Re: Oracle 7 to Oracle 8i UPGRADE under Solaris. -- Please comment if you have done this!

Van,

The plan is as follows, we will use three identical machines

A - Solaris 2.5.1 Oracle 7.2.3
B - Solaris 2.5.1 Oracle 7.2.3 / Oracle 8.0.6
C - Soalirs 8 Oracle 8i

The plan will be to copy the database from A to B. Once the database in on B will we migrate from 7.2.3 to 8.0.6. Once the database is at the 8.0.6 level it will be migrated/prepared for 8i. The reason for the 7.2.3 to 8.0.6 is that 8i will NOT run under Solaris 2.5.1 thus you can not jump from 7 to 8i directly. Next the database will be copied from B to C where it will be put into production. If we startup and the situation on C is a disaster we will move back to machine A which will be untainted by the upgrade process.

I don't think the process is much of an issue. We have tested this Oracle approved upgrade path, it is well documented and it works. However, we are working in a compressed time frame and do not have time to do production load testing. Even if we did have time, I am not sure you could ever simulate production.

My main concern is performance problems since we will be using older hardware and are doing the double whammy upgrade, O/S and Database.

My secondary concern is landmines. For example: we have already discovered that MTS works differently under 8i and there are all sorts of new init.ora parameters. We discovered these problems in our migration of smaller databases 8i. Additionally, we found that our scripts need to be re-written, for example "shutdown immediate" no longer appears to work in a timely matter.

 We have learned some of the lessons through experience, and am hoping your experience can save me a few whacks on the head. Additionally, some of the Solaris kernel parameters have changed and/or disappeared . Once this thing is up, it is 7x24 so we want to make sure we are as close to right as possible.

Thanks for a refresh of the rowid issue. That one is well documented and we aren't in trouble there. If you can think of anything else please share.

Thanks a bunch!

-Michael Received on Tue Jul 10 2001 - 19:50:43 CDT