D How to Upgrade to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2

D.1 About Oracle ASM and Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation and Upgrade

In past releases, Oracle ASM was installed as part of the Oracle Database installation. With Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2), Oracle ASM is installed when you install the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software. Oracle ASM shares an Oracle home with Oracle Clusterware when installed in a cluster such as with Oracle RAC or with Oracle Restart on a standalone server. The directory in which Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM is installed is called the Grid home.

If you have an existing Oracle ASM instance, you can either upgrade it at the time that you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure, or you can upgrade it after the installation, using Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA). However, a number of Oracle ASM features are disabled until you upgrade Oracle ASM, and Oracle Clusterware management of Oracle ASM does not function correctly until Oracle ASM is upgraded, because Oracle Clusterware only manages Oracle ASM when it is running in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home. For this reason, Oracle recommends that if you do not upgrade Oracle ASM at the same time as you upgrade Oracle Clusterware, then you should upgrade Oracle ASM immediately afterward.

You can perform out-of-place upgrades to an Oracle ASM instance using ASMCA. In addition to running ASMCA using the graphic user interface (GUI), you can run ASMCA in non-interactive (silent) mode.

In earlier releases, you could use Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA) to upgrade either an Oracle Database, or Oracle ASM. With Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2), you can use DBUA to upgrade only an Oracle Database instance. To upgrade Oracle ASM separately, you use ASMCA.

D.2 Restrictions for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM Upgrades

Be aware of the following restrictions and changes for upgrades to Oracle Grid Infrastructure installations, which consists of Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM:

• To upgrade existing Oracle Clusterware installations to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g, your current release must be at least 10.1.0.3, 10.2.0.3, 11.1.0.6, or 11.2.

• To upgrade existing Oracle ASM installations to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) using the rolling upgrade method, your current release must be at least 11.1.0.6.

  See Also:

  Oracle Upgrade Companion" Note 785351.1 on My Oracle Support:

  https://support.oracle.com

• To upgrade Oracle Grid Infrastructure release 11.2.0.1 to Oracle Grid Infrastructure release 11.2.0.2, you must first do at least one of the following:

  • Patch the Oracle Grid Infrastructure release 11.2.0.1 home with the patch 9413827 and patch 9706490.

  • Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure Patch Set 1 (GI PSU1) or Oracle Grid Infrastructure Patch Set 2 (GI PSU2).

• Adding nodes to a cluster during a rolling upgrade is not supported.

• Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM upgrades are always out-of-place upgrades. With Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2), you cannot perform an in-place upgrade of Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM to existing homes.

• If the existing Oracle Clusterware home is a shared home, you can use a non-shared home for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster home for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM 11g release 2 (11.2).

• With Oracle Clusterware 11g release 1 and later releases, the same user that owned the Oracle Clusterware 10g software must perform the Oracle Clusterware 11g upgrade. Before the Oracle Database 11g release, either all Oracle software installations were owned by a single user, typically oracle, or Oracle Database software was owned by oracle, and Oracle Clusterware software was owned by a separate user, typically crs.

• Oracle ASM and Oracle Clusterware both run in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.

• During a major version upgrade to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2), the software in the Grid home for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) is not fully functional until the upgrade is completed. Running the Server Control Utility (SRVCTL), crsctl, and other commands from the 11g release 2 (11.2) Grid home is not supported until the upgrade is complete across all nodes.

  To manage pre-existing databases using earlier versions (release 10.x or 11.1) of Oracle Database software during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure upgrade, use SRVCTL in the existing database homes.

D.3 Understanding Out-of-Place and Rolling Upgrades

Oracle Clusterware upgrades can be rolling upgrades, in which a subset of nodes are brought down and upgraded while other nodes remain active. Oracle ASM 11g release 2 (11.2) upgrades can be rolling upgrades. If you upgrade a subset of nodes, then a software-only installation is performed on the existing cluster nodes that you do not select for upgrade. Rolling upgrades avoid downtime and ensure continuous availability while the software is upgraded to a new version.

During an out-of-place upgrade, the installer installs the newer version in a separate Oracle Clusterware home. Both versions of Oracle Clusterware are on each cluster member node, but only one version is active. By contrast, an in-place upgrade overwrites the software in the current Oracle Clusterware home.

To perform an out-of-place upgrade, you must create new Oracle Grid Infrastructure homes on each node. Then you can perform an out-of-place rolling upgrade, so that some nodes are running Oracle Clusterware from the original Oracle Clusterware home, and other nodes are running Oracle Clusterware from the new Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.

If you have an existing Oracle Clusterware installation, then you upgrade your existing cluster by performing an out-of-place upgrade. An in-place upgrade of Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 is not supported.

D.4 Preparing to Upgrade an Existing Oracle Clusterware Installation

If you have an existing Oracle Clusterware installation, then you upgrade your existing cluster by performing an out-of-place upgrade. You cannot perform an in-place upgrade. The following sections describe the tasks you should complete before starting an upgrade:

• Verify System Readiness for Patches and Upgrades

• Gather the Necessary System Information

• Upgrade to the Minimum Required Oracle Clusterware Version

• Unset Environment Variables Used By Oracle Software

D.5 Back Up the Oracle Software Before Upgrades

Before you make any changes to the Oracle software, Oracle recommends that you create a backup of the Oracle software and databases.

D.6 Performing a Rolling Upgrade of Oracle Clusterware

Use the following procedure to upgrade Oracle Clusterware from an earlier release to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2. You can also choose to upgrade Oracle ASM during the upgrade of Oracle Clusterware.

1. If there are non-clustered, or single-instance, Oracle databases that use Oracle ASM running on any of the nodes in the cluster, they must be shut down before you start the upgrade. Listeners associated with those databases do not have to be shut down.

   Note:

   Oracle recommends that you leave Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) instances running during the Oracle Clusterware upgrade. During the upgrade process, the database instances on the node being upgraded are stopped and started automatically during the upgrade process.

2. Start the installer, and select the option to upgrade an existing Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM installation.

3. On the node selection page, select all nodes.

   Note:

   In contrast with releases prior to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2, all upgrades are rolling upgrades, even if you select all nodes for the upgrade. If you are upgrading from Oracle Clusterware 11g release 11.2.0.1 to release 11.2.0.2, then all nodes are selected by default. You cannot select or de-select the nodes.

4. Select installation options as prompted.

5. If prompted to do so, run the scripts as directed.

6. When the Oracle Clusterware upgrade is complete, if an earlier version of Oracle ASM is installed, then the installer starts ASMCA to upgrade Oracle ASM to release 11.2. You can upgrade Oracle ASM at this time, or upgrade it later.

   Oracle recommends that you upgrade Oracle ASM at the same time that you upgrade Oracle Clusterware. Until Oracle ASM is upgraded, Oracle databases that use Oracle ASM cannot be created. Until Oracle ASM is upgraded, the Oracle ASM management tools in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) home (for example, SRVCTL) will not work.

   Note:

   After the upgrade, if you set the Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) backup location manually to the earlier release Oracle Clusterware home (CRS home), then you must change the OCR backup location to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home (Grid home). If you did not set the OCR backup location manually, then this issue does not concern you.

   Because upgrades of Oracle Clusterware are out-of-place upgrades, the CRS home for the earlier release Oracle Clusterware cannot be the location of the OCR backups for Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2. Backups in the old Oracle Clusterware home could be deleted.

D.7 Performing a Rolling Upgrade of Oracle ASM

After you have completed the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2) upgrade, if you did not choose to upgrade Oracle ASM when you upgraded Oracle Clusterware, then you can do it separately using ASMCA to perform rolling upgrades.

You can use ASMCA to complete the upgrade of Oracle ASM separately, but you should perform the upgrade as soon as possible after you upgrade Oracle Clusterware, because Oracle ASM management tools such as SRVCTL will not work until Oracle ASM is upgraded.

D.8 Updating Oracle Enterprise Manager Target Parameters

Because Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2) is an out-of-place upgrade, the upgraded software has a new location for the Grid home. The path for the Oracle Clusterware home in some Oracle Enterprise Manager parameter files must be changed. If you do not change the parameter, then you will encounter errors such as "cluster target broken" on Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control or Grid Control.

Use the following procedure to resolve this issue:

1. Log in to Database Control or Grid Control.

2. Select the Cluster tab.

3. Click Monitoring Configuration.

4. Update the value for Oracle Home with the new path for the Grid home.

D.9 Downgrading Oracle Clusterware After an Upgrade

After a successful or a failed upgrade to Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2), you can restore Oracle Clusterware to the previous version.

The restoration procedure in this section restores the Oracle Clusterware configuration to the state it was in before the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 upgrade. Any configuration changes you performed during or after the upgrade are removed and cannot be recovered.

To restore Oracle Clusterware to the earlier release:

1. On all remote nodes, use the command Grid_home\crs\install\rootcrs.pl -downgrade [-force] to stop the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 resources and shut down the Oracle Clusterware.

   Note:

   This command does not reset the OCR, or delete the ocr Windows Registry key.

   For example:

   C:app11.2.0„rid\crs\install> rootcrs.pl -downgrade
   

   To stop a partial or failed Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 upgrade and restore Oracle Clusterware to the previous release, use the -force flag with this command.

2. After the rootcrs.pl -downgrade script has completed on all remote nodes, on the local node use the command Grid_home\crs\install\rootcrs.pl -downgrade -lastnode -oldcrshome pre11.2_crs_home -version pre11.2_crs_version [-force], where pre11.2_crs_home is the home of the earlier Oracle Clusterware installation, and pre11.2_crs_version is the release number of the earlier Oracle Clusterware installation.

   For example:

   C:app11.2.0„rid\crs\install> rootcrs.pl -downgrade -lastnode 
   -oldcrshome C:\app\crs -version 11.1.0.6.0
   

   This script downgrades the OCR, and removes the executable files from the Grid home. If the Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2) upgrade did not complete successfully, then, to restore the previous release of Oracle Clusterware, use the -force flag with the downgrade command.