Oracle Database Releases That Support Direct Upgrade

Review the supported options for direct upgrades to the latest Oracle Database release.

You can perform a direct upgrade to the new release from the following releases:

  • 11.2.0.3 or later

  • 12.1.0.1 and 12.1.0.2

The path that you must take to upgrade to the latest release of Oracle Database 12c release 2 (12.2) depends on the release number of your current database.

If your current Oracle Database is a release earlier than 11.2.0.3, then you cannot directly upgrade your Oracle Database to the latest release. In this case, you are required to upgrade to an intermediate release before upgrading to Oracle Database 12c release 2.

If you cannot carry out a direct upgrade, then carry out an upgrade to the most recent release where direct upgrades are supported.

For any multi-step upgrade, if you must carry out two upgrades to upgrade to the current release, then you must run the preupgrade script twice: First, for the intermediate upgrade release, and second, for the target upgrade target release.

For example, if the database from which you are upgrading is running Oracle Database 10g, then follow these steps:

  1. Upgrade release 10.2.0.5 to release 12.1.0.2 using the instructions in Oracle Database Upgrade Guide 12c Release 1 (12.1), including running the pre-upgrade script for 12.1.0.2.

  2. Upgrade Oracle Database 12c release 1 (12.1.0.2) directly to Oracle Database 12c release 2 (12.2.0.1) using the instructions in this book, Oracle Database Upgrade Guide, including running the preupgrade script for 12.2.0.1.

The following table shows the required upgrade path for each release of Oracle Database. Use the upgrade path and the specified documentation to perform an intermediate upgrade of your database before fully upgrading to Oracle Database 12c.

Table 1-1 Examples of Upgrade Paths for Oracle Database 12c

Current Release Upgrade Options

12.1.0.1, 12.1.0.2

11.2.0.3 or later

Direct upgrade is supported. Perform the upgrade using the current Oracle Database Upgrade Guide, which is this guide.

11.2.0.1, 11.2.0.2

11.1.0.6, 11.1.0.7

10.2.0.2, 10.2.0.3, 10.2.0.4 and 10.2.0.5

10.1.0.5

9.2.0.8 or earlier

Direct upgrade to Oracle Database 12c is not supported.

Solution: Upgrade to an intermediate Oracle Database release that can be directly upgraded to the current release. You must upgrade Oracle Database releases that are not supported for direct upgrade in this release to an intermediate Oracle Database release that is supported for direct upgrade. When upgrading to an intermediate Oracle Database release, follow the instructions in the intermediate release documentation. After you complete an upgrade to the intermediate release Oracle Database, you can upgrade the intermediate release database to the current Oracle Database 12c release.

This restriction does not apply if you use Oracle Data Pump export/import to migrate data to the new release.

For example:

  • If you are upgrading from release 11.2.0.2 or 11.1.0.7, then you must first upgrade to Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2.0.4).

  • If you are upgrading from release 10.2.0.2, 10.2.0.3, 10.2.0.4,10.2.0.5 or 10.1.0.5, then you must first upgrade to release 11.2.0.4 or 12.1.0.2.

  • If you are upgrading from release 9.2.0.8, then you must first upgrade to a sequence of intermediate Oracle Database releases:

    Upgrade from release 9.2.0.8 to release 11.2.0.3 or 11.2.0.4. Then upgrade from release 11.2.0.4 to 12.2