Upgrade and Data Migration Methods and Processes

Oracle provides features and products that automate the upgrade process and help you complete upgrades efficiently.

Oracle supports several methods for upgrading or migrating a database to a new release:

• AutoUpgrade Utility

  AutoUpgrade identifies issues before upgrade, deploys upgrades, performs post-upgrade actions, and starts the upgraded database.

• Replay Upgrade

  Replay Upgrade is an upgrade procedure that upgrades PDBs when they are plugged into a target release CDB. Replay Upgrade validates the database upgrade to the target release, addresses changes such as object IDs and metadata, and replays a pre-upgrade workload after the PDB is upgraded (for example, after plugging a PDB from 19c into an Oracle AI Database CDB). Unlike Oracle Real Application Testing Replay, which replays a captured workload on an identical environment, Replay Upgrade upgrades the database and then replays the earlier release workload on the upgraded database. This option enables upgrades to be performed on PDB plug-ins on target release CDBs, though you must complete post-upgrade steps.

• Migrating data using Oracle Data Pump

  Oracle Data Pump provides export and import utilities. In this migration scenario, Oracle Data Pump performs a full or partial export from your database, followed by a full, or partial import into the target database release. Export/Import in Oracle Data Pump can copy a subset of the data, leaving the database unchanged.

• Migrating data using Transportable Tablespaces

  In this migration scenario, you can use the full transportable export/import feature to copy an entire database from the source release database to the target release database. With this method, you install the target release database, and create an empty database. You then use full transportable export/import to move the source database (Oracle Database 11g Release 2 11.2.0.3 or later) into the target 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

  After you complete an upgrade and perform any required patching, you can create a gold image and deploy it across your enterprise. In a Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) upgrade (formerly known as Rapid Home Provisioning), you complete a new 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.

  After you complete an upgrade and perform any additional patching you require, you can create a gold image and use Fleet Maintenance to deploy that image across your enterprise. 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 of Oracle Homes and databases by applying updates, including interim one-off patches and quarterly security patch updates.

  Fleet Maintenance enables you to create a gold image from a reference environment or update an existing gold image with new patches. 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 provides a user interface for tracking deployment progress. If patching or upgrading encounters issues, then Fleet Maintenance displays the relevant database logs in its user interface.

  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 migration scenario, you install a new release database, and then import your database from the source database release to a target database release. Using Export/Import data migration to move to a new 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 this process using Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) and Oracle GoldenGate.