How to Upgrade to Oracle 19c

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How to Upgrade from 11g,12c,18c to 19c

DB Upgrade Compatibility Matrix

Below is minimum version of the database that can be directly upgraded to Oracle 19c.

Source Database	Target Database
11.2.0.4	19c
12.1.0.2	19c
12.2.0.1	19c
18.1.0.0	19c

NOTE: In this post I will demonstrate the upgrade from 12.1.0.2 to 19c. The steps are same for any other version to 19c upgrade.

Upgrading the database from 12.1.0.2 to 19c

I will be using DBUA its really easy to use and self explanatory as well as recommended options.
It automates many things including upgrading Time zone, gathering dictionary statistics , taking restore RMAN backup or creating restore point , starting the listener with new OH etc. etc.
Although DBUA can do many thing its recommended to everything possible that can be done upfront to minimize the overall downtime.

General Requirement

1. Ensure All DB Components and objects are valid.
2. Apply Latest PSU
3. Make Sure you have a valid Database Backup
4. Check Database Upgrade/Downgrade compatibility Matrix
5. Disable any scheduled/custom jobs
6. Verify whether you OS is certified for oracle 19c version
7. Execute preupgrade script and go through the recommendations
8. Empty the RECYCLEBIN
9. Ensure Backup is not running and no file is in recovery mode
10. Cretae restore point to rollback the database in case upgrade fails
    

Step1>  Install 19c Oracle Home And Apply latest PSU

 Instructions to install 19c and Patch is provided in below post

Step by Step How to Install Oracle 19c Database Software

How to Patch oracle 18c/19c Non RAC (Single Instance) database

Step2> Run preupgrade Script

$12_ORACLE_HOME/jdk/bin/java -jar $19c_ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/preupgrade.jar TERMINAL TEXT

Example:

/ora_app/product/12.1.0.2/db_home1/jdk/bin/java -jar /ora_app/product/19c/db_home1/rdbms/admin/preupgrade.jar TERMINAL TEXT

Step3> Review the prepgradelog and Take Necessary Action

Example log is provided in the bottom of the post.

Step3> Source the Environment Variable and run dbua

$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora_app/product/19c/db_home1
$ export PATH=/ora_app/product/19c/db_home1/bin:$PATH
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin/
$ ./dbua

Step4> Follow the screen instructions 

Enter user name sys and its password and click next

On this page review all the warnings as fix.

I am here ignoring some of them because they are known to me.

click next to proceed.

Accept the warning message clicking on yes

Tick the check boxes and click next.

This page offers you various possibility to preserve the database state before upgrading it so you can rollback the upgrade in case it fails.

I am choosing the Restore point I created  before hand itself and click next

This pages offers you the option  to migrate the existing listener to new OH or create new listener from upgraded OH.

Choose appropriate option and click next

Choose appropriate option on this page and click next

Review the summary page and click finish to trigger the upgrade 

Monitor the upgrade 

After upgrade is finished review the result page 

Post Successful  Upgrade :

Drop the restore point.

Change the compatible parameter

Trigger full database backup

===========================================================

PREUPGRADE LOG

===========================================================

Report generated by Oracle Database Pre-Upgrade Information Tool Version
19.0.0.0.0 Build: 1 on 2020-09-21T10:39:11

Upgrade-To version: 19.0.0.0.0

=======================================
Status of the database prior to upgrade
=======================================
      Database Name:  ORCL1D
     Container Name:  ORCL1D
       Container ID:  0
            Version:  12.1.0.2.0
     DB Patch Level:  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 12.1.0.2.200714
         Compatible:  12.1.0.2
          Blocksize:  8192
           Platform:  Linux x86 64-bit
      Timezone File:  14
  Database log mode:  ARCHIVELOG
           Readonly:  FALSE
            Edition:  EE

  Oracle Component                       Upgrade Action    Current Status
  ----------------                       --------------    --------------
  Oracle Server                          [to be upgraded]  VALID
  JServer JAVA Virtual Machine           [to be upgraded]  VALID
  Oracle XDK for Java                    [to be upgraded]  VALID
  Oracle Workspace Manager               [to be upgraded]  VALID
  Oracle Text                            [to be upgraded]  VALID
  Oracle XML Database                    [to be upgraded]  VALID
  Oracle Java Packages                   [to be upgraded]  VALID

==============
BEFORE UPGRADE
==============

  REQUIRED ACTIONS
  ================
  1.  (AUTOFIXUP) Empty the RECYCLEBIN immediately before database upgrade.

