OverviewIt’s time to upgrade Oracle Database 11g (11.2.0.4 in this article) to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2. In this article I will demostrate the Step by Step how to upgrade Oracle Grid/Database 11.2.0.4 to 12.1.0.2 on Exadata Database Machine X5-2 Full Rack.Since the upgrade task is very lengthy, I will split the article in 2 different parts: Part I: Prepare the Current Exadata Environment & Install and Upgrade Grid Infrastructure to 12.1.0.2 Part II: Install Database 12.1.0.2 Software & Upgrade Database to 12.1.0.2 using DBCA and Post Upgrade Steps Current Environment Details:SEE DETAILS

OverviewEarlier I have shared an article on how to Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2.0.1 on Exadata X2 Full Rack. Now it is time to Install Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 on the same cluster.In this article I will demonstrate how to Install Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 software on a full Rack Oracle Exadata X2-2 Database machine.Environment Exadata X2-2 Full Rack 8 Compute nodes, 14 Storage cell and 3 IB Switch Exadata Storage Software version 12.1.2.1.1 Steps to Install Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 on OEL 6: Download Oracle Grid and Database software from OTN. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.htmlSEE DETAILS <span class="more-li...

OverviewOracle has release Oracle database 12.2 for on-premises just a few days ago. It is time to Install the brand new Oracle 12.2 Grid Infrastructure and database software installation on Exadata database.With Oracle 12.2 the way Grid Infrastructure is installed has changed little bit. Here are those changes: Unzip Grid Infrastructure software in the GI Home directory Use gridSetup.sh to install and configure GI. Note: GI software installation no more uses runInstaller to install the GI softwareIn this article I will demonstrate how to install Oracle 12.2 GI and DatabaseSEE DETAILS

OverviewEarlier Opatch utility used unzip to install files in the home. Now the version greater than or equal to 13.6.x it uses the OUI installation method. With this it ensures that installer both executes the file updates and logs the components and file changes to the OUI meta-data. With unzip method the OUI is not aware of these changes.This procedure is only applicable to Enterprise Manager Cloud Control environment.In this article I will demonstrate how to upgrade Opatch utility in OEM 13c Agent home. The same procedure is also applicableSEE DETAILS

OverviewIn Exadata ASM disk groups are created from ASM disks which are provisioned as grid disks from Exadata storage cells. The grid disks are created from the celldisks. Normally, there is no free space in celldisks, as all space is used for grid disks, as shown below:[root@dm01cel01 ~]# cellcli -e “list celldisk where name like ‘CD.*’ attributes name, size, freespace”         CD_00_dm01cel01         528.734375G     0         CD_01_dm01cel01         528.734375G     0         CD_02_dm01cel01      &n...

Overview You purchased a new Storage cell for expansion or removed Storage from an existing Cluster and want to add it to the new a Cluster due to space demand. In this article I will demonstrate how to add a storage cell to an existing Exadata Database Machine. Here we are adding new storage cell with 600 GB disks to existing Exadata database machine using 600 GB disks. Environment Exadata Database Machine X2-2 Full Rack Exadata Storage Software version 12.1.2.2.0 Oracle Grid/Database Version 11.2.0.4 Pre Checks: Create a new fileSEE DETAILS

How to drop an Unused Column from a compressed table in an Oracle Database (Fix : ORA-39726). Overview:  There are some situations where we required to Drop a column from a compressed table per business need. In this article, I would walk you through steps to perform this task. You may receive below error when you try DROPPING a column from a compressed table ——-  Drop unused column using simple ALTER command SQL> alter table DWUSER.SM_ASSET_MONTH_FACT_STAGE drop unused columns; alter table DWUSER.SM_ASSET_MONTH_FACT_STAGE drop unused columns * ERROR at line 1: ORA-39726:SEE DETAILS

Overview In Oracle database 11.2 and above it is recommended to place the OCR and voting disks in ASM disk group. In my case the OCR, Voting disk and SPFILE are stored in +DBFS_DG disk group. I would like to move them to +DATA disk group. The ASM disk groups are configured using ASM Normal redundancy for protection. In this article I will demonstrate how move/replace OCR, Voting disk and SPFILE from one disk group to another ASM disk group. Environment Oracle Exadata X2-2 ASM Disk Groups +DATA, +RECO, +DBFS_DGSEE DETAILS

Overview Once you migrate databases to Exadata Database Machine, its time to configure backups for them. Since Exadata uses ASM for storing database files, you can use RMAN to backup your databases. You can backup databases running on Exadata to FRA or external backup media such as ZFS. Customers purchase Exadata also purchase ZFS for backup and restore their databases. ZFS storage appliance is idea for Exadata as it provides faster backup solution. About ZFS Storage Appliance Oracle ZFS backup Appliance is a high performance backup solution for Oracle engineered systems (Exadata, SuperCluster andSEE DETAILS </sp...

