Tasks to Prepare for Oracle Database Upgrades

Carry out these tasks to prepare your upgrade.

Before you upgrade your database, Oracle recommends that you review the new features and determine the best upgrade path and method to use, and carry out procedures to prepare your database for upgrade. Oracle strongly recommends that you test the upgrade process and prepare a backup strategy.

• Become Familiar with New Oracle Database Features
  Before you plan the upgrade process, become familiar with the features of the new Oracle Database release.
• Review Deprecated and Desupported Features
  Before you upgrade, check to see if deprecated or desupported features require attention in your upgrade plan.
• Choose an Upgrade Method for Oracle Database
  Oracle offers several methods to upgrade your database, which support the complexities of your enterprise.
• Choose a New Location for Oracle Home when Upgrading
  You must choose a location for Oracle home for the new release of Oracle Database that is separate from the Oracle home of your current release.
• Develop a Test Plan for Upgrading Oracle Database
  Review these topics to understand how to create a series of carefully designed tests to validate all stages of the upgrade process.
• Schema-Only Accounts and Upgrading EXPIRED Password Accounts
  Before starting your upgrade, determine if you want to use password authentication to default Oracle Database accounts where their passwords are in EXPIRED status, and their account is in LOCKED status
• Back Up Files to Preserve Downgrade and Recovery Options
  To ensure that you can recover from upgrade issues, and downgrade to an earlier release if necessary, Oracle recommends that you implement a backup strategy for your database, and for some specific files.

Review Deprecated and Desupported Features

Before you upgrade, check to see if deprecated or desupported features require attention in your upgrade plan.

Every release, Oracle modifies or removes support for features, views, and parameters, so that Oracle can focus on improving core manageability and functionality of other features in the database. For that reason, as part of your upgrade planning, Oracle recommends that you review the list of features listed as deprecated or desupported in a new release, and determine if these changes are of concern for your applications.

There are two categories of features scheduled for removal:

• Deprecated features are features that are no longer being enhanced, but are still supported for the full life of this release of Oracle Database.

• Desupported features are features that are no longer supported by fixing bugs related to that feature. Often, Oracle can choose to remove the code required to use the feature. A deprecated feature can be desupported in the next Oracle Database release.

If you see that a feature is deprecated, then Oracle strongly recommends that you stop using that feature as soon as it is practicable for you to do so. Start planning your migration away from deprecated features at the time that they are deprecated.