Required Tasks to Complete After Upgrading Oracle Database

Review and complete these required tasks that are specified for your environment after you complete your upgrade.

You must complete these postupgrade tasks after you upgrade Oracle Database. You must complete these tasks both when you perform the upgrade manually, and when you upgrade by using Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA).

Setting Environment Variables on Linux and Unix Systems After Manual Upgrades

Check that required operating system environment variables point to the directories of the new Oracle Database release.

Confirm that the following Oracle user environment variables point to the directories of the new Oracle home:

  • ORACLE_HOME

  • PATH

Recompiling All Invalid Objects

Identify and recompile invalid objects on the CDB and PDBs using the catcon utility to run utlrp.sql after you install, patch, or upgrade a database.

Note:

If you upgraded using the AutoUpgrade utility, then AutoUpgrade automatically takes care of this task during the upgrade. You do not need to perform this task.

Oracle recommends that you use the catcon.pl utility to run utlrp.sql on all containers in your container database (CDB). The utlrp.sql script recompiles all invalid objects. Run the script immediately after installation, to ensure that users do not encounter invalid objects.

  1. Change directory to Oracle_home/rdbms/admin. For example
    $ cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
  2. Use the catcon.pl script in the Oracle home to run utlrp.sql. For example:
    $ORACLE_HOME/perl/bin/perl catcon.pl --n 1 --e --b utlrp --d '''.''' utlrp.sql

    Note the following conditions of this use case:

    • --n parameter: is set to 1, so the script runs each PDB recompilation in sequence.

    • --e parameter: turns echo on.
    • --b parameter: Sets the log file base name. It is set to utlrp.

Expect a time delay for the serial recompilation of PDBs to complete. Depending on the number of PDBs that you are upgrading, the recompilation can extend significantly beyond the time required for the upgrade scripts to complete.

The utlrp.sql script automatically recompiles invalid objects in either serial or parallel recompilation, based on both the number of invalid objects, and on the number of CPUs available. CPUs are calculated using the number of CPUs (cpu_count) multiplied by the number of threads for each CPU (parallel_threads_per_cpu). On Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC), this number is added across all Oracle RAC nodes.

For more information about catcon utility syntax and options, refer to Oracle Multitenant Administrator's Guide.

Track Invalid Object Recompilation Progress

Use these SQL queries to track the progress of utlrp.sql script recompilation of invalid objects.

Note:

If you upgraded using the AutoUpgrade utility, then AutoUpgrade automatically takes care of this task during the upgrade. You do not need to perform this task.

Oracle recommends that you run the utlrp.sql script after upgrade to recompile invalid objects. You can run SQL queries to monitor the script.

Example 7-4 Number of Invalid Objects Remaining

Enter this query to return the number of remaining invalid objects. This number decreases over time as the utlrp.sql script runs.

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM obj$ WHERE status IN (4, 5, 6); 

Example 7-5 Number of Objects Recompiled

Enter this query to return the number of objects that utlrp.sql has compiled. This number increases over time as the script runs.

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM UTL_RECOMP_COMPILED; 

Example 7-6 Number of Objects Recompiled with Errors

Enter this query to return the number of objects that utlrp.sql has compiled with errors.

select COUNT(DISTINCT(obj#)) "OBJECTS WITH ERRORS" from utl_recomp_errors; 

If the number is higher than expected, then examine the error messages reported with each object. If you see errors due to system misconfiguration or resource constraints, then fix the cause of these errors, and run utlrp.sql again.

Update Listener Files Location on Oracle RAC Cluster Member Upgrades

If you do not use a shared Oracle Base Home, and you perform an upgrade on an Oracle Database instance that is an Oracle Real Application Clusters member node, then you must update your listener path.

If you do not use a shared Oracle Base Home, and you perform an upgrade on an Oracle Database instance that is an Oracle Real Application Clusters cluster member node, but you do not use Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA), then you must manually update all of the remote tnsnames.ora files. If the files are not updated, then the following error occurs:

TNS-03505: Failed to resolve name

Starting with Oracle Database 21c, the default network administration directory changes from the previous default in the local Oracle home, Oracle_home/network (for example, /u01/app/oracle/product/19.1.0/dbhome_1/network), to a new location. The new default location is the shared Oracle Base Home, in the path ORACLE_BASE/homes/HOME_NAME/network/admin. For example:/u01/app/oracle/homes/OraDB20Home1/network/admin is the Oracle home of a specific Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) instance, which is located in the default path for read-only Oracle homes. That file path is the default location of the local tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora files.

During the upgrade, Net Configuration Assistant (NetCA, or netca) updates the location of the network listener files, tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora on the local host. However, NetCA does not update the location of those network listener files for the instance on all cluster member nodes. To ensure that all cluster member nodes can resolve service requests to the upgraded cluster member node instance, you must do one of the following:

  • On each cluster member node, Manually copy the tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora files from the existing location to ORACLE_BASE/homes/HOME_NAME/network/admin/.
  • Set an environment variable on the upgraded cluster member node to point to the existing network administration files location.

p

To ensure that WORKAROUND:-----------cp tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora to $ORACLE_BASE/homes/OraDB20Home1/network/admin/sqlnet.oraorexport TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

Example 7-7 Copy TNSNAMES.ORA and SQLNET.ORA to New Default Network Administration Directory

In this example, you copy the existing tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora files to the new default network location on each cluster member node

  1. Log in as the Oracle installation owner, and change directory to the earlier release network administration directory. For example:

    cd $ORACLE_HOME/network
  2. Use secure copy (scp) to copy the listener files to the default network directory location on another cluster member node. For example, where racnode2 is a cluster member node to which you want to copy the listener files:
    cd $OLD_ORACLE_HOME/network
    scp tnsnames.ora sqlnet.ora \
    oracle@racnode2:/u01/app/oracle/homes/OraDB20Home1/network/admin/

Example 7-8 Set the TNS_ADMIN Environment Variable

On the upgraded node, log in as the Oracle user, and then set an environment variable for TNS_ADMIN to point to the location of your existing listener files. For example:

/home/oracle oracle> $ export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

Setting oratab and Scripts to Point to the New Oracle Location After Upgrading Oracle Database

You must set scripts to point to the new Oracle home location.

After you upgrade Oracle Database to a new release, if you do not use AutoUpgrade for your database upgrade, then you must ensure that your oratab file and any client scripts that set the value of ORACLE_HOME point to the new Oracle home that is created for the new Oracle Database release. If you perform your upgrade using either AutoUpgrade or DBUA, then these utilities automatically point oratab to the new Oracle home. However, regardless of the method you use to upgrade, you must check client scripts.

If you upgrade your database manually, then you must log in as the Oracle installation owner for the new Oracle Database release, and update the oratab file manually. The location of the oratab file can vary, depending on your operating system.

Check PL/SQL Packages and Dependent Procedures

It is possible that packages that you installed in the earlier release Oracle Database are not available in the new release, which can affect applications.

After the upgrade, if you use AutoUpgrade, review the AutoUpgrade report on invalid objects. If you use a replay upgrade, then check to ensure that any packages that you may have used in your own scripts, or that you call from your scripts, are available in the new release. Testing procedures dependent on packages should be part of your upgrade plan.

Code in database applications can reference objects in the connected database. For example, Oracle Call Interface (OCI) and precompiler applications can submit anonymous PL/SQL blocks. Triggers in Oracle Forms applications can reference a schema object. Such applications are dependent on the schema objects they reference. Dependency management techniques vary, depending on the development environment. Oracle Database does not automatically track application dependencies.

Upgrading Tables Dependent on Oracle-Maintained Types

Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) and later releases, you must manually upgrade user tables that depend on Oracle-Maintained types.

Note:

If you upgraded using the AutoUpgrade utility, then AutoUpgrade automatically takes care of this task during the upgrade. You do not need to perform this task.

If your database has user tables that are dependent on Oracle-Maintained types (for example, AQ queue tables), then run the utluptabdata.sql command after the upgrade to carry out ALTER TABLE UPGRADE on any user tables affected by changes in Oracle-Maintained types. This change in behavior enables user tables to remain in READ ONLY state during an upgrade. Users are prevented from logging into applications using SYSDBA privileges (AS SYSDBA), and changing application tables that are dependent on Oracle-Maintained types.

