Upgrade is performed while the servers are down. The pre-upgrade tasks are often time-consuming. Oracle recommends that you plan and prepare your environment for upgrade by completing these pre-upgrade tasks, so that you have a successful upgrade and a limited downtime.
Use the following checklist to make sure you complete the pre-upgrade tasks:
The Oracle Fusion Middleware Pre-Upgrade Checklist identifies tasks that can be performed before you begin any upgrade to ensure you have a successful upgrade and limited downtime.
Upgrades are performed while the servers are down. This checklist is meant to identify important — and often time-consuming — pre-upgrade tasks that you can perform before the upgrade to limit your downtime. The more preparation you can do before you begin the upgrade process, the less time you will spend offline.
Note:
The pre-upgrade procedures you perform will depend on the configuration of your existing system, the components you are upgrading, and the environment you want to create at the end of the upgrade and configuration process. Complete only those tasks that apply to your configurations or use cases.Table 2-1 Tasks to Perform Before You Upgrade to Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c
| Task | Description | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
|
Create a complete backup of your existing environment. |
Required Back up all system-critical files and database(s) that contain any schemas that are to be upgraded before you begin your upgrade. If the upgrade fails, you can restore your pre-upgrade environment and begin the upgrade again. |
If you modified any of the startup scripts in your existing domain, you will need to copy them to temporary directory location (outside of the existing domain) during the upgrade and redeploy them after the upgrade. |
|
Clone your production environment to use as an upgrade testing platform. |
Optional In addition to creating a complete backup of your system files, Oracle strongly recommends that you clone your production environment. This environment can be used to test the upgrade. |
|
|
Verify that you are installing and upgrading your product on a supported hardware and software configuration. Do not attempt an upgrade if you are unable to use the latest supported operating system. As with all supported configurations, failure to comply with these requirements may cause your upgrade to fail. |
Required Verify that your hardware and software configurations (including operating systems) are supported by the latest certifications and requirements documents. Oracle recommends that you verify this information right before you start the upgrade as the certification requirements are frequently updated. Make sure that you have applied the latest patches to your components before you upgrade. You must also make sure to use a supported JDK version before you install the 12c product distributions. |
Verifying Certification and System Requirements. If you are currently running a 32-bit operating system, you will have to migrate to a 64-bit operating system before you can upgrade. Migrating from a 32-Bit to a 64-Bit Operating System (Required only if you have a 32–Bit OS) |
|
Update security policy files if you are using enhanced encryption (AES 256). Some of the security algorithms used in Fusion Middleware 12c require additional policy files for the JDK. |
Optional If you plan to use enhanced encryption, such as AES 256, Oracle recommends that you apply the latest required policy files to the JDK before you upgrade. |
Updating Policy Files when Using Enhanced Encryption (AES 256) |
|
Purge any outdated or unused data before you upgrade. |
Optional To optimize performance, consider purging data and objects that will not be used in the upgraded environment. Use the purge scripts before you start the instance upgrade to purge the closed 11g instances that you do not need in the upgraded 12c environment. |
|
| Create a Non-SYSDBA user to run the Upgrade Assistant. | Optional
Oracle recommends that you create the FMW user to run Upgrade Assistant. User FMW can run the Upgrade Assistant without system administration privileges. |
Creating a Non-SYSDBA User to Run Upgrade Assistant |
Before you install the new 12c (12.2.1.1) distributions and begin upgrading your existing Oracle Fusion Middleware deployment, be sure you have backed up all system-critical files; including all of the databases that host your Oracle Fusion Middleware schemas.
Performing a complete database backup prior to performing a schema upgrade is a prerequisite for running Upgrade Assistant. In the Upgrade Assistant prerequisites GUI screen, you will be required to acknowledge that backups have been performed, before proceeding with the actual upgrade.
For more information, see Backing Up Your Oracle Fusion Middleware Environment and Upgrading and Preparing Your Oracle Databases for 12c .
Note:
Your system backup must include theSYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table.SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table.setDomainEnv. Oracle recommends that you do not modify these startup scripts, as any changes made to them are overwritten during subsequent domain upgrade and reconfiguration operations.Your system backup must include the SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table.
Each Fusion Middleware schema has a row in the SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table. If you run the Upgrade Assistant to update an existing schema and it does not succeed, you must restore the original schema before you can try again. Make sure you back up your existing database schemas before you run the Upgrade Assistant.
Note:
Performing these backups prior to performing a schema upgrade is a prerequisite for running Upgrade Assistant. In the Upgrade Assistant prerequisites GUI screen, you will be required to acknowledge that backups have been performed, before proceeding with the actual upgrade.Every domain includes dynamically generated domain and server startup scripts, such as setDomainEnv. Oracle recommends that you do not modify these startup scripts, as any changes made to them are overwritten during subsequent domain upgrade and reconfiguration operations.
To maintain your custom domain-level environment settings, creating a separate file to store the custom domain information before you upgrade.
For example, if you want to customize server startup parameters that apply to all servers in a domain, you can create a file called setUserOverrides.cmd (Windows) or setUserOverrides.sh (UNIX) and configure it to add custom libraries to the WebLogic Server classpath, specify additional java command line options for running the servers, or specify additional environment variables, for instance. Any custom settings you add to this file are preserved during domain upgrade operation and are carried over to the remote servers when using the pack and unpack commands.
setUserOverrides file:
# add custom libraries to the WebLogic Server system claspath
if [ "${POST_CLASSPATH}" != "" ] ; then
POST_CLASSPATH="${POST_CLASSPATH}${CLASSPATHSEP}${HOME}/foo/fooBar.jar"
export POST_CLASSPATH
else
POST_CLASSPATH="${HOME}/foo/fooBar.jar"
export POST_CLASSPATH
fi
# specify additional java command line options for servers
JAVA_OPTIONS="${JAVA_OPTIONS} -Dcustom.property.key=custom.value"
If the setUserOverrides file exists during a server startup, the file is included in the startup sequence and any overrides contained within this file take effect. You must store the setUserOverrides file in the domain_home/bin directory.
Note:
If you are unable to create the setUserOverrides script before an upgrade, you need to reapply your settings as described in Re-apply Customizations to Startup Scripts.
Oracle strongly recommends that you create a copy of your actual production environment, upgrade the cloned environment, verify that the upgraded components work as expected, and then (and only then) upgrade your production environment.
Note:
It is beyond the scope of this document to describe the cloning procedures for all components and operating systems. Cloning procedures are component and operating system-specific. At a high level, you install the pre-upgrade version of your component domain on a test machine, create the required schemas using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU), and perform the upgrade.Uncover and correct any upgrade issues.
Practice completing an end-to-end upgrade.
Understand the upgrade performance and how purge scripts can help.
Understand the time required to complete the upgrade.
Understand the database resource usage (such as temporary tablespace; PGA, etc).
Note:
You can run the pre-upgrade Readiness Check on the cloned production environment to help identify potential upgrade issues with your data, but you must perform a complete test upgrade on a cloned environment to ensure a successful upgrade.The certification matrix and system requirements documents should be used in conjunction with each other to verify that your environment meets the necessary requirements for installation.
Note:
When checking the certification, system requirements, and interoperability information, be sure to check specifically for any 32-bit or 64-bit system requirements. It is important for you to download software specifically designed for the 32-bit or 64-bit environment, explicitly.WARNING:
Make sure that your current environment has been patched to the latest patch set BEFORE you begin the upgrade. Certifications are based on fully patched environments unless stated otherwise.Oracle has tested and verified the performance of your product on all certified systems and environments. Make sure that you are installing your product on a supported hardware or software configuration
Whenever new certifications occur, they are added to the proper certification document right away. New certifications can occur at any time, and for this reason the certification documents are kept outside of the documentation libraries and are available on Oracle Technology Network. For more information, see Certification Matrix for 12c (12.2.1.1).
It is important to verify that the system requirements such as disk space, available memory, specific platform packages and patches, and other operating system-specific items are met.
The Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications document should be used to verify that the requirements of the certification are met. For example, if the certification document indicates that your product is certified for installation on 64-Bit Oracle Linux 7, this document should be used to verify that your Oracle Linux 7 system has met the required minimum specifications, like disk space, available memory, specific platform packages and patches, and other operating system-specific items. This document is updated as needed and resides outside of the documentation libraries. The latest version is available on Oracle Technology Network.
For a complete description of the system requirements for installing and upgrading to Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c, see Review System Requirements and Specifications.
