Testing the Upgrade Process for Oracle Database

Your test plan for Oracle Database upgrades should include these test procedures.

Oracle recommends that you create a full working copy of your database environment in which to test all the preupgrade, upgrade, and postupgrade processes.

You can create a test environment that does not interfere with the current production Oracle Database. Oracle Data Guard, for example, enables you to create physical and snapshot standby databases.

You may want to create a test versoin of your current production database.

If you plan to use Oracle Data Pump Export/Import, then export and import in stages, using subsets of the current production database.

Practice upgrading the database using the test environment. The best practice is to perform testing of the upgrade process on an exact copy of the database that you want to upgrade, rather than on a downsized copy or test data. If an exact copy is impractical, then carefully chose a representative subset of your data to move over to your test environment and test the upgrade on that data.