Upgrading Oracle Multitenant In Parallel

With the In Parallel technique, you first upgrade CDB$ROOT using the Parallel Upgrade Utility (catctl.pl), using parameters to set the degree of parallel processing and availability:

• The -n parameter defines how many parallel processes run the upgrade, up to 8.

• The -M parameter determines if the CDB$ROOT stays in UPGRADE mode through the entire upgrade, or becomes available for access after the CDB upgrade is complete. If you do not run the upgrade with the -M parameter, then when the CDB$ROOT upgrade is complete, PDBs then become available for access as soon as each PDB completes its upgrade. If you run the upgrade with the –M parameter, then CDB$ROOT stays in UPGRADE mode, and PDBs do not become available until upgrade of all PDBs is complete.

Upgrading Oracle Multitenant In Sequence

With the In Sequence technique, you install the new release multitenant architecture CDB. Next, in the earlier release multitenant architecture CDB, you issue SQL commands to run preupgrade scripts to prepare one or more PDBs to upgrade, and shut them down. You then unplug PDBs, plug them into the new release multenant architecture CDB, and complete the upgrade sequentially for each PDB.

You must complete the following steps before using this procedure:

• Install the new release software for Oracle Database

• Prepare the new Oracle home

• Run the Pre-Upgrade Information Tool

Oracle Database 12c introduced multitenant architecture, which enables Oracle Database to function as a multitenant container database (CDB) with pluggable databases. You can upgrade the CDB using DBUA, and in the process, upgrade all the pluggable databases attached to the CDB at the same time. Or, after you install the software for Oracle Database and prepare the new Oracle home, you can proceed with a manual, command-line upgrade.

1. If you have not done so, run the Pre-Upgrade Information Tool. Review the Pre-Upgrade Information tool output and correct all issues noted in the output before proceeding.

2. Back up the source database.

3. If you have not done so, prepare the new Oracle home.

4. (Conditional) For Oracle RAC environments only, enter the following commands to set the initialization parameter value for CLUSTER_DATABASE to FALSE:

   ALTER SYSTEM SET CLUSTER_DATABASE=FALSE SCOPE=SPFILE;

   Restart the database after changing the CLUSTER_DATABASE parameter.

5. Shut down the database. (The syntax is the same for a non-CDB and a CDB.)

   SQL> SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE
   

   Note:

   To close a PDB, you can specify it from the CDB root: alter pluggable database PDBname close.

6. If your operating system is Windows, then complete the following steps:

   1. Stop the OracleService SID Oracle service of the database you are upgrading, where SID is the instance name. For example, if your SID is ORCL, then enter the following at a command prompt:

      C:\> NET STOP OracleServiceORCL

   2. Delete the Oracle service at a command prompt using ORADIM.

      If your SID is ORCL, then enter the following command, substituting your SID for SID.

      C:\> ORADIM -DELETE -SID ORCL
      

   3. Create the service for the new release Oracle Database at a command prompt using the ORADIM command of the new Oracle Database release.

      For example:

      C:\> ORADIM -NEW -SID SID -SYSPWD PASSWORD -MAXUSERS USERS
           -STARTMODE AUTO -PFILE ORACLE_HOME\DATABASE\INITSID.ORA
      

      Most Oracle Database services log on to the system using the privileges of the Oracle Home User. The service runs with the privileges of this user. The ORADIM command prompts you for the password to this user account. You can specify other options using ORADIM.

      In this example, if your SID value is ORCL, your password (SYSPWD) value is TWxy5791, the maximum number of users (MAXUSERS) value is 10, and the Oracle home path is C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\19.1.0\DB, then enter the following command:

      C:\> ORADIM -NEW -SID ORCL -SYSPWD TWxy5791 -MAXUSERS 10
      -STARTMODE AUTO -PFILE C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\19.1.0\DB\DATABASE\INITORCL.ORA
      

      ORADIM writes a log file to the ORACLE_HOME\database directory. The log file contains the name of the PDB in the multitenant database.

7. If your operating system is Linux or UNIX, then perform the following checks:

   1. Your ORACLE_SID is set correctly

   2. The oratab file points to the Oracle home for Oracle Database 12c

   3. The following environment variables point to the Oracle Database 12c directories:

      • ORACLE_HOME

      • PATH

   4. Any scripts that clients use to set $ORACLE_HOME environment variable must point to the new Oracle home.

   Note:

   If you are upgrading an Oracle Real Application Clusters database, then perform these checks on all nodes where the Oracle Real Application Clusters database has instances configured.

   See Also:

   Oracle Database and Oracle Clusterware installation guides for information about setting other important environment variables on your operating system

8. Log in to the system as the owner of the Oracle home under the new Oracle Database release.

9. Start SQL*Plus in the new Oracle home from the path Oracle_home/rdbms/admin directory.

   For example:

   $ cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
   $ pwd
   /u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1/rdbms/admin
   $ sqlplus

   On Windows platforms, to access SQL*Plus, change directory to %ORACLE_HOME%/bin

10. Connect to the database that you want to upgrade using an account with SYSDBA privileges:

    SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
    

11. Start the CDB in upgrade mode:

    SQL> startup upgrade

12. Start the instance by issuing the following command in SQL*Plus:

    SQL> alter pluggable database all open upgrade;
    

    If errors appear listing desupported initialization parameters, then make a note of the desupported initialization parameters and continue with the upgrade. Remove the desupported initialization parameters the next time you shut down the database.

    Note:

    Starting up the database in UPGRADE mode does the following:

    • Starts up the database with a new version of the Oracle Database instance

    • Restricts logins to SYSDBA

    • Disables system triggers

    • Performs additional operations that prepare the database for upgrades

13. Exit SQL*Plus before proceeding to the next step.

    For example:

    SQL> EXIT

14. To upgrade an entire CDB, run the Parallel Upgrade Utility (catctl.pl) from the new Oracle home. The Parallel Upgrade Utility provides parallel upgrade options that reduce downtime. You can run the command by using the command-line script dbupgrade from the new Oracle home.

    For example:

    Linux:

    cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
    ./dbupgrade 
    

    Windows:

    cd %ORACLE_HOME%\bin
    dbupgrade 
    

    Note:

    • Use the -d option to specify the directory that contains the files that you want to process. Use the -l option to specify the directory that you want to use for spool log files.

    • If you are upgrading an entire CDB, and there are errors in CDB$ROOT, then the upgrade aborts.

15. To upgrade a subset of PDBs within a CDB, specify either an inclusion list, or an exclusion list.

    • This example for a Linux or UNIX system uses an inclusion list to upgrade PDB1 only:

      cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
      ./dbupgrade -c 'PDB1' 
      

    • This example for a Windows system uses an exclusion list to upgrade everything in the CDB except PDB1:

      cd $ORACLE_HOME\bin
      dbupgrade -C "PDB1" 

    Note:

    You can upgrade an individual PDB by unplugging it from the earlier release CDB, and plugging it into a later release CDB.

    For Windows, when you run the dbupgrade command with the inclusion (-c) or the exclusion (-C) options, you must specify the option with quotes around the CDB root name and PDB seed name.

    For example:

    ... -C "CDB$ROOT PDB$SEED"

16. For CDBs, log in to the CDB as SYSDBA and run the command alter pluggable database all open to make databases available for recompiling code. For example:

    $ sqlplus / as sysdba
    
    SQL> alter pluggable database all open;

17. Run catcon.pl. This command starts utlrp.sql and recompiles any remaining stored PL/SQL and Java code.

    For example:

    $ORACLE_HOME/perl/bin/perl catcon.pl -n 1 -e -b utlrp -d '''.''' utlrp.sql
    

    Because you run the command using -b utlrp0, the log file utlrp0.log is generated with the recompile results.

18. Run postupgrade_fixups.sql.

    For example:

    $ORACLE_HOME/perl/bin/perl catcon.pl -n 1 -e -b postupgrade_fixups -d '''.''' postupgrade_fixups.sql

19. Run utlusts.sql. This command verifies that all issues are fixed.

    For example, in a CDB:

    $ORACLE_HOME/perl/bin/perl catcon.pl -n 1 -e -b utlu122s -d '''.''' utlusts.sql
    

    Because you run the command using -b utlu122s, the log file utlu122s0.log is generated with the upgrade results. You can review the upg_summary.log file to review the upgrade report.

    To see information about the state of the database, run utlusts.sql as many times as you want, at any time after you complete the upgrade. If the utlusts.sql script returns errors, or if it shows components that are not marked as VALID, or if the SQL script you run is not from the most recent release, then refer to the troubleshooting section in this guide.

20. Ensure that the time zone data files are current by using the DBMS_DST PL/SQL package to upgrade the time zone file. You can also update the time zone after the upgrade. If you update the time zone, then you must update the time zone in both CDB$ROOT and the PDBs.

21. Exit SQL*Plus.

    For example:

    SQL> EXIT

22. (Conditional) If you are upgrading an Oracle Real Application Clusters database, then use the following command syntax to upgrade the database configuration in Oracle Clusterware:

    $ srvctl upgrade database -db db-unique-name -oraclehome oraclehome

    In this example, db-unique-name is the assigned database name (not the instance name), and oraclehome is the Oracle home location in which the database is being upgraded. The SRVCTL utility supports long GNU-style options, in addition to the short CLI options used in earlier releases.

Your database is now upgraded. You are ready to complete post-upgrade procedures.