Upgrade is performed while the servers are down. The pre-upgrade are often time-consuming. Oracle recommends that you plan and prepare your environment for upgrade by completing these pre-upgrade tasks, so that you have a successful upgrade and a limited downtime.
Use the following checklist to make sure you complete the pre-upgrade tasks:
The Pre-Upgrade Checklist identifies tasks that can be performed before you begin your upgrade to ensure you have a successful upgrade and limited downtime.
Upgrades are performed while the servers are down. This checklist is meant to identify important — and often time-consuming — pre-upgrade tasks that you can perform before the upgrade to limit your downtime. The more preparation you can do before you begin the upgrade process, the less time you will spend offline.
Note:
The pre-upgrade procedures you perform will depend on the configuration of your existing system, the components you are upgrading, and the environment you want to create at the end of the upgrade and configuration process. Complete only those tasks that apply to your configurations or use cases.Table 2-1 Tasks to Perform Before You Upgrade to Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c
| Task | Description | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
|
Create a complete backup of your pre-upgrade environment. |
Required Back up all system-critical files and database(s) that contain any schemas that are to be upgraded before you begin your upgrade. If the upgrade fails, you need to restore your pre-upgrade environment and begin the upgrade again. |
|
|
Clone your production environment to use as an upgrade testing platform. |
Optional In addition to creating a complete backup of your system files, Oracle strongly recommends that you clone your production environment. This environment can be used to test the upgrade. |
|
|
Verify that you are installing and upgrading your product on a supported hardware and software configuration. NOTE: Do not attempt an upgrade if you are unable to use the latest supported operating system. As with all supported configurations, failure to comply with these requirements may cause your upgrade to fail. |
Required Verify that your hardware and software configurations (including operating systems) are supported by the latest certifications and requirements documents. Oracle recommends that you verify this information right before you start the upgrade as the certification requirements are frequently updated. Make sure that you have applied the latest patches to your components before you upgrade. |
|
|
Purge any outdated or unused data before you upgrade. |
Optional To optimize performance, consider purging data and objects that will not be used in the upgraded environment. |
|
| Oracle Database Users Only: Before upgrading an Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) enabled schema, you must connect to the database server and create an edition on the database server for 12c (12.2.1.1). | Required
If you are using an Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) database, you must create the edition before starting the upgrade. |
Creating an Edition on the Server for Edition-Based Redefinition |
| Create the non-SYSDBA user ‘FMW’ to avoid running the Upgrade Assistant as SYSDBA. |
Optional Oracle recommends that you create the non-SYSDBA user ‘FMW’ to run Upgrade Assistant with only those privileges required by the Upgrade Assistant. |
Creating a Non-SYSDBA User to Run Upgrade Assistant |
Before you install the new 12c (12.2.1.1) distributions and begin upgrading your existing Oracle Fusion Middleware deployment, be sure you have backed up all system-critical files; including all of the databases that host your Oracle Fusion Middleware schemas.
Performing a complete database backup prior to performing a schema upgrade is a prerequisite for running Upgrade Assistant. In the Upgrade Assistant prerequisites GUI screen, you will be required to acknowledge that backups have been performed, before proceeding with the actual upgrade.
For more information, see Backing Up Your Oracle Fusion Middleware Environment and Upgrading and Preparing Your Oracle Databases for 12c .
Note:
Your system backup must include theSYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table.SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table.Your system backup must include the SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table.
Each Fusion Middleware schema has a row in the SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$ table. If you run the Upgrade Assistant to update an existing schema and it does not succeed, you must restore the original schema before you can try again. Make sure you back up your existing database schemas before you run the Upgrade Assistant.
Note:
Performing these backups prior to performing a schema upgrade is a prerequisite for running Upgrade Assistant. In the Upgrade Assistant prerequisites GUI screen, you will be required to acknowledge that backups have been performed, before proceeding with the actual upgrade.Oracle strongly recommends that you create a copy of your actual production environment, upgrade the cloned environment, verify that the upgraded components work as expected, and then (and only then) upgrade your production environment.
