Upgrade and Data Migration Methods and Processes

Oracle provides features and products to automate the upgrade process, and to assist you with completing upgrades efficiently.

Oracle Database supports the following methods for upgrading or migrating a database to the new release:

• AutoUpgrade Utility

  Oracle recommends this option for upgrades. AutoUpgrade identifies issues before upgrades, deploys upgrades, performs postupgrade actions, and starts the upgraded Oracle Database.

• Replay Upgrade

  This option enables upgrades to be performed on plug-ins.

• Migrating data using Oracle Data Pump

  Oracle Data Pump provides export and import utilities. Oracle Data Pump can perform a full or partial export from your database, followed by a full, or partial import into the new release of Oracle Database. Export/Import in Oracle Data Pump can copy a subset of the data, leaving the database unchanged.

• Migrating data using Transportable Tablespaces

  You can use the full transportable export/import feature to copy an entire database from the source release Oracle Database instance to the target release Oracle Database instance. With this method, you install the target release Oracle Database, and create an empty database. You then use the full transportable export/import to transport the source release database (Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3) or later) into the target Oracle Database release. This method of transporting data can be much faster than performing either an export/import or unload/load of the same data. For user-defined tablespaces, this method can be faster than a standard Oracle Data Pump export/import, because the data files containing all of the actual data are copied to the target location, and you use Oracle Data Pump to transfer only the metadata of the database objects to the new database.

• Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) gold images

  In a Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) upgrade (formerly known as Rapid Home Provisioning), you complete a new Oracle Database installation. After testing the database, and modifying it in accordance with the standard operating environment (SOE) that you want to use for your databases, you create an FPP gold image. A DBA deploys instances of that gold image to servers that have earlier release databases that you want to upgrade. After deployment of these gold images, a DBA can run a single rhpctl command to move files, perform configuration changes, and perform other steps required to use the new binaries. Refer to Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide for more information about Rapid Home Provisioning.

• Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Fleet Maintenance to upgrade databases.

  Fleet Maintenance, a component of Oracle Enterprise Manager, enables you to use the emcli command-line environment to automatically patch and upgrade a large number of databases in your enterprise. Database Fleet Maintenance enables administrators to maintain groups or pools of Oracle Homes and associated databases by applying database updates that include interim one-off patches, including quarterly security patch updates.

  Fleet Maintenance facilitates the creation of a gold image using a reference environment, or by updating existing gold images by adding desired patches (standard operating environments). With Fleet Maintenance, you can use those gold images, and deploy them across the enterprise for both patching and upgrade with a single emcli command. Fleet Maintenance comes with an extensive set of precheck and intelligent rollback options, and with a user interface that facilitates tracking deployment progress. If there is an issue with patching or upgrade databases, then the Fleet Maintenance user interface can display the specific logs for those databases.

  For more information about Fleet Maintenance, refer to Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Database Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide

• Oracle Data Pump Export/Import data migration from the Source Database to the new release target database

  In this scenario, you install a new release Oracle Database, and then import your database from the source Oracle Database release to a target Oracle Database release. Using Export/Import data migration to move to a new Oracle Database instance can maintain availability, but there are restrictions and tests you should perform, and it can take a long time. You can speed up that process by using Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) and Oracle GoldenGate.