1. Database Upgrade Guide
  2. Upgrading Oracle Database
  3. About Log File Location and DIAGNOSTIC_DEST

About Log File Location and DIAGNOSTIC_DEST

The location of the Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR) and the diagnostic log files created by the upgrade scripts can vary, depending on your environment variables and parameter settings.

See Also:

Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information about using the DIAGNOSTIC_DEST initialization parameter and the ADR

DIAGNOSTIC_DEST and Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR) Home

The DIAGNOSTIC_DEST initialization parameter sets the location of the Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR), which is a directory structure that is stored outside of the database.

Beginning with Oracle Database 12c release 2, if the DIAGNOSTIC_DEST initialization parameter is omitted or left null, then the database uses the Oracle base environment variable to define DIAGNOSTIC_DEST.

If you have set the environment variable ORACLE_BASE, then DIAGNOSTIC_DEST defaults to the directory designated by ORACLE_BASE. The generated scripts and log files are created under Oracle_Base/cfgtoollogs/tool_name/SID/upgraden, where n represents the consecutive number for the upgrade that you performed on this system.

For example, during the upgrade, logs created by DBUA on a system with ORACLE_BASE defined appear under the following path: 

ORACLE_BASE/cfgtoollogs/dbua/SID/upgraden

Before running the actual upgrade, DBUA logs are saved under Oracle_Base/cfgtoollogs/dbua/logs.

Note:

Beginning with Oracle Database 11g, because all diagnostic data, including the alert log, are stored in the ADR, the initialization parameters BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST and USER_DUMP_DEST are deprecated. They are replaced by the initialization parameter DIAGNOSTIC_DEST, which identifies the location of the ADR.

Upgrade Script Diagnostic Log Files and Unique Database Name

You can set log file paths when you run the Parallel Upgrade Utility (catctl) by setting the -l option to define a log file path.

If you do not set a log file path, then starting with Oracle Database 12c release 2, the Parallel Upgrade Utility attempts to locate a valid path for log files in the following order:

  1. If ORACLE_BASE is not defined, then the Parallel Upgrade Utility determines the Oracle home from which it is being run, and places log files in the path Oracle_Base/cfgtoollogs/dbib/upgraden, where n represents the consecutive number for the upgrade that you performed on this system.

  2. If there is no ORACLE_BASE found on the server, then by default the log files are sent on Linux and UNIX systems to /tmp. On Windows systems, the log files are sent by default to the path defined by the TEMP environment variable. For example: C:\TEMP

  3. The Parallel Upgrade Utility obtains the unique database name for the database from the V$parameter view to create the directory scheme. The path it creates is as follows where Oracle_base is the Oracle base for the Oracle Database installation owner, and dbname is the database name obtained from the V$parameter view: 

    Oracle_base/cfgtoollogs/dbname/upgrade

    The first valid path is used for default logging:

    Oracle_base/cfgtoollogs/dbname/upgrade
Oracle_base/rdbms/log
/tmp

Parent topic: Upgrading Oracle Database