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Oracle® Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide
11g Release 2 (11.2) for Microsoft Windows x64 (64-Bit)

Part Number E18029-03
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D How to Upgrade to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2

This appendix describes how to perform Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) upgrades.

Oracle Clusterware upgrades can be rolling upgrades, in which a subset of nodes are brought down and upgraded while other nodes remain active. Oracle ASM 11g release 2 (11.2) upgrades can be rolling upgrades. If you upgrade a subset of nodes, then a software-only installation is performed on the existing cluster nodes that you do not select for upgrade.

This appendix contains the following topics:

D.1 About Oracle ASM and Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation and Upgrade

In past 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 Oracle Grid Infrastructure software. Oracle ASM 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. The directory in which Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM is installed is called the Grid home.

If you have an existing Oracle ASM instance, you can either upgrade it at the time that you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure, or you can upgrade it after the installation, using Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA). However, a number of 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 Oracle 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 perform out-of-place upgrades to an Oracle ASM instance using ASMCA. In addition to running ASMCA using the graphic user interface (GUI), you can run ASMCA in non-interactive (silent) mode.

In earlier releases, you could use Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA) to upgrade either an Oracle Database, or Oracle ASM. With Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2), you can use DBUA to upgrade only an Oracle Database instance. To upgrade Oracle ASM separately, you use ASMCA.

See Also:

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide and Oracle Automatic Storage Management Administrator's Guide for additional information about upgrading existing Oracle ASM installations

D.2 Restrictions for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM Upgrades

Be aware of the following restrictions and changes for upgrades to Oracle Grid Infrastructure installations, which consists of Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM:

D.3 Understanding Out-of-Place and Rolling Upgrades

Oracle Clusterware upgrades can be rolling upgrades, in which a subset of nodes are brought down and upgraded while other nodes remain active. Oracle ASM 11g release 2 (11.2) upgrades can be rolling upgrades. If you upgrade a subset of nodes, then a software-only installation is performed on the existing cluster nodes that you do not select for upgrade. Rolling upgrades avoid downtime and ensure continuous availability while the software is upgraded to a new version.

Note:

In contrast with releases prior to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2, Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) always performs rolling upgrades, even if you select all nodes for the upgrade.

During an out-of-place upgrade, the installer installs the newer version in a separate Oracle Clusterware home. Both versions of Oracle Clusterware are on each cluster member node, but only one version is active. By contrast, an in-place upgrade overwrites the software in the current Oracle Clusterware home.

To perform an out-of-place upgrade, you must create new Oracle Grid Infrastructure homes on each node. Then you can perform an out-of-place rolling upgrade, so that some nodes are running Oracle Clusterware from the original Oracle Clusterware home, and other nodes are running Oracle Clusterware from the new Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.

If you have an existing Oracle Clusterware installation, then you upgrade your existing cluster by performing an out-of-place upgrade. An in-place upgrade of Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 is not supported.

See Also:

"Performing a Rolling Upgrade of Oracle Clusterware" for instructions on completing rolling upgrades

D.4 Preparing to Upgrade an Existing Oracle Clusterware Installation

If you have an existing Oracle Clusterware installation, then you upgrade your existing cluster by performing an out-of-place upgrade. You cannot perform an in-place upgrade. The following sections describe the tasks you should complete before starting an upgrade:

D.4.1 Verify System Readiness for Patches and Upgrades

If you are completing a patch update of Oracle Clusterware or Oracle ASM, then after you download the patch software and before you start to patch or upgrade your software installation, review the Patch Set Release Notes that accompany the patch to determine if your system meets the system requirements for the operating system and the hardware.

Use the Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) to assist you with system checks in preparation for patching or upgrading. You can run CVU before starting the upgrade, however, the installer runs the appropriate CVU checks automatically, and prompts you to fix problems before proceeding with the upgrade.

D.4.2 Gather the Necessary System Information

Ensure that you have the information you will need when installation Oracle Grid Infrastructure into a new home directory, including the following:

  • The Oracle home location for the current Oracle Clusterware installation.

    With Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2), you can perform upgrades on a shared Oracle Clusterware home.

