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Performing Rolling Upgrades

Oracle Fail Safe allows a cluster system to continue to provide service while the software is being upgraded to the next release. This process is called a rolling upgrade because each node is upgraded and rebooted in turn, until all server nodes and all client nodes have been upgraded. You might want to perform a rolling upgrade for the following reasons:

To upgrade the Oracle Fail Safe software or install patches
To upgrade other Oracle software and install patches that require you to stop the Oracle services being used by Oracle Fail Safe

This appendix discusses the following topics:

Topic	Reference
Preparing Users for the Upgrade	Section A.1
Recommended Order for Upgrading Software	Section A.2
Upgrading the Oracle Fail Safe Software and Installing Patches	Section A.3
Upgrading Oracle Product Software	Section A.4
Upgrading an Oracle Database	Section A.5

A.1 Preparing Users for the Upgrade

During a rolling upgrade, you need to perform a planned failover to make the cluster resources running on one node move over to another node. Each planned failover will disconnect users and cause rollback of any interrupted, uncommitted work.

This brief outage typically is less than 1 minute and always is less than the downtime that would be experienced by users if Oracle Fail Safe was not installed. To prevent loss of work, notify users that you plan to shut down the system, and have all users commit their work and log off before you perform the failover. Advise users when they can reconnect and resume work after the database fails over to another cluster node.

While you are performing upgrades to a two-node cluster, remember that failback is disabled and your cluster is not protected against failures. In addition, each time that you stop and restart the cluster service on a node (with MSCS Cluster Administrator), all remaining cluster resources running on the node fail over to another node with a similar brief loss of service.

A.2 Recommended Order for Upgrading Software

The following list provides the recommended procedure for upgrading software on your cluster when just the database software or both the database software and Oracle Fail Safe software need to be upgraded.

Remove each database from its group.
Upgrade the Oracle database software and the Oracle Fail Safe software (if needed); the order in which you perform these two upgrades is not important.
Add each database back into its group.

If you are only performing an Oracle Fail Safe software upgrade (you are not going to upgrade the database software), then you do not need to remove any database from its group prior to performing the upgrade.

Note:

This recommended order for upgrading software is different from previous releases of Oracle Fail Safe.

A.3 Upgrading the Oracle Fail Safe Software and Installing Patches

This section describes how to perform a rolling upgrade when you want to upgrade the Oracle Fail Safe software on a cluster that is currently running Oracle Fail Safe (for example, to upgrade the cluster from Oracle Fail Safe release 3.2.1 to release 3.3.1). The tasks described in this section apply to upgrades from any Oracle Fail Safe release previous to Oracle Fail Safe release 3.3.1.

If you are performing a rolling upgrade of the Oracle Fail Safe software, you must upgrade the Oracle Services for MSCS and Oracle Fail Safe Manager software clusterwide. You cannot run multiple releases of the Oracle Services for MSCS software on the same cluster. You can use Oracle Fail Safe Manager release 3.2.1 with Oracle Fail Safe Server 3.1.1, 3.1.2, or Oracle Services for MSCS release 3.2.1 or 3.3.1; however, you cannot run Oracle Fail Safe Manager release 3.2.1 or later with releases of Oracle Fail Safe Server prior to release 3.1.1.

When you upgrade the Oracle Fail Safe software, do not start the installation procedure while any Oracle Fail Safe Manager operations or MSCS Cluster Administrator operations are in progress on groups. You should wait for a quiet period in cluster operations before you proceed with the steps in Table A-1. Perform the steps described in Table A-1 on only one cluster node at a time.

Caution:

To ensure minimal downtime and to identify any potential issues with other software that might be running on the cluster, Oracle Corporation recommends that you test the following upgrade operations on an identically configured test cluster before you upgrade the production cluster.

