Alejandro Vargas' Blog
- June 13, 2007
Production Upgrade from 8.1.7.4 to 9.2.0.8
Is not uncommon that very critical databases remain on obsolete versions longer than it is convenient.
If the database provide good service and reasonable performance, the risks related to any radical change make the people that need to make the decision to upgrade, to delay it as much as possible.
Sooner or later the day come when the increasing amount of problems, usually related to a big increment on the load and complexity of the applications running on the database raise up the need to upgrade to a more powerful version.
At this moment the DBA get a small window to shutdown the application during the weekend and upgrade the database as fast and safely as possible.
The attached document: "8.1.7.4 - 32 bits Database Upgrade to 9.2.0.8 - 64 bits" is the checklist I did prepare for such a case.
- Most of the work is done on the pre-migration phase.
- All upgrade steps are automatized as much as possible.
- During the upgrade, the longest part of it, the compilation of thousands of user objects, is done in parallel.
I did try this procedure running the compilation with one session only, on a general rehearsal, I expect to decrease the execution time from 3.5 hours to about 2 hours on the next try running in a more powerful machine, with parallel (15) for the compilation process.
Today most upgrades are done from 9i to 10g, and 11g is waiting around the corner.
Nevertheless still there are many critical production applications running on 8i databases.
This procedure may serve as an example for similar situations.
We have come across your blog post and found that the document is extremely useful for us to upgrade from 8.1.7.4 to 9.2.0.8-64 bit. We studied the material that is posted and need a clarification on pre upgrade steps mentioned in the document. Please note that our objective is to minimize production downtime for upgrade from 8.1.7.4 to 9.2.0.8 64-bit. Fyi, our database size 1.2 TB. We have tried DB Upgrade assistant way and it has take more than 24 hours to upgrade from 8.1.7.4 to 9.2.0.8 64-bit.
"
<Clip>
2. Install 9i Oracle Homes:
a. Install 9.2.0.1 32 bits on destination server
b. Upgrade 9.2.0.1 32 bits to 9.2.0.8 on destination server
c. Install 9.2.0.x 64 bits on destination server
d. Upgrade 9.2.0.x 64 bits to 9.2.0.8 on destination server
<End Clip>
"
Clarification Needed: In step "c" what is "x" ? is it 1 or 8 ? Also, in step "d" do you mean to say 9.2.0.8 32-bit output from step b to be used to
upgrade to 9.2.0.8 64-bit ?
Appreciate your early response. I have posted the same question even in your blog.
Thanks,
Madhu
We have used the upgrade method from your blog and we were able to complete the upgrade of 1.5 TB over about 10-11 hours. But, our database is Oracle Apps 11i. After the database upgrade are having some issues with Oracle test objects being invalid.
Please advise..
thanks,
Madhu
---
ORA-29856: error occurred in the execution of ODCIINDEXDROP routine
ORA-20000: Oracle Text error:
ORA-06508: PL/SQL: could not find program unit being called
ORA-06512: at "CTXSYS.DRUE", line 157
ORA-06512: at "CTXSYS.TEXTINDEXMETHODS", line 450
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SYS_SQL", line 826
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SQL", line 39
ORA-06512: at line 16