Oracle Database Upgrade Solution

Business Requirement

As part of efforts to improve service delivery, as well as to prepare full utilization of their system, there was a need to upgrade the system to the latest version to work with any version of JAVA. The objective was to also upgrade Weblogic Applications, databases because the system is at a much higher risk for viruses and malware.

This is a mission critical system that needed to be upgraded to the latest versions to curb the risk that they found themselves in. A summary of the requirement was to upgrade the system from older versions Oracle as quickly as possible minimizing cost and risk.

Objective

The objective was to migrate the on-premises oracle database and WebLogic 11g to the Oracle 19c and 12c respectively. Oracle offers the most comprehensive database migration services in the industry. However, the strategy for moving on-premises applications and their data to the newer version depends on your environment, customized configurations, and the applications that use data sources. We migrated an on-premises Oracle database and WebLogic to 19c and 12c by creating a backup of the on-premises existing systems.

Challenges

The Internet Explorer (IE) reached its end of life on the 10^th June 2022 and Microsoft was pushing for a new browser which is called Edge. The client’s system was running WebLogic 11 which was java java6u45 which was not running on IE, It needed the latest version of Oracle Java.

Oracle stopped extended support on 11g database. This had a huge impact on the business, they were running 11g, they were no longer be supported. This carries a significant risk to the business continuity and performance, should they encounter a significant database incident.

Matching data types to Oracle 19c and 12c data types.

Moving 100% of the data to  Oracle database 19c and validating that all data has been moved successfully.

Performing these steps quickly, cheaply, and with 100% reliability.

Risks Involved

The client wants to migrate the business system to the latest versions because of the high availability, scalability, and easy management of resources. Upgrading to the other version of oracle is not a one-off decision. It has long-term and company-wide implications and therefore, the decision to migrate to the newer version should not be made in isolation.

Procedure Followed

Database Upgrade from 11g to 19c using AutoUpgrade Tool

The AutoUpgrade utility is designed to automate the upgrade process, both before starting upgrades, during upgrade deployments, and during postupgrade checks and configuration migration

Advantages of AutoUpgrade Utility are

• Time saving method (completes the upgrade in a short time)
• Can upgrade multiple Oracle Database deployments at the same time, using a single configuration file, customized as needed for each database deployment.
• Preventing the issues before upgrade.
• It automatically performs the preupgrade and post upgrade steps/checks.

AutoUpgrade Processing Modes followed

Generally  we used four Mode of AutoUpgrade processes;

Analysed – It performed a read only pre-upgrade analysis of databases before upgrade and detected any issues which may have prevented the successful completion of upgradation. It was run in the source database like normal operations.

Fixups – In Fixups mode it checked the same as it did in the analyze mode, so that it identified issues that required fixing. In Fixup Mode, the AutoUpgrade utility detected and identified both fixes that required manual intervention and AutoUpgrade utility cleared the fixduring upgrade.

Deploy – In deploy mode it confirmed that our database has been successfully upgraded and it copies the sqlnet.ora, listener.ora, tnsnames.ora from source to target home.

Upgrade – An upgrade completed with upgrade, after this we ran our post upgrade checks. In this we ran our custom scripts on the upgraded databases in accordance with the configuration file that we created. After this the upgraded oracle database starts with a new oracle home.

Reasons to upgrade an Oracle database

The customer faced numerous challenges while operating on old software. Various challenges were faced while operating the server as well as while maintaining it, which forced the customer to decide migrating the business to a newer version of  oracle software.

A few of the reasons for the decision are stated below,

Support – If you pay for an Oracle support contract, only Oracle 19.0.0.0, the latest version of Oracle Database 19c currently available for on-premises use, is covered under Premier Support

Updated hardware and operating systems – Oracle versions aren’t supported or certified on newer operating systems. If you want to keep up with whatever platform changes your server team has planned, you should keep up with Oracle upgrades.

Security patches – IT pros are well aware of the numerous data breaches that can cost companies millions of dollars or even put them out of business entirely. Oracle only provides regularly released security patches for Oracle Database 12.2.0.4 and 19.3.0.0.0. If you don’t run one of those versions, you’re putting your company at risk.

Reduced labor – Each new Oracle version contains a host of new features, many of which save you time. Some people fear these features are meant to put an end to the DBA’s career. But, in reality, they can free you up to do other things. Features such as automated undo management, automated memory management and Unified Auditing are all designed to put a stop to DBA’s having to micromanage these areas.

Easier future upgrades – The easiest way to upgrade an Oracle database is to use the Oracle Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA). The DBUA automates the upgrade process and handles the bulk of the work.

Data protection – The cardinal sin a DBA can make is to lose data. Last month’s database backup works if you don’t mind losing all of the transactions since it was done.

Application vendor support – While some application vendors are stuck in the database past, many keep current. If you want to continue to run those applications, you must keep up, as well. Vendors that use Oracle as the database for their applications should be on 12.2.0.4 at a minimum by now.

Benefits After Upgrade/Migration

Guard against data breaches – Assess, detect, and prevent data security threats with Oracle database security solutions for encryption, key management, data masking, privileged user access controls, activity monitoring, and auditing. Reduce the risk of a data breach and simplify and accelerate compliance.

Use a single database for all data types and workloads – Free application developers from complex transformations and redundant data with Oracle’s converged database.

Deploy where you need to – Deploy Oracle Database wherever required—in your data center, public cloud, or private cloud. This offers the flexibility between deployment in your data center when residency or latency are critical, or in the cloud when you want to take advantage of scalability and the broadest set of capabilities.

Simplify application development – Make development and deployment of enterprise applications simpler with the most comprehensive database platform with both application and data services. Build SaaS apps with CI/CD, Multitenant database, Kubernetes, cloud native, and low-code technologies.

Achieve data sovereignty and horizontal scalability – Enable globally distributed, linearly scalable, multi-model databases which meet data sovereignty requirements and support applications that require low latency and high availability. Oracle Sharding automatically places data on the desired shard, saving time and eliminating manual data preparation. Developers can treat a sharded database as a single logical database, simplifying application development.

The predominant benefits for migrating the on-premises environment to newer versions are:

• High Availability
• Highly Scalable (Horizontal and Vertical)
• Easy Resource Management

Final Results of Upgrading