Maa Wp 11g Transientlogicalrollingupgrade

Maximum Availability Architecture Oracle Best Practices for High Availability

Database Rolling Upgrade Using Transient Logical Standby:

Oracle Data Guard 11g Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture White Paper

June 2010

Maximum Availability Architecture

MAA - Database Rolling Upgrade Using Transient Logical Standby: Oracle Data Guard 11g Page 1

Database Rolling Upgrade Using Transient Logical Standby:

Oracle Data Guard 11g

Executive Summary .......................................................................................... 2 Overview: Rolling Database Upgrade with Transient Logical Standby .... 3 General Restrictions .......................................................................................... 5 Rolling Upgrades Using a Transient Logical Standby .................................. 6

Confirm Data Type Support ....................................................................... 6 Conventions ................................................................................................... 9 Preparation Steps .......................................................................................... 9 Conversion to Logical Standby Steps ...................................................... 13 Create an Archived Redo Log Repository .............................................. 13 Perform Patch Apply or Upgrade Steps .................................................. 14 Create an Archived Redo Log Repository .............................................. 15 Switchover.................................................................................................... 15 Retransformation Into a Physical Standby Database ............................ 16 Switchback steps ......................................................................................... 18 Cleanup steps ............................................................................................... 18

Fallback Best Practices ................................................................................... 20 Backups ........................................................................................................ 20 Flashback Database .................................................................................... 21 Downgrade .................................................................................................. 22 Transient Logical Standby Fallback Considerations .............................. 22

Appendix A- Cloning the ORACLE_HOME to Apply a Patch set ....... 23 Appendix B- Using EDS with a Transient Logical Standby ..................... 24

Preparing EDS ............................................................................................ 24 Configuring EDS Logging Table Triggers .............................................. 25 Removing EDS ........................................................................................... 25

References ........................................................................................................ 26



Database Rolling Upgrade with Transient Logical Standby:

Oracle Data Guard 11g

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) [1] is Oracle's best practices

blueprint for implementing Oracle high-availability technologies. This MAA white

paper provides best practices for utilizing a physical standby database to perform a

rolling upgrade with minimal downtime using the new Data Guard 11g feature,

Transient Logical Standby.

Rolling upgrades eliminates downtime associated with the conventional database

upgrade, including PL/SQL recompilation. Additionally, once the standby

database has been upgraded, it can be used to evaluate performance and stability of

the new release before there is any impact to production. The only database

downtime required by the entire upgrade process is the time it takes to perform a

Data Guard switchover (seconds).

A rolling upgrade using Transient Logical Standby:

1. Temporarily converts an existing physical standby to a logical standby

database.

2. Executes a rolling upgrade.

3. Returns the standby back to its original status as a physical standby

database once the upgrade is complete.

This process allows physical standby users to obtain the same benefits of using

logical standby for rolling database upgrades, without requiring a second set of

storage and maintenance for an extra logical standby database. Transient Logical

Standby is supported for upgrades beginning with Oracle Database 11g.

Rolling database upgrades are also supported with Oracle Database 10g Release 2

when using the standard rolling upgrade procedure described in the white paper,

“Rolling Database Upgrades Using Data Guard SQL Apply ”. The standard rolling

upgrade process is different from Transient Logical Standby in that the upgrade

process concludes with the standby remaining a logical standby database.

Oracle’s enterprise eMail application, hosting almost 70,000 worldwide users, reduced downtime for a database upgrade by 96%. Using SQL Apply rolling upgrade compared to the conventional upgrade reduced downtime, from 48 minutes to 2

minutes.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/MAA_WP_10gR2_RollingUpgradeBestPractices.pdf



OVERVIEW: ROLLING DATABASE UPGRADE WITH TRANSIENT

LOGICAL STANDBY

Figure 1: Rolling Upgrade Using a Transient Logical Standby

Users who have chosen to implement physical standby databases for their HA/DR

requirements can benefit from the minimal downtime advantages of a SQL Apply

Rolling Upgrade by temporarily converting a physical standby database to a logical

standby for the duration of the upgrade. When the upgrade is complete, the logical

standby database is returned to its role as a physical standby for normal processing.

This eliminates the requirement for physical standby users to make a second set of

storage available to implement a rolling upgrade. Performing a rolling upgrade

using a transient logical standby is shown in Figure 1.

The following high-level steps describe a rolling upgrade using a transient logical

standby database:

1. Review prerequisites and preparation best practices and

a. create a guaranteed restore point

b. install upgraded ORACLE_HOME on each node

2. Convert the existing Physical Standby to a Logical Standby



3. Perform the upgrade on the logical standby and resynchronize with the

original primary

4. Switchover

5. Flashback the original primary (now a logical standby) to the guaranteed

restore point from #1

6. Remount the original primary (now a logical standby) under the new

Oracle Home

7. Convert the logical standby back to a physical standby and resynchronize

with the new primary, automatically completing the upgrade process

8. Wait for physical standby to be upgraded via the redo stream

9. Switch back to the original configuration (optional)

10. Raise the COMPATIBLE settings

Performing a rolling upgrade using a transient logical standby is similar to the

standard SQL Apply rolling upgrade with the following differences:

A guaranteed restore point is created on the primary database for the purpose

of flashing it back to become a physical standby after the switchover.

The conversion of a physical standby to a logical standby uses the new KEEP

IDENTITY clause to retain the same DB_NAME and DBID as that of its

primary database..

The ALTER DATABASE CONVERT TO PHYSICAL STANDBY

statement is used to convert the original primary from a logical standby to a

physical standby.

The original primary is actually upgraded by means of Redo Apply after it is

converted from a logical standby to a physical standby.

As with a standard SQL Apply rolling upgrade, the transient logical standby is

upgraded to release n while the primary runs uninterrupted at the older release m.

When the standby upgrade is deemed successful, the administrator allows Data

Guard to resynchronize the standby with the primary, and a switchover is

performed to transition the standby database to the primary role running on the

new release. While the standby site database operates in the primary role, the

database on the original primary is flashed back to the guaranteed restore point and

converted back to a physical standby. Once the original primary site database is

converted to a physical standby it is then restarted with version n and upgraded to

release n through Redo Apply. If desired, you can then perform a second

switchover to return all databases to their original roles. Total database downtime

is limited to the time it takes to execute a Data Guard switchover and the



application or client reconnection time. Compare this to the longer downtime

required for a conventional database upgrade.

Data Guard SQL Apply (logical standby database) is required to perform a database

rolling upgrade. The improved availability is achieved by offloading the following

to the logical standby:

The database upgrade process

Any unexpected upgrade problems

Any preliminary performance troubleshooting

Proof-of-concept tests using a transient logical standby at a large Oracle customer

demonstrated that primary and standby databases can be upgraded to a new release

with less than one minute of total database downtime.

Oracle internal testing with the database supporting Oracle‟s enterprise eMail

application hosting 70,000 users showed a 96% reduction in downtime, from 48

minutes to 2 minutes, when comparing the conventional upgrade method to the

SQL Apply rolling upgrade method.

Using SQL Apply to perform an upgrade will always result in a significant

reduction in planned downtime compared to the conventional database upgrade

method.

The generic upgrade steps for any Oracle database are detailed in the Oracle

Database Upgrade Guide 11g (11.1) [7]. Review this documentation before performing

a rolling upgrade using a transient logical standby. The best practices provided in

this paper complement the documentation, but the information in this white paper

is not intended to duplicate information already provided in the documentation.

GENERAL RESTRICTIONS

Some restrictions apply to using the transient logical standby rolling upgrade

process.

The databases must not be part of a Data Guard Broker configuration. Hence,

Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control does not support the rolling upgrade

process. To disable and enable the Broker configuration, see the “Preparation

Steps” section.

The Data Guard protection mode must be set to either maximum availability

or maximum performance. Query the PROTECTION_LEVEL column in the

V$DATABASE view to determine the current protection mode setting.



The LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n initialization parameter for the logical standby

database destination must be set to OPTIONAL to ensure the primary database

can proceed while the logical standby database is being upgraded.

The COMPATIBLE initialization parameter must match the software release

prior to the upgrade. That is, a rolling upgrade from release X to new release

X’ requires that the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter be set to X on

both the primary and standby databases. Then, after the upgrade and all

assurance tests have passed, you can update the COMPATIBLE parameter to

the new target release, X’.

NOTE: once you have updated the COMPATIBLE parameter to the target

database release, you cannot downgrade to an earlier release with flashback

database nor the database downgrade procedure

When you perform the initial switchover in the rolling upgrade process, you

cannot not use the PREPARE TO SWITCHOVER operation because the

primary and standby databases are running different Oracle releases.

You cannot have any bystander logical standby databases. A bystander logical

standby database is a logical standby database that exists in the same Data

Guard configuration as the physical standby that will become the transient

logical standby. If you already have a logical standby database then use that for

the rolling upgrade.

ROLLING UPGRADES USING A TRANSIENT LOGICAL STANDBY

The complete procedure documented here applies to any upgrade with a source

(starting) release of Oracle Database 11.1.0.6 or 11.1.0.7. You can also use a

transient logical standby to perform a rolling upgrade of Oracle Database 10.2, but

doing so requires additional steps. For a complete description about rolling

upgrades for release 10.2, including upgrades in a Real Application Cluster (Oracle

RAC) environment, see Oracle MetaLink note: 300479.1.

CONFIRM DATA TYPE SUPPORT

It is important to identify unsupported database objects on the primary database

before you create a logical standby database because changes made to unsupported

data types and tables on the primary database will be automatically skipped by SQL

Apply on the logical standby database. See Appendix C, “Data Type and DDL

Support on a Logical Standby Database” in the Oracle Data Guard Concepts and

Administration guide [5] for complete details on how to verify data type support.

Appendix C.9 has specific information related to unsupported tables.

Even if unsupported data types are identified, there are cases when a transient

logical standby procedure can still be used. The determination has to be made if

there is a satisfactory way to handle the unsupported data types. Options for using

rolling upgrade when unsupported data types exist are as follows:

https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=300479.1



Suspend or prohibit changes to the unsupported data type objects.

Temporarily suspend or prohibit changes to the unsupported tables for the

period of time it takes to perform the upgrade procedure.

