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Oracle® Database Upgrade Guide
11g Release 2 (11.2)

Part Number E23633-07
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4 Post-Upgrade Tasks for Oracle Database

After performing the procedures for upgrading Oracle Database, you must complete required tasks and consider recommendations for the new release.

The chapter contains the following topics:

Required Tasks to Complete After Upgrading Oracle Database

After you upgrade Oracle Database, regardless of whether you perform the upgrade manually, or upgrade automatically by using Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA), you must complete any required tasks that are specified for your environment. You must also consider important information about your environment. The following topics contain the required procedures and information:

Setting Environment Variables on Linux and UNIX Systems After Manual Upgrades

If your operating system is Linux or UNIX, and if you performed a manual upgrade of Oracle Database, then you must ensure that certain environment variables point to the directories of the new Oracle Database release. Note that DBUA automatically makes necessary changes to environment variables. Additionally, if you are upgrading a cluster database, then perform these checks on all nodes on which the cluster database has instances configured.

Confirm that the following environment variables point to the directories of the new Oracle home:

  • ORACLE_HOME

  • PATH

See Also:

Setting oratab and Scripts to Point to the New Oracle Home After Upgrading Oracle Database

After you upgrade Oracle Database to the new release, you must ensure that your oratab file and any client scripts that set the value of ORACLE_HOME point to the new Oracle home that is created for the new Oracle Database 11g release. Although DBUA automatically points oratab to the new Oracle home, client scripts must be checked no matter which method you use to upgrade.

Upgrading the Recovery Catalog After Upgrading Oracle Database

For complete information about upgrading the recovery catalog and the UPGRADE CATALOG command, see Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide for the topic that describes the procedures.

Upgrading the Time Zone File Version After Upgrading Oracle Database

If the Pre-Upgrade Information Tool instructed you to upgrade the time zone files after completing the database upgrade, then use the DBMS_DST PL/SQL package to upgrade the time zone file.

See Also:

Upgrading Statistics Tables Created by the DBMS_STATS Package After Upgrading Oracle Database

If you created statistics tables using the DBMS_STATS.CREATE_STAT_TABLE procedure, then upgrade these tables by running the following procedure:

EXECUTE DBMS_STATS.UPGRADE_STAT_TABLE('scott', 'stat_table'); 

In the example, SCOTT is the owner of the statistics table and STAT_TABLE is the name of the statistics table. Perform this procedure for each statistics table.

Upgrading Externally Authenticated SSL Users After Upgrading Oracle Database

If you are upgrading from Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2) or Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1), and you are using externally authenticated SSL users, then you must run the SSL external users conversion (extusrupgrade) script to upgrade those users. The script has the following syntax:

ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/bin/extusrupgrade --dbconnectstring 
<hostname:port_no:sid> --dbuser <db admin> --dbuserpassword 
<password> -a

Note:

If you are upgrading from Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) or higher, then you are not required to run this command.

See Also:

for more information on the extusrupgrade script

Installing Oracle Text Supplied Knowledge Bases After Upgrading Oracle Database

The Oracle Text supplied knowledge bases are part of the companion Oracle Database 11g release products and are not immediately available after an upgrade to the new Oracle Database 11g release. Any Oracle Text features dependent on the supplied knowledge bases which were available before the upgrade do not function after the upgrade. To re-enable such features, you must install the Oracle Text supplied knowledge bases from the installation media.

After an upgrade, all user extensions to the Oracle Text supplied knowledge bases must be regenerated. These changes affect all databases installed in the given Oracle home.

See Also:

Updating Your Oracle Application Express Configuration After Upgrading Oracle Database

If your database originally included Application Express Version 3.2 or higher, then there is no additional configuration necessary after upgrading to the new Oracle Database 11g release.

If your database was not an Oracle Express Edition (XE) database, but contained an earlier version of Application Express (HTML DB), then the latest version is automatically installed during the upgrade. You must complete a series of postinstallation steps to configure Application Express for use with the new Oracle Database 11g release.

See Also:

Oracle Application Express Installation Guide for postinstallation tasks for Application Express

If your database is an Oracle Express Edition (XE) database, then it contains an earlier version of Application Express, which is tailored for the XE environment. Review the OTN document describing the differences between Oracle XE and Oracle Application Express at the following URL:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/overview/index.html

The database administration features available with the XE edition of Application Express are not available in version 3.2, but Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control can, optionally, be installed to provide a graphical interface for database administration.

Configuring Fine-Grained Access to External Network Services After Upgrading Oracle Database

Oracle Database 11g includes fine-grained access control to the UTL_TCP, UTL_SMTP, UTL_MAIL, UTL_HTTP, or UTL_INADDR packages using Oracle XML DB. If you have applications that use these packages, then you must install Oracle XML DB if it is not installed. You must also configure network access control lists (ACLs) in the database before these packages can work as they did in earlier releases.

The following example first looks for any ACL currently assigned to host_name. If one is found, then the example grants user_name the CONNECT privilege in the ACL, only if that user does not have this privilege. If no ACL exists for host_name, then the example creates a new ACL called ACL_name, grants the CONNECT privilege to user_name, and assigns the ACL to host_name.

