Preface

This manual guides you through the process of planning and executing database upgrades on the Oracle Database. In addition, this manual provides information about compatibility, about upgrading applications to the new Oracle Database 10g release, and about important changes in the new release, such as initialization parameter changes and data dictionary changes.

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide contains information that describes the features and functionality of the Oracle Database (also known as the standard edition) and the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition products. The Oracle Database and the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition have the same basic features. However, several advanced features are available only with the Enterprise Edition, and some of these are optional. For example, to use application failover, you must have the Enterprise Edition with the Real Application Clusters option.

This preface contains these topics:

• Audience

• Documentation Accessibility

• Related Documentation

• Conventions

Audience

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide is intended for database administrators (DBAs), application developers, security administrators, system operators, and anyone who plans or executes Oracle Database upgrades.

To use this document, you need to be familiar with the following:

• Relational database concepts

• Your current release of the Oracle Database

• Your operating system environment

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

TTY Access to Oracle Support Services

Oracle provides dedicated Text Telephone (TTY) access to Oracle Support Services within the United States of America 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For TTY support, call 800.446.2398. Outside the United States, call +1.407.458.2479.

Related Documentation

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

• Oracle Database Concepts for a comprehensive introduction to the concepts and terminology used in this manual

• Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about administering the Oracle Database

• Oracle Database SQL Reference for information on Oracle's SQL commands and functions

• Oracle Database Utilities for information about the utilities bundled with the Oracle Database, including Export, Import, and SQL*Loader

• Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide for information about Oracle Net Services

• Oracle Database Enterprise User Administrator's Guide for information about Oracle Label Security

Many of the examples in this book use the sample schemas, which are installed by default when you select the Basic Installation option with an Oracle Database installation. See Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information about how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.

Printed documentation is available for sale in the Oracle Store at

http://oraclestore.oracle.com/

To download free release notes, installation documentation, white papers, or other collateral, please visit the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). You must register online before using OTN; registration is free and can be done at

http://otn.oracle.com/membership/

If you already have a username and password for OTN, then you can go directly to the documentation section of the OTN Web site at

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/

Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document: