2 Preparing to Upgrade Oracle Database
Complete preupgrade tasks and checks to assist you with completing a successful upgrade.
This chapter provides information and procedures for the pre-upgrade tasks, including planning your upgrades, data-gathering, testing, installing the new Oracle software for the upgrade, using the Parallel Upgrade Utility to carry out your upgrade, and performing other checks and tasks.
- About Read-Only Oracle Homes
Starting with Oracle Database 18c, you can configure an Oracle home in read-only mode. - About Configuring an Oracle Home in Read-Only Mode
Starting with Oracle Database 18c, you can configure an Oracle home in read-only mode. A read-only Oracle home prevents creation as well as modification of files inside the Oracle home directoryORACLE_HOME. A read-only Oracle home can be used as a software image for simplifying patching and mass rollout of software across multiple database servers. - About Image-Based Oracle Database Installation
Starting with Oracle Database 18c, installation and configuration of Oracle Database software is simplified with image-based installation. - Tasks to Prepare for Oracle Database Upgrades
Carry out these tasks to prepare your upgrade. - Checklists for Oracle Database Upgrade
Use checklists to plan and carry out Oracle Database upgrades. - Installing the New Oracle Database Software
Use this procedure overview to assist you to install the software for the new Oracle Database release. - Database Preparation Tasks to Complete Before Starting Oracle Database Upgrades
Ensure you have completed these database preparation tasks before starting Oracle Database upgrades. - Preparing for Database Rolling Upgrades Using Oracle Data Guard
If you use Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA) with Oracle Data Guard to carry out a rolling upgrade, then you must move the Data Guard Broker configuration files before starting your upgrade. - Preparing the New Oracle Home for Upgrading
After backing up the database that you want to upgrade, prepare the new Oracle home in a new location. Install the software for the new Oracle Database release into the new location. - Prerequisites for Preparing Oracle Home on Windows
Your system must meet these requirements before you can upgrade Oracle Database on Microsoft Windows platforms. - Using the Pre-Upgrade Information Tool for Oracle Database
Review these topics to understand and to use the Pre-Upgrade information tool (preupgrade.jar). - Testing the Upgrade Process for Oracle Database
Your test plan for Oracle Database upgrades should include these test procedures. - Requirements for Upgrading Databases That Use Oracle Label Security and Oracle Database Vault
You must complete these tasks before starting an upgrade with a database using Oracle Label Security or Oracle Database Vault.
About Configuring an Oracle Home in Read-Only Mode
Starting with Oracle Database 18c, you can configure an Oracle home in read-only mode. A read-only Oracle home prevents creation as well as modification of files inside the Oracle home directory ORACLE_HOME. A read-only Oracle home can be used as a software image for simplifying patching and mass rollout of software across multiple database servers.
Note:
You can configure an Oracle home in read-only mode after you have installed the Oracle database in the software-only mode, but before creating the listener and the database.
A traditional read-write Oracle home contains instance-specific files. However, when the Oracle home is read-only, instance-specific files are stored separately in the Oracle base directory ORACLE_BASE. Therefore, a read-only Oracle home can be used as a software image that can be shared across multiple database servers, as it stores only the static files. This simplifies patching and mass rollout as only one Oracle home image needs to be updated to distribute a patch to multiple database servers.
Apart from the traditional ORACLE_BASE and ORACLE_HOME directories, the following additional directories exist in a read-only Oracle home:
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ORACLE_BASE_HOME: This is a subdirectory within theORACLE_BASEdirectory. This directory contains user-specific files, instance-specific files, and log files. -
ORACLE_BASE_CONFIG: This directory is same as theORACLE_BASEdirectory. This directory contains instance-specific dynamic files, such as configuration files.
See Also:
Section “Configuring Read-Only Oracle Homes” in the Oracle Database installation guide specific to your platform for more information about configuring an Oracle home in read-only mode.
Parent topic: Preparing to Upgrade Oracle Database