  • An Oracle Grid Infrastructure home location that is different from your existing Oracle Clusterware home or Grid home location

  • A single client access name (SCAN) address

  • Local Administrator user access, or access as the user who performed the previous Oracle Clusterware installation

D.4.3 Upgrade to the Minimum Required Oracle Clusterware Version

If your current Oracle Clusterware installation is not currently running at least the minimum supported version for that release (10.1.0.3, 10.2.0.3, 11.1.0.6, or 11.2), then a prerequisite check failure is reported. You must upgrade your current Oracle Clusterware installation to at least the minimum supported version for that release before upgrading. For example, if you plan to upgrade your Oracle Clusterware 10g release 1 installation to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2) and your current Oracle Clusterware installation is version 10.1.0.2, then you must upgrade your current Oracle Clusterware installation to version 10.1.0.3 or higher before starting the upgrade

D.4.4 Unset Environment Variables Used By Oracle Software

If you have had an existing installation on your system, and you are using the same user account to install this installation, then unset the following environment variables, and any other environment variable set for the Oracle installation user that is connected with Oracle software homes.

  • ORACLE_HOME

  • ORACLE_SID

  • ORA_NLS10

  • TNS_ADMIN

  • ORA_CRS_HOME

If you have set ORA_CRS_HOME as an environment variable, following instructions from Oracle Support, then unset it before starting an installation or upgrade. You should never use ORA_CRS_HOME as an environment variable except under explicit direction from Oracle Support.

To remove the environment variable settings for all sessions, from the Start menu, right click My Computer and select Properties. In the System Properties window, select Advanced, then click the Environment Variables button.

Also, check to ensure that the user profile for the installation owner does not set any of these environment variables.

D.5 Back Up the Oracle Software Before Upgrades

Before you make any changes to the Oracle software, Oracle recommends that you create a backup of the Oracle software and databases.

D.6 Performing a Rolling Upgrade of Oracle Clusterware

Use the following procedure to upgrade Oracle Clusterware from an earlier release to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2. You can also choose to upgrade Oracle ASM during the upgrade of Oracle Clusterware.

  1. If there are non-clustered, or single-instance, Oracle databases that use Oracle ASM running on any of the nodes in the cluster, they must be shut down before you start the upgrade. Listeners associated with those databases do not have to be shut down.

    Note:

    Oracle recommends that you leave Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) instances running during the Oracle Clusterware upgrade. During the upgrade process, the database instances on the node being upgraded are stopped and started automatically during the upgrade process.
  2. Start the installer, and select the option to upgrade an existing Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM installation.

  3. On the node selection page, select all nodes.

    Note:

    In contrast with releases prior to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2, all upgrades are rolling upgrades, even if you select all nodes for the upgrade. If you are upgrading from Oracle Clusterware 11g release 11.2.0.1 to release 11.2.0.2, then all nodes are selected by default. You cannot select or de-select the nodes.
  4. Select installation options as prompted.

  5. If prompted to do so, run the scripts as directed.

  6. When the Oracle Clusterware upgrade is complete, if an earlier version of Oracle ASM is installed, then the installer starts ASMCA to upgrade Oracle ASM to release 11.2. You can upgrade Oracle ASM at this time, or upgrade it later.

    Oracle recommends that you upgrade Oracle ASM at the same time that you upgrade Oracle Clusterware. Until Oracle ASM is upgraded, Oracle databases that use Oracle ASM cannot be created. Until Oracle ASM is upgraded, the Oracle ASM management tools in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) home (for example, SRVCTL) will not work.

    Note:

    After the upgrade, if you set the Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) backup location manually to the earlier release Oracle Clusterware home (CRS home), then you must change the OCR backup location to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home (Grid home). If you did not set the OCR backup location manually, then this issue does not concern you.

    Because upgrades of Oracle Clusterware are out-of-place upgrades, the CRS home for the earlier release Oracle Clusterware cannot be the location of the OCR backups for Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2. Backups in the old Oracle Clusterware home could be deleted.

D.7 Performing a Rolling Upgrade of Oracle ASM

After you have completed the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2) upgrade, if you did not choose to upgrade Oracle ASM when you upgraded Oracle Clusterware, then you can do it separately using ASMCA to perform rolling upgrades.

