Re: Need clarification between "upgrade" and "migration"

From: Richard Foote <richard.foote_at_bigpond.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 16:21:05 +1000
Message-ID: <zwja9.15231$g9.47796@newsfeeds.bigpond.com>

Hi Owen,

These terms mean different things to different people.

From a purely Oracle perspective, a migration is the moving from one Oracle version to another where the first number changes (e.g. moving from Oracle7 to Oracle8 or Oracle8 to Oracle9). An upgrade means moving from one Oracle version to another where the first number doesn't change (e.g. move from 7.3 to 7.4 or 9.0 to 9.2).

The difference is that the process of moving from one to other differs. Fundamentally, when the database is migrated, a database 'convert' takes place that requires the controlfiles to be recreated and changes file headers. When an upgrade takes place, the control files don't have to be changed and an "upgrade' script is run that fundamentally makes changes to data dictionary structures.

So depending from which version to which version you are moving governs whether a migration or upgrade is taking place.

Cheers

Richard
"Owen Grubbs" <owen.grubbs_at_lifemarkets.com> wrote in message news:5f5acd14.0208230540.4bd14749_at_posting.google.com...
> How does Oracle define "upgrade" and "migration"?
> How is an upgrade different than a migration?
Received on Mon Aug 26 2002 - 01:21:05 CDT