Table A-1 Steps Required to Upgrade to Oracle Fail Safe Release 3.3.1

Step	Task	Tool	Comments
1	Change the group attributes to the Prevent Failback mode for all groups.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Follow the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager online help. Changing the failback attributes prevents the group from failing back after its preferred node is being rebooted (later in step 6).
2	Perform a planned failover by moving groups (that contain Oracle databases) to another node.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Choose Groups `->` Move to a Different Node. (See the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Help for more information.) By moving groups that include databases to another node, you can upgrade the current node while users continue to access the database on another node. When moving groups that contain databases with this method, Oracle Fail Safe will perform a checkpoint operation.
3	Exit Oracle Fail Safe Manager.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	On the current node, select File `->` Exit. Note: Do not use Oracle Fail Safe Manager on other cluster nodes during the rest of the upgrade procedure until you run Verify Cluster in step 10.
4	Deinstall the previous release of Oracle Fail Safe Manager and Oracle Fail Safe Server.	Oracle Installer or Oracle Universal Installer	See steps 2 through 5 in Section 4.2 for instructions. Note: This step is required if your previous release of Oracle Fail Safe is release 2.1.3 or earlier. This step is optional if your previous release is release 3.n. You must follow this step if, for example, you plan to change the Oracle home location of Oracle Fail Safe.
5	Install Oracle Fail Safe release 3.3.1.	Oracle Fail Safe and Oracle Real Application Clusters Guard installation CD-ROM	You must install the same release of Oracle Fail Safe software on all server nodes. Follow the installation instructions in Chapter 2.
6	Reboot the node.	Windows NT or Windows 2000	On the Windows taskbar, choose Start `->` Shutdown `->` Restart the Computer. Note: You must wait until the first node is finished rebooting before you start installing Oracle Fail Safe on other nodes.
7	Move groups that contain Oracle databases to the upgraded node.	MSCS Administrator	Move cluster groups that contain Oracle databases to the upgraded node. Note: To avoid problems that can arise due to version mismatches, do not use Oracle Fail Safe Manager to perform this task; use MSCS Administrator.
8	Repeat steps 4 through 6 on the other cluster node or nodes.	Various	No comments.
9	Install Oracle Fail Safe Manager on client nodes.	Oracle Fail Safe and Oracle Real Application Clusters Guard installation CD-ROM	Oracle Fail Safe Manager release 3.3.1 can be used with any of the following Oracle Fail Safe and Oracle Real Application Clusters Guard releases: Oracle Fail Safe release 3.3.1, 3.2.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.1 Oracle Real Application Clusters Guard release 3.3.1
10	Run the Verify Cluster operation.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	This step verifies that there are no discrepancies in the software installation, such as with the release information on each node in the cluster, and registers resource DLLs.
11	Review the Verify Cluster Report.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	If you are upgrading from certain releases (for example, release 2.1.3), the FS-10535 and FS-10538 warning messages are displayed in this report. If these messages are in the report, reboot each cluster node (one at a time), so that the changes to the resource DLL take effect on all cluster nodes. Then, rerun the Verify Cluster operation and confirm that these warnings are no longer included in the report.
12	Restore the failback policy attributes on the groups.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Follow the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager online help to set the failback policy for all groups in the cluster.
13	Fail back groups, as necessary, by moving groups back to other nodes.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Perform planned failover operations to move each group back to its preferred node. This step redistributes the workload across the nodes in the cluster. Refer to the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager online help regarding moving a group to a different node.
14	Run the Verify Group operation on all groups.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Select Troubleshooting `->` Verify Group to check all resources in all groups and confirm that they have been configured correctly. See the Oracle Fail Safe Concepts and Administration Guide for a description of the validation tests performed during a Verify Group operation.

A.4 Upgrading Oracle Product Software

This section describes upgrading Oracle product software and installing patches that require you to stop the Oracle services being used by Oracle Fail Safe.

When you upgrade Oracle product software, do not start the installation procedure while any Oracle Fail Safe Manager operations or MSCS Cluster Administrator operations are in progress on groups. You should wait for a quiet period in cluster operations before you proceed with the steps in Table A-2. Perform the steps described in Table A-2 on only one cluster node at a time. Also, if you are upgrading Oracle database software, consider performing a database backup prior to any major upgrade.

Caution:

If your cluster is in an active/passive configuration, you can eliminate a failover if you start the rolling upgrade on the passive cluster node. Once you have finished the upgrade on the passive cluster node, you can skip to step 9 in Table A-2.

Table A-2 Steps Required to Upgrade Oracle Product Software

Step	Task	Tool	Comments
1	Change the group failback attributes to the Prevent Failback mode.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Follow the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager online help. Changing the failback attributes prevents the group from failing back to the node while it is being rebooted or when the cluster service is restarted.
2	Perform a planned failover by moving groups to another node.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Choose Groups `->` Move to a Different Node. (See the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Help for more information.) By moving all groups to another node, you can work on the current node. When moving groups that contain databases with this method, Oracle Fail Safe will perform a checkpoint operation.
3	Exit Oracle Fail Safe Manager.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	On the current node, select File `->` Exit.
4	Stop the cluster service on the node where you want to install software.	MSCS Cluster Administrator	In the left pane, click to select the cluster node where the cluster service needs to be stopped. On the File menu, click Stop Cluster Service.
5	Stop all running Oracle applications and all remaining Oracle services.	Microsoft Control Panel	From the system taskbar choose Start `->` Settings `->` Control Panel, then: On Windows NT: double-click Services. On Windows 2000: double-click Administrative Tools, then Services. Stop all running Oracle services, including the Oracle Fail Safe service.
6	Install the new Oracle product or component software.	Oracle Installer or Oracle Universal Installer	Follow the instructions that come with the Oracle product or component.
7	Reboot the node.	Windows NT or Windows 2000	Rebooting the node automatically restarts the cluster service on the node where you just installed the Oracle software. Restarting the cluster service is essential for the changes to take effect.
8	Run the Verify Group operation on all groups.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Select Troubleshooting `->` Verify Group to check all resources in all groups and confirm that they have been configured correctly. If you upgraded Oracle database software, the Verify Group operation will update the tnsnames.ora file. When prompted, click Yes. Otherwise, the Oracle database might not come online after you add it to a group.
9	Repeat steps 2 through 8 on the other server node or nodes in the cluster.	Various	No comments.
10	Run the Verify Cluster operation.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	This step verifies that there are no discrepancies in the software installation, such as with the release information on each node in the cluster.
11	Restore the failback policy attributes on the groups.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Follow the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager online help to set the failback policy for all groups in the cluster.
12	Fail back groups, as necessary, by moving groups back to the other node or nodes.	Oracle Fail Safe Manager	Perform a planned failover to move the groups back to the preferred node. This step rebalances the workload across the nodes in the cluster. Refer to the instructions in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager online help regarding moving a group to a different node.

A.5 Upgrading an Oracle Database

If you need to upgrade a database that is configured in a group, you must first remove it from the group, perform the tasks necessary to upgrade the database to the new version, and then add it back into the group.

For information about database upgrades, refer to the Oracle Fail Safe Concepts and Administration Guide and to the upgrade instructions for Oracle Database Upgrade Assistant.

A Performing Rolling Upgrades