DECLARE
  acl_path  VARCHAR2(4000);
BEGIN
  SELECT acl INTO acl_path FROM dba_network_acls
   WHERE host = 'host_name' AND lower_port IS NULL AND upper_port IS NULL;
IF DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CHECK_PRIVILEGE(acl_path, 
                                         'user_name','connect') IS NULL THEN
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(acl_path,
                                         'user_name', TRUE, 'connect');
END IF;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN no_data_found THEN
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL('ACL_name.xml',
      'ACL description', 'user_name', TRUE, 'connect');
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('ACL_name.xml','host_name');
END;
COMMIT;

Note:

The transaction must be committed for the changes to take effect.

See Also:

Oracle Database Security Guide for more complicated situations, such as connecting some users to host A and other users to host B

Enabling Oracle Database Vault and Revoking the DV_PATCH_ADMIN Role After Upgrading Oracle Database

If you use Oracle Database Vault, then you were instructed to disable it before upgrading your database. You must now:

  • Enable Database Vault.

  • Revoke the Database Vault DV_PATCH_ADMIN role for the SYS account.

See Also:

Recommended Tasks to Complete After Upgrading Oracle Database

Performing the following tasks is recommended, but not required, after you have upgraded your database. These tasks are recommended regardless of whether you performed the upgrade manually or by using DBUA:

Recommended Tasks to Perform After All Database Upgrades

Performing the following tasks is recommended, but not required, after you have upgraded your database.

Back Up the Database

Make sure you perform a full backup of the production database.

See Also:

Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide for details about backing up a database

Reset Passwords to Enforce Case-Sensitivity

Starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1), you can enforce case sensitivity for passwords. For example, the password hPP5620qr fails if it is entered as hpp5620QR or hPp5620Qr. In previous releases, passwords were not case sensitive.

To take advantage of enforced case-sensitive passwords, you must reset the passwords of existing users during the database upgrade procedure. For new database instances, there are no additional tasks or management requirements. For upgraded databases, each user password must be reset with an ALTER USER statement.

Alternatively, you can change the default to make the password verifier case insensitive. For regular users, set the initialization parameter sec_case_sensitive_logon to false:

sql> alter system set sec_case_sensitive_logon=false;

For sysdba and sysoper users, you can generate a new orapw file using the new command line switch ignorecase.

Note:

If the default Oracle Database release 11g security settings are in place, then passwords must be at least eight characters, and passwords such as welcome and oracle are not allowed. See Oracle Database Security Guide for more information.

Understand Changes with Oracle Grid Infrastructure

Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 and Oracle ASM 11g release 2 are both part of an Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

If Oracle Grid Infrastructure is installed for a single server, then it is deployed as an Oracle Restart installation with Oracle ASM. If Oracle Grid Infrastructure is installed for a cluster, then it is deployed as an Oracle Clusterware installation with Oracle ASM.

Oracle Restart enhances the availability of Oracle Database in a single-instance environment. If you install Oracle Restart, and there is a temporary failure of any part of the Oracle Database software stack, including the database, listener, and Oracle ASM instance, Oracle Restart automatically restarts the failed component. In addition, Oracle Restart starts all these components when the database host computer is restarted. The components are started in the proper order, taking into consideration the dependencies among components.

Oracle Clusterware is portable cluster software that allows clustering of single servers so that they cooperate as a single system. Oracle Clusterware also provides the required infrastructure for Oracle RAC. In addition, Oracle Clusterware enables the protection of any Oracle application or any other application within a cluster. In any case Oracle Clusterware is the intelligence in those systems that ensures required cooperation between the cluster nodes.

Understand Oracle ASM and Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation and Upgrade

In earlier releases, Oracle ASM was installed as part of the Oracle Database installation. With Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2), Oracle ASM is installed when you install the grid infrastructure components and shares an Oracle home with Oracle Clusterware when installed in a cluster such as with Oracle RAC or with Oracle Restart on a standalone server.

If you have an existing Oracle ASM instance, you can either upgrade it during the installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure, or you can upgrade it after the installation. However, be aware that several Oracle ASM features are disabled until you upgrade Oracle ASM, and Oracle Clusterware management of Oracle ASM does not function correctly until Oracle ASM is upgraded, because Oracle Clusterware only manages Oracle ASM when it is running in the grid infrastructure home. For this reason, Oracle recommends that if you do not upgrade Oracle ASM at the same time as you upgrade Oracle Clusterware, then you should upgrade Oracle ASM immediately afterward.

You can upgrade an Oracle ASM instance using Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA).

In earlier releases, you could use Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA) to upgrade either an Oracle Database, or Oracle ASM. That is no longer the case. You can only use DBUA to upgrade an Oracle Database instance. Use Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA) to upgrade Oracle ASM.

Add New Features as Appropriate

Oracle Database New Features Guide describes many of the new features available in the new Oracle Database 11g release. Determine which of these new features can benefit the database and applications; then, develop a plan for using these features.

It is not necessary to make any immediate changes to begin using your new Oracle Database software. You might prefer to introduce these enhancements into your database and corresponding applications gradually.

Chapter 5, "Upgrading Applications After Upgrading Oracle Database" describes ways to enhance your applications so that you can take advantage of the features of the new Oracle Database 11g release. However, before you implement new features, test your applications and successfully run them with the upgraded database.

Develop New Administrative Procedures as Needed

After familiarizing yourself with the features of the new Oracle Database 11g release, review your database administration scripts and procedures to determine whether any changes are necessary.

Coordinate your changes to the database with the changes that are necessary for each application. For example, by enabling integrity constraints in the database, you might be able to remove some data checking from your applications.

Set Threshold Values for Tablespace Alerts

An upgraded Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) database has the Tablespace Alerts disabled (the thresholds are set to null). Tablespaces in the database that are candidates for monitoring must be identified and the appropriate threshold values set.

The default threshold values (for a newly created Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) database) are:

  • 85% full warning

  • 97% full critical

Migrate From Rollback Segments to Automatic Undo Mode

This section describes the steps to migrate the database that is being upgraded from using rollback segments (manual undo management) to automatic undo management.

Starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1), automatic undo management is the default undo space management mode. The UNDO_MANAGEMENT initialization parameter specifies which undo space management mode the system should use, as follows:

  • If UNDO_MANAGEMENT=AUTO (or if UNDO_MANAGEMENT is not set), then the database instance starts in automatic undo management mode.

    A null UNDO_MANAGEMENT initialization parameter defaults to automatic undo management mode in Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1), but it defaults to manual undo management mode in earlier releases. You must therefore use caution when upgrading a previous release to Oracle Database 11g.

  • If UNDO_MANAGEMENT=MANUAL, then undo space is allocated externally as rollback segments.

If you are currently using rollback segments to manage undo space, then Oracle recommends that you migrate your Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) database to automatic undo management. This change requires that you first create an undo tablespace before opening a newly upgraded database to use automatic undo management. The required size of undo tablespace depends upon the system workload and Flashback requirements.

To migrate to automatic undo management, perform the following steps:

  1. Set UNDO_MANAGEMENT=MANUAL.

  2. Start the instance again and run through a standard business cycle to obtain a representative workload. Doing this to assess the workload and compute the size of the undo tablespace required for automatic undo management.

  3. After the standard business cycle completes, run the following function to collect the undo tablespace size and help with the sizing of the undo tablespace (DBA privileges are required to run this function):

    DECLARE
       utbsiz_in_MB NUMBER;
    BEGIN
       utbsiz_in_MB := DBMS_UNDO_ADV.RBU_MIGRATION;
    end;
    /
    

    This function runs a PL/SQL procedure that provides information on how to size your new undo tablespace based on the configuration and usage of the rollback segments in your system. The function returns the sizing information directly.

  4. Create an undo tablespace of the required size and turn on the automatic undo management by setting UNDO_MANAGEMENT=AUTO or by removing the parameter.

  5. For Oracle RAC configurations, repeat these steps on all instances.

Configure Oracle Data Guard Broker

The Data Guard broker property LocalListenerAddress has been deprecated as of release 11.2.0.1 due to changes with broker communication and the redo transport setting.

The broker property InitialConnectIdentifier has been changed to DGConnectIdentifier. The value of DGConnectIdentifier is used for all Data Guard network traffic, all of the time. If you are upgrading an Oracle Database release 10g configuration, which requires you to first upgrade to Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1), the value that exists for InitialConnectIdentifier is retained as the new value for DGConnectIdentifier for the database. When upgrading an Oracle RAC database, the database administrator must ensure that the value for the InitialConnectIdentifier property reaches all instances.

Migrate Tables from the LONG Data Type to the LOB Data Type

LOB data types (BFILE, BLOB, CLOB, and NCLOB) can provide many advantages over LONG data types. See Oracle Database Concepts for information about the differences between LONG and LOB data types.

In Oracle9i Release 1 (9.0.1) and later, you can use the ALTER TABLE statement to change the data type of a LONG column to CLOB and that of a LONG RAW column to BLOB.

In the following example, the LONG column named long_col in table long_tab is changed to data type CLOB:

SQL> ALTER TABLE Long_tab MODIFY ( long_col CLOB );

After using this method to change LONG columns to LOBs, all the existing constraints and triggers on the table are still usable. However, all the indexes, including Domain indexes and Functional indexes, on all columns of the table become unusable and must be rebuilt using an ALTER INDEX...REBUILD statement. Also, the Domain indexes on the LONG column must be dropped before changing the LONG column to a LOB.

See Also:

Oracle Database SecureFiles and Large Objects Developer's Guide for information about modifying applications to use LOB data

Test the Upgraded Production Database

If you upgraded a test database to the new Oracle Database 11g release and then tested it, then you can now repeat those tests on the production database that you upgraded to the new Oracle Database 11g release. Compare the results, noting anomalies. Repeat the test upgrade as many times as necessary.

Test the newly upgraded production database with existing applications to verify that they operate properly with a new Oracle database. You also might test enhanced functions by adding available Oracle Database features. However, first ensure that the applications operate in the same manner as they did before the upgrade.

