An alternative to shutting down the database is to prevent all users from accessing Oracle Application Express when upgrading your installation from a previous release of Oracle Application Express. Oracle only recommends this option in high availability production environments where planned outages are not available. For all other scenarios, the database should be shut down.
To disable access to Oracle Application Express when an existing installation is using the Embedded PL/SQL Gateway, disable the Oracle XML DB Protocol Server by setting the HTTP port to 0. Start SQL*Plus, connect as SYS to the database where Oracle Application Express is installed, and run:
EXEC DBMS_XDB.SETHTTPPORT(0);
Once you have prevented access from Oracle Application Express users, you should log in to SQL*Plus as SYS
, connecting to the database where Oracle Application Express is installed, and query V$SESSION
to ensure there are no long running sessions which would interfere with the upgrade process.