      The database contains 2462 objects in the recycle bin.

      The recycle bin must be completely empty before database upgrade.

  RECOMMENDED ACTIONS
  ===================
  2.  Run 12.1.0.2.0 $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql to recompile invalid
      objects.  You can view the individual invalid objects with

        SET SERVEROUTPUT ON;
        EXECUTE DBMS_PREUP.INVALID_OBJECTS;

      410 objects are INVALID.

      There should be no INVALID objects in SYS/SYSTEM or user schemas before
      database upgrade.

  3.  Perform one of the following:
       1) Expire user accounts that use only the old 10G password version and
      follow the procedure recommended in Oracle Database Upgrade Guide under
      the section entitled, "Checking for Accounts Using Case-Insensitive
      Password Version".
       2) Explicitly set SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_SERVER in the 19
      SQLNET.ORA to a non-Exclusive Mode value, such as "11". (This is a short
      term approach and is not recommended because it will retain known
      security risks associated with the 10G password version.)

      Your database system has at least one account with only the 10G password
      version (see the PASSWORD_VERSIONS column of DBA_USERS).

      Starting with Oracle Database release 12.2.0.1, Exclusive Mode is the new
      default password-based authentication mode. All Exclusive Mode
      login/authentication attempts will fail for preexisting user accounts
      which only have the 10G password version and neither the 11G or 12C
      password version (see DBA_USERS.PASSWORD_VERSIONS.) For more information,
      refer to "Understanding Password Case Sensitivity and Upgrades" in the
      Oracle Database Upgrade Guide.

  4.  Remove the SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON instance initialization parameter
      setting, to configure your system to use case sensitive password
      authentication by default.

      Your database system is configured to enforce case insensitive password
      authentication (the SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON instance initialization
      parameter setting is FALSE).

      Starting with Oracle Database release 12.2, Exclusive Mode is the default
      password-based authentication mode. Case insensitive password
      authentication is not supported in Exclusive Mode. If your system needs
      to use case insensitive password authentication, Exclusive Mode must be
      switched off prior to the upgrade. See the Network Reference Manual
      chapter about the SQLNET.ORA parameter
      SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_SERVER for more details on Exclusive Mode.

  5.  Remove Streams setup. For detailed steps, refer to the section "Removing
      an Oracle Streams Configuration" in the Oracle Streams Concepts and
      Administration Guide specific for the Oracle release from which you are
      removing. For versions pre-12.1.0.2, the procedure
      dbms_streams_adm.remove_streams_configuration must not be used as may
      lead to unwanted results. Instead, use the other procedures
      (dbms_capture_adm.drop_capture, dbms_apply_adm.drop_apply,
      dbms_streams_adm.remove_queue, etc). For 12.1.0.2 and higher, procedure
      dbms_streams_adm.remove_streams_configuration can be safely used.

      Oracle Streams feature is configured in the database.

      Starting with Oracle Database 19, Oracle Streams is desupported. It is
      strongly advised to remove any streams configuration manually.

  6.  Please make sure that all the MVs are refreshed and sys.sumdelta$ becomes
      empty before doing upgrade, unless you have strong business reasons not
      to do so. You can use dbms_mview.refresh() to refresh the MVs except
      those stale ones  to be kept due to business need. If there are any stale
      MVs depending on changes in sys.sumdelta$, do not truncate it, because
      doing so will cause wrong results after refresh. Please refer to the
      Materialized View section in MOS Note 2380601.1 for more details.

      There are one or more materialized views in either stale or invalid
      state, or which are currently being refreshed.

      Oracle recommends that all materialized views (MV's) are refreshed before
      upgrading the database because this will clear the MV logs and the
      sumdelta$ table and may reduce the upgrade time. If you choose to not
      refresh some MVs, the change data for those MV's will be carried through
      the UPGRADE process. After UPGRADE, you can refresh the MV's and  MV
      incremental refresh should work in normal cases.

  7.  Review and remove any unnecessary HIDDEN/UNDERSCORE parameters.

      The database contains the following initialization parameters whose name
      begins with an underscore:

      _fix_control

      Remove hidden parameters before database upgrade unless your application
      vendors and/or Oracle Support state differently.  Changes will need to be
      made in the pfile/spfile.

  8.  (AUTOFIXUP) Gather stale data dictionary statistics prior to database
      upgrade in off-peak time using:

        EXECUTE DBMS_STATS.GATHER_DICTIONARY_STATS;

      Dictionary statistics do not exist or are stale (not up-to-date).

      Dictionary statistics help the Oracle optimizer find efficient SQL
      execution plans and are essential for proper upgrade timing. Oracle
      recommends gathering dictionary statistics in the last 24 hours before
      database upgrade.

      For information on managing optimizer statistics, refer to the 12.1.0.2
      Oracle Database SQL Tuning Guide.

  9.  (AUTOFIXUP) Directly grant ADMINISTER DATABASE TRIGGER privilege to the
      owner of the trigger or drop and re-create the trigger with a user that
      was granted directly with such. You can list those triggers using: SELECT
      OWNER, TRIGGER_NAME FROM DBA_TRIGGERS WHERE
      TRIM(BASE_OBJECT_TYPE)='DATABASE' AND OWNER NOT IN (SELECT GRANTEE FROM
      DBA_SYS_PRIVS WHERE PRIVILEGE='ADMINISTER DATABASE TRIGGER').

      There is one or more database triggers whose owner does not have the
      right privilege on the database.

      The creation of database triggers must be done by users granted with
      ADMINISTER DATABASE TRIGGER privilege. Privilege must have been granted
      directly.

  INFORMATION ONLY
  ================
  10. To help you keep track of your tablespace allocations, the following
      AUTOEXTEND tablespaces are expected to successfully EXTEND during the
      upgrade process.

                                                 Min Size
      Tablespace                        Size     For Upgrade
      ----------                     ----------  -----------
      SYSTEM                            2100 MB      2323 MB

      Minimum tablespace sizes for upgrade are estimates.

  11. Consider removing the following deprecated initialization parameters.

      Parameter
      ---------
      sec_case_sensitive_logon

      These deprecated parameters probably will be obsolete in a future release.

  12. Ensure there is additional disk space in LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1 for at least
      3237 MB of archived logs.  Check alert log during the upgrade that there
      is no write error to the destination due to lack of disk space.

      Archiving cannot proceed if the archive log destination is full during
      upgrade.

      Archive Log Destination:
       Parameter    :  LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1
       Destination  :  /ora00_data2/ORCL1D/arc1

      The database has archiving enabled.  The upgrade process will need free
      disk space in the archive log destination(s) to generate archived logs to.

  13. Check the Oracle Backup and Recovery User's Guide for information on how
      to manage an RMAN recovery catalog schema.

      If you are using a version of the recovery catalog schema that is older
      than that required by the RMAN client version, then you must upgrade the
      catalog schema.

      It is good practice to have the catalog schema the same or higher version
      than the RMAN client version you are using.

  ORACLE GENERATED FIXUP SCRIPT
  =============================
  All of the issues in database ORCL1D
  which are identified above as BEFORE UPGRADE "(AUTOFIXUP)" can be resolved by
  executing the following

    SQL>@/ora_app/cfgtoollogs/ORCL1D/preupgrade/preupgrade_fixups.sql

=============
AFTER UPGRADE
=============

  REQUIRED ACTIONS
  ================
  None

  RECOMMENDED ACTIONS
  ===================
  14. (AUTOFIXUP) If you use the -T option for the database upgrade, then run
      $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utluptabdata.sql after the upgrade is complete,
      to VALIDATE and UPGRADE any user tables affected by changes to
      Oracle-Maintained types.

      There are user tables dependent on Oracle-Maintained object types.

      If the -T option is used to set user tablespaces to READ ONLY during the
      upgrade, user tables in those tablespaces, that are dependent on
      Oracle-Maintained types, will not be automatically upgraded. If a type is
      evolved during the upgrade, any dependent tables need to be re-validated
      and upgraded to the latest type version AFTER the database upgrade
      completes.

  15. Upgrade the database time zone file using the DBMS_DST package.

      The database is using time zone file version 14 and the target 19 release
      ships with time zone file version 32.

      Oracle recommends upgrading to the desired (latest) version of the time
      zone file.  For more information, refer to "Upgrading the Time Zone File
      and Timestamp with Time Zone Data" in the 19 Oracle Database
      Globalization Support Guide.

  16. Recreate directory objects to remove any symbolic links from directory
      paths.  To identify paths that contain symbolic links before upgrading,
      use OS commands like UNIX file or WINDOWS dir.  After upgrading, run
      $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utldirsymlink.sql to identify directory objects
      with symbolic links in the path.

      Found 23 user directory objects to be checked: BACKUP, BACK_DMP,
      DATA_FILE_DIR, DOC_DIR, DP_DIR_MSR1P, EXPORT, EXPORT_FINAL, EXP_DIR,
      EXP_DIR_MERLIN, EXP_DIR_META, EXP_DIR_RS3, EXP_IM3607989, IMP,
      LOG_FILE_DIR, MEDIA_DIR, PREUPG_OUTPUT_DIR, TASK0635096, TASK1698793,
      TASK1740890, TOAD_TRACEFILE_DIR, UPLOADS, XMLFILES, backup_dmp.

      Starting in Release 18c, symbolic links are not allowed in directory
      object paths used with BFILE data types, the UTL_FILE package, or
      external tables.

  17. (AUTOFIXUP) Gather dictionary statistics after the upgrade using the
      command:

        EXECUTE DBMS_STATS.GATHER_DICTIONARY_STATS;

      Oracle recommends gathering dictionary statistics after upgrade.

      Dictionary statistics provide essential information to the Oracle
      optimizer to help it find efficient SQL execution plans. After a database
      upgrade, statistics need to be re-gathered as there can now be tables
      that have significantly changed during the upgrade or new tables that do
      not have statistics gathered yet.

  18. Gather statistics on fixed objects after the upgrade and when there is a
      representative workload on the system using the command:

        EXECUTE DBMS_STATS.GATHER_FIXED_OBJECTS_STATS;

      This recommendation is given for all preupgrade runs.

      Fixed object statistics provide essential information to the Oracle
      optimizer to help it find efficient SQL execution plans.  Those
      statistics are specific to the Oracle Database release that generates
      them, and can be stale upon database upgrade.

      For information on managing optimizer statistics, refer to the 12.1.0.2
      Oracle Database SQL Tuning Guide.

  ORACLE GENERATED FIXUP SCRIPT
  =============================
  All of the issues in database ORCL1D
  which are identified above as AFTER UPGRADE "(AUTOFIXUP)" can be resolved by
  executing the following

    SQL>@/ora_app/cfgtoollogs/ORCL1D/preupgrade/postupgrade_fixups.sql

==================
PREUPGRADE SUMMARY
==================
  /ora_app/cfgtoollogs/ORCL1D/preupgrade/preupgrade.log
  /ora_app/cfgtoollogs/ORCL1D/preupgrade/preupgrade_fixups.sql
  /ora_app/cfgtoollogs/ORCL1D/preupgrade/postupgrade_fixups.sql

Execute fixup scripts as indicated below:

Before upgrade:

Log into the database and execute the preupgrade fixups
@/ora_app/cfgtoollogs/ORCL1D/preupgrade/preupgrade_fixups.sql

After the upgrade:

Log into the database and execute the postupgrade fixups
@/ora_app/cfgtoollogs/ORCL1D/preupgrade/postupgrade_fixups.sql