See Also:

Chapter 5, "Upgrading Applications After Upgrading Oracle Database" for more information on using applications with Oracle Database

Recommended Tasks After Upgrading an Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) Database

Performing the following tasks is recommended, but not required, after you have upgraded from Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) or Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2).

Upgrade Change Data Capture

Starting with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), Asynchronous Change Data Capture (CDC) no longer requires the same operating system for source and target databases. This feature enables a heterogeneous CDC setup with different operating systems and Oracle Database releases, enabling asynchronous CDC to leverage any existing Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2) system as a source.

See Also:

Oracle Database Data Warehousing Guide for complete information on upgrading an Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2) or Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) database to the new Oracle Database 11g release with Change Data Capture, and supported configurations for the Distributed HotLog mode of Change Data Capture

Configure Secure HTTP

To configure HTTPS access to Oracle XML DB, follow the steps in this section to provide correct configuration information.

When a database is upgraded to Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) or later, the XML schema for the Oracle XML DB configuration file is automatically upgraded so that the Oracle XML DB configuration file (located at /xdbconfig.xml in the repository) can have two additional elements, http2-port and http2-protocol. These elements are not added to the Oracle XML DB configuration file by default during an upgrade. If you need support for HTTPS, then you must edit the configuration file to add these two new elements (see the XML schema for their exact locations), and to set the value of http2-protocol to tcps. The value of http2-port should be different from the value of http-port.

In addition to specifying the parameters http2-port and http2-protocol in the Oracle XML DB configuration file, you must configure the database and the listener to enable Oracle XML DB to use HTTPS. Additionally, if the steps in the following procedure were not performed before the upgrade, then you must perform them after the upgrade.

To enable Oracle XML DB to use HTTPS 

  1. Enable the HTTP listener and the database to use SSL

  2. Enable launching of a TCPS dispatcher

For more information on how to do this, see Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide.

Note:

If Oracle XML DB is not installed on the system, then you must install it during the upgrade procedure. Oracle XML DB is required to properly maintain the access control lists (ACLs).

Provide Anonymous Access to XML DB Repository Data Through HTTP

If anonymous access to XML DB repository data through HTTP is not required, then you are not required to perform this step. If anonymous access to XML DB repository data through HTTP is required, then you must provide correct configuration information, as described in this section. The administrator must carefully consider whether anonymous access is to be allowed, given the inherent security risks.

When a database is upgraded to Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) or later, the XML schema for the Oracle XML DB configuration file (located at /xdbconfig.xml in the repository) is automatically upgraded so that it can have an additional element, allow-repository-anonymous-access. This element is of Boolean type which means it can have a value of true or false. You can use this element to disallow unauthenticated access to your Oracle XML DB Repository data through HTTP even if you unlock the ANONYMOUS user account. The allow-repository-anonymous-access element is not added to the Oracle XML DB configuration file by default during an upgrade, but when this element is missing, it is interpreted as false.

Therefore, anonymous access to XML DB repository data through HTTP is disabled when you upgrade to Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) or later. If you want to have anonymous access to XML DB repository data through HTTP, then you must change the configuration file to set this new element to true, in addition to unlocking the ANONYMOUS user account.

Caution:

There is an inherent security risk associated with allowing unauthenticated access to the repository.

See Also:

Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide for more information about the allow-repository-anonymous-access element and configuring Oracle XML DB

Recommended Tasks After Upgrading an Oracle Express Edition Database

An Oracle Express Edition database contains only a subset of the components available in a Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition database. After upgrading to the new Oracle Database 11g release, you can use the Database Configuration Assistant to install additional components into your database. If you did not install Enterprise Manager Database Control during the DBUA upgrade, then you can install it, along with any other components you would like to have in the database.

Recommended Tasks After Upgrading an Oracle RAC Database

Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) 11g Release 2 (11.2) introduces the Single Client Access Name (SCAN). The SCAN is a single name that resolves to three IP addresses in the public network. When an earlier release of an Oracle RAC database is upgraded to 11g release 2 (11.2), it is registered with SCAN listeners as remote listeners, and also continues to register with all node listeners. You can configure clients to use SCANs, or continue to use the node listeners. If you migrate all of your client connections to use SCANs, you can then remove the node listeners from the REMOTE_LISTENERS parameter. However, you cannot remove the listeners themselves, because only node listeners can create dedicated servers for the database.

See Also:

Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide for more information on the Single Client Access Name (SCAN)

Tasks to Complete Only After Manually Upgrading Oracle Database

If you are performing a manual upgrade of Oracle Database rather than using DBUA, then you must perform additional tasks after your database is upgraded.

Change Passwords for Oracle Supplied Accounts

Depending on the release from which you upgraded, there might be new Oracle supplied accounts. Oracle recommends that you lock all Oracle supplied accounts except for SYS and SYSTEM, and expire their passwords, thus requiring new passwords to be specified when the accounts are unlocked.

Note:

If the default Oracle Database 11g security settings are in place, then passwords must be at least eight characters, and passwords such as welcome and oracle are not allowed. See Oracle Database Security Guide for more information.

You can view the status of all accounts by issuing the following SQL statement:

SQL> SELECT username, account_status
         FROM dba_users
         ORDER BY username;

To lock and expire passwords, issue the following SQL statement:

SQL> ALTER USER username PASSWORD EXPIRE ACCOUNT LOCK;

Create Password File with ORAPWD

If the REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE initialization parameter is set to either exclusive or shared, create a password file with ORAPWD.

See Also:

Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information about creating password files

Migrate Your Initialization Parameter File to a Server Parameter File

If you are currently using a traditional initialization parameter file, then perform the following steps to migrate to a server parameter file:

  1. If the initialization parameter file is located on a client computer, then transfer the file from the client computer to the server computer.

    Note:

    If you are using Oracle RAC, then you must combine all of your instance-specific initialization parameter files into a single initialization parameter file. Instructions for doing this, and other actions unique to using a server parameter file for cluster databases, are discussed in:
  2. Create a server parameter file using the CREATE SPFILE statement. This statement reads the initialization parameter file to create a server parameter file. You are not required to start the database to issue a CREATE SPFILE statement.

  3. Start up the instance using the newly-created server parameter file.

See Also:

Upgrade Oracle Text

After an upgrade to the new Oracle Database 11g release, copy the following files from the previous Oracle home to the new Oracle home:

  • Stemming user-dictionary files

  • User-modified KOREAN_MORPH_LEXER dictionary files

  • USER_FILTER executables

These files affect all databases installed in the given Oracle home.

You can obtain a list of these files by doing the following:

  1. Looking at $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/admin/ctxf102.txt

  2. Executing $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/admin/ctxf102.sql as database user SYS, SYSTEM, or CTXSYS

If your Oracle Text index uses KOREAN_LEXER which was deprecated in Oracle 9i and desupported in Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), see Note 300172.1 on My Oracle Support for further information on manual migration from KOREAN_LEXER to KOREAN_MORPH_LEXER.

See Also:

Upgrade the Oracle Clusterware Configuration

If you are using Oracle Clusterware, then you must upgrade the Oracle Clusterware keys for the database.

Run srvctl for release 11.2.0.3 to upgrade the database. For example:

%11.2.0.3_ORACLE_HOME/bin/srvctl upgrade database -d <name> -o 11.2.0.3_ORACLE_HOME

Caution:

By default, any named user may create a server pool. To restrict the operating system users that have this privilege, Oracle strongly recommends that you add specific users to the CRS Administrators list.

See Also: Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide for more information about adding users to the CRS Administrators list

Adjust the Initialization Parameter File for the New Release

Each release of Oracle Database introduces new initialization parameters, deprecates some initialization parameters, and makes some initialization parameters obsolete. You must adjust the parameter file to account for these changes and to take advantage of new initialization parameters that might be beneficial to your system. Additionally, when you perform a manual upgrade without using DBUA, the tnsnames.ora file is not automatically populated with new configuration information and settings. Therefore, you may need to manually update tnsnames.ora and adjust local_listener and remote_listener parameter references if these need to be resolved.

See Also:

Setting the COMPATIBLE Initialization Parameter

The COMPATIBLE initialization parameter controls the compatibility level of your database. When you are certain that you no longer need the ability to downgrade your database to its original release, set the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter based on the compatibility level you want for your new database.

Complete the following steps to set the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter to a higher value:

  1. Perform a backup of your database before you raise the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter (optional).

    Raising the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter might cause your database to become incompatible with earlier releases of Oracle Database, and a backup ensures that you can return to the earlier release if necessary.

    See Also:

    Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide for more information about performing a backup
  2. If you are using a server parameter file, then complete the following steps:

    1. Update the server parameter file to set or change the value of the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter.

      For example, to set the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter to 11.0.0, enter the following statement:

      SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET COMPATIBLE = '11.0.0' SCOPE=SPFILE;
      
    2. Shut down and restart the instance.

    Note:

    When upgrading systems with HARD-compliant storage (Hardware Assisted Resilient Data), consider the following:
    • If the COMPATIBLE parameter is set to a release number earlier than 11.0.0, then you cannot locate the server parameter file (SPFILE) on HARD storage.

    • If the COMPATIBLE parameter is set to 11.0.0, then you can optionally locate the server parameter file on HARD storage.

    Because the default SPFILE location (ORACLE_HOME/dbs) might not be on a HARD-compliant storage system, it is likely you must provide a parameter file that specifies the location of the SPFILE.

    See Also:

    Oracle Database High Availability Overview or Oracle Database Concepts for more information on HARD storage
  3. If you are using an initialization parameter file, then complete the following steps:

    1. Shut down the instance if it is running:

      SQL> SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE
      
    2. Edit the initialization parameter file to set or change the value of the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter.

      For example, to set the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter to 11.0.0, enter the following in the initialization parameter file:

      COMPATIBLE = 11.0.0
      
    3. Start the instance using STARTUP.

Note:

If you are using an ASM disk group, then the diskgroup's compatibility attribute must match or be lower than that of the database compatibility parameter in init.ora.

