have a common support frame.

What has been announced?

The single-source-of-truth MOS Note:742060.1 got updated. Roy tweeted about it already. And the major change in the note is the extension of the Premier Support for Oracle 19c until March 2023. That is one year more than it was …

Conventional INSERTs into HCC tables may be slower since Oracle 12.2

Posted on November 28, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls 2

I work with several customers at the moment on their Oracle 12.2/18c “go live” projects. And one of these customers encountered a strange issue when comparing Oracle 11.2.0.4 to Oracle 12.2.0.1/18.3.0: Conventional INSERTs into HCC tables may be slower since Oracle 12.2. Actually in this particular case, significantly slower. Read below why this can happen and how the workarounds look like.

Hybrid Columnar Compression

There’s a lot of material to read and study about Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC). With HCC we store the same column for a group of rows together. The data block does not store data in row-major …

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

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Cloud Release Schedule 0

A few weeks ago I published a blog post about provisioning dates in Oracle Cloud environments for different databases releases. As we did an important update, I rewrite today: How long can you provision database version X in the Cloud? – NEW.

What has changed since the original post?

The key point in the previous blog post was:

“And by end of this calendar year, the option to provision an Oracle 12.2.0.1 instance will go away. The same will happen in less than 1 year with Oracle 11.2.0.4 instances.”.

With “this calendar year” I pointed to end of 2018. …

To which release should you upgrade to? Plus: Extended Support?

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 6

To which release should you upgrade to? Plus: Extended Support?

A few days ago I blogged about the Current Support Status for Oracle Database Releases. And you’ve sent several questions to me. Some asked about clarification to which release should you upgrade to? Plus: Extended Support questions were quite frequent. So let me clarify this previous blog post a bit.

To which release should you upgrade to?

A few weeks ago we initiated global communication to all customers who had opened an SR within the past 3 years explaining to which release you should upgrade to. Just in case you haven’t seen this communication, I will give you more …

RMAN Backup Gives RMAN-06091: No Channel Allocated for Maintenance

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls RMAN 17

RMAN Backup Gives RMAN-06091: No Channel Allocated for Maintenance I really don’t want to turn this blog into an accumulation of issues and flaws. But as I explained many times before, the blog for me is also a way to dump information I likely will need the sooner or later again.

Recently I blogged about another RMAN issue in Oracle 12.2.0.1 with traces. This was fixed with the July 2018 RU for Oracle 12.2.0.1. But the issue below about which Piero Ferraz from Brazil alerted me (thanks!!!), happens in exactly this RU.

RMAN Backup Gives RMAN-06091: No Channel Allocated for Maintenance

This issue gets introduced with the July …

Clarification: Support Periods for Oracle 12.2.0.1 and 18c

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 12

Monday morning, another way-too-hot July day. Summer is crazy this year in Europe. We all enjoy nice sunny weather but nobody does enjoy a serious drought. Nowhere. While going through my inbox I spot this statement: ““Why should we go to 18.x with support till 2020?“. And this is not an unusual question. But I think I should write a Clarification: Support Periods for Oracle 12.2.0.1 and 18c. I receive plenty of such questions in the past weeks. And actually many from my colleagues.

Clarification: Support Periods for Oracle 12.2.0.1 and 18c

First of all, your Single …

Long Identifiers in Oracle 12.2 may cause trouble

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Uncategorized 11

LONG identifiers are one of the key features in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. But as I learned the other day, you should be a bit careful when you exchange data between different databases. In certain situations, Long Identifiers in Oracle 12.2 may cause trouble.

What are Long Identifiers?

Long identifiers get introduced with Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. For ages, you could name a table or a column or a user or a package in Oracle with only 30 byte length. Hence, naming a table TAB_THIS_IS_MY_TABLE_AND_I_LIK is ok (30 byte – 30 characters) but naming it TAB_THIS_IS_MY_TABLE_AND_I_LIKE_IT is not possible as it requires …

RMAN backup generates traces in Oracle 12.2.0.1

Posted on May 24, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls 5

RMAN backup generates traces in Oracle 12.2.0.1 Oracle 12.2.0.1 seems to be the “tracing” release without further patch or parameter treatments. After posting about MMON unconditional traces in Oracle 12.2.0.1 a day ago, I received a couple of comments either on the blog, via LinkedIn or Twitter regarding other trace facilities in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. One of them is the case that RMAN backup generates traces in Oracle 12.2.0.1.

And please, very important upfront:
Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 is a very stable and reliable release based on all the customer feedback Roy and I received so far. For instance, when we check for optimizer issues …

MMON unconditional traces in Oracle 12.2.0.1

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls 10

MMON unconditional traces in Oracle 12.2.0.1 I love visiting customers onsite. Last week I visited die Mobiliar in Bern, Switzerland. I received a list of open issues to discuss – which is very good to prepare a visit. And when we all were sitting together there was this “Ah, one final thing”. They have an issue with traces the databases writes every few seconds. As a remedy the DBAs increased the backup interval to remove the traces as otherwise the system would potentially run out of inodes or space. All the traces had the same pattern. And I learned quickly: these are MMON unconditional traces in …

When you patch, please use UPDATES – and not REVISIONS

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 5

I can just repeat what I’m saying not for almost a year: When you patch, please use UPDATES – and not REVISIONS. Updates (or Release Updates – short: RU) and Revisions (or Release Update Revisions – short: RUR) are patch bundles for the Oracle Database since Oracle 12.2.0.1. There are no PSUs (Patch Set Updates) anymore. And Revisions are not the same as PSUs.

When you patch, please use UPDATES – and not REVISIONS

One of the reasons why we recommend Updates, and not Revisions, simply is: Updates keep you more current whereas Revisions will let you miss a lot …

Oracle Database 12.2 on Oracle Database Appliance (ODA)?

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich ODA - Oracle Database Appliance 8

“Can I download and install Oracle Database 12.2 on Oracle Database Appliance (ODA)?”

I received such questions multiple times in the past weeks by different customers. One did ask me about their older X5-2, another person wanted to know where to download the image. At RMOUG somebody asked me when ODA will apply Bundle Patches (or Updates) instead of PSUs? And thanks to my PM mate Tammy Bednar, here’s the information also as a reminder to myself.

ODA stands for Oracle Database Appliance – it is an engineered system of software, servers, storage and networking that offers a simple, …

When does patching end for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1?

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Release Schedule 2

This question is coming up on a regular basis for obvious reasons whenever we speak to customers about Oracle Database 12.2 and 18c: When does patching end for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1?

When does patching end for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1?

Actually Roy and I are explaining this topic in our The New Release and Patching Model presentation:

When does patching end for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1?

Annual releases, such as Oracle 12.2.0.1, Oracle 18c, Oracle 19c and so on, get a minimum of 2 years patching after the succeeding release is available. This means, as soon as Oracle 18c is available, the previous release – Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 – …

How to rename a Pluggable Database

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 30

Have you ever asked yourself how to rename a pluggable database? I did. And today a colleague from ACS Support told me how easy it is.

Of course I had to try it out. And it seems to work quite nice in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. In the previous release I found some nits documented in MOS.

How to rename a Pluggable Database

There’s no obvious command to rename a pluggable database such as “alter pluggable database PDB1 rename to PDB2”. But it’s not complicated if you know the right command.

I’m creating a fresh pluggable database:

create pluggable database PDB1

Minimum Supported Version for Database Upgrades

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich General Upgrade / Migration 6

This question comes up very often: What is the minimum supported version for database upgrades? Or a question I received today: “I have an Oracle 10.2.0.4 database, can I upgrade directly to Oracle 11.2.0.4?”

Usually I have to dig into my old slides from the past to give a definite answer. And of course, the Database Upgrade Guide of each version has the same information somewhere as well. Therefore I’d like to summarize the releases supported for direct database upgrades since Oracle 11.2.0.4 below.

Upgrade?

When I speak about database upgrades, I mean you’ll use either the command line …

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

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich ASM / RAC / GI Behavior Change 12

Interesting 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

Oracle 12.2.0.1

No Release Update Revisions for Oracle 12.2.0.1

What has been announced in April 2020?

It’s a bit tricky

Limited Error Correction announced for 12.2.0.1 Database

Overview

Is Oracle Fail Safe 4.2.1 certified with Oracle Database 19c?

Download the new AutoUpgrade

Where

Lifetime Support Policy Brochure

What has been announced?

Hybrid Columnar Compression

What has changed since the original post?

To which release should you upgrade to?

RMAN Backup Gives RMAN-06091: No Channel Allocated for Maintenance

Clarification: Support Periods for Oracle 12.2.0.1 and 18c

What are Long Identifiers?

When you patch, please use UPDATES – and not REVISIONS

When does patching end for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1?

How to rename a Pluggable Database

What got added to MOS Note:742060.1?

Upgrade?

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

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