How do you upgrade to the next release of Oracle without incurring extended periods of downtime and at the same time minimize possible disruptions? The information on how to accomplish this started back at the beginning of this book in Chapter 2, and was expanded further in Chapter 4. From using multiple Oracle Homes to using Data Guard standbys, all of the previous information is applicable and a buildup of knowledge for accomplishing large migration projects is required.
As a new DBA, it is important to realize that the binary upgrade and the database upgrade are two different events, most often executed at different times. A binary upgrade is the ORACLE_HOME
software that is installed, upgraded, and maintained using Oracle-provided tools. A database upgrade is basically updating the data dictionary from one version to another. There are a myriad different ways (or migration paths) to accomplish both tasks, which is what this chapter...