Use DBA_LOGSTDBY_EVENTS with Oracle Data Pump or with the

Export/Import utility. If you cannot prevent changes to unsupported tables

during the upgrade, any unsupported transactions that occur are recorded in

the DBA_LOGSTDBY_EVENTS table on the logical standby database. After

the upgrade is completed, use Oracle Data Pump or the Export/Import utility

to import the changed tables to the upgraded databases. These features are

described in the Oracle Database Utilities documentation [10].

See Section 12.4 in Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration [5] for

further information.

Use Extended Datatype Support (EDS). EDS enables SQL Apply to replicate

changes to tables that contain some data types not natively supported.

Beginning with Oracle Database 11g Release 11.1.0.7, SQL Apply supports

the ability for triggers to fire on the logical standby database, which provides

the basis of EDS. Thus, the target release must be 11.1.0.7 or higher. Using

EDS does require some additional steps that are detailed in Appendix B,

“Using EDS with a Transient Logical Standby.”

For an overview of EDS, see the MAA white paper Extended Datatype

Support. For details and examples of using EDS to support data types that are

not natively supported by SQL Apply, see the following Support notes:

1. Pre 11.2 - My Oracle Support Note 559353.1

2. 11.2+ - My Oracle Support Note 949516.1

PREPARATION BEST PRACTICES

Preparing properly for the upgrade will give you the necessary knowledge and

confidence to complete a successful upgrade. Preparation for an upgrade using a

transient logical standby is very similar to preparation for a normal upgrade.

Chapter 2 of the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide [7] has an excellent set of steps to

follow. In addition to those steps, the following practices are also recommended:

Review the documentation resources

o Read the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide [7]

o Read the Oracle Database Readme [11]

o Review known issues and post-release Oracle MetaLink notes derived

from Note: 161818.1

o Review and follow the Oracle 11g Upgrade Companion in Oracle

MetaLink Note: 601807.1. This is an important document to review

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28294/rollup.htm#BABJIDHI

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/maa_edtsoverview.pdf


https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=NOT&id=559353.1





because it contains a comprehensive set of steps and best practices

for upgrading.

Prepare a new ORACLE_HOME:

o If you are planning to do a patch or patch set upgrade, then clone a

new ORACLE_HOME and apply the patch or patch set to it on both

the primary and standby systems. This is not mandatory when

applying patch sets but it is a recommended practice. Having a

separate installation rather than directly applying the patch or

patchset to the existing installation allows for easy switching between

Oracle homes, including if a fallback is necessary. Using a new

ORACLE_HOME is also termed as an out-of-place patch set apply (see

“Cloning ORACLE_HOME for a Patchset Apply”).

o If you are planning to do a release upgrade, then install the new

Oracle Database software into a new ORACLE_HOME on both the

primary and the standby systems.

Create a test plan that includes the best practices outlined in the 11g Upgrade

Companion in Oracle MetaLink Note: 601807.1, and the following additional

practices:

o Upgrade testing.

o Fallback testing: Testing the fallback methods that will be used in the

event that any step fails. Various fallback methods are discussed in

the “Fallback” section later in this paper.

o Handle unsupported tables and objects: If you have any unsupported

tables and have determined a method to handle them within the

rolling upgrade, then ensure that this is in your test plan

Understand the fallback restoration options for each upgrade step. The

following fallback methods are described in the “Fallback” section later in this

paper:

o Backups

o Flashback Database

o Downgrade procedure

Maintain the same database COMPATIBLE initialization parameter setting on

all databases in the Data Guard configuration until the upgrade has been

completely evaluated. For example, if upgrading from release 11.1.0.6 to

11.1.0.7, then set the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter to 11.1.0.6.0.

Follow the best practices described in the MAA “Oracle Database 10g Release

2 Best Practices: Data Guard Switchover and Failover” [4] white paper to

optimize Data Guard switchover time.


http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/MAA_WP_10gR2_SwitchoverFailoverBestPractices.pdf




Ensure beforehand that you have followed the guidelines for relocating Database

Services to the new primary database. See the MAA best practices paper “Client

Failover Best Practices for Highly Available Oracle Databases: Oracle Database

10g Release 2” for more information.

CONVENTIONS

The following text conventions are used in this document:

PROD PSTBY

Left column is always the primary site Right column is always the standby site

Other labels used in the table header are as follows:

PROD = Database is in primary role

PSTBY = Database is in the physical standby role

LSTBY = Database is in the logical standby role

PREPARATION STEPS

The preparation steps are the basis for an efficient and successful rolling upgrade.

1. If adding EDS for tables that contain unsupported data types, then perform the

“Preparing EDS” steps listed in Appendix B.

2. If you are using the Data Guard Broker to manage the Data Guard

configuration, you must stop the broker before you begin the rolling upgrade

process. You can reenable the broker after you switch back to the original

configuration. However, if you perform only one switchover, in which you

leave the original physical standby site database running in the primary

database role, then you must remove the Broker configuration and re-create it.

If you have implemented Fast-Start Failover, then you must disable fast-start

failover before you can disable broker management of the configuration.