You can use ASMCA to complete the upgrade of Oracle ASM separately, but you should perform the upgrade as soon as possible after you upgrade Oracle Clusterware, because Oracle ASM management tools such as SRVCTL will not work until Oracle ASM is upgraded.

Note:

ASMCA performs a rolling upgrade only if the earlier version of Oracle ASM is either 11.1.0.6 or 11.1.0.7. Otherwise, ASMCA performs a normal upgrade, during which ASMCA shuts down all Oracle ASM instances on all nodes of the cluster, and then starts an Oracle ASM instance on each node from the new Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.

D.7.1 About Upgrading Oracle ASM Separately

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

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

    C:\..\bin> crsctl query crs activeversion
    
  • 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.

  • During the upgrade, you alter the state of the Oracle ASM instances to an upgrade state. Because this upgrade state limits Oracle ASM operations, you should complete the upgrade soon after you begin. The following operations are 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)

D.7.2 Using ASMCA to Upgrade Oracle ASM

Complete the following procedure to upgrade Oracle ASM:

  1. On the node on which you plan to start the upgrade, set the environment variable ASMCA_ROLLING_UPGRADE to true to put the Oracle ASM instance in an upgrade state, for example:

    C:\> set ASMCA_ROLLING_UPGRADE=true
    
  2. From the Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) home, start ASMCA, as shown in the following example, where C:app11.2.0„rid is the Grid home:

    C:\> cd app\11.2.0\grid\bin
    C:\..\bin> asmca.bat
    
  3. Select Upgrade.

    ASMCA upgrades Oracle ASM in succession for all nodes in the cluster.

  4. When the upgrade is complete for all the nodes, unset the environment variable ASMCA_ROLLING_UPGRADE:

    C:\> set ASMCA_ROLLING_UPGRADE=
    

See Also:

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

D.8 Updating Oracle Enterprise Manager Target Parameters

Because Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2) is an out-of-place upgrade, the upgraded software has a new location for the Grid home. The path for the Oracle Clusterware home in some Oracle Enterprise Manager parameter files must be changed. If you do not change the parameter, then you will encounter errors such as "cluster target broken" on Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control or Grid Control.

Use the following procedure to resolve this issue:

  1. Log in to Database Control or Grid Control.

  2. Select the Cluster tab.

  3. Click Monitoring Configuration.

  4. Update the value for Oracle Home with the new path for the Grid home.

D.9 Downgrading Oracle Clusterware After an Upgrade

After a successful or a failed upgrade to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2), you can restore Oracle Clusterware to the previous version.

The restoration procedure in this section restores the Oracle Clusterware configuration to the state it was in before the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 upgrade. Any configuration changes you performed during or after the upgrade are removed and cannot be recovered.

To restore Oracle Clusterware to the earlier release:

  1. On all remote nodes, use the command Grid_home\crs\install\rootcrs.pl -downgrade [-force] to stop the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 resources and shut down the Oracle Clusterware.

    Note:

    This command does not reset the OCR, or delete the ocr Windows Registry key.

    For example:

    C:app11.2.0„rid\crs\install> rootcrs.pl -downgrade
    

    To stop a partial or failed Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 upgrade and restore Oracle Clusterware to the previous release, use the -force flag with this command.

  2. After the rootcrs.pl -downgrade script has completed on all remote nodes, on the local node use the command Grid_home\crs\install\rootcrs.pl -downgrade -lastnode -oldcrshome pre11.2_crs_home -version pre11.2_crs_version [-force], where pre11.2_crs_home is the home of the earlier Oracle Clusterware installation, and pre11.2_crs_version is the release number of the earlier Oracle Clusterware installation.

    For example:

    C:app11.2.0„rid\crs\install> rootcrs.pl -downgrade -lastnode 
    -oldcrshome C:\app\crs -version 11.1.0.6.0
    

    This script downgrades the OCR, and removes the executable files from the Grid home. If the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2) upgrade did not complete successfully, then, to restore the previous release of Oracle Clusterware, use the -force flag with the downgrade command.