Restart

Upgrade fails with ORA-20001 during datapatch run

I encountered this issue now multiple times in my own environment. And I searched MOS and tried different things. But I couldn’t solve it yet. My Upgrade fails with ORA-20001 during datapatch run – and I’d like to show you how to bring the upgrade to an successful end.

Upgrade fails with ORA-20001 during datapatch run

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It all starts with an upgrade

In my lab environment I upgrade two databases often in parallel. An 11.2.0.4 database and a 12.2.0.1. The 11.2.0.4 upgrades always flawless. But the 12.2.0.1 occasionally fails. This is the screen AutoUpgrade is showing me – but this is not …

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Less is more – faster Oracle database upgrades with less memory

The title of this post sounds a bit weird: Less is more – faster Oracle database upgrades with less memory. Just a few weeks ago, I posted about How long will my upgrade take … revisited. And Daniel adds a very useful piece to the upgrade speed topic. Read about his tests below.

Less is more – faster Oracle database upgrades with less memory

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

Less is more – faster Oracle database upgrades with less memory

by Daniel Overby Hansen, Senior Principal Product Manager,
Oracle Database Upgrades and Cloud Migrations
Less is more – faster Oracle database upgrades with less memory by Daniel Overby Hansen

Daniel Overby Hansen

Mike and I had a talk with a customer the other …

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Troubleshooting, Restoring and Restarting AutoUpgrade

What if … something goes wrong during your database upgrade with AutoUpgrade? Of course, this never happens. But just in case, no worries – one of the really big advantages of AutoUpgrade (and the command line upgrade with “dbupgrade” as well) is its resumability and restartablity. But in this blog post I would like to cover a bit more. I will show you more details on Troubleshooting, Restoring and Restarting AutoUpgrade.

Troubleshooting, Restoring and Restarting AutoUpgrade

Photo by Mark Boss on Unsplash

And as often, the cause for this blog post is an email from Hervé Schweitzer, the CTO of dbi-services. Hervé told …

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AutoUpgrade and Data Guard, RAC, Restart and non-CDB to PDB

I need to bring this blog post forward about AutoUpgrade and Data Guard, RAC, Restart and non-CDB to PDB. Initially I planned to write this a bit later. But some of you had questions or were wondering why AutoUpgrade hasn’t done certain tasks. Hence, I’d like to clarify what AutoUpgrade can do, what it can’t and what you’ll have to do at the moment.

I refer to the AutoUpgrade tool as of July 2019. In later versions, one or the other restriction may be lifted. I will blog about it then as well.

AutoUpgrade and Data Guard, RAC, Restart and non-CDB to PDB

AutoUpgrade – Step-by-step

  1. The new AutoUpgrade
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Monitoring catctl.pl progress during upgrades

The parallel upgrade catctl.pl can resume once an upgrade has stopped for unexpected reasons. Before Oracle 12.2 you can restart it with the -p option specifying the phase it stopped. And since Oracle 12.2 you can only use the -R option to resume it. This blog post will give you a bit more insights in monitoring catctl.pl progress during upgrades.

Monitoring catctl.pl progress during upgrades

Monitoring catctl.pl progress during upgrades

I blogged about the resume options for catctl.pl a while ago:

But you may ask yourself: How does the tool know where to resume? And do you need …

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Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you’ve patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homes

Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you've patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homesThis blog post title sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you’ve patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homes. Why the heck should you patch your 12.1.0.2 database homes upfront?

Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you’ve patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homes

Well, there’s an interesting issue happening. When you work with Oracle Grid Infrastructure, no matter if you operate a cluster or “just” use Oracle Restart, you’ll have to upgrade GI to Oracle 12.2 first before you can manage 12.2 databases with it. That’s not new. It’s a well understood rule.

Now guess you operate Oracle RESTART (SIHA …

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Oracle RESTART deprecation announcement got withdrawn

Oracle Restart Deprecation announcementgot withdrawnVery good news for all customers using Oracle RESTART:
The Oracle RESTART deprecation announcement got withdrawn.

I have blogged in the past several times about Oracle RESTART of course either regarding upgrade, downgrade and patching:

And one of the customers I work with for quite a while, Swiss Mobiliar Insurance uses Oracle RESTART for all their Oracle Database environments:

The question all customers I deal with who use Oracle RESTART: How long will Oracle support it? And will there be a successor …

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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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ORAchk 12.1.0.2.3 with new checks + Restart support

ORAchk

Never used or heard about ORAchk? Then it’s time to give it a try! 

ORAchk 12.1.0.2.3 has now be released. ORAchk 12.1.0.2.3 has so many great features, especially more than 50 new health checks, OL7 Support – and is now aware of Oracle Restart environments.

New features include:

  • Linux on System Z (RHEL 6, RHEL 7, SuSE 12)
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 7
  • Single Instance ASM Checks
  • Upgrade Validation checks for 12.1.0.2
  • Enhanced Golden Gate Checks
  • Enterprise Manager Agent Checks
  • Enhanced Reporting to highlight checks that ORAchk cannot gain
    full visibility for
    (checks that require manual validation)
  • Improved health Score
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Downgrade Oracle Restart 12c – Grid Infrastructure only?

Oracle RestartCan you downgrade your Oracle Restart installation from Oracle 12c back to Oracle 11g?

Actually there’s no real direct downgrade supported for Oracle Restart. But of course there’s a way to do it.

Basically it is:

  • Deconfigure Oracle Restart in 12c
  • Configure Oracle Restart in 11g

But wait a minute. It is very important to know if you have upgraded your database already. If that is the case then first you MUST downgrade your database(s) as you can’t manage a higher version Oracle Database with a lower version Clusterware.

So first of all, please downgrade your Oracle database(s) first:…

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