• Oracle Database 21c (21.3 and newer)
• Oracle Database 19c (19.3 and newer)
• Oracle Database 18c (18.5 and newer)
• Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2 + DBJAN2019RU and newer)

How to Install

As of the January 2019 Release Updates (DBJAN2019RU) and beyond, AutoUpgrade Support is available for Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) and Oracle Database 18c (18.5) target homes. For both Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) and Oracle Database 18c (18.5) target homes, you must download the AutoUpgrade Tool and place it under $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin.

In Oracle Database 19c (19.3) and later target Oracle homes, the autoupgrade.jar file exists by default. However, before you use AutoUpgrade, Oracle recommends that you download the latest version and replace the one already existing under $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin.

Limitations

• Database restoration option is not available on an Oracle Database Standard Edition.

AutoUpgrade 21c Release: New Features/Enhancements

• Non-CDB to PDB Upgrades
  • AutoUpgrade can upgrade and convert a non-CDB to a PDB in a new CDB in a single operation, or upgrade and then convert a Non-CDB database to a PDB in a pre-existing CDB
  • Support for RAC and SI databases
• Unplug-plug upgrade
  • AutoUpgrade can perform an unplug of a pluggable database (PDB) from an earlier release source container database (CDB), plug it into a later release target CDB, and then complete all the steps required to upgrade the PDB to the target CDB release
• Supports RAC upgrades (Only for Linux or Unix-based systems)
  • Configuration of the RAC management system in the source and target home is automated
  • Supports native file systems, ASM and ACFS
  • Oracle Restart
  • Pluggable databases are supported in a RAC environment
• Ability to pass catctl_options (via config file)
  • This enables the DBA to control the level of parallelism for a specific upgrade.
• Restore capability
  • AutoUpgrade restore job option allows the DBA to restore database back to source home if upgrade failed or succeeded
• Clear the recovery for a specific job by adding clear_recovery_data on the command line and use jobs parameter to specific exactly which jobs recovery data must be cleared.
• Upgrades on Data Guard environments
  • AutoUpgrade can detect Oracle Data Guard configurations, and defer shipping logs to standby databases configured for the primary database. It will also detect and defer shipping logs to standby database if the deployment is configured manually. Upon a successfully upgrade of the primary database, upgrades to the standby database must be performed and monitored by the DBA.
• AutoUpgrade performance improvements
  • utlrp compilations moved out of upgrade into a post fixup
  • Improved resume operations: AutoUpgrade keeps track and skips over PDBs databases that have been upgraded successfully
  • Replay support was added for upgrades 21 or higher
• AutoUpgrade supports upgrade on CDBs with proxy pdbs
• AutoUpgrade supports upgrade on CDB’s with application containers
• Added additional JSON status information
• Integrated classic pre-upgrade functionality
  • The -preupgrade clause of AutoUpgrade replaces the functions previously performed by the manual Pre-Upgrade Information Tool (preupgrade.jar) in previous releases The -mode clause takes one of three values:
    • analyze: Check your system for readiness to upgrade
    • fixups: Perform fixups as needed on your source Oracle Database release in preparation for upgrade
    • postfixups: Perform fixups on your target Oracle Database release after upgrade is completed.
    • Reports are identical to what the preupgrade.jar originally produced.
• Starting Oracle Release 21c, Enterprise Manager, DBUA and ORAchk use AutoUpgrade to perform database upgrade readiness.
• Starting Oracle Release 21c, FPP performs database upgrades using AutoUpgrade
• Enhanced management of databases using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)