Oracle Grid Infrastructure Upgrade 12.1 to 12.2

The following blog post provides step-by-step instructions for upgrading a 12.1 Real Application Cluster with two nodes to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2. We will take you through the system requirements, prerequisites, the pre-upgrade check and the upgrade. Please let us know if you have any questions about safely upgrading Grid Infrastructure.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2 System Requirements

The system requirements for running Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2 are fairly straightforward:

• At least 33 GB free disk space required in Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) disk groups, for Grid Infrastructure backups, and other information
• At least 12 GB of free disk space for Grid Infrastructure home mount point
• A minimum of 8 GB RAM on each node
If you don’t have adequate space reserved for the installation or upgrade, you must create that first.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2 Upgrade Prerequisites

Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2 software is now available as a single image file for direct download and quicker installation. You need to extract the Grid Infrastructure image file linuxx64_12201_grid_home.zip into an empty directory of your preferred Grid home location. It’s mandatory to store the Oracle Clusterware files like the Cluster Registry (OCR) and Voting Disks on Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM)

Before you proceed with the upgrade, you must install a mandatory patch 21255373 to the Grid Infrastructure software home directory. Oracle recommends applying the latest patch set to the GRID_HOME. This helps prevent the upgrade fail. You can download the latest version of Opatch via Patch Number 6880880. Oracle recommends using the latest version, but you’ll need at least version 12.2.0.1.0 to apply this pre-req patch.

• Have your network information, storage information, and operating system users and groups available to you before you begin the upgrade
•  Be prepared to run root scripts

Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2 Pre-Upgrade Checklist

Once you have completed the prerequisites and you have the information you will need to install the software, you should run through a Pre-Upgrade Checklist to see that you have everything you need to complete the upgrade.

1. Apply the latest version of OPatch 6880880 for Oracle 12.2.0.1.0. This is a utility that allows you to roll back patches to a point where an upgrade can be performed.
2. Apply patch (21255373) to the Grid Infrastructure home.
3. Use the ORAchk Upgrade Readiness Assessment to run a health check. ORAchk is an Oracle RAC configuration-auditing tool that helps with pre-upgrade assessments and post-upgrade checks and diagnostics. You can find it at support.oracle.com.
4. Back up the the current verion of the infrastructure. Oracle recommends that you make a backup of the software files before you begin an upgrade.
5. Backup the data. Oracle recommends that you back up all databases before performing an upgrade.
6. Install new software.
7. Use the Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) to run CLUVFY to verify the readiness for a Grid Infrastructure update.
8. Remove dir and rerun CLUVFY if not able to install on node.  I don’t like this either.  Failure is not an option.  Remove number 8 completely.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2 Upgrade

Most of the work is done in the preparation and the prerequisites. The Grid Infrastructure 12.2 is in compress zip file and first needs to be unloaded in the new Infrastructure home.   Now, you can run the  upgrade with the following command:

Grid_home/gridSetup.sh

If the test of Secure Sockets SSH fails, you may have to remove SSH and create both DSA and RSA keys. You’ll want to check the box that indicates, “Reuse private and public keys existing in the user home.”

Follow the prompts to specify management options for the software. You can activate Enterprise Manager Cloud Control and configure Oracle ASM for operating system groups. Then specify the installation location.

You can have the installer run scripts as “root” if you authorize it and provide the necessary password so that root scripts can be executed automatically during the installation process.

Prerequisite Checks will then provide you with a list of “warnings” or “failure” on the pre-requisite checklist. You’ll either need to fix the problems or have the installer “ignore” the problems and confirm that you want to proceed with the installation.

Review the summary of the installation settings and if you’re confident with them, click the Install button.

When the installation is finished, rerun CLUVFY and review the log messages for any problems.

Help Upgrading Oracle Grid Infrastructure

If you would like more information on the Oracle Grid Infrastructure from 12.1 2 node RAC database to 12.2, please contact Datavail. Datavail is a specialized IT services company focused on Data Management with solutions in BI/DW, analytics, database administration, custom application development, and enterprise applications. We provide both professional and managed services delivered via our global delivery model, focused on Microsoft, Oracle and other leading technologies.

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