Preparing to upgrade a geodatabase in Oracle

When you upgrade any enterprise system, including a geodatabase, plan ahead. Test the new version on a development or test server to ensure that it works with all your client applications.

When you have determined that the new system works the way you expected, schedule the upgrade; be sure the necessary staff are available to perform the upgrade and that they have the permissions necessary to complete their assigned tasks.

Be aware of the following:

• You must use current connection syntax when you connect to the geodatabase to upgrade it. The upgrade process will fail if you use the older connection syntax. See Database connections in ArcGIS Desktop for current syntax.
• Upgrades from beta versions of the software are not supported.
• You can upgrade directly from a 9.3.x or 10 geodatabase to a 10.1 geodatabase if your database is at a supported release.
• If your geodatabase is at release 9.2 or earlier, you must first upgrade to a supported geodatabase release then upgrade to 10.1.
• Once a geodatabase has been upgraded, previous versions of ArcGIS may not be able to connect since some older versions of ArcGIS cannot read newer versions of the geodatabase. Releases prior to ArcGIS 10 will not be able to connect to a 10.1 geodatabase. ArcGIS 10 clients will be able to connect to the 10.1 geodatabase.
• There is no formal mechanism to downgrade a geodatabase to a previous version. If after upgrading to a newer version you want to move back to an older version of the geodatabase, you must restore the old database from backup.

You must also complete the following steps before you upgrade your geodatabase in Oracle:

Steps:

1. Check the ArcGIS Resource Center to be sure that your database, operating system, and other components meet at least the minimum system requirements.

   Your database must be at a supported release and your hardware must meet at least the minimum system requirements before you upgrade your geodatabase.

2. Make sure that the Oracle Text component is installed.

   The Text component is installed by default in Oracle 10g and 11g; however, if you did not do a default installation, the Text component may not have been installed.

   To see if it is installed, execute the following SQL statement while logged in as SYSTEM or a user with DBA privileges in the database:

   SELECT owner, object_name
   FROM all_objects
   WHERE object_type = 'PACKAGE'
     AND object_name = 'CTX_DDL';
   

   If no record is returned, the Text component is not installed. Run the Oracle installation to install the Text component.

3. Create a backup of the database.
4. If you use an ArcSDE service for connections and have customized any of the files in the etc directory of SDEHOME, make a copy of these files.
5. Remove any custom functionality you may have added to the ArcSDE geodatabase system tables outside ArcGIS such as triggers or additional indexes.

   The upgrade procedure cannot take into account customizations you make to the system tables. If such customizations prevent the alteration of a system table's schema, the upgrade will fail.

6. For IBM AIX users who use an ArcSDE service only: If you are installing on AIX, it is recommended that you run slibclean before upgrading or installing ArcSDE to clear inactive libraries from memory. Stop your current ArcSDE service and run slibclean as the root user. See your AIX system administrator documentation for more information on the slibclean command.
7. Grant the geodatabase administrator the permissions necessary to upgrade a geodatabase.

   See User privileges for geodatabases in Oracle for a list of required privileges.

8. Install the current release of an ArcGIS client (ArcGIS for Desktop Standard or Advanced, ArcGIS Engine with the Geodatabase Update extension, or ArcGIS for Server Enterprise Standard or Advanced) on a computer that can directly connect to the geodatabase to perform the upgrade.
9. You must connect directly to Oracle from ArcGIS to upgrade the geodatabase. Therefore, make sure that the Oracle client is installed and configured on the computer where the ArcGIS client is installed.

   When connecting from a 32-bit ArcGIS client, such as ArcGIS for Desktop or ArcGIS Engine, you must install and configure a 32-bit Oracle client. When connecting from a 64-bit ArcGIS client, such as ArcGIS for Server, you must install and configure a 64-bit Oracle client.

10. If you access data directly from SQL or ArcGIS Spatial Data Server, replace the existing st_shapelib on your Oracle server with the new version of the library. The new st_shapelib file can be found in the DatabaseSupport files directory in your ArcGIS client installation location.

    Be sure to copy the library appropriate to your Oracle server operating system.

    If you place the library in a different directory on the Oracle server than it was previously, you must reconfigure your extproc to point to the new library location and restart the Oracle listener. See Configuring the Oracle extproc to access the geodatabase with SQL for more information.

11. If you are using the ST_Raster storage type in your geodatabase, replace the existing libst_raster_ora file on your Oracle server with the new version of the library. The new libst_raster_ora file can be found in the DatabaseSupport files directory in your ArcGIS client installation location.

    Be sure to copy the library appropriate to your Oracle server operating system.

12. Make sure that there are no users connected to the geodatabase you are upgrading. If you are upgrading the sde master geodatabase, also make sure no one is connected to any of the user-schema geodatabases in the Oracle database.

    You can see a list of the users who are currently connected to your geodatabase by opening the Connected Users tab of the Geodatabase Administration dialog box in ArcGIS for Desktop.

13. If you are using an ArcSDE service, do the following:
    1. Stop the ArcSDE service using the sdemon –o shutdown command. Or if the service is running on a Windows server, you can stop the service from the Windows Services interface instead of using the sdemon command.
    2. If you are upgrading to a new, full release of the ArcSDE application server (such as from 9.3.1 or 10 to 10.1), uninstall the old release of ArcSDE. On Windows, delete the old service when prompted to do so.
       Note:

       If you are applying a service pack or patch, do not perform this step.

    3. Obtain the ArcSDE Application Server installation from the Esri Customer Care portal.

The geodatabase is now ready to be upgraded. You can use the Upgrade Geodatabase tool in ArcGIS for Desktop or a Python script run on the ArcGIS client computer.

If you use an ArcSDE service for connections, install the ArcSDE application server after you upgrade your geodatabase.