PDB

CDB upgrades – explaining catctl_options

When you upgrade your entire CDB with AutoUpgrade, there is a parameter which allows you some tuning or tweaking. And I often see some misunderstanding here. Therefore, for CDB upgrades – explaining catctl_options is my focus today.

CDB upgrades - explaining catctl_options

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catctl_options – what it is meant for

This AutoUpgrade config file parameter allows you to set specific settings, mostly for tuning, but also to override some defaults. In the documentation you will find the whole list of options. You can set it in your AutoUpgrade config file, e.g.:

upg1.catctl_options=-T

catctl_options in CDB upgrades

Here, …

Datapatch return codes and helpful queries

Posted on February 17, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich datapatch 4

The other week I was visiting a customer in Germany who had specific questions for datapatch. And luckily, Alejandro Diaz who is the Product Manager for Data Pump in our team has a history in datapatch. He helped me with Datapatch return codes and helpful queries.

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Datapatch return codes

Yes, datapatch generates various return codes you can use to verify the outcome in case you program or maintain an automation.

0 for success
1 for prereq failure
2 for non-ignorable error during patch installation
255 runtime error

I may …

Oracle AI World 25: Upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai – let’s do it again

Posted on October 16, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich OOW Oracle AI Database 26ai 0

We’ll do it another time. This is your chance in case you missed our session on Tuesday:

Marco Polo 806, Level 1
Upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai: Best Practices and Customer Experience [LRN4241]

We collided with the delayed keynote of Larry Ellison, and obviously attending the keynote was way more important than our talk. Therefore, if you couldn’t show up but still want to learn about the replacement of Oracle Database 23ai with Oracle AI Database 26ai, then THIS is your final chance.

Oracle AI World 25: Upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai - let's do it again

We will show you the new release numbering schema, clarify whether you need to …

Were you aware of the two hidden columns in CDB-Views?

Posted on August 11, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Best Practice Single-/Multitenant 14

Learning something new every day is the best part of my job. And as you can see and read on the blog, thanks to YOU, I learn a lot. This one I learned from Johannes Ahrends at my workshop for ora2know in Munich in early July this year. Were you aware of the two hidden columns in CDB-Views? I confess honestly: I wasn’t.

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Two hidden columns?

Johannes asked me whether I know the reason for the two hidden columns in every CDB-view. His question was more like: It’s super-useful but why are these hidden?…

OCW25 – Pre-Event Training: Mastering Oracle 23ai Upgrades

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich OCW OOW Workshop 0

Time flies so quickly. Soon we’ll get together again in Las Vegas for Oracle Cloud World 2025. This year, it will be in October where hopefully it’s a few degrees colder (or less hot) than in early September last year. And as in the past years, we’ll do at OCW25 – Pre-Event Training: Mastering Oracle 23ai Upgrades.

OCW25 - Pre-Event Training: Mastering Oracle 23ai Upgrades

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Will our pre-event training be different this year?

Of course, we won’t do the same training as we did in 2024. It will be a different training set with plenty of different exercises. …

AutoUpgrade migration to Oracle 23ai Exascale with Refreshable Clones

Posted on June 30, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 0

Those of you who have been to our workshops in the past 3 years know that we promote one feature as the ultimate killer feature for moving to Oracle Database 19c and 23ai: Refreshable Clones. These work not only from PDB to PDB, but magically also with a non-CDB. And our teams works with a good number of customers using exactly this technique to Oracle 23ai. Now, we talked about it. And we blogged about it (see below). But there is a brand-new MOS note out there showcasing an AutoUpgrade migration to Oracle 23ai Exascale with Refreshable Clones.

AutoUpgrade migration to Oracle 23ai Exascale with Refreshable Clones

Photo by

Refreshable clone with AutoUpgrade but keep your RAC configuration?

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Single-/Multitenant 0

I had to shorten the headline a bit. It got very bulky saying at first: Use a Refreshable Clone with AutoUpgrade from non-CDB to PDB but keep your RAC configuration alive. Well, you see, that’s bulky. But it describes the case I would like to briefly show you. Helmut Pfau, a colleague of mine here in Germany asked this the other day, and it took us a bit to get the correct answer to him – I confess, simply because I didn’t know the right AutoUpgrade parameter.

Refreshable clone with AutoUpgrade but keep your RAC configuration?

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We love Refreshable Clones

You’ve …

Queries on dictionary tables are slow in Oracle Multitenant?

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Single-/Multitenant 12

I love to learn something new every day. And on Friday afternoon last week I learned something new again. It started (as often) with a very simple question from a colleague working from the Oracle Malaga office in Spain. The customer has an issues with some queries being slower than before once they moved from on-prem to the cloud into a PDB. But are queries on dictionary tables are slow in Oracle Multitenant generally?

Queries on dictionary tables are slow in Oracle Multitenant?

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What was the case?

The customer ran some queries against dictionary views in the PDB in Oracle Database …

Can I convert a non-CDB into a CDB?

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Single-/Multitenant 0

Those of you who work with the Multitenant or CDB architecture for a longer time may find this blog post title strange. But as I learned the other week at the German Oracle User Group conference (DOAG 2024), others still have this question: Can I convert a non-CDB into a CDB?

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Can you convert?

Short answer: No.

End-of-blog-post.
Well, of course, not.
Let me explain this a bit more.

When you have a non-CDB database today, you can’t convert it into a CDB (Container Database). This path isn’t possible but there is another path. …

Cleanup datapatch patching files in your database

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 16

A while back I wrote about datapatch stores rollback patching files in the database, and the amount of space it may consume over time, especially if you patch frequently. I am fully aware that it took a bit longer, but finally since a few months, there is a relief. You can now Cleanup datapatch patching files in your database, and reclaim the space as well.

Cleanup datapatch patching files in your database

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A quick recap

In my blog post from January 2024 I shared queries to check the space consumed by previous patches in your database. In brief, to allow …

Virtual Classroom Seminar 20: Migration to Oracle Multitenant 23ai – Part 2

Posted on June 24, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

Needed a long title here. And if you haven’t registered yet, please do so now. Thursday, June 27, 2024, we are going to deliver our (potentially last for this year) Virtual Classroom Seminar 20: Migration to Oracle Multitenant 23ai – Part 2. If you missed part 1, no worries, you can watch it on-demand anytime.

Virtual Classroom Seminar 20: Migration to Oracle Multitenant 23ai - Part 2

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Again, we have an exciting deep-dive tech agenda with lots of bits and pieces, and thinks you may not know yet. Hence, regardless if you are already in the Multitenant architecture, or whether you plan to migrate …

Virtual Classroom Seminar #19 “Move to Oracle 23ai” is available – and #20 is coming soon

Posted on May 23, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

Thanks to the over 350 people who attended our Virtual Classroom Seminar #19 – Move to Oracle Database 23ai: Everything you need to know about Multitenant PART 1 on May 16, 2024. And thanks as well for asking so many questions during the seminar. In case you couldn’t attend, or you’ve had to leave earlier, we are sharing the recording with you, and of course the slides as well.

Virtual Classroom Seminar #19 - Move to Oracle Database 23ai - Multitenant Part 1

What were the topics in VC#19?

In VC#19 we talked about the Oracle Multitenant architecture, how to design a new deployment, how the dictionary is laid out. In addition, you will …

Virtual Classroom Seminar 18: XTTS to the Extreme – Video and Slides and more

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable Workshop 2

Thanks for tuning in on Feb 22, 2024 into our Virtual Classroom Seminar 18: XTTS to the Extreme – Video and Slides and more are now available. And thanks for being such a great audience with so many questions.

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Video Recording

As usual, you can access the full recording here.

Please find the entire contents section below in the video’s description. You don’t need to watch the entire seminar, you can also access only the sections you are interested in, or skip sections which are not on your focus.

00:08 – Welcome to

Migrate your EM Cloud Control Repository into a PDB

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Enterprise Manager Single-/Multitenant 6

This is a question two customers asked me one or two weeks ago. Is it allowed and supported to Migrate your EM Cloud Control Repository into a PDB? And if it is supported, how do you do it?

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Is is supported?

At first, the good news, Migration your Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Repository database into a pluggable database (PDB) is fully supported. You find a section in the Cloud Control Basic Installation Guide saying:

The supported database configuration types are: pluggable database (PDB) and non-container database (non-CDB).

And you can have even …

Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Time Zone - DST Transportable 18

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

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Where does the problem start?

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

Virtual Classroom Seminar: Fallback Is Your Insurance – on Nov 11, 2021

Posted on November 10, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 4

No worries, I haven’t become lazy recently. But the past weeks were more busy than anything I have experienced so far. And I had a full week off and enjoyed the silence and absence from blogs and cell phones and email in the mountains. But now I’m back – and surprise, surprise – this week on Thursday we’ll have our 11th Virtual Classroom Seminar: Fallback Is Your Insurance – on Nov 11, 2021.

Fallback Seminar

When will it happen?

Thursday, Nov 11, 2021 – 10:00h CET

What are we going to talk about?

Fallback and Rollback. How to secure your job. …

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

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Oracle Database 21c Upgrade / Migration 27

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.

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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 …

UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Behavior Change 15

Behavior changes introduced via a bug fix may not be something you like a lot. And thanks to Sreedhar from one of our most important customers I learned on the weekend: UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0.

UNDO_RETENTION not inherited to PDBs anymore since 19.9.0

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What is happening before 19.9.0?

Until Oracle 19.8.0 you could change the UNDO_RETENTION in the CDB$ROOT, and it applied to all PDBs automatically. You may or may not have cared. But there are cases when you’d like to change an undo related parameter in the CDB$ROOT without its propagation into all PDBs.

This behavior …

Do you need the Mitigation Patch in CDB$ROOT and all PDBS?

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich JVM Patch Recommendation 10

Thanks to Axel Delin for asking this very reasonable question on the blog. Do you need the Mitigation Patch in CDB$ROOT and all PDBS? Background for this question is that Axel can’t remove JVM but doesn’t use it. A typical case we cover in our slides and presentations as well. And in this case, the Mitigation Patch will become your friend. Please note: If you DON’T have JAVAVM in your database, you won’t need to pay attention and instead could stop reading now.

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Mitigation Patch

You can read more about the Mitigation Patch, and …

Oracle AutoUpgrade between two servers – and Plugin?

Posted on August 4, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade 21

In my previous blog post I demonstrated how you can upgrade with AutoUpgrade between two servers. This a very typical scenario where you get new server, often also with a newer operating system version installed. But I was wondering if you can use Oracle AutoUpgrade between two servers – and Plugin?

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AutoUpgrade between two servers

Please see my previous blog post about all the details:

Oracle AutoUpgrade between two servers – Aug 3, 2020

Upgrade and Plugin?

At the end of it, I was curious if I couldn’t just plugin afterwards. But I …

Transportable Tablespaces – Example and strange error with a PDB

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Single-/Multitenant Transportable 6

Yesterday I was browsing around for a useful simple example to test Transportable Tablespaces. A colleague mailed with the other day with a strange error message. The attempt to import into a PDB in Oracle 19c failed. My first thought: Oh, this is simple. But I failed, too. And even worse, I couldn’t find a single useful note in MyOracle Support (MOS) for ORA-31640, ORA-27037, Linux-x86_64 Error: 2 with Additional information: 7. So I decided to summarize this in Transportable Tablespaces – Example and strange error with a PDB.

Transportable Tablespaces - Example and strange error with a PDB

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A simple Transportable Tablespace

Collection of EBS upgrade information for Oracle Database 19c and 26ai

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich E-Business Suite 4

This was the question I received the most often during the Virtual Classroom web seminars last week: “Can you say something about EBS upgrades with 19c?”. And I promised to publish a blog post about it. But as I’m not an EBS expert, I can only share a Collection of EBS upgrade information for Oracle Database 19c. For all further inquiries, please open an SR or get in touch with your Oracle contact.

Collection of EBS upgrade information for Oracle Database 19c

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Recap – EBS and Oracle 19c

In September 2019, right before Oracle Open World, we announced the certification of EBS …

AutoUpgrade and Plug In to a CDB – with a single command (and video)

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Single-/Multitenant 71

I have to confess, this feature is out and available for quite a while. But only unofficially. AutoUpgrade can upgrade and plug in a non-CDB into a CDB. But it lacked flexibility. And we didn’t test it a lot. Hence, you could find it documented in our Hands-On Lab instructions. And we did this exercise with you already in our sold-out labs at OOW 2019 as well. But since a week and a bit, it is officially supported: AutoUpgrade and Plug In to a CDB – with a single command (and video).

AutoUpgrade and Plug In to a CDB - with a single command (and video)

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Create

Can you connect as SYSDBA without password into a PDB directly?

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 28

I’m happy when I learn something new every day. And today, right before I wanted to turn my computer into “sleep”, I learned something which surprises me a lot. Have you ever asked the question: Can you connect as SYSDBA without password into a PDB directly? Of course with the usual way of “sqlplus / as sysdba”.

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Can you?

Our answer always was: No. You can’t. There is no bequeath connection available.

Today somebody asked a similar question internally. And the answer caught Roy, Daniel, Bill and myself by surprise. There is an …

3 Live Seminars: Multitenant Seminar 3 Questions answered

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

This is the third and final QA blog post for the Seminars we did in the last week of April 2020. Thank you for your attendance. I will publish the replay recordings as soon as they are available and link them as well. For now, please find here 3 Live Seminars: Multitenant Seminar 3 Questions answered.

3 Live Seminars: Multitenant Seminar 3 Questions answered

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Your Questions, our Answers for Seminar 3: Multitenant

103	We are in the process of migrating to Oracle Cloud using the xtts method for cross platform migration and we seem to be encountering an issue with it

PDB

catctl_options – what it is meant for

catctl_options in CDB upgrades

Datapatch return codes

Two hidden columns?

Will our pre-event training be different this year?

We love Refreshable Clones

What was the case?

Can you convert?

A quick recap

What were the topics in VC#19?

Video Recording

Is is supported?

Where does the problem start?

When will it happen?

What are we going to talk about?

AutoUpgrade

What is happening before 19.9.0?

Mitigation Patch

AutoUpgrade between two servers

Upgrade and Plugin?

A simple Transportable Tablespace

Recap – EBS and Oracle 19c

Create

Can you?

Your Questions, our Answers for Seminar 3: Multitenant

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