From oracle-l-bounce@freelists.org Wed Apr 7 14:40:14 2004 Return-Path: Received: from air189.startdedicated.com (root@localhost) by orafaq.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id i37JeEP21065 for ; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 14:40:14 -0500 X-ClientAddr: 206.53.239.180 Received: from turing.freelists.org (freelists-180.iquest.net [206.53.239.180]) by air189.startdedicated.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id i37JeDo21058 for ; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 14:40:13 -0500 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id 6C28B634DC1; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 08:58:45 -0500 (EST) Received: from turing.freelists.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (turing [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 21124-36; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 08:58:45 -0500 (EST) Received: from turing (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id AB137634DAA; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 08:58:44 -0500 (EST) Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list oracle-l); Wed, 07 Apr 2004 08:57:37 -0500 (EST) X-Original-To: oracle-l@freelists.org Delivered-To: oracle-l@freelists.org Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id BB9AE634C3F for ; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 08:57:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from turing.freelists.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (turing [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 20706-46 for ; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 08:57:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from mpgsmtp01.cahapps.net (mpgsmtp01.cardinal.com [198.89.160.71]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id 6E9FF6348C5 for ; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 08:57:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from mpgexch01.cahapps.net [161.244.188.50] by mpgsmtp01.cahapps.net with XWall v3.29 ; Wed, 7 Apr 2004 09:11:31 -0500 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.0.6375.0 content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: oracle downgrade support Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2004 09:06:44 -0500 Message-ID: X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: oracle downgrade support Thread-Index: AcQcqZWxdlQCQCvVT1O+5ailCs55sQ== From: "Gamble, Scott" To: X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at freelists.org X-archive-position: 2689 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: oracle-l-bounce@freelists.org Errors-To: oracle-l-bounce@freelists.org X-original-sender: Scott.Gamble@cardinal.com Precedence: normal Reply-To: oracle-l@freelists.org X-list: oracle-l X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at freelists.org I have been reading the thread on tech support with some interest and = was triggered to post. We are currently in the middle of upgrading all our databases to = 9.2.0.4. Production databases are scheduled to start upgrading next = month and as part of our testing our management requires us to test and = document a downgrade procedure. This is mostly due to a situation that = occurred in our upgrade from 8.0.6->8.1.7 and hitting a crippling = performance bug in 8.1.7 that brought the business almost to a halt. We = struggled through a few weeks of fighting with Oracle support to get = them to accept it as a bug and when they did it was going to be a month = until they had a patch for it. During that time management decided they = could no longer live with the problem and we had to get back to 8.0.6 as = quickly as possible. Well the downgrade procedure failed miserably due = to another issue with the software and it was another week until we were = able to downgrade. Needless to say management is a bit concerned about major upgrades and = being able to downgrade. Obviously if a major problem is found early = enough restoring the cold backup from before the upgrade is the best = option. But say the bug is not found for 1 week and Oracle cannot fix it = for 1 month. According to document 208201.1 on metalink downgrading from = 9.2.0.1->8.1.7 is doable. Assuming that patch sets are mostly bug fixes = does that not imply that you can go from 9.2.0.4 to 8.1.7? We have tested this with 2 databases that mimic 2 of our production = databases. Both have been unsuccessful with 1 having invalid sys objects = after the downgrade and the other getting ora-600's on materialized view = refreshes. After opening 2 different tars with oracle for these issues they have = both come back with slightly different answers 1) database downgrades = are not supported 2) downgrading from a patch set is not supported = (meaning 9.2.0.4) only downgrading from the base release of 9.2.0.1. = There answer was in both cases to restore the cold backup from prior to = the upgrade or import/export to downgrade. Does it really seem correct that Oracle does not support downgrades or = are we just hitting bad information from support? Scott Gamble Oracle DBA - ERP and DB Technology Engineering=20 Cardinal Health, Medical Products and Services (847)-578-5673 scott.gamble@cardinal.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@freelists.org put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at http://www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at http://www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------