Note:
It is beyond the scope of this document to describe the cloning procedures for all components and operating systems. Cloning procedures are component and operating system-specific. At a high level, you install the pre-upgrade version of your component domain on a test machine, create the required schemas using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU), and perform the upgrade.Uncover and correct any upgrade issues.
Practice completing an end-to-end upgrade.
Understand the upgrade performance and how purge scripts can help.
Understand the time required to complete the upgrade.
Understand the database resource usage (such as temporary tablespace; PGA, etc).
Note:
You can run the pre-upgrade Readiness Check on the cloned production environment to help identify potential upgrade issues with your data, but you must perform a complete test upgrade on a cloned environment to ensure a successful upgrade.The certification matrix and system requirements documents should be used in conjunction with each other to verify that your environment meets the necessary requirements for installation.
Note:
When checking the certification, system requirements, and interoperability information, be sure to check specifically for any 32-bit or 64-bit system requirements. It is important for you to download software specifically designed for the 32-bit or 64-bit environment, explicitly.WARNING:
Make sure that your current environment has been patched to the latest patch set BEFORE you begin the upgrade. Certifications are based on fully patched environments unless stated otherwise.Oracle has tested and verified the performance of your product on all certified systems and environments. Make sure that you are installing your product on a supported hardware or software configuration
Whenever new certifications occur, they are added to the proper certification document right away. New certifications can occur at any time, and for this reason the certification documents are kept outside of the documentation libraries and are available on Oracle Technology Network. For more information, see Certification Matrix for 12c (12.2.1.1).
It is important to verify that the system requirements such as disk space, available memory, specific platform packages and patches, and other operating system-specific items are met.
The Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications document should be used to verify that the requirements of the certification are met. For example, if the certification document indicates that your product is certified for installation on 64-Bit Oracle Linux 7, this document should be used to verify that your Oracle Linux 7 system has met the required minimum specifications, like disk space, available memory, specific platform packages and patches, and other operating system-specific items. This document is updated as needed and resides outside of the documentation libraries. The latest version is available on Oracle Technology Network.
For a complete description of the system requirements for installing and upgrading to Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c, see Review System Requirements and Specifications.
Note:
When you install the Oracle Fusion Middleware Release 12c software in preparation for upgrade, you should use the same user account that you used to install and configure the existing, pre-upgrade Oracle Fusion Middleware software. On UNIX operating systems, this will ensure that the proper owner and group is applied to new Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c files and directoriesYou must have a supported Oracle database configured with the required schemas before you run Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c.
It is assumed that you understand the Oracle Database requirements when upgrading and ensure that the database hosting Oracle Fusion Middleware is supported and has sufficient space to perform an upgrade. For more information, see Certification Matrix for 12c (12.2.1.1).
Before you can install any Oracle Fusion Middleware product using a generic installer, you must download and install a supported JDK on your system.
At the time this document was published, the certified JDK was 1.8.0_51.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Make sure that the JDK is installed outside of the Oracle home. The Oracle Universal Installer validates that the designated Oracle home directory is empty, and the install does not progress until an empty directory is specified. If you install JDK under Oracle home, you may experience issues in future operations. Therefore, Oracle recommends that you use install the JDK in the /home/oracle/products/jdk directory.
For more information on the difference between generic and platform-specific installers, see “Understanding the Difference Between Generic and Platform-Specific Distributions” in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Download, Installation, and Configuration Readme Files.
Purging unused data and maintaining a purging methodology before an upgrade can optimize the upgrade process.
Note:
If a large amount of data needs to be purged, consider partitioning tables or employing other data optimization strategies. Using scripts to remove large amounts of data may impact performance. See Developing a Purging and Partitioning Methodology and Developing a Database Growth Management Strategy.Some components have automated purge scripts. If you are using purge scripts, wait until the purge is complete before starting the upgrade process. The upgrade may fail if the purge scripts are running while using the Upgrade Assistant to upgrade your schemas.
Before upgrading an Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) enabled schema, you must connect to the database server and create an edition on the database server for 12c.
Edition-based redefinition enables you to upgrade an application's database objects while the application is in use, thus minimizing or eliminating downtime. This is accomplished by changing (redefining) database objects in a private environment known as an edition. Only when all changes have been made and tested do you make the new version of the application available to users.
Note:
This task must be completed by an Oracle Database user with DBA privileges.Before upgrading an Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) enabled schema, you must connect to the database server and create an edition on the database server for 12c. The new edition for 12c must be a child of your existing 11g or 12c edition.
To create an edition on the database server, log in as an SYS user (or another Oracle user that has DBA privileges) and enter the following command:
create edition Oracle_FMW_12_2_1 as child of Oracle_FMW_11_1_1_7_0;
Where, Oracle_FMW_11_1_1_7_0 is an example of the edition name you specified in RCU 11.1.1.7 when the 11.1.1.7 schemas were created. Be sure to provide the actual name used when creating the edition.
If the edition is created successfully, you get the following message:
Edition created.
During the upgrade, you are prompted to launch the Reconfiguration Wizard to reconfigure your existing domain. Before running the Reconfiguration Wizard, you must specify the database default edition. Use the following SQL to manually setup the default edition name for the database, for example:
ALTER DATABASE DEFAULT EDITION = Oracle_FMW_12_2_1;
Oracle recommends that you create a non-SYSDBA user called FMW to run the Upgrade Assistant. The FMW user has the privileges required to modify schemas, but does not have full administrator privileges.
Note:
Thev$xatrans$ table does not exist by default. You must run the XAVIEW.SQL script to create this table before creating the user. Moreover, grant on v$xatrans$ table is required only for Oracle Identity Manager. If you do not require Oracle Identity Manager for configuration or if you do not have the v$xatrans$ table, then remove the following line from the script:
grant select on v$xatrans$ to FMW with grant option;
welcome1 is the password. Make sure that you specify your actual password when granting privileges.
create user FMW identified by welcome1; grant dba to FMW; grant execute on DBMS_LOB to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_OUTPUT to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_STATS to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aqadm to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aqin to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aqjms to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_aq to FMW with grant option; grant execute on utl_file to FMW with grant option; grant execute on dbms_lock to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.V_$INSTANCE to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.GV_$INSTANCE to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.V_$SESSION to FMW with grant option; grant select on sys.GV_$SESSION to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_jobs to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_job_run_details to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_running_jobs to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_aq_agents to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.DBMS_SHARED_POOL to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_2pc_pending to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_pending_transactions to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_FLASHBACK to FMW with grant option; grant execute on dbms_crypto to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_REPUTIL to FMW with grant option; grant execute on dbms_job to FMW with grant option; grant select on pending_trans$ to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_scheduler_job_classes to fmw with grant option; grant select on SYS.DBA_DATA_FILES to FMW with grant option; grant select on SYS.V_$ASM_DISKGROUP to FMW with grant option; grant select on v$xatrans$ to FMW with grant option; grant execute on sys.dbms_system to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_SCHEDULER to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_data_files to FMW with grant option; grant execute on UTL_RAW to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_XMLDOM to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_UTILITY to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_SESSION to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_METADATA to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_XMLGEN to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_DATAPUMP to FMW with grant option; grant execute on DBMS_MVIEW to FMW with grant option; grant select on ALL_ENCRYPTED_COLUMNS to FMW with grant option; grant select on dba_queue_subscribers to FMW with grant option; grant execute on SYS.DBMS_ASSERT to FMW with grant option;
Note:
Oracle Database 11.2.0.3 Database Users ONLY: You must apply Oracle Patch 13036331 before you begin the upgrade. Go to My Oracle Support to download the patch.
If you do not apply this patch, then you will have to grant additional privileges for some schemas.