Oracle EBS 19c Upgrade – Lessons Learnt

Practical Tips for a Successful Upgrade

The Oracle EBS 19c upgrade is a big change from previous Oracle eBusiness Suite database upgrades. The database version upgrade along with the Oracle Multitenant conversion, make this upgrade a little more complex than previous Oracle eBusiness Suite database upgrades.

In this article we will give you our valuable lessons learnt from our completed upgrade projects.

Why is this upgrade different to previous ones?

There are a number of changes that make this upgrade a little more tricky than before:

• Oracle EBS 12.2 has a large number of objects and makes user of Edition Based Redefinition for object versioning. This impacts the post-upgrade compile of invalid database objects.
• The Oracle Multitenant conversion is mandatory as part of the upgrade process – the Oracle eBusiness Suite database becomes a pluggable database. This is an additional step that must be completed after the Oracle Database 19 upgrade.
• Environments with additional options deployed – Oracle RAC, Oracle Data Guard, Oracle Advanced Security – add additional complexity to a complex process. There are specific steps that must be followed for these options when upgrading Oracle EBS to 19c.

We have broken down the tips into the relevant technology stack layers along with some suggestions for the overall upgrade process.

Oracle EBS Applications Tips

The application upgrade steps are similar to previous releases. There are a few things to keep in mind that will help streamline your upgrade process:

• Apply the pre-requisite EBS patches ahead of your upgrade downtime. This will install the required scripts to provision the CDB prior to your upgrade downtime.
• Take special note of the pre-upgrade step to run the adop actualize phase and cleanup. Completing this step prior to your upgrade is critical to ensure that the post-upgrade database compile tasks run as fast as possible.
• Run adop cleanup prior to your first test upgrade to avoid a costly delay if the cleanup process has not been run for a long time and you have regular patch cutovers. If your cleanup takes a long time in test make sure to run in production well ahead of your upgrade downtime.
• The applications TNS environment is reset after the PDB conversion. Allow for time to reconfigure the application servers for the new TNS settings that use the PDB connect string. This can take some time with multiple application servers.
• There are not too many changes to the application tier environment. Keep in mind your rollback plan however. Consider options to rollback application servers to pre-upgrade “snapshots” which will reduce rollback time. Running AutoConfig across multiple application servers can take a long time. You want to simplify any rollback activities.

Oracle EBS Database Upgrade Tips

The database upgrade process for Oracle eBusiness suite is well defined and well documented. There are a few things to keep in mind:

• The Oracle eBusiness Suite PDB conversion process is scripted and automated by the Oracle provided scripts (delivered in the pre-upgrade EBS patches). The PDB conversion uses the in-place conversion method – the datafiles are not copied into the CDB location.
• The PDB conversion process is a one-way process. Failure of the PDB conversion process will require restore of the non-CDB database and the CDB database. We strongly encourage using snapshot technology to support rollback of a failed PDB conversion process – both during your testing phase and production upgrade.
• Make sure you create the CDB with the same parameters as the non-CDB EBS database and avoid changing the non-CDB database parameters after you have created the CDB. This will avoid having to make changes prior to the PDB conversion process.
• Make sure to follow the recommended memory parameters for PGA_AGGREGATE_LIMIT.
• If you have Oracle Transparent Data Encryption enabled there are specific CDB and PDB conversion process steps that need to be followed for TDE enabled environments.
• If you have a Data Guard setup then consider creating the standby database for the CDB prior to the PDB conversion. This will avoid having to create the standby database after the Oracle Database 19c upgrade and PDB convert has completed.

Oracle EBS Database Upgrade Process

With the overall Oracle Database 19c upgrade process for Oracle eBusiness Suite being far more complex than previous versions – keep in mind the following when planning your upgrade project:

• Plan on multiple iterations to confirm the upgrade process and the timings for the upgrade. There are many steps required – some of them are “one-way” that complicate rollback options. With previous version upgrades (11gR2 -> 12cR1) it was possible to test and optimise the upgrade process in 3-4 test iterations. For the Oracle Database 19c upgrade plan on performing 5+ test upgrades to confirm the process and optimise the steps. More if you have deployments with Oracle RAC and Oracle Data Guard.
• Consider running the upgrade on a “copy” of your production environment. This will simplify your rollback options.
• Meticulously document every single step in the process. There are far too many steps and complex changes being made to “assume” any part of the upgrade. What may appear as a trivial task in the early steps of the upgrade may have a complex dependency later in the upgrade.

Summary

Upgrading to Oracle Database 19c for Oracle eBusiness Suite provides a great platform for using modern database tools and features. With the correct approach and knowledge this process can be completed successfully with minimal downtime.

Book an appointment with our team today to see how we can help with your Oracle eBusiness Suite upgrade.