We have an Oracle RAC production environment with primary and secondary DB.
Our DBA has asked to update oracle version from 11.2.0.1.0(64 bit) to 11.2.0.3(64 bit) with patch 6880880,10404530,16803769 and 16803775.
In our current database we have Shared storage,ACL settings, security settings,Gateway/Heteregenous connectivity, Dataguard, Data broker, Backup policy and Oracle Client installed on other machines.
DBA has estimated that he need to do installation, settings from scratch and test..
So, when the version is updated, do we really need to reconfig and install everything (Shared storage,ACL settings, security settings,Gateway/Heteregenous connectivity, Dataguard, Data broker, Backup policy and Oracle Client installed on other machines) ??
If yes its fine, but no then I need to justify it.
I can understand testing would be required..
Best Answer
You should be able to test this patchset in a non-production environment with a clone of your current production server. If a separate server is not available, the same server may be used. The 11.2.0.3 patchset is a completely new install. Your database(s) that use the 11.2.0.1 will be unaffected and continue to use the current install until they are upgraded AND updated to use the new environment (typically with the tool DBUA).
Sometimes, those things listed above can break, so yes, testing is required. It depends on your comfort level and time-to-resolution on troubleshooting issues. Once the new instance is made available in your testing environment, test out your application thoroughly, then schedule the update for production.