To identify tables that you need to upgrade after the database upgrade completes, connect to the database AS SYSDBA, and run the following query:

COLUMN owner FORMAT A30
COLUMN table_name FORMAT A30
SELECT DISTINCT owner, table_name
FROM dba_tab_cols
WHERE data_upgraded = 'NO'
ORDER BY 1,2;

This query lists all tables that are not listed as UPGRADED. However, the utluptabdata.sql script only upgrades tables that depend on Oracle-Maintained types. If any tables are listed by the query, then run the utluptabdata.sql script to perform ALTER TABLE UPGRADE commands on dependent user tables, so that these Oracle-Maintained types are upgraded to the latest version of the type.

You must run the utluptabdata.sql script either with a user account with ALTER privileges for all of the tables dependent on Oracle-Maintained types, or with a user granted the SYSDBA system privileges, and that is logged in AS SYSDBA.

When the parameter SERVEROUTPUT is set to ON, the utluptabdata.sql script displays the names of all upgraded tables, and lists any error encountered during the table upgrade. To set the server output to ON, run the following command:

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
@utluptabdata.sql

Upgrading Statistics Tables Created by the DBMS_STATS Package After Upgrading Oracle Database

If you created statistics tables using the DBMS_STATS.CREATE_STAT_TABLE procedure, then upgrade these tables by running DBMS_STATS.UPGRADE_STAT_TABLE.

In the following example, green is the owner of the statistics table and STAT_TABLE is the name of the statistics table.

EXECUTE DBMS_STATS.UPGRADE_STAT_TABLE('green', 'stat_table'); 

Perform this procedure for each statistics table.

See Also:

Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for information about the DBMS_STATS package

Configuring the FTP and HTTP Ports and HTTP Authentication for Oracle XML DB

Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) does not configure ports for Oracle XML DB on Oracle Database 12c and later releases. Upgrades use digest authentication.

Oracle recommends that when you configure ports, you also configure the authentication for HTTP for accessing Oracle XML DB Repository to take advantage of improved security features.

Starting with Oracle Database 12c, Oracle enhanced database security by supporting digest authentication. Digest authentication is an industry-standard protocol that is commonly used with the HTTP protocol. It is supported by most HTTP clients. Digest authentication ensures that passwords are always transmitted in a secure manner, even when an encrypted (HTTPS) connection is not in use. Support for digest authentication enables organizations to deploy applications that use Oracle XML DB HTTP, without having to worry about passwords being compromised. Digest authentication support in Oracle XML DB also ensures that the Oracle XML DB HTTP server remains compatible with Microsoft Web Folders WebDAV clients.

After installing or upgrading for the new release, you must manually configure the FTP and HTTP ports for Oracle XML DB as follows:

  1. Use DBMS_XDB_CONFIG.setHTTPPort(HTTP_port_number) to set the HTTP port for Oracle XML DB:

    SQL> exec DBMS_XDB_CONFIG.setHTTPPort(port_number);
    
  2. Use DBMS_XDB_CONFIG.setFTPPort(FTP_port_number) to set the FTP port for Oracle XML DB:

    SQL> exec DBMS_XDB_CONFIG.setFTPPort(FTP_port_number);
    

    Note:

    You can query the port numbers to use for FTP and HTTP in the procedure by using DBMS_XDB_CONFIG.getFTPPort and DBMS_XDB_CONFIG.getHTTPPort respectively.

  3. To see all the used port numbers, query DBMS_XDB_CONFIG.usedport.

Install Oracle Text Supplied Knowledge Bases After Upgrading Oracle Database

After an Oracle Database upgrade, all user extensions to the Oracle Text supplied knowledge bases must be regenerated.

Regenerating the user extensions affect all databases installed in the given Oracle home.

After an upgrade, the Oracle Text-supplied knowledge bases that are part of the companion products for the new Oracle Database are not immediately available. Any Oracle Text features dependent on the supplied knowledge bases that were available before the upgrade do not function after the upgrade. To re-enable such features, you must install the Oracle Text supplied knowledge bases from the installation media for the new Oracle Database release.

See Also:

Drop Earlier Release Oracle Application Express

To avoid invalid objects, drop Oracle Application Express releases earlier than Application Express (APEX) 19.1.

The package DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT was deprecated in Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2). Starting in Oracle Database 21c, DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT is desupported, and replaced with DBMS_CRYPT. In releases earlier than Oracle Database 21c, Oracle Application Express (APEX) continued to have a dependency on DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT. In Oracle Database 21c, which includes APEX release 19.2, this dependency is removed.

During Oracle Database upgrade, APEX is not automatically upgraded to the release shipped with the Oracle Database release. Before upgrade, when you run AutoUpgrade using the preupgrade parameter, the output upgrade.xml file reports that you must upgrade APEX releases earlier than APEX 19.1.0.00.15, because of the earlier release dependency on DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT.

To avoid INVALID objects, either before or after you upgrade Oracle Database, you must upgrade APEX to at least the version that ships with Oracle Database 21c, and then drop earlier releases of APEX.

  1. Log in to the new Oracle Database Oracle home
  2. Upgrade Oracle Application Express, using at least Oracle Application Express 19.2, which is shipped in the Oracle home (APEX 19.2), or a later version, when it is available
  3. Drop earlier release APEX users.

    For example:

    drop user APEX_050000 cascade;
    drop user APEX_040200 cascade;
    drop user APEX_030100 cascade;
  4. Drop earlier release APEX SYS owned objects.

    For example:

    drop package SYS.WWV_DBMS_SQL;

Note:

Starting with Oracle Application Express 18c (18.1), the SYS.WWV_DBMS_SQL object is appended with the Oracle Application Express release schema.

For example:

SYS.WWV_DBMS_SQL_APEX_180100 

Replace the DEMO Directory in Read-Only Oracle Homes

After upgrading Read-Only Oracle homes, make a copy of the earlier release Oracle Database demo directory, and replace the demo directory in the Read-Only Oracle home with the new release demo directory.

Oracle Database 18c and later releases contain a product demonstration directory in the file path Oracle_home/rdbms/demo. These directories include examples and product demonstrations that are specific to the options and features for each Oracle Database release, some of which you can add to after upgrade by installing Oracle Database Examples. In your earlier release, if you downloaded and worked with the earlier release demonstration files, then you have two problems: you want to save your earlier release work for review and testing with the new release, and you want to obtain refreshes of the demonstrations that are specific to the new release.

After upgrading the Oracle home, and downloading and doing any other work you want to do with the new demonstration files, you can then refresh your old demonstration files.

Example 7-9 Copying the Earlier Release Demo Directory and Refreshing the Demonstrations in the Read-Only Oracle Home

After the upgrade, use this procedure to save any work in your earlier demo directory in the Read-Only Oracle home, and and replace the earlier release demo directory with the new release demo directory:

  1. Log in as the Oracle software owner user (oracle).

  2. Check if the rdbms/demo directory is copied to the Read Only Oracle home.

    In this example, the environment variable ORACLE_BASE_HOME is defined as the path to the Read-Only Oracle home.

    Linux and Unix platforms:

    $ ls -l -d $ORACLE_BASE_HOME/rdbms/demo
    /u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1/rdbms/demo

    Microsoft Windows platforms

    ls -l -d %ORACLE_BASE_HOME%\rdbms\demo 
    %ORACLE_BASE_HOME%\rdbms\demo
  3. Change directory to the Read-Only Oracle home, and make a copy, where demo.old_release18 is the name you give to your earlier release demonstration files:

    cd $ORACLE_BASE_HOME/rdbms
    mv demo demo.old_release18
  4. Copy the new demo directory from the upgraded Oracle home to the Read-Only Oracle home.

    In this example, the environment variable ORACLE_HOME is defined as the new release Oracle home.

    Linux and Unix:

    cp -r $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/demo demo

    Microsoft Windows

    xcopy c:\%ORACLE_HOME%\rdbms\demo c:%ORACLE_BASE_HOME%\rdbms\demo /E

Configure Access Control Lists (ACLs) to External Network Services

Oracle Database 12c and later releases include fine-grained access control to the UTL_TCP, UTL_SMTP, UTL_MAIL, UTL_HTTP, or UTL_INADDR packages.

If you have applications that use these packages, then after upgrading Oracle Database you must configure network access control lists (ACLs) in the database before the affected packages can work as they did in earlier releases. Without the ACLs, your applications can fail with the error "ORA-24247: network access denied by access control list (ACL)."

See Also:

Oracle Database Security Guide for more complicated situations, such as connecting some users to host A and other users to host B

Enabling Oracle Database Vault After Upgrading Oracle Database

Depending on your target database release, you can be required to reenable Oracle Database Vault, or revoke Oracle Database Vault role granted for upgrade.

Upgrading Oracle Database Without Disabling Oracle Database Vault

To upgrade to Oracle Database 21c or later releases, either grant the DV_PATCH_ADMIN role to SYS commonly in the root container, and revoke after the upgrade, or disable Oracle Database Vault and reenable it after upgrade.

If Oracle Database Vault is enabled and you are upgrading an entire CDB, then use one of the following methods:

  • CDB upgrade method 1: Temporarily grant the DV_PATCH_ADMIN to user SYS commonly by logging into the root container as a common user with the DV_OWNER role, and then issuing the GRANT DV_PATCH_ADMIN TO SYS CONTAINER=ALL statement. Oracle Database Vault controls will be in the same state as it was before the upgrade. When the upgrade is complete, log into the root container as the DV_OWNER user, and revoke the DV_PATCH_ADMIN role from SYS by issuing the REVOKE DV_PATCH_ADMIN FROM SYS CONTAINER=ALL statement.
  • CDB upgrade method 2: Log into each container as a user who has the DV_OWNER role, and then execute the DBMS_MACADM.DISABLE_DV procedure. You must first disable the PDBs (in any order) and then after that, disable the root container last. If you are upgrading only one PDB, then you can disable Oracle Database Vault in that PDB only. After you have completed the upgrade, you can enable Oracle Database Vault by logging into each container as the DV_OWNER user and then executing the DVSYS.DBMS_MACADM.ENABLE_DV procedure. The order of enabling Oracle Database Vault must be the root container first and PDBs afterward. You can enable the PDBs in any order, but the root container must be enabled first.

If you manually disable Oracle Database Vault before the upgrade, then you must enable Oracle Database Vault manually after the upgrade.

If you did not have Oracle Database Vault enabled before the upgrade, then you can enable it manually after the upgrade.

Enable Oracle Database Vault in the upgraded database by using the procedure dvsys.dbms_macadm.enable_dv(). Run this procedure with a user account that is granted DV_OWNER. After you run the procedure, restart the database instance so that the procedure takes effect.

Postupgrade Scenarios with Oracle Database Vault

Postupgrade tasks for Oracle Database Vault change, depending on your target Oracle Database release, and the option you chose to prepare for upgrade.

Upgrades to Oracle Database 21c and Later

You must choose one of the following options:

  • Grant the DV_PATCH_ADMIN role to SYS commonly (container=all).
  • Disable Oracle Database Vault before upgrade.

If you granted the DV_PATCH_ADMIN role to SYS before the upgrade, then revoke the DV_PATCH_ADMIN role from SYS after the upgrade. If you disabled Oracle Database Vault, then reenable it after the upgrade is complete.

Upgrades to Oracle Database 18c and 19c

You do not need to disable Oracle Database Vault.

Note:

For all upgrades, after the upgrade is complete, Oracle Database Vault has the same enforcement status that was in place for your source database before the upgrade.

Check for the SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION Parameter Behavior

Connections to Oracle Database from clients earlier than release 10g fail with the error ORA-28040: No matching authentication protocol.

Starting with Oracle Database 18c, the default value for the SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION parameter changed from 11 in Oracle Database 12c (12.2) to 12 in Oracle Database 18c and later releases. The use of this parameter is deprecated.

SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION is now replaced with the SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_SERVER and SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_CLIENT parameters. If you have not explicitly set the SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_SERVER parameter in the upgraded database, then connections from clients earlier than release 10g fail with the error ORA-28040: No matching authentication protocol. For better security, check the password verifiers of your database users, and then configure the database to use the correct password verifier by setting the SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_SERVER and SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_CLIENT parameters.

If you have password-protected roles (secure roles) in your existing database, and if you upgrade to Oracle Database 18c and later releases with the default SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_SERVER setting of 12, because those secure roles only have release 10g verifiers, then the password for each secure role must be reset by the administrator so that the secure roles can remain usable after the upgrade.

See Also: