2 Preparing to Upgrade Oracle Database

Complete preupgrade tasks and checks to assist you with completing a successful upgrade.

This chapter provides information and procedures for the pre-upgrade tasks, including planning your upgrades, data-gathering, testing, installing the new Oracle software for the upgrade, using the Parallel Upgrade Utility to carry out your upgrade, and performing other checks and tasks.

Topics:

• Tasks to Prepare for Oracle Database Upgrades
  Carry out these tasks to prepare your upgrade.
• Checklists for Oracle Database Upgrade
  Use checklists to plan and carry out Oracle Database upgrades.
• Installing the New Oracle Database Software
  Use this procedure overview to assist you to install the software for the new Oracle Database release.
• Database Preparation Tasks to Complete Before Starting Oracle Database Upgrades
  Ensure you have completed these database preparation tasks before starting Oracle Database upgrades.
• Preparing the New Oracle Home for Upgrading
  After backing up the database that you want to upgrade, prepare the new Oracle home in a new location. Install the software for Oracle Database 12c into the new location.
• Prerequisites for Preparing Oracle Home on Windows
  Your system must meet these requirements before you can upgrade Oracle Database on Microsoft Windows platforms.
• Using the Pre-Upgrade Information Tool for Oracle Database
  Review these topics to understand and to use the Pre-Upgrade information tool (preupgrade.jar).
• Testing the Upgrade Process for Oracle Database
  Your test plan for Oracle Database upgrades should include these test procedures.
• About Upgrading Oracle Grid Infrastructure
  Review these topics if your Oracle Database installations are on Oracle Grid Infrastructure, so that your upgrade plan must include an Oracle Grid Infrastructure upgrade.
• Required Task to Preserve Downgrade Capability
  To preserve the option to downgrade after upgrading your database to Oracle 12c release 2 (12.2), install the patch for bug 20898997 in your source ORACLE_HOME.
• Requirements for Upgrading Databases That Use Oracle Label Security and Oracle Database Vault
  You must complete these tasks before starting an upgrade with a database using Oracle Label Security or Oracle Database Vault.
• Requirement for Upgrading Databases that Use Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB)
  Select one of these three procedures to upgrade Oracle Database deployments with OWB release 11.2.0.3 and later.