Upgrade Checklist for Oracle Grid Infrastructure

Review this checklist before upgrading an existing Oracle Grid Infrastructure. A cluster is being upgraded until all cluster member nodes are running the new installations, and the new clusterware becomes the active version.

Table 11-1 Upgrade Checklist for Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation

Check	Task
Review Upgrade Guide for deprecation and desupport information that may affect upgrade planning.	Oracle Database Upgrade Guide
Patch set (recommended)	Install the latest patch set release for your existing installation. Review My Oracle Support note 2180188.1 for the list of latest patches before upgrading Oracle Grid Infrastructure.
Install user account	Confirm that the installation owner you plan to use is the same as the installation owner that owns the installation you want to upgrade.
Create a Grid home	Create a new Oracle Grid Infrastructure Oracle home (Grid home) where you can extract the image files. All Oracle Grid Infrastructure upgrades (upgrades of existing Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM installations) are out-of-place upgrades.
Instance names for Oracle ASM	Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) instances must use standard Oracle ASM instance names. The default ASM SID for a single-instance database is +ASM.
Cluster names and Site names	Cluster names must have the following characteristics: At least one character but no more than 15 characters in length. Hyphens (-), and single-byte alphanumeric characters (a to z, A to Z, and 0 to 9). It cannot begin with a numeric character. It cannot begin or end with the hyphen (-) character.
Operating System	Confirm that you are using a supported operating system, kernel release, and all required operating system packages for the new Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.
Network addresses for standard Oracle Grid Infrastructure	For standard Oracle Grid Infrastructure installations, confirm the following network configuration: The private and public IP addresses are in unrelated, separate subnets. The private subnet should be in a dedicated private subnet. The public and virtual IP addresses, including the SCAN addresses, are in the same subnet (the range of addresses permitted by the subnet mask for the subnet network). Neither private nor public IP addresses use a link local subnet (169.254..).
OCR on raw or block devices	Migrate OCR files from RAW or Block devices to Oracle ASM or a supported file system. Direct use of RAW and Block devices is not supported. Run the `ocrcheck` command to confirm Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) file integrity. If this check fails, then repair the OCR before proceeding.
Check space for GIMR	When upgrading to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c, a new GIMR is created only if the source Grid home has a GIMR configured. Allocate additional storage space as described in Oracle Clusterware Storage Space Requirements. When upgrading from Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12c Release 2 (12.2), the GIMR is preserved with its contents.
Oracle ASM password file	When upgrading from Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12c Release 1 (12.1), Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12c Release 2 (12.2), or Oracle Grid Infrastructure 18c to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c, move the Oracle ASM password file from file system to Oracle ASM, before proceeding with the upgrade. When upgrading from Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 (11.2) to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c, move the Oracle ASM password file from file system to Oracle ASM, after the upgrade. Note: Set `compatible.asm` to at least 12.1.0.2, before moving the password file.
CVU Upgrade Validation	Use Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) to assist you with system checks in preparation for starting an upgrade.
Unset Environment variables	As the user performing the upgrade, unset the environment variables $ORACLE_HOME and $ORACLE_SID. Check that the ORA_CRS_HOME environment variable is not set. Do not use ORA_CRS_HOME as an environment variable, except under explicit direction from Oracle Support. Refer to the Checks to Complete Before Upgrading Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a complete list of environment variables to unset.
RACcheck Upgrade Readiness Assessment	Download and run the RACcheck Upgrade Readiness Assessment to obtain automated upgrade-specific health check for upgrades to Oracle Grid Infrastructure. See My Oracle Support note 1457357.1, which is available at the following URL: https://support.oracle.com/rs?type=doc&id=1457357.1
Back Up the Oracle Software Before Upgrades	Before you make any changes to the Oracle software, Oracle recommends that you create a backup of the Oracle software and databases.