Configuring tnsnames.ora and Listener Parameters

After performing a manual upgrade, you may need to adjust local_listener and remote_listener parameter references if they need to be resolved in tnsnames.ora. DBUA handles changes to network naming and listeners during automatic upgrades, but during a manual upgrade, tnsnames.ora is not changed, nor are the listeners.

See Also:

Configure Enterprise Manager

If you are not yet using Oracle Enterprise Manager to manage your database, then install and configure Enterprise Manager Database Control.

If your database is being managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control or Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, then use the following command to update the configuration:

emca -upgrade (db | asm | db_asm) [-cluster] [-silent] [parameters]

You must run this from the Oracle home of the new Oracle Database 11g release. When prompted, provide the Oracle home from which the configuration is being upgraded.

You can also configure Enterprise Manager using DBCA. Select the Configure Database Options option, and then select the Enterprise Manager Repository option.

Set CLUSTER_DATABASE Initialization Parameter For Oracle RAC

For upgrades of Oracle RAC databases, in "Preparing the New Oracle Home for a Manual Upgrade", you were instructed to set the CLUSTER_DATABASE initialization parameter to false before upgrading a cluster database. Now that the upgrade is finished, you must set this parameter to true.

Required Tasks After Oracle Grid Infrastructure Upgrades

Oracle ASM release 11.2 and later are included as part of an Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

If you upgrade Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM for a cluster, then Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM are both located in the same home, which is referred to as grid home. You can have one installation owner that owns all Oracle software installations, or you can use role-allocated owners, in which case you use a separate software owner for the grid infrastructure installation, and separate software owners for one or more Oracle Database installations.

The following tasks are required after an upgrade from Oracle ASM, performed as a separate installation procedure, to an Oracle ASM installation as part of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure:

See Also:

Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide for your platform for more information about role-allocated installation owners

Using Environment Variables for Grid Infrastructure Installations

If your operating system is Linux or UNIX, then you may need to change environment variable settings after performing an upgrade.

If you use a single Oracle installation owner for all installations, then be aware that you should change environment variables such as ORACLE_HOME either to an Oracle Database home, or to the grid home, depending on whether you are administering an Oracle Database instance as part of database administration, or administering an Oracle ASM instance as part of storage administration.

If you use role-allocated Oracle installation owners, so that you have a separate owner for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure (Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM) software, then set the following environment variables for the grid infrastructure installation owner so that they point to the directories of the Oracle ASM home in the grid infrastructure home:

  • ORACLE_HOME

  • PATH

Also, check that your oratab file and any client scripts for Oracle ASM that set the value of ORACLE_HOME point to the Oracle ASM home in the grid infrastructure home.

Note:

If you are upgrading a clustered Oracle ASM installation to an Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster installation, then perform these checks on all cluster member nodes.

See Also:

Your operating system-specific Oracle Database installation documents for information about setting other important environment variables on your operating system.

Upgrading An Earlier Release of Oracle ASM to Oracle Grid Infrastructure

In earlier releases, Oracle ASM was installed as part of the Oracle Database installation. With Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2), Oracle ASM is installed when you install the grid infrastructure components. If you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster, then it is part of the grid home, with Oracle Clusterware. If you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a single server, then Oracle ASM shares an Oracle home with Oracle Restart.

If you want to upgrade an existing Oracle ASM, then you must upgrade Oracle ASM by running an Oracle Grid Infrastructure upgrade. If you do not have Oracle ASM installed and you want to use Oracle ASM as your storage option, then you must complete an Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation before you start your Oracle Database installation.

Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA) supports installing and configuring Oracle ASM instances, disk groups, volumes, and Oracle ASM Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS). Additionally, you can use the ASMCA command-line interface as a non-GUI utility (command name asmca).

You can use the asmca command to complete the upgrade separately. However, you must run asmca soon after you upgrade Oracle Clusterware, as Oracle ASM management tools such as srvctl do not work until Oracle ASM is upgraded.

Note:

For cluster upgrades, ASMCA performs a rolling upgrade only if the earlier release of Oracle ASM is either 11.1.0.6 or 11.1.0.7. Otherwise, ASMCA performs a normal upgrade, in which case ASMCA brings down all Oracle ASM instances on all nodes of the cluster, and then brings them all up in the new grid infrastructure home.

Preparing to Upgrade Oracle ASM

Note the following information if you intend to perform rolling upgrades of Oracle ASM:

  • You cannot change the owner of a home as part of an upgrade. For example, if you plan to install Oracle Grid Infrastructure as the user grid, then the home of an existing Oracle ASM must be owned by the user grid before you upgrade it.

  • The active release of Oracle Clusterware must be 11g release 2 (11.2). To determine the active release, enter the following command:

    $ crsctl query crs activeversion
    

    See Also:

    Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide for more information about crsctl and adding users to the CRS Administrators list
  • You can upgrade a single instance Oracle ASM installation to a clustered Oracle ASM installation. However, you can only upgrade an existing single instance Oracle ASM installation if you run the installation from the node on which the Oracle ASM installation is installed. You cannot upgrade a single instance Oracle ASM installation on a remote node.

  • You must ensure that any rebalance operations on your existing Oracle ASM installation are completed before starting the upgrade process.

  • During the upgrade process, you alter the Oracle ASM instances to an upgrade state. Because this upgrade state limits Oracle ASM operations, you should complete the upgrade process soon after you begin. The following are the operations allowed when an Oracle ASM instance is in the upgrade state:

    • Diskgroup mounts and dismounts

    • Opening, closing, resizing, or deleting database files

    • Recovering instances

    • Queries of fixed views and packages: Users are allowed to query fixed views and run anonymous PL/SQL blocks using fixed packages, such as dbms_diskgroup)

Upgrading Oracle ASM

The procedure in this section describes how to upgrade Oracle ASM using Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA).

To upgrade Oracle ASM 

  1. Log on as the installation owner of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

  2. If you are upgrading on a cluster, then on the node you plan to start the upgrade, set the environment variable ASMCA_ROLLING_UPGRADE as true. For example:

    $ export ASMCA_ROLLING_UPGRADE=true
    
  3. From the Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) home, start ASMCA. For example:

    $ cd /u01/11.2/grid/bin
    $ ./asmca
    
  4. Select Upgrade.

    The Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant upgrades Oracle ASM in succession for all nodes in the cluster.

See Also:

Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide for additional information about preparing an upgrade plan for Oracle ASM, and for starting, completing, and stopping Oracle ASM upgrades

Required Tasks After Oracle ASM Upgrades

This section contains the tasks that are required after an Oracle ASM Upgrade, and additional considerations.

Set Environment Variables

If your operating system is Linux or UNIX, then make sure that the following environment variables point to the directories of the new Oracle Database 11g release:

  • ORACLE_HOME

  • PATH

Also check that your oratab file and any client scripts that set the value of ORACLE_HOME point to the Oracle home of the new Oracle Database 11g release.

Note:

The ORACLE_HOME, PATH, and oratab checks are required only if you upgrade manually. DBUA automatically points oratab to the new Oracle home. Client scripts must be checked no matter how you upgrade.

If you are upgrading a clustered Oracle ASM, then perform these checks on all nodes in which this clustered Oracle ASM has instances configured.

See Also:

Your operating system-specific Oracle Database installation documents for information about setting other important environment variables on your operating system.

Single-Instance Oracle ASM Upgrade

The following procedure assumes that Oracle ASM is installed in Oracle home 1 (OH1) and the operating system user is orauser.

To perform a single-instance upgrade of Oracle ASM 

  1. As orauser, upgrade Oracle ASM to release 11.2 using OUI and ASMCA. The new Oracle ASM release 11.2 runs in the grid infrastructure home. Oracle ASM should still be running as orauser.

  2. As orauser, bring down the Oracle ASM instance and the listener.

  3. As root, run /etc/init.d/init.cssd stop to stop CSS.

  4. As a new user (asmuser), install 11.2 in a third Oracle home (OH3). This should be a software-only installation.

  5. As root, run localconfig reset from OH3.

  6. Update /etc/oratab so that OH3 is the Oracle home with the +ASM entry.

  7. Copy listener.ora, sqlnet.ora, and tnsnames.ora from OH2.

  8. Run EMCP to change the Oracle ASM instance path and connect-string role.

  9. Make sure the disks are owned by asmuser and by OSASM for Oracle ASM. They should also have the O660 permission set.

  10. As asmuser, start the listener.

  11. As asmuser, start Oracle ASM (connect as SYSASM).

  12. Run the command, GRANT sysasm TO sys.

Cluster Oracle ASM Upgrade

To perform an upgrade of Oracle ASM on a cluster 

  1. As orauser, upgrade Oracle ASM to release 11.2 using OUI and ASMCA. The new Oracle ASM release 11.2 should be running in a new Oracle home 2 (OH2). Oracle ASM should still be running as orauser.

  2. Bring down the Oracle ASM and Listener resources from CRS home.

  3. As a new user (crs for example), install 11.2 into a third Oracle home (OH3) to match that of the Grid Infrastructure home. This must be a software-only installation.

  4. From CRS home, run:

    srvctl remove listener -n node_name
    srvctl add listener -n node_name -o OH3
    srvctl modify asm -n node_name -i ASM_instance_name -o ORACLE_HOME_path
    

    Caution:

    By default, any named user may create a server pool. To restrict the operating system users that have this privilege, Oracle strongly recommends that you add specific users to the CRS Administrators list.

    See Also: Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide for more information about adding users to the CRS Administrators list

  5. Update /etc/oratab so that OH3 is the Oracle home with the +ASM entry.

  6. Copy listener.ora, sqlnet.ora, and tnsnames.ora from OH2.

  7. Run EMCP to change the Oracle ASM instance path and connect-string role.

  8. Make sure the disks are owned by asmuser and by OSASM for Oracle ASM. They should also have the O660 permission set.

  9. Start Oracle ASM and Listener resources from the new Oracle ASM 11g ORACLE_HOME or the new Oracle Database 11g ORACLE_HOME.

  10. Run the command, GRANT sysasm TO sys.

If you have clustered Oracle ASM instances, then you also have the option of performing a rolling Oracle ASM upgrade. A rolling upgrade enables you to independently upgrade or patch Oracle ASM nodes without affecting database availability, thus providing greater uptime.

See Also:

Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide for more information on rolling Oracle ASM upgrades

Additional Considerations After Oracle ASM Upgrades

If you separate the operating system user ownership of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure binaries and the Oracle Database installation owners of one or more databases, then you must migrate the operating system user of an upgraded Oracle ASM or database home as described in "Role-Allocated Software Owners and Database Upgrade After Oracle ASM Upgrade".

Role-Allocated Software Owners and Database Upgrade After Oracle ASM Upgrade

If you are migrating from one software binary owner (such as oracle) to multiple role-allocated software owner user accounts (such as grid, oracle1, oracle2), then change the owner of the existing Oracle ASM installation owner to the installation owner that you plan to use for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

There are three scenarios to consider:

See Also:

Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide for information on making an Oracle ASM disk group compatible with Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Database 11g, and for additional information about Oracle ASM upgrades

Keeping the Existing User as the Oracle ASM Operating System User

If you are using the same operating system user for your Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation that you used for your existing Oracle ASM installation, then run Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) to perform a grid infrastructure installation, and select the upgrade option. OUI automatically upgrades your existing Oracle ASM installation from the prior release to 11g Release 2 (11.2) in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.

Changing the Operating System User for Single-Instance Oracle ASM

Consider your earlier release Oracle ASM installation is installed in Oracle home 4 (OH4) and currently running oracle as the operating system user, and you want to change the Oracle ASM operating system user to grid. This is useful if you have two databases using Oracle ASM, and you had installed Oracle ASM with an installation owner that is the same as that for the existing databases, and you want to change the operating system installation owner of Oracle ASM to enable separate databases to run as separate operating system users, where neither Oracle Database installation owner has Oracle Grid Infrastructure binary ownership.

Changing the Operating System User for an Oracle RAC Database

There may be scenarios where you must change the operating system user for an Oracle RAC database. For example, if your earlier release database is installed in Oracle home 4 (OH4) and currently running oracle as the operating system user, then you should consider changing the Oracle ASM operating system user to grid. Changing the operating system user of Oracle ASM enables separate databases to run as separate operating system users, where no Oracle Database installation owner has grid infrastructure binary ownership.

Recommended Tasks After Oracle ASM Upgrades

Performing the following tasks is recommended, but not required, after you have upgraded Oracle ASM:

You should also consider performing the following tasks, discussed earlier in this chapter:

Reset Oracle ASM Passwords to Enforce Case-Sensitivity

Starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1), you can enforce case sensitivity for passwords. For example, the password hPP5620qr fails if it is entered as hpp5620QR or hPp5620Qr. In previous releases, passwords were not case sensitive.

To take advantage of enforced case-sensitive passwords, you must reset the passwords of existing users during the database upgrade procedure. For new Oracle Oracle ASM instances, there are no additional tasks or management requirements. For upgraded Oracle ASM instances, each user password must be reset with an ALTER USER statement.

Note:

If the default Oracle Database 11g security settings are in place, then passwords must be at least eight characters, and passwords such as welcome and oracle are not allowed. See Oracle Database Security Guide for more information.

Advance the Oracle ASM and Oracle Database Disk Group Compatibility

Starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1), you can advance the Oracle Database and the Oracle ASM disk group compatibility settings across software versions.

Caution:

If you advance the COMPATIBLE.RDBMS attribute, then you cannot revert to the previous setting. Therefore, before advancing the COMPATIBLE.RDBMS attribute, ensure that the values for the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter for all of the databases that use the disk group are set to at least the new setting for COMPATIBLE.RDBMS before you advance the attribute value.

Advancing compatibility enables new features only available in the new release. However, doing so makes the disk group incompatible with older releases of the software. Note that advancing the on-disk compatibility is an irreversible operation.

You use the compatible.rdbms and compatible.asm attributes to specify the minimum software release required by the database instance and the Oracle ASM instance, respectively, to access the disk group. For example, the following ALTER DISKGROUP statement advances the Oracle ASM compatibility of the disk group asmdg2:

ALTER DISKGROUP asmdg2 SET ATTRIBUTE 'compatible.asm' = '11.1'

In this case, the disk group can be managed only by Oracle ASM software of release 11.1 or higher, while any database client of release 10.1 or higher can use the disk group.

See Also:

Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide for complete information about disk group compatibility, and Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for more information about the disk group compatibility attributes on the ALTER DISKGROUP and CREATE DISKGROUP statements

Set Up Oracle ASM Preferred Read Failure Groups

Oracle ASM administrators can specify some disks to be preferred over others for read I/O operations. When Oracle ASM preferred read failure groups are defined, Oracle ASM can read from the extent that is closest to it, rather than always reading the primary copy.

See Also: