Oracle Database 12c Release 2

New version of preupgrade.jar (build 5) is available

There’s a new and improved version of the preupgrade.jar (build 5 – May 2017) available for download from MyOracle Support:

The same note will get you access also to the most recent builds of preupgrd.sql for upgrades to Oracle Database 12.1 and utlu112i.sql for the unlikely event you’ll have to upgrade a database to Oracle 11.2.0.4.

Please always exchange the version getting installed by default with the version we offer via MOS Note:884522.1 as the downloadable version is usually much newer and improved over the one getting deployed …

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Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 on-premises is now available, too

Yep – it’s available … Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 on-premises is available for download now not only on Exadata and SuperCluster but on Linux x86-64, SPARC and Intel Solaris. For other platform plans please see MOS Note:742060.1.

–Mike…

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Client Certification for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2/12.2.0.1

I’ve received a question about client certification for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 the other day.
And this reminded me on this very helpful MOS Note:

It spans the client interoperability back to the Oracle 9.2 days and is a very helpful resource.

Client Certification Oracle Database

And don’t forget that sometimes client software may need a patch as well. A customer I exchange emails with on a regular basis just upgraded the Database server to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 and saw several strange errors with the JDBC client despite the fact that they …

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Oracle Database 12.2 for Exadata/SuperCluster available

Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 on-premises for Exadata and SuperCluster is now available for download from Oracle eDelivery/SoftwareCloud.

Connect to eDelivery and login.

Search for: “Oracle Database” and mark “Oracle Database Enterprise Edition …


.

Click on “Select Platforms” and select “Linux x86-64“, then hit “Continue“:

Once you accepted the license agreement you’ll be able to download the software:

Please be aware that the software can be installed on Oracle Exadata and Oracle SuperCluster ONLY. To take advantage of the full potential of Oracle Database
12c Release 2
you should …

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Restarting a failed Database Upgrade with DBUA 12.2

In my previous blog post I did showcase how to restart a failed database upgrade on the command line before Oracle Database 12c, with Oracle Database 12.1.0.x and with the new Oracle Database 12.2.0.x:

Here I’d like to show the new capability of the Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA) to restart an upgrade, a functionality the DBUA was missing until now. Please note that you can always go back to the command line, no matter in which version you have used the DBUA.

I won’t describe an upgrade with the DBUA in this …

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Default Changes SPFILE Parameters – Oracle 12.2

This is the 4th posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

Roy and I did a comparison between default parameter settings in Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 vs Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 vs Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. And some changes are quite interesting – of course the memory driven parameters are left out in this list.

Color RED marks a change between releases.
The databases were …

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Having fun with PDB LOCKDOWN PROFILES

In Oracle Database 12.2 (available in the Oracle DBaaS Cloud) there’s a new functionality called “PDB LOCKDOWN PROFILES“. Actually the parameter came already in undocumented and not functional in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 (see here).

PDB Lockdown Profiles

PDB Lockdown Profiles are meant as a granular way to restrict or enable access – mostly under the aspect of using the database in a highly shared environment but requiring security. The idea is to embed restrictions on-top of a grant, i.e. taking away certain things. As an example you could allow a user logged into a certain PDB …

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New PREUPGRADE.JAR is available – MOS 884522.1

As promised – and thanks to everybody from the Database Upgrade Development Team – the new preupgrade.jar for Oracle Database 12.2 is available:

And of course the previous preupgrd.sql with the package utlupkkg.sql and the old utlu112i.sql for upgrade to Oracle 11.2.0.4 (which I wouldn’t do anymore) are available as well.

New Preupgrd.sql - MOS Note 884522.1

Please ALWAYS use the version downloaded from this MOS note as this version is much newer and better than the version getting shipped due to code freeze dates. And you will recognize that the new preupgrade.jar is now identical …

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SPFILE Parameter: max_pdbs – a must for Single Tenant

Sometimes my job has a aspect making me smile at the end of the day 😉

I sat together with Johannes Ahrends during a talk at the OUGN Conference on the boat from Oslo towards Kiel. And we were discussing afterwards why there’s no official way to limit the number of PDBs which will be essential for customers wanting to go the Single Tenant track. I had my Hands-On environment up and we played a bit in the break recognizing that a constraint on CONTAINER$ won’t be the correct solution as unplug/plug operations leave leftovers in it unless you …

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Deprecated Parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

This is the 3rd posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

 

Finally, here’s the list of DEPRECATED parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1:

O7_DICTIONARY_ACCESSIBILITY
active_instance_count
asm_preferred_read_failure_groups
background_dump_dest
buffer_pool_keep
buffer_pool_recycle
commit_write
cursor_space_for_time
db_block_buffers
fast_start_io_target
instance_groups
lock_name_space
log_archive_start
parallel_adaptive_multi_user
plsql_debug
plsql_v2_compatibility
rdbms_server_dn
remote_os_authent
resource_manager_cpu_allocation
sec_case_sensitive_logon
serial_reuse
sql_trace
standby_archive_dest
unified_audit_sga_queue_size
user_dump_dest
utl_file_dir

Only the ones in BOLD were newly marked as DEPRECATED in Oracle Database …

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Obsolete SPFILE Parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

This is the 2nd posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

Find the list of the 159 obsoleted parameters here (and of course in V$OBSOLETE_PARAMETERS):

_app_ctx_vers
_average_dirties_half_life
_aw_row_source_enabled
_compatible_no_recovery
_data_transfer_cache_size
_db_no_mount_lock
_dlm_send_timeout
_dtree_bintest_id
_dtree_compressbmp_enabled
_evolve_plan_baseline_report_level
_fast_start_instance_recovery_target
_fic_max_length
_fic_outofmem_candidates
_idl_conventional_index_maintenance
_kgl_latch_count
_kks_free_cursor_stat_pct
_kspptbl_mem_usage
_lm_direct_sends
_lm_multiple_receivers
_lm_rcv_buffer_size
_lm_statistics
_log_archive_buffer_size
_log_io_size
_max_log_write_io_parallelism
_module_action_old_length
_optimizer_adaptive_plans
_optimizer_choose_permutation
_oracle_trace_events
_oracle_trace_facility_version
_plan_verify_local_time_limit
_plsql_conditional_compilation
_px_async_getgranule
_px_slaves_share_cursors
_seq_process_cache_const
_spr_use_hash_table
_sqlexec_progression_cost
_use_hidden_partitions
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New SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

This is the 1st posting in my series about init.ora/SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.

Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 is available now in the Oracle Cloud.

And this is the list of 46 new init.ora/spfile parameters compared to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 – including the links (where possible) to the Oracle Database 12.2 Reference documentation.

 

Parameter

Description

allow_global_dblinks LDAP lookup for DBLINKS
allow_group_access_to_sga Allow read access for SGA
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Upgrades to Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 (and Downgrades)


Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) is available now in the Oracle Cloud
in DBCS and ECS in both NAS and EMEA zones, as well as being available on Exadata Express Cloud Service. The Oracle Database 12.2 documentation should be published later today.

Just to note down, the versions supporting direct upgrade either with catctl.pl on the command line or with DBUA are:

  • Oracle Database 11.2.0.3
  • Oracle Database 11.2.0.4
  • Oracle Database 12.1.0.1
  • Oracle Database 12.1.0.2

Direct Upgrade to Oracle Database 12.2

No direct upgrades are supported from versions below Oracle Database 11.2.0.3.

For versions older than Oracle Database 11.2.0.3 other tools such as Data Pump or …

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