About Flex ASM In earlier Oracle database release, ASM will be running on each node in the cluster and ASM clients such as database and ACFS can only access ASM by using an ASM on the same host. Oracle Database 12c introduced a new feature called Oracle Flex ASM which provides remote storage access. Oracle Flex ASM is an ASM instance which will be running in the cluster based on cardinality defined. The default cardinality is 3, but this can be modified using srvctl modify asm command. ASM is notSEE DETAILS

About ACFS: ACFS stands for Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System ACFS extends ASM functionality to support all kind of files like database files, application files and general purpose files. Oracle ACFS is a High Availability Cluster File system and it is tightly coupled with Oracle Clusterware technology. It can manage large number of file systems and files. One can manage ACFS/ADVM using: ASMCA, ASMCMD, SQL*PLUS, OEM and ACFS Plug-ins In this article I will demostrate how to configure Oracle ACFS on Exadata Database machine. Before start with theSEE DETAILS

Overview The Exadata network grid consists of multiple Sun QDR InfiniBand switches. IB Switches are used for the storage network as well as the Oracle RAC interconnect. Exadata compute nodes and storage cells are configured with dual-port InfiniBand ports and connect to each of the two leaf switches. You can access IB Switches using command line and Web ILOM IB Switches run Linux operating system. In this article I will demonstrate how to patch or upgrade Oracle Exadata IB Switches.About Infiniband Switch Patching Starting with release 11.2.3.3.0, the patchmgr utilitySEE DETAILS

Overview:Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies.In this scenario we have different database name and different directory structure. And we are not using SPFILE. Target (source) details: Database Name prod Hostname NSM-SRC Ip Address 172.16.110.18 OS Linux Version x86_64 Datafile Location /data2/prod Backup Location /backup/rman_backup Destination details Database Name nospfile Hostname NSM-TRG Ip Address 172.16.110.16SEE DETAILS <span c...

Overview Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies. In this scenario we are performing active duplication and source database is in no archive log mode. When you issue the command to duplicate database from target database where source Database is running in noarchivelog mode, you will receive following error.ORA-19602: cannot backup or copy active fileSEE DETAILS <span class="more-link-hover-im...

OverviewOracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies. Backup-based duplication uses an RMAN backup of the target (source) database as its source to create the data files in the auxiliary (destination) environment. No connection to the target database is required. This is referred to as targetless duplication. This technique only requires a connection to the auxiliarySEE DETAILS <span class="more-link-...

OverviewOracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies.You can replicate a target (source) database using an RMAN backup when duplicating to an auxiliary (destination) database. The basic idea here is to copy an RMAN backup to an auxiliary server and create the auxiliary database directly from the backup. This is a simple and powerful technique forSEE DETAILS </s...

OverviewOracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies.In this scenario we have Readonly tablespace at target(Source) database. and same directory structure with different database name. Target (source) details: Database Name prod Hostname Nsm-prod Ip Address 172.16.110.18 OS Linux Version x86_64 Datafile Location /data2/prod Backup Location /backup/rman_backup  Destination details: Database Name dup Hostname Nsm-stg Ip Address 172.16.110.16<a class="more-link" href="https://netsoftmate.com/rman-backup-based-duplication-wit...

OverviewOracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies.Here we have maintained same directory structure but different database name. Environment Details Target (source) details: Database Name prod Hostname Nsmsrc01 Ip Address 172.16.110.18 OS Linux Version x86_64 Datafile Location /data2/prod Backup Location /backup/rman_backup Destination details: Database Name dup Hostname Nsmtrg Ip Address 172.16.110.16 OS Linux Version x86_64 Datafile<a class="more-link" href="https://netsoftmate.com/rman-backup-based-duplication-with-same/"...

Overview  Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies.In this scenario we have different database name and different directory structure, and we are using SPFILE clause in Rman duplication command. Environment details: Target (source) details: Database Name prod Hostname Nsm-source Ip Address 172.16.110.18 OS Linux Version x86_64 Datafile Location /data2/prod Backup Location /backup/rman_backup Destination details: DatabaseSEE DETA...

OverviewOracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) provides a comprehensive foundation for efficiently backing up and recovering the Oracle databases, it provides a common interface, via command line and Enterprise Manager, for backup tasks across different host operating systems, automates administration of your backup strategies.In this scenario we have different database name and different directory structure. And we are transforming the directory structure using SET NEWNAME and this command should be used in Rman run blocks {}Transforming Directory Names using SET NEWNAME Another technique for instructing RMAN to transform directory names is withSEE DETAILS <span class="m...