PROD PSTBY

DGMGRL> disable configuration;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

DG_BROKER_START=FALSE SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

DG_BROKER_START=FALSE SCOPE=BOTH;

3. If standby redo log files do not already exist, then create standby redo log,files

of the same size as the online redo log files on the primary and the standby

databases so that you can enable real-time apply later. See Oracle Data Guard

Concepts and Administration [5] for guidelines to create standby redo log files

PROD PSTBY

ALTER DATABASE ADD STANDBY LOGFILE ALTER DATABASE ADD STANDBY LOGFILE

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/MAA_WP_10gR2_ClientFailoverBestPractices.pdf



http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28294/log_transport.htm%20-%20BABCBEGJ

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28294/log_transport.htm%20-%20BABCBEGJ



(’+PROD’) SIZE 50M;

...

(’+PSTBY’) SIZE 50M;

...

4. Set the protection level to MAXIMUM AVAILABILITY or MAXIMUM

PERFORMANCE for the rolling upgrade process.

PROD PSTBY

SELECT PROTECTION_MODE FROM

V$DATABASE;

SELECT PROTECTION_MODE FROM

V$DATABASE;

5. Set and adjust the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n parameters and ensure that none

include the MANDATORY attribute, all use the VALID_FOR attribute, and

eliminate any DELAY attributes. Including the DB_UNIQUE_NAME attribute is

required only if the LOG_ARCHIVE_CONFIG parameter is configured, but

specifying DB_UNIQUE_NAME is a recommended practice

PROD PSTBY

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1='

LOCATION=USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST

VALID_FOR=(ONLINE_LOGFILES,

ALL_ROLES) DB_UNIQUE_NAME=prod'

SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_2=

'SERVICE=pstby LGWR ASYNC

NOAFFIRM DELAY=0 OPTIONAL

REOPEN=15 MAX_FAILURE=10


PRIMARY_ROLE)

DB_UNIQUE_NAME=pstby' SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_3=

'LOCATION=USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DES

T VALID_FOR=(STANDBY_LOGFILES,

STANDBY_ROLE)

DB_UNIQUE_NAME=prod' SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_STATE_1=ENABLE

SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET


SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET


SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1='

LOCATION=USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST


ALL_ROLES) DB_UNIQUE_NAME=pstby'

SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_2=

'SERVICE=prod LGWR ASYNC NOAFFIRM

DELAY=0 OPTIONAL REOPEN=15

MAX_FAILURE=10


PRIMARY_ROLE)

DB_UNIQUE_NAME=prod' SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_3=

'LOCATION=USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DES

T VALID_FOR=(STANDBY_LOGFILES,

STANDBY_ROLE)

DB_UNIQUE_NAME=pstby' SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET


SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET


SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET


SCOPE=BOTH;

6. Ensure you correctly set the FAL_SERVER, FAL_CLIENT, LOG_ARCHIVE_CONFIG,

and STANDBY_FILE_MANAGEMENT initialization parameters:





PROD PSTBY

ALTER SYSTEM SET

FAL_SERVER=’pstby’ SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET FAL_CLIENT=’prod’

SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_CONFIG=’dg_config=

(prod,pstby)’ SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

STANDBY_FILE_MANAGEMENT=’AUTO’

SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET FAL_SERVER=’prod’

SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

FAL_CLIENT=’pstby’ SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_CONFIG=’dg_config=

(prod,pstby)’ SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

STANDBY_FILE_MANAGEMENT=’AUTO’

SCOPE=BOTH;

7. Set the LOG_FILE_NAME_CONVERT parameter whether or not the file

system structure is identical, to pre-clear the online redo logs and to optimize

switchover time (See the MAA white paper: “Oracle Database 10g Release 2

Best Practices: Data Guard Switchover and Failover” [4] for more information).

Do this in conjunction with the following step (to enable Flashback Database),

because the LOG_FILE_NAME_CONVERT parameter is static and can only be

switched during a restart. If the files systems are identical, then just set each side

of the convert pair to a blank (for example:. ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_FILE_NAME_CONVERT= „ ‟,‟ ‟ SCOPE=SPFILE;)

PROD PSTBY

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_FILE_NAME_CONVERT= ’+PSTBY/’,

’+PROD/’ SCOPE=SPFILE;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_FILE_NAME_CONVERT= ’+PROD/’,

’+PSTBY/’ SCOPE=SPFILE;

8. Enable Flashback Database on both the primary and standby databases.

When you enable Flashback Database on the standby database, it allows you

to flash back the standby database if failures occur during the upgrade or

patch process (prior to changing the database COMPATIBLE parameter).

Enabling Flashback Database on the primary system requires that you restart

the database, allow sufficient I/O bandwidth, and provide additional disk

space for the flashback log files located in the Flash Recovery Area. This is

important because when a guaranteed restore point is created, a lack of

sufficient free space in the Flash Recovery Area will cause the database

operation to stop and wait for additional space to become available.

See the Oracle Database Backup and Recovery Users Guide [9] for complete details

about using Flashback Database.





PROD PSTBY

SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE

(In an Oracle RAC environment for all instances)

STARTUP MOUNT

ALTER DATABASE FLASHBACK ON;

ALTER DATABASE OPEN;

Optional:

SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE

STARTUP MOUNT

ALTER DATABASE FLASHBACK ON;

9. Create a guaranteed restore point on the primary database PROD. To provide the

ability to flashback the database on the standby site as well (for example, in case an

error occurs while applying a patch or upgrading the database upgrade), then create

a guaranteed restore point on PSTBY, too.

PROD PSTBY

CREATE RESTORE POINT PRE_UPGRADE_1

GUARANTEE FLASHBACK DATABASE;

Optional:



RECOVER MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE

USING CURRENT LOGFILE DISCONNECT;

CONVERSION TO LOGICAL STANDBY STEPS

Now the physical standby is converted to a logical standby by creating a LogMiner

dictionary on PROD and synchronizing the transient logical standby with PSTBY .

Including the new Oracle Database 11g KEEP IDENTITY clause (on the

SQL*Plus ALTER DATABASE RECOVER TO LOGICAL STANDBY statement)

ensures that the logical standby database keeps its DBID, which is identical to the ID

of the PROD database.

At this point the new logical standby LSTBY receives the necessary redo

information from PROD to populate its own LogMiner dictionary. This step can

take a few minutes but it does not affect availability. You can monitor the

dictionary build by querying the V$LOGSTDBY_STATE view. When it returns

”IDLE” that indicates the build completed and SQL Apply is proceeding. The

output of querying V$LOGSTDBY_STATE will change from ”INITIALIZING”

to ”WAITING FOR DICTIONARY LOGS” to ”LOADING DICTIONARY” to

”APPLYING” and finally to “IDLE.”

CREATE AN ARCHIVED REDO LOG REPOSITORY

Optionally, you can create an archived redo log repository with the same database

release (the target release) and COMPATIBLE setting as the primary database so

that redo is still received while applying the patch or upgrading the database. See

The new Oracle Database 11g KEEP

IDENTITY clause ensures that the

logical standby database keeps its database ID (DBID) identical to the primary. This facilitates the later step when you convert the transient logical standby database back to its original role as a physical standby.



Oracle MetaLink note 434164.1. Creating a repository ensures you can meet the

recovery point objective (RPO) in the event the primary site fails during the

upgrade of the logical.

PERFORM PATCH APPLY OR UPGRADE STEPS

Because you will perform the upgrade or apply the patch or patch set first on the

logical standby database, you must stop SQL Apply before you can perform the

necessary upgrade steps. At this point, it is recommended to create another

guaranteed restore point on the logical standby as a fallback possibility.

PROD LSTBY

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_STATE_2=DEFER

SCOPE=MEMORY;

ALTER DATABASE STOP LOGICAL

STANDBY APPLY;



SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE

1. Set the environment to the new ORACLE_HOME.

Perform the database upgrade on the logical standby using either the Database

Upgrade Assistant (DBUA) or the manual upgrade method with

catupgrd.sql Using the DBUA is the recommended method because it

handles all parameter changes and any updates to the Oracle Cluster Registry

(OCR) in an Oracle RAC environment. See the “Oracle Database Upgrade Guide

11.1 ” [7] for complete upgrade instructions.

Note: Although you can change the COMPATIBLE parameter on the logical

standby site to the new version, it is not required or recommended.

o Changing the COMPATIBLE parameter now is against best

practice. The best practice is to change COMPATIBLE after

successfully completing the rolling upgrade process and after you

have successfully verified and tested the configuration. Changing the

COMPATIBLE parameter requires that you restart both databases.

o Changing COMPATIBLE at this stage will prevent use of the

downgrade procedure or the ability to flash back the database

to a point prior to this. You cannot revert the COMPATIBLE

parameter back to its earlier value once it has been set to a higher

release value. If you raise the value of the COMPATIBLE parameter

at this point, the only way to revert LSTBY to its original role as a

physical standby database is to restore an earlier backup or

completely recreate the standby database.

2. The upgrade is now complete. If you are using EDS then perform the steps in

“Configuring EDS Logging Table Triggers” in Appendix B.




3. If an archived redo log repository was used then you can use the RMAN

CATALOG command to catalog the archived redo log repository archivelog

destination to avoid resending those logs. e.g.:

PROD PSTBY

RMAN> CATALOG START WITH

'+PSTBY/ALOGREP/ARCHIVELOG/’;

4. Start SQL Apply

PROD LSTBY

ALTER SYSTEM SET


SCOPE=MEMORY;

STARTUP

Note: If using EDS, perform the steps in “Configuring

EDS Logging Table Triggers” in Appendix B before starting

SQL Apply.

ALTER DATABASE START LOGICAL

STANDBY APPLY IMMEDIATE;

Up to this point there‟s no impact on availability of the primary database.

CREATE AN ARCHIVED REDO LOG REPOSITORY

Optionally, you can create an archived redo log repository with the same database

release (the target release) and COMPATIBLE setting as the primary database so

that redo is still received while applying the patch or upgrading the database. See

Oracle MetaLink note 434164.1. Creating a repository ensures you can meet the

recovery point objective (RPO) in the event the primary site fails during this step.

SWITCHOVER

Perform a switchover to relocate the primary role to the standby site. Although a

switchover incurs some downtime you can minimize the application downtime to

less than 1 minute if you applied the switchover best practices described in the

“Preparation Best Practices” section.

The “SWITCHOVER TO LOGICAL STANDBY;” command cannot use the

“WITH SESSION SHUTDOWN” clause so you need to manually shutdown

sessions.

PROD LSTBY PROD

Wait for this query to display “TO STANDBY” or proceed

to switchover with session disconnect

SELECT SWITCHOVER_STATUS FROM

V$DATABASE;

ALTER DATABASE COMMIT TO

SWITCHOVER TO LOGICAL STANDBY;

Wait for this query to display “TO PRIMARY” or proceed




PROD LSTBY PROD

to switchover with session disconnect:


V$DATABASE;


SWITCHOVER TO LOGICAL PRIMARY;

RETRANSFORMATION INTO A PHYSICAL STANDBY DATABASE

The former primary database, which is currently running as the transient logical

standby (LSTBY), cannot provide disaster recovery because it is running under a

lower database version than the new primary database, and cannot receive redo.

Thus, you must convert LSTBY back into a physical standby database.

1. If using EDS, remove EDS components by performing the steps in

“Removing EDS” in Appendix B.

2. Defer the redo transmission from the primary to the standby and then flash

back the standby to the guaranteed restore point.

LSTBY PSTBY PROD

ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_STATE_2=DEFER

SCOPE=MEMORY;

SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE;

STARTUP MOUNT;

FLASHBACK DATABASE TO RESTORE

POINT PRE_UPGRADE_1;

3. Set your environment to use the new ORACLE_HOME. Issue the ALTER

DATABASE CONVERT TO PHYSICAL STANDBY statement to convert the logical

standby to a physical standby database.

LSTBY PSTBY PROD

SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE;

Switch to the new ORACLE_HOME

STARTUP MOUNT;

ALTER DATABASE CONVERT TO PHYSICAL

STANDBY;

4. Because the CONVERT TO PHYSICAL statement dismounts the database,

you must remount the PSTBY database.

PSTBY PROD

SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE

STARTUP MOUNT;



5. If you previously set the COMPATIBLE parameter to the higher target database

release number on the LSTBY site, then you must set COMPATIBLE to the same

value on the PROD site. Remember that changing the value of the

COMPATIBLE parameter eliminates most options for downgrading.

PSTBY PROD

ALTER SYSTEM SET COMPATIBLE=’...’

SCOPE=SPFILE;

SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE

STARTUP MOUNT;

6. If an archived redo log repository was used then you can use the RMAN

CATALOG command to catalog the archived redo log repository archivelog

destination to avoid resending those logs. e.g.:

PSTBY PROD

RMAN> CATALOG START WITH

'+PROD/ALOGREP/ARCHIVELOG/’;

7. Start Redo Apply on the physical standby database PSTBY. Data Guard will

synchronize the physical standby database with the primary database PROD.

PSTBY PROD



ALTER SYSTEM SET

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_STATE_2=ENABLE;

8. When Redo Apply starts, it registers a new incarnation from the primary

database. During that time, Redo Apply will be in a wait state, looping every

10 seconds until the new incarnation is registered. A sample of that sequence

of alert log messages is similar to the following:

Managed Standby Recovery starting Real Time Apply

MRP0: Incarnation has changed! Retry recovery...

Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/PROD/PROD/trace/PROD_mrp0_741.trc:

ORA-19906: recovery target incarnation changed during recovery

<10 second gap >

Managed Standby Recovery not using Real Time Apply

Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/PROD/PROD/trace/PROD_mrp0_741.trc:

ORA-19906: recovery target incarnation changed during recovery

Fast Parallel Media Recovery enabled


. . .

. . .

Setting recovery target incarnation to 4

RFS[3]: Incarnation entry added for Branch(resetlogs_id): 647358813 (PROD)

Fri Feb 22 14:10:36 2008

Setting recovery target incarnation to 4

Fast Parallel Media Recovery enabled




RFS[1]: Archived Log: '+PROD/PROD/archivelog/2008_02_22/thread_1_seq_3.2334.647359837'



parallel recovery started with 3 processes

. . .

Media Recovery start incarnation depth : 1, target inc# : 4, irscn : 1002171

Waiting for all non-current ORLs to be archived...

Clearing online redo logfile 1 +PROD/PROD/onlinelog/group_1.1629.647333483

Clearing online log 1 of thread 1 sequence number 13

If the primary and standby databases are running on identical systems, then there‟s

no reason to perform a switchover to have PSTBY return to the standby role.

Thus, the whole rolling upgrade has incurred just one switchover operation with

minimal downtime. You can wait to perform another switchover to return the

PROD database to run in the role of the primary database during the next planned

maintenance operation.

SWITCHBACK STEPS

This section describes how to perform a second switchover to return the original

primary database (PROD) back in the role as the primary database and to return

the original physical standby (PSTBY) into the role of the physical standby

database. This step is optional as long as your standby site can support your

production operations.

PSTBY PROD PROD PSTBY

Wait for this query to display “TO STANDBY” or proceed


SELECT SWITCHOVER_STATUS

FROM V$DATABASE;


SWITCHOVER TO STANDBY WITH SESSION

SHUTDOWN;

Wait for this query to display “TO PRIMARY” or proceed



V$DATABASE;


SWITCHOVER TO PRIMARY;

ALTER DATABASE OPEN; SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE;

STARTUP MOUNT;



CLEANUP STEPS

The following example shows how to drop the existing guaranteed restore point and

any others that are no longer needed to prevent running out of disk space.



PROD PSTBY

SELECT NAME FROM V$RESTORE_POINT

WHERE GUARANTEE_FLASHBACK_DATABASE

=’YES’;

SELECT NAME FROM V$RESTORE_POINT

WHERE GUARANTEE_FLASHBACK_DATABASE

=’YES’;

DROP RESTORE POINT PRE_UPGRADE_1; DROP RESTORE POINT <name>;

If the Data Guard Broker has been used at the beginning of this process, reenable it as

shown in the following example.

PROD PSTBY

ALTER SYSTEM SET

DG_BROKER_START=TRUE SCOPE=BOTH;

ALTER SYSTEM SET

DG_BROKER_START=TRUE SCOPE=BOTH;

DGMGRL> enable configuration;



FALLBACK BEST PRACTICES

This section describes the following fallback practices:

1. Backups

2. Flashback Database

3. Downgrades

The Flowchart in Figure 2 presents an overview of which fallback option is viable

at each step of the SQL Apply Rolling Upgrade.

BACKUPS

Ensure that you take database and software backups on the primary and the

standby databases prior to starting the upgrade process. The software backups

should include the oraInventory directory tree. Taking software backups are

Figure 2: SQL Apply Rolling Upgrade with Transient Logical Fallback Options



necessary only if they have never been done and if you are applying the patch set

directly to the existing ORACLE_HOME tree rather than applying the patch set to a

newly installed separate ORACLE_HOME.

FLASHBACK DATABASE

Flashback Database is a method to achieve very fast point-in-time recovery and is

most often the quickest way to fall back to the previous release. Note that data

from any transactions that occur after the point in time to which the database is

recovered are lost. Flashback Database is an excellent tool for backing out the

database upgrade on the logical standby before the first switchover in the SQL

Apply rolling upgrade process. Using Flashback Database with sufficient space and

creating a guaranteed restore point immediately prior to the upgrade is the fastest

method to fallback as compared to a restore operation or a database downgrade.

Following switchover, and after the production workload is running on the original

standby database, any Flashback operation will result in data loss. Deciding to use

Flashback Database versus downgrading the database typically entails a tradeoff

between the speed at which you need to return the primary database to the

previous release and the amount of data loss that you can tolerate.

NOTE: You can use Flashback Database to fall back to the pre-upgrade release

only if you have not changed the COMPATIBLE database parameter to the target

release. See the “General Restrictions” section in this white paper for additional

information.

The steps for flashing back the database after a failed upgrade (due to a failure

while running the catupgrd.sql script or a DBUA failure) are as follows:

1. Shut down the upgraded database.

2. Startup mount the database under the new ORACLE_HOME

3. Use Flashback Database to return to the guaranteed restore point that was

taken prior to the upgrade:

SQL> flashback database to restore point PRE_LOGICAL_UPGRADE;

4. Shut down the database

5. Startup mount the database under the old ORACLE_HOME

6. Issue the OPEN RESETLOGS command to open the database:

SQL> alter database open resetlogs;



DOWNGRADE

To run the downgrade procedure, use the manual downgrade steps documented in

Chapter 7 of the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1) [7]. Performing a

downgrade generally takes as long as the upgrade procedure and backs out the

patch set changes while maintaining any transactional changes. In cases where

transactional changes have taken place since the upgrade and there is no other way

to restore the data, then you should perform a downgrade procedure. A

prerequisite to downgrading is that the COMPATIBLE database parameter must

have remained at the release to which you are downgrading .

TRANSIENT LOGICAL STANDBY FALLBACK CONSIDERATIONS

The fallback practices when using a Transient Logical Standby differ from the

fallback practices you would use after performing a standard SQL Apply Rolling

Upgrade. The flowchart shown in Figure 3 presents an overview of which fallback

options are viable at each step for a rolling upgrade with transient logical standby.

In general, ensure you have taken the proper backups prior to invoking the rolling

upgrade.



APPENDIX A- CLONING THE ORACLE_HOME TO APPLY A PATCH SET

For an out-of-place (creating a new ORACLE_HOME) patch set apply, it is

recommended to clone the existing ORACLE_HOME. The following procedure

shows the commands you would use on a Linux system:

1. As the root user, on each node in the cluster, copy the existing ORACLE_HOME

to the new ORACLE_HOME location. (This requires no downtime.) For example:

cp –pr /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0.6

/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0.7

2. Validate that any file changes between the source ORACLE_HOME and the copied ORACLE_HOME are ok (only log files may differ): > diff -q -r /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0.6

/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0.7

3. As the OS user that owns the Oracle software, add the new ORACLE_HOME

software to the Oracle Inventory using a cloning script. For example: #!/bin/sh

echo "Clone started at `date`" | tee -a clone.log

perl /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0.7/clone/bin/clone.pl

ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0.7

ORACLE_HOME_NAME=11gR1P2 '-O"CLUSTER_NODES={chi01,chi02}"'

'-O"LOCAL_NODE=chi01"'

echo "Clone ended at `date`" | tee -a clone.log

4. As root user, run the root.sh script on each node.

5. Apply the patch set to the newly cloned ORACLE_HOME

(/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0.7)

Note: If the source ORACLE_HOME contains any hard links or symbolic links

these will also be cloned. If any of these links in the cloned ORACLE_HOME

reference the source ORACLE_HOME then you must manually change them to

point to the cloned ORACLE_HOME path.



APPENDIX B- USING EDS WITH A TRANSIENT LOGICAL STANDBY

For an overview of Extended Datatype Support (EDS), see the MAA white paper

Extended Datatype Support.

For details and examples of using EDS to support data types that are not natively

supported by SQL Apply, see the following Support notes:

3. Pre 11.2 - My Oracle Support Note 559353.1

4. 11.2+ - My Oracle Support Note 949516.1

Using EDS with a transient logical is intended for use while the standby is a logical

standby and once the standby is converted back to a physical standby EDS is no

longer necessary.

PREPARING EDS

Prior to converting the physical standby to a logical standby perform the following

steps to setup EDS. These steps are performed on the primary database for each

table that requires EDS support.

1. On the primary database, for each schema that contains a table that requires EDS support, grant execute privilege on the DBMS_LOGSTDBY package.

e.g. (where OBJUSER is the schema)

SQL> connect system/<password>

SQL> grant execute on dbms_logstdby to OBJUSER;

2. Create the logging table on the primary database e.g. OBJUSER.PLAYERS_LOG

3. Create the base table trigger on the primary database e.g. OBJUSER.PLAYERS_PRI_TRG

4. Create the logging table trigger on the primary database e.g. OBJUSER.PLAYERS_STBY_TRG

NOTE: If the starting release is Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.6) then create all logging table triggers disabled. For example:

SQL> create trigger PLAYERS_STBY_TRG disable ...

In Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.6), logging table triggers will generate warnings during compilation and will impact operations on the base table if they are not disabled. Invalid logging table triggers will be successfully compiled and enabled on the logical standby database once it has been upgraded to the later release.

The table and trigger names provided follow the examples in MetaLink Note 565069.1. See MetaLink Note 559353.1 for additional EDS logging table and EDS trigger examples.








CONFIGURING EDS LOGGING TABLE TRIGGERS

After the physical standby has become a logical standby and the logical standby has

been upgraded configure the logging table triggers. These commands are run on

the upgraded logical standby database for each logging table trigger used by EDS.

NOTE: The following steps must be done prior to starting SQL Apply for

the first time. If SQL Apply is started before these steps are performed,

updates performed on the primary database to EDS-supported tables during

the upgrade will not be applied to the upgraded logical standby database.

1. As SYS, temporarily disable GUARD, then enable and compile logging table triggers

SQL> alter session disable guard; SQL> alter trigger OBJUSER.PLAYERS_STBY_TRG compile;

SQL> alter trigger OBJUSER.PLAYERS_STBY_TRG enable; SQL> alter session enable guard;

2. Set the FIRE_ONCE trigger firing property for all logging table triggers to FALSE

SQL> execute dbms_ddl.set_trigger_firing_property('OBJUSER',

'PLAYERS_STBY_TRG', fire_once => FALSE);

REMOVING EDS

Once the switchover takes place and the upgraded logical standby becomes the new primary, drop all the EDS objects on the primary.

SQL> drop trigger OBJUSER.PLAYERS_STBY_TRG;

SQL> drop trigger OBJUSER.PLAYERS_PRI_TRG; SQL> drop table OBJUSER.PLAYERS_LOG;

Before starting SQL Apply for the first time, upgrade the logical standby database and configure the logging table triggers.



REFERENCES

1. Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/htdocs/maa.htm

2. Oracle Data Guard

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/htdocs/DataGuardOverview.html

3. Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Best Practices: Data Guard SQL Apply

www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/MAA_WP_10gR2_SQLApplyBestPr

actices.pdf

4. Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Best Practices: Data Guard Switchover and

Failover

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/MAA_WP_10gR2_Switchove

rFailoverBestPractices.pdf

5. Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration 11g Release 1 (11.1) (Part #B28294)

http://otn.oracle.com/pls/db111/db111.to_toc?partno=b28294

6. Oracle Database High Availability Overview 11g Release 1 (11.1) (Part #B28281)


7. Oracle Database Upgrade Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1) (Part #B28300)


8. Oracle Data Guard Broker 11g Release 1 (11.1) (Part Number B28295)


9. Oracle Database Backup and Recovery Users Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1)

(Part Number B28270)


10. Oracle Database Utilities 11g Release 1 (11.1) (Part Number B28319)


11. Oracle Database Readme 11g Release 1 (11.1) Part Number B28280


http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/htdocs/maa.htm

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/htdocs/DataGuardOverview.html

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/MAA_WP_10gR2_SQLApplyBestPractices.pdf








Database Rolling Upgrade Using Transient Logical Standby, Oracle Data Guard 11g

June 2010

Authors: Ray Dutcher, Mike Dietrich

Contributing Authors: Lawrence To, Joe Meeks, Viv Schupmann, Doug Utzig

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