Data Guard Rolling Upgrade Enhancements

The following sections describe rolling upgrades in Oracle Database.

1.5.7.1 Data Guard Rolling Upgrade Support for Advanced Data Types

This release includes additional native redo-based replication for Data Guard SQL Apply to support database rolling upgrades (transient logical standby). Data types include XMLType stored as binary XML, XMLType stored in object-relational format, objects and collections, Database File System (DBFS), XDB, Oracle Spatial and Graph, Oracle Text, Oracle Multimedia, Label Security, and Oracle SecureFiles (deduplication and fragment operations).

Data Guard database rolling upgrades reduce planned downtime by enabling the upgrade to new database releases or patch sets in rolling fashion. Total database downtime for such an upgrade is limited to the small amount of time required to execute a Data Guard switchover.

1.5.7.2 Data Guard Rolling Upgrade Support for XDB Repository

XML DB Repository supports Data Guard rolling upgrades.

XML DB Repository is no longer a restriction for Data Guard rolling upgrades. Oracle Database can be upgraded to new patch sets and database releases in a rolling fashion, minimizing planned downtime for a broader range of customer Oracle Database deployments.

1.5.7.3 Disaster Protection During Database Rolling Upgrade

Data protection is maintained during the Oracle Data Guard database rolling upgrade process by enabling the standby database that is the target of the upgrade to continue receiving primary database redo while the standby database is open in upgrade mode. This reduces management complexity by eliminating the requirement to create and maintain a separate archive log repository to provide the same level of data protection.

See Also:

Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration for details

See Also:

Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration for details

See Also:

Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide for details

See Also:

High Availability

1.5.7.4 Oracle Advanced Queuing (AQ) Support for Data Guard Database Rolling

Upgrade

Databases that use Oracle Advanced Queuing (AQ) can be upgraded to new Oracle Database releases and patch sets in rolling fashion using Data Guard database rolling upgrades (transient logical standby database only). Rolling upgrades are supported beginning in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1).

Data Guard database rolling upgrades reduce planned downtime by enabling the upgrade to new database releases or patch sets in rolling fashion. Total database downtime for such an upgrade is limited to the small amount of time required to execute a Data Guard switchover.

1.5.7.5 Oracle Data Guard Broker Support for Database Rolling Upgrades

Oracle Data Guard broker now supports database rolling upgrades. With this new feature, the Data Guard broker configuration can be preserved so that it does not have to be rebuilt after the upgrade is complete.

1.5.7.6 Oracle Scheduler Support for Data Guard Database Rolling Upgrade

Oracle Scheduler jobs that are created at a primary database are replicated to a transient logical standby database. This simplifies using Data Guard to upgrade to new Oracle Database releases and patch sets in rolling fashion (transient logical standby database only).

Data Guard database rolling upgrades reduce planned downtime by enabling the upgrade to new database releases or patch sets in rolling fashion. Total database downtime for such an upgrade is limited to the small amount of time required to execute a Data Guard switchover.

1.5.7.7 Rolling Upgrade Using Active Data Guard

Active Data Guard provides several new PL/SQL packages and DDL commands to automate the previous manual steps of performing a database rolling upgrade to a new Oracle patch set, database release, or to perform other planned maintenance. The process starts with a primary and physical standby database at the previous version and ends with both primary and physical standby database at the new version. The automation includes handling the switchover of production to the new version. It also performs extensive validation at every step of the process. If problems are encountered users can choose to either correct the error and resume the upgrade or roll back to the original state of the configuration.

Rolling upgrade using Active Data Guard reduces management effort and improves the reliability of performing database rolling upgrades. Users benefit from lower administrative cost and higher availability by reducing downtime for planned maintenance.

See Also:

Oracle Database Advanced Queuing User's Guide for details

See Also:

Oracle Data Guard Broker for details

See Also:

High Availability

1.5.7.8 SQL Apply Extended Data Type Support (EDS)

Extended data type support (EDS) for SQL Apply enables replication for select data types by SQL Apply without requiring native redo-based replication. EDS supports SDO_GEOMETRY, XMLType stored in object-relational format, XMLType stored as binary XML, objects, and objects with varray columns.

EDS enables users to reduce planned downtime and increase availability by using database rolling upgrades even in cases where their database includes data types for which SQL Apply does not yet support redo-based replication. Users are able to seamlessly transition to redo-based replication as SQL Apply adds native support for these data types in subsequent Oracle Database releases.

1.5.7.9 SQL Apply Support for Objects, Collections, and XMLType

SQL Apply supports Oracle objects and collections, XMLType stored as binary XML, and XMLType stored in an object-relational format. This feature provides greater flexibility for SQL Apply to support rolling upgrades for databases with nonscalar data types.

1.5.7.10 SQL Apply Support for XMLType

Replication of XMLType tables and columns for all XMLType storage models using SQL Apply is enabled in this release.

This feature allows XML content to be replicated between database instances in a safe and secure manner using the same proven technology that is already being used to replicate conventional relational data. XML content and relational content can now be replicated simultaneously without needing to perform complex and expensive conversions of the XML components. This feature enables the use of XMLType to manage XML content in situations that require the extreme levels of high availability that customers expect from Oracle Database.

1.5.7.11 SQL Apply Support for SecureFiles LOBs

This feature provides SQL Apply support for deduplication of SecureFiles LOB columns. SQL Apply can be used for rolling upgrade of an Oracle Database that uses SecureFiles LOBs without any restrictions on their use.

See Also:

Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration for details

See Also:

Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration for details

See Also:

Oracle Database Utilities for details

See Also:

Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration for details

See Also:

High Availability