Re: Oracle 8 Migration

dean wrote:
>
> My boss has asked me to look into migrating to from oracle 7 to 8. He
> wants to kow if it was difficult, and specifically, can we just install
> the sofrware and use the existing databases, or do we need to export
> evrything, build the new databases, and then import the data. I believe
> his main concern is down time. Thanks. Reply directly if you wish to
> save newsgroup bandwidth.
> dean_at_logical-approach.com

Upgrading is trivially easy. I just upgraded my 7.3.3 database on NT to 8.0.3, and the installer wizard asked me a couple of simple questions and then performed the install. The datafiles get converted in place from v7 to v8 -- quite quickly, too. My smallish database (under 200 mb) converted in maybe three minutes, though it's hard to tell since it's just part of the overall install, which includes file copying from the CD, etc.

As I understand it, the upgrade process just has to touch the datafiles and flip a bit. I don't see that confirmed or denied in the Server Migration manual, but that manual does say:

"Note: Control files are considerably larger in Oracle8 than in Oracle7. Control files in the tens of kilobytes size range in Oracle7 could be expanded into the range of tens of megabytes automatically during migration to Oracle8. This size increase could be important if the control file is on a raw device or if its available disk space is restricted."

Get yourself a copy of the Server Migration manual and read it carefully. Received on Mon Jul 21 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT