Desupport of Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) with Oracle Database Standard Edition 19c (Doc ID 2504078.1)

Last updated on MARCH 05, 2023

Applies to:

Details

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c is no longer supported in Oracle Database 19c Standard Edition (2). This document discusses choices and provides step-by-step instructions on how to upgrade Oracle Database 18c (or earlier)  using a Real Application Clusters database to Oracle 19c.

Actions

The upgrade choices discussed in this note are summarized in the flow chart diagram below. In addition to using an inplace upgrade, Oracle offers an attractive upgrade to the Autonomous Database in the Oracle Cloud. For more information follow this link: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/contracts/paas-iaas-universal-credits-3940775.pdf

Figure 1: Decision Flowchart

Details

As starting with Oracle Database 19c, Oracle RAC in no longer supported with the Oracle Standard Edition(SE), customers attempting to upgrade to Oracle Database 19c will have to choose between one of the following upgrade paths, unless a migration into the Oracle Cloud can be considered.

1. Migrate to Oracle Autonomous Database 
2. Upgrade from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition.
3. Convert the Oracle RAC Database to a Single Instance database.
   

Note that if an attempt is made to install an Oracle RAC 19c Database using Standard Edition, the Oracle Universal Installer will prevent the installation.

Similarly, the Oracle Database Upgrade Assistant will report an error, if an attempt is made to upgrade an existing Oracle RAC database to Oracle Database 19c using a Standard Edition Home.

1.Migrate to Oracle Autonomous Database offering 

Use Oracle Zero Downtime Migration to migrate from Oracle 18c SE to Oracle Autonomous

2. Upgrade from Oracle RAC Standard Edition (SE) to Oracle RAC Enterprise Edition (EE)

  Customers planning to upgrade from an Oracle Database Standard Edition to Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition and preserve the Oracle RAC Database, should perform the following steps.

• Install Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition in a new Home. Choose the "Set up Software only" option.
  
  
  
  

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• Choose the "Oracle Real Application Clusters Database Installation" and follow instructions on screen
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Choose Database Edition as  "Enterprise Edition". Note that you cannot choose "Standard Edition", Else you will get the error
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Once the Home has been installed, execute dbua from the new Enterprise Edition Oracle RAC Enabled home and choose the SE2 Oracle RAC Database to be upgraded
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Click through the steps and complete the upgrade using dbua
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Confirm that the previously Standard Edition Database is now Oracle Enterprise Edition
  
  
  
  
  
  

3. Convert Oracle RAC Standard Edition to  a Single Instance (Non-RAC)  Standard Edition
     
     Customers planning to convert their Oracle RAC Database to an Oracle Single Instance Database prior to upgrading to Oracle Database 19c, should perform the following steps

• Install a new Single Instance home with either Oracle 18c "Standard Edition" ("Enterprise Edition" can be chosen as needed). Remember to choose "Set up Software only" as shown in the screen below
  
  
  
  Choose "Single instance database installation"
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Choose "Standard Edition 2"
  
  
  
  
  
  Complete the "Single Instance" installation by clicking through the rest of the install screens

• From the existing home, shutdown the database on all instances and drop the database configuration from Oracle Clusterware Registry
    

Please test the steps on a test database prior to making changes on production.

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