Note:
When you install the Oracle Fusion Middleware Release 12c software in preparation for upgrade, you should use the same user account that you used to install and configure the existing, pre-upgrade Oracle Fusion Middleware software. On UNIX operating systems, this will ensure that the proper owner and group is applied to new Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c files and directoriesThis step is only required If you are running a 32-bit environment. If you have a 32–bit OS, then you must migrate your 32-bit environment to a 64-bit software environment before you upgrade.
Make sure to validate the migration to ensure all your Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g software is working properly on the 64-bit machine, and only then perform the upgrade to Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c.
In these tasks, host refers to the 32-bit source machine and target refers to the new 64-bit target machine.
Note:
These steps assume that your database is located on a separate host and will not be moved.Caution:
These steps are provided as an example of the operating system upgrade process and may or may not include all of the procedures you must perform to update your specific operating system. Consult your operating system's upgrade documentation for more information.Make sure that you have supported target hardware in place before you begin the upgrade process.
Before upgrading, you must stop all processes, including the Administration Server, Managed Servers, and Node Manager, if they are started on the host.
For example, to stop the Administration Server, enter the following command:
DOMAIN_HOME/bin/stopWebLogic.sh username password [admin_url]Make sure that you have created a complete backup of your entire 11g deployment before you begin the upgrade process. These files can be used if there is an issue during the migration and you have to restart the process.
Note:
If the upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit takes place on the same machine, there is a risk of corrupting the source environment if the upgrade fails.For more information on backing up your 11g files, see Backing Up Your Environment in Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.
During the upgrade you must have access to the contents of the following:
11g Domain Home
11g /nodemanager directory located in $ORACLE_HOME/wlserver/common/
Some of the backup and recovery procedures described in Backing Up Your Environment in Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide are product-specific. Do not proceed with the upgrade until you have a complete backup.
The host name and IP address of the target machine must be made identical to the host. This require you to change the IP address and name of the source machine or decommission the source machine to avoid conflicts in the network.
The process of changing an IP address and host name vary by operating system. Consult your operating system's administration documentation for more information.
Restore the files you backed from the 32-bit host using the same directory structure that was used in 11g. The directory structure on the target machine must be identical to the structure of the host machine.
For detailed information about restoring your 11g files to the 64-bit target machine, see Recovering Your Environment in Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.
Oracle recommends an Out-of-Place approach for upgrade. Therefore, you must install the 12c product distributions in a new Oracle home on the target machine.
For detailed instructions on how to obtain 12c distributions, see Understanding and Obtaining Product Distributions. To identify an installation user see Selecting an Installation User. To understand the directory structure for installation and configuration, see Understanding Directories for Installation and Configuration. Refer to the component-specific installation guides for the component(s) you are installing.
After installing the product on the target machine, you must upgrade each product component individually using an upgrade utility specified in the component-specific upgrade guide and complete any post-upgrade tasks.
For a complete upgrade procedure, see the component-specific upgrade guide for the component(s) you are upgrading.
Note:
The Node Manager upgrade procedure requires access to the original Node Manager files. Use the 11g Node Manger files that you backed up from the 32-bit source machine as part of Back Up All Files from the 32-bit Host Machine.You must have a supported Oracle database configured with the required schemas before you run Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c.
It is assumed that you understand the Oracle Database requirements when upgrading and ensure that the database hosting Oracle Fusion Middleware is supported and has sufficient space to perform an upgrade. For more information, see Certification Matrix for 12c (12.2.1.1).
Before you can install any Oracle Fusion Middleware product using a generic installer, you must download and install a supported JDK on your system.
At the time this document was published, the certified JDK was 1.8.0_77.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Make sure that the JDK is installed outside of the Oracle home. The Oracle Universal Installer validates that the designated Oracle home directory is empty, and the install does not progress until an empty directory is specified. If you install JDK under Oracle home, you may experience issues in future operations. Therefore, Oracle recommends that you use install the JDK in the following directory: /home/oracle/products/jdk.
For more information on the difference between generic and platform-specific installers, see “Understanding the Difference Between Generic and Platform-Specific Distributions” in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Download, Installation, and Configuration Readme Files.
Optional step to perform if you plan to use enhanced encryption, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256, in your upgraded environment. Oracle recommends that you apply the latest required policy files to the JDK before you upgrade.
The Java platform defines a set of APIs spanning major security areas, including cryptography, public key infrastructure, authentication, secure communication, and access control. These APIs allow developers to easily integrate security mechanisms into their application code.
Some of the security algorithms used in Fusion Middleware 12c require additional policy files for the JDK. For more information, see Java Cryptography Architecture Oracle Providers Documentation.
If you attempt to use enhanced encryption without applying these policy files to the JDK before you begin the upgrade, the upgrade can fail and you must restore the entire pre-upgrade environment and start the upgrade from the beginning.
Purging unused data and maintaining a purging methodology before an upgrade can optimize the upgrade process.
Note:
If a large amount of data needs to be purged, consider partitioning tables or employing other data optimization strategies. Using scripts to remove large amounts of data may impact performance. See Developing a Purging and Partitioning Methodology and Developing a Database Growth Management Strategy.Some components have automated purge scripts. If you are using purge scripts, wait until the purge is complete before starting the upgrade process. The upgrade may fail if the purge scripts are running while using the Upgrade Assistant to upgrade your schemas.
For Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) Components:
Purge the execution logs to avoid exporting and importing excessive data as part of work repository export/import in the next step. See Purging the Logs.
For SOA Suite Components:
If you are migrating closed 11g instance data, run the instance purge scripts before running the upgrade. See Using Instance Data Purge Scripts.
Oracle recommends that you create a non-SYSDBA user called FMW to run the Upgrade Assistant. The FMW user has the privileges required to modify schemas, but does not have full administrator privileges.
Note:
Thev$xatrans$ table does not exist by default. You must run the XAVIEW.SQL script to create this table before creating the user. Moreover, grant on v$xatrans$ table is required only for Oracle Identity Manager. If you do not require Oracle Identity Manager for configuration or if you do not have the v$xatrans$ table, then remove the following line from the script:
grant select on v$xatrans$ to FMW with grant option;
welcome1 is the password. Make sure that you specify your actual password when granting privileges.
create user FMW identified by welcome1; grant dba to FMW; grant execute on DBMS_LOB to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_OUTPUT to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_STATS to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aqadm to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aqin to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aqjms to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aq to FMW with grant option; grant execute on utl_file to FMW with grant option; grant execute on dbms_lock to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.V_$INSTANCE to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.GV_$INSTANCE to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.V_$SESSION to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.GV_$SESSION to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_jobs to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_job_run_details to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_running_jobs to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_aq_agents to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.DBMS_SHARED_POOL to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_2pc_pending to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_pending_transactions to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_FLASHBACK to FMW with grant option; grant execute on dbms_crypto to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_REPUTIL to FMW with grant option; grant execute on dbms_job to FMW with grant option; grant select on pending_trans$ to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_job_classes to fmw with grant option; grant select on SYS.DBA_DATA_FILES to FMW with grant option; grant select on SYS.V_$ASM_DISKGROUP to FMW with grant option; grant select on v$xatrans$ to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_system to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_SCHEDULER to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_data_files to FMW with grant option; grant execute on UTL_RAW to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_XMLDOM to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_UTILITY to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_SESSION to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_METADATA to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_XMLGEN to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_DATAPUMP to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_MVIEW to FMW with grant option; grant select on ALL_ENCRYPTED_COLUMNS to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_queue_subscribers to FMW with grant option; grant execute on SYS.DBMS_ASSERT to FMW with grant option;
Note:
Oracle Database 11.2.0.3 Database Users ONLY: You must apply Oracle Patch 13036331 before you begin the upgrade. Go to My Oracle Support to download the patch.
If you do not apply this patch, then you will have to grant additional privileges for some schemas.
You must disable SSL on the internal communication links before you start the upgrade process.
The Oracle BI Baseline Validation Tool lets you compare two system installations. Run this tool on your pre-upgrade environment to extract result sets from your existing BI deployment and generate comparison files in order to determine whether any changes are needed before making a modified system available to your user community.
Note:
You can download the Oracle BI Validation Tool along with the other Oracle Business Intelligence download on the Oracle Technology Network. See the Readme document that is included in the Oracle BI Validation Tool download for more information. For specific information on the distributions you want to download for each product, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Download, Installation, and Configuration Readme Files page.To know more about using the Oracle BI Baseline Validation Tool, see Comparing Oracle Business Intelligence Deployments Using the Oracle Business Intelligence Baseline Validation Tool. This documentation is available with the Oracle BI Baseline Validation Tool.