Hi, all,

We are trying to upgrade our oracle database server which is running
Oracle9i from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10, I will appraciate if any gurus
had such experience to share to give me some suggestions or head up.
Thanks a lot. So far, I know I will need to break the Sun Volume
Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do
I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
Solaris 8 then upgrade?

Thanks a lot for any advice

In article
<db922e37-d400-4239-aab0-29cb07fddb3d@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
CAT <yinleew@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, all,
>
> We are trying to upgrade our oracle database server which is running
> Oracle9i from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10, I will appraciate if any gurus
> had such experience to share to give me some suggestions or head up.
> Thanks a lot. So far, I know I will need to break the Sun Volume
> Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do
> I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
> directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
> Solaris 8 then upgrade?
>
> Thanks a lot for any advice

Try doing a "dry run" on a test machine first which is configured as
close to your production environment as you can manage. That way,
you'll have all the little surprises ironed out and a migration
procedure written down that you can follow when you've scheduled the
downtime on production. You'll also be able to give time estimates for
how long production will be down.

Also be sure to have a "put it back the way it was" plan in case things
go pear shaped.

1-practice breaking the root mirror and booting the system w/o it

2-practice updating a Solaris 8 system to Solaris 10
The system startup is different on Solaris 10. Become familiar with
it's differences.

Find out what patches you need. If you aren't on a support contract,
are the security patches enough for you to run?

Now would also be a good time to look at how your file system is setup
in production and change it when you do the upgrade.

How does your backup system change to accommodate the migration to
Solaris 10?

3a-Install Oracle on Solaris 10
How does it boot and run differently than on your Solaris 8 system? Is
there any difference in shutting down, starting up, and backing up
Oracle on Solaris 10?

3b-Import a copy of the production database on Oracle+Solaris 10
How does your application and environment run OK in this configuration?
Have a series of tests to run so that the application people don't come
to you after the upgrade and say you have to put it back because it
doesn't work.

Any additional memory or disk requirements (or even a new server)? Now
would be a good time to upgrade. In fact, if you can run Solaris 8 on a
newer system that will eventually run the Solaris 10, I'd make migration
to newer hardware a prerequisite project. Then use the old system as
the test system once you cutover to the new hardware.

This isn't a quick and dirty project you can just do overnight--although
if you get all the kinks ironed out the eventual migration will happen
over a night or at least a weekend. I wouldn't expect this migration to
be done in any time short of 3-6 months.

<soapbox>

Don't have another machine to do testing? Then it's time to get one and
update your resume while you're at it. Seriously, if a company that's
risking their production environment without first doing the due
diligence of getting the bugs out the first time because it's cheaper
wouldn't hesitate to cut you loose on the first sign of trouble.

</soapbox>

--
DeeDee, don't press that button! DeeDee! NO! Dee...

In article <db922e37-d400-4239-aab0-29cb07fddb3d@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
CAT <yinleew@gmail.com> wrote:
>Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do

There's no need to relink Oracle. Your DBA might consider timing
his Oracle patch application with your system upgrade.

>I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
>directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
>Solaris 8 then upgrade?

If you're using Live Upgrade, then you should install the latest
Live Upgrade packages.
See the LU docs on BigAdmin.

John
groenveld@acm.org

Michael Vilain wrote:
> In article
> <db922e37-d400-4239-aab0-29cb07fddb3d@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
> CAT <yinleew@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Hi, all,
>>
>>We are trying to upgrade our oracle database server which is running
>>Oracle9i from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10, I will appraciate if any gurus
>>had such experience to share to give me some suggestions or head up.
>>Thanks a lot. So far, I know I will need to break the Sun Volume
>>Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do
>>I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
>>directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
>>Solaris 8 then upgrade?
>>
>>Thanks a lot for any advice
>
>
> Try doing a "dry run" on a test machine first which is configured as
> close to your production environment as you can manage. That way,
> you'll have all the little surprises ironed out and a migration
> procedure written down that you can follow when you've scheduled the
> downtime on production. You'll also be able to give time estimates for
> how long production will be down.
>
> Also be sure to have a "put it back the way it was" plan in case things
> go pear shaped.
>
> 1-practice breaking the root mirror and booting the system w/o it
>
> 2-practice updating a Solaris 8 system to Solaris 10
> The system startup is different on Solaris 10. Become familiar with
> it's differences.
>
> Find out what patches you need. If you aren't on a support contract,
> are the security patches enough for you to run?
>
> Now would also be a good time to look at how your file system is setup
> in production and change it when you do the upgrade.
>
> How does your backup system change to accommodate the migration to
> Solaris 10?
>
> 3a-Install Oracle on Solaris 10
> How does it boot and run differently than on your Solaris 8 system? Is
> there any difference in shutting down, starting up, and backing up
> Oracle on Solaris 10?
>
> 3b-Import a copy of the production database on Oracle+Solaris 10
> How does your application and environment run OK in this configuration?
> Have a series of tests to run so that the application people don't come
> to you after the upgrade and say you have to put it back because it
> doesn't work.
>
> Any additional memory or disk requirements (or even a new server)? Now
> would be a good time to upgrade. In fact, if you can run Solaris 8 on a
> newer system that will eventually run the Solaris 10, I'd make migration
> to newer hardware a prerequisite project. Then use the old system as
> the test system once you cutover to the new hardware.
>
> This isn't a quick and dirty project you can just do overnight--although
> if you get all the kinks ironed out the eventual migration will happen
> over a night or at least a weekend. I wouldn't expect this migration to
> be done in any time short of 3-6 months.
>
> <soapbox>
>
> Don't have another machine to do testing? Then it's time to get one and
> update your resume while you're at it. Seriously, if a company that's
> risking their production environment without first doing the due
> diligence of getting the bugs out the first time because it's cheaper
> wouldn't hesitate to cut you loose on the first sign of trouble.
>
> </soapbox>
>

I'll second that! Clone your production environment on a test system.
If you don't have a suitable test system, buy one or lease one!

Upgrade your test system. Test the hell out of it.

I had to do something like this once or twice. The first time, we used
antigue hardware to build a test system and practiced the whole thing.
We had all the critical disks mirrored on the production system. We
broke the mirrors, and took one disk from each set off-line. That was
our backout if something went wrong.

We were upgrading the O/S, the database, the development tools, etc,
etc. We had about 3,000 man hours invested in the project.

Due to careful planning and a portion of good luck, everything worked
and we synched up our mirrors after four or five hours.

The second time I didn't have the luxury of mirrored disks. We bought
newer and faster hardware, installed new software, exported the database
and imported it on the new system. After testing for a week or so, we
picked a three day weekend for the exercise. We again exported and
imported our database and went to production with the new hardware and
software. The older hardware became our test and development system.

My data center has 4000 SUNs, and we do three things that aid in regards
to Solaris 8 to 10 upgrades.
1) We have two boot disks. One is the actual boot disk. The other
is a dd copy of the first,
which is then modified by a script to reflect that it is disk 1
in the vfstav, and not disk 0.
Therefore, it is bootable from the ok prompt in case of disk
failure of disk 0.
(No, we do not encapsulate our boot disks)

2) We keep out boot disk clear of any user or application data. All
that data is on the array,
SAN, D1000, S1, etc, just not on the boot disks.

3) We boot up and run for a week on the second boot disk before the
upgrade. Then on upgrade
day, if the server is using Volume Manager, we export the disk
groups first, then we do a
complete new install of Solaris 10 on top of boot disk 0. We
don't monkey around,
just do a new clean install, then import the array's disk
groups. If it goes bad, we boot off of
disk 1 to return to Solaris 8. No harm, no fowl, as all the
user/app data is untouched on the array.
( of course you did do a level 0 back before you started all
this, right? )

-Julie

CAT wrote:
> Hi, all,
>
> We are trying to upgrade our oracle database server which is running
> Oracle9i from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10, I will appraciate if any gurus
> had such experience to share to give me some suggestions or head up.
> Thanks a lot. So far, I know I will need to break the Sun Volume
> Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do
> I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
> directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
> Solaris 8 then upgrade?
>
> Thanks a lot for any advice
>

I am so proud of as a member here, all of you are great! Thanks for
the help.
We run Solaris 8 on FUJITSU hardware and connected to an EMC frame,
veritas 4.0 is running for the Volume management.
I will try to find another box to install Solaris 8 on it and test
the upgrade first.
(In fact, how I wish I could do a fresh installation to get rid of all
the old useless leftovers)

Thanks again

On Mar 12, 3:48*pm, Michael Vilain <vil...@NOspamcop.net> wrote:
> In article
> <db922e37-d400-4239-aab0-29cb07fdd...@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
>
> *CAT <yinl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi, all,
>
> > We are trying to upgrade our oracle database server which is running
> > Oracle9i from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10, I will appraciate if any gurus
> > had such experience to share to give me some suggestions or head up.
> > Thanks a lot. So far, I know I will need to break the Sun Volume
> > Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do
> > I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
> > directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
> > Solaris 8 then upgrade?
>
> > Thanks a lot for any advice
>
> Try doing a "dry run" on a test machine first which is configured as
> close to your production environment as you can manage. *That way,
> you'll have all the little surprises ironed out and a migration
> procedure written down that you can follow when you've scheduled the
> downtime on production. *You'll also be able to give time estimates for
> how long production will be down.
>
> Also be sure to have a "put it back the way it was" plan in case things
> go pear shaped.
>
> 1-practice breaking the root mirror and booting the system w/o it
>
> 2-practice updating a Solaris 8 system to Solaris 10
> The system startup is different on Solaris 10. *Become familiar with
> it's differences. *
>
> Find out what patches you need. *If you aren't on a support contract,
> are the security patches enough for you to run? *
>
> Now would also be a good time to look at how your file system is setup
> in production and change it when you do the upgrade.
>
> How does your backup system change to accommodate the migration to
> Solaris 10?
>
> 3a-Install Oracle on Solaris 10
> How does it boot and run differently than on your Solaris 8 system? *Is
> there any difference in shutting down, starting up, and backing up
> Oracle on Solaris 10?
>
> 3b-Import a copy of the production database on Oracle+Solaris 10
> How does your application and environment run OK in this configuration? *
> Have a series of tests to run so that the application people don't come
> to you after the upgrade and say you have to put it back because it
> doesn't work.
>
> Any additional memory or disk requirements (or even a new server)? *Now
> would be a good time to upgrade. *In fact, if you can run Solaris 8 on a
> newer system that will eventually run the Solaris 10, I'd make migration
> to newer hardware a prerequisite project. *Then use the old system as
> the test system once you cutover to the new hardware.
>
> This isn't a quick and dirty project you can just do overnight--although
> if you get all the kinks ironed out the eventual migration will happen
> over a night or at least a weekend. *I wouldn't expect this migration to
> be done in any time short of 3-6 months.
>
> <soapbox>
>
> Don't have another machine to do testing? *Then it's time to get one and
> update your resume while you're at it. *Seriously, if a company that's
> risking their production environment without first doing the due
> diligence of getting the bugs out the first time because it's cheaper
> wouldn't hesitate to cut you loose on the first sign of trouble.
>
> </soapbox>
>
> --
> DeeDee, don't press that button! *DeeDee! *NO! *Dee...

On Mar 12, 3:48*pm, Michael Vilain <vil...@NOspamcop.net> wrote:
> In article
> <db922e37-d400-4239-aab0-29cb07fdd...@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
>
> *CAT <yinl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi, all,
>
> > We are trying to upgrade our oracle database server which is running
> > Oracle9i from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10, I will appraciate if any gurus
> > had such experience to share to give me some suggestions or head up.
> > Thanks a lot. So far, I know I will need to break the Sun Volume
> > Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do
> > I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
> > directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
> > Solaris 8 then upgrade?
>
> > Thanks a lot for any advice
>
> Try doing a "dry run" on a test machine first which is configured as
> close to your production environment as you can manage. *That way,
> you'll have all the little surprises ironed out and a migration
> procedure written down that you can follow when you've scheduled the
> downtime on production. *You'll also be able to give time estimates for
> how long production will be down.
>
> Also be sure to have a "put it back the way it was" plan in case things
> go pear shaped.
>
> 1-practice breaking the root mirror and booting the system w/o it
>
> 2-practice updating a Solaris 8 system to Solaris 10
> The system startup is different on Solaris 10. *Become familiar with
> it's differences. *
>
> Find out what patches you need. *If you aren't on a support contract,
> are the security patches enough for you to run? *
>
> Now would also be a good time to look at how your file system is setup
> in production and change it when you do the upgrade.
>
> How does your backup system change to accommodate the migration to
> Solaris 10?
>
> 3a-Install Oracle on Solaris 10
> How does it boot and run differently than on your Solaris 8 system? *Is
> there any difference in shutting down, starting up, and backing up
> Oracle on Solaris 10?
>
> 3b-Import a copy of the production database on Oracle+Solaris 10
> How does your application and environment run OK in this configuration? *
> Have a series of tests to run so that the application people don't come
> to you after the upgrade and say you have to put it back because it
> doesn't work.
>
> Any additional memory or disk requirements (or even a new server)? *Now
> would be a good time to upgrade. *In fact, if you can run Solaris 8 on a
> newer system that will eventually run the Solaris 10, I'd make migration
> to newer hardware a prerequisite project. *Then use the old system as
> the test system once you cutover to the new hardware.
>
> This isn't a quick and dirty project you can just do overnight--although
> if you get all the kinks ironed out the eventual migration will happen
> over a night or at least a weekend. *I wouldn't expect this migration to
> be done in any time short of 3-6 months.
>
> <soapbox>
>
> Don't have another machine to do testing? *Then it's time to get one and
> update your resume while you're at it. *Seriously, if a company that's
> risking their production environment without first doing the due
> diligence of getting the bugs out the first time because it's cheaper
> wouldn't hesitate to cut you loose on the first sign of trouble.
>
> </soapbox>
>
> --
> DeeDee, don't press that button! *DeeDee! *NO! *Dee...

You know what? all of other 2 folks agreed to do a fresh installation,
is there any reason NOT to do that?
I suggested to do a fresh installation af the very begining, however,
are there more risky than do an upgrade?

CAT wrote:
> On Mar 12, 3:48 pm, Michael Vilain <vil...@NOspamcop.net> wrote:
>
>>In article
>><db922e37-d400-4239-aab0-29cb07fdd...@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
>>
>> CAT <yinl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Hi, all,
>>
>>>We are trying to upgrade our oracle database server which is running
>>>Oracle9i from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10, I will appraciate if any gurus
>>>had such experience to share to give me some suggestions or head up.
>>>Thanks a lot. So far, I know I will need to break the Sun Volume
>>>Manager controlled root mirror, and do the oracle excutable relink. Do
>>>I have to upgrade to Solaris 9 then to 10? ( I prefer to go to 10
>>>directly ). Do I need to implement the latest recommended patch to
>>>Solaris 8 then upgrade?
>>
>>>Thanks a lot for any advice
>>
>>Try doing a "dry run" on a test machine first which is configured as
>>close to your production environment as you can manage. That way,
>>you'll have all the little surprises ironed out and a migration
>>procedure written down that you can follow when you've scheduled the
>>downtime on production. You'll also be able to give time estimates for
>>how long production will be down.
>>
>>Also be sure to have a "put it back the way it was" plan in case things
>>go pear shaped.
>>
>>1-practice breaking the root mirror and booting the system w/o it
>>
>>2-practice updating a Solaris 8 system to Solaris 10
>>The system startup is different on Solaris 10. Become familiar with
>>it's differences.
>>
>>Find out what patches you need. If you aren't on a support contract,
>>are the security patches enough for you to run?
>>
>>Now would also be a good time to look at how your file system is setup
>>in production and change it when you do the upgrade.
>>
>>How does your backup system change to accommodate the migration to
>>Solaris 10?
>>
>>3a-Install Oracle on Solaris 10
>>How does it boot and run differently than on your Solaris 8 system? Is
>>there any difference in shutting down, starting up, and backing up
>>Oracle on Solaris 10?
>>
>>3b-Import a copy of the production database on Oracle+Solaris 10
>>How does your application and environment run OK in this configuration?
>>Have a series of tests to run so that the application people don't come
>>to you after the upgrade and say you have to put it back because it
>>doesn't work.
>>
>>Any additional memory or disk requirements (or even a new server)? Now
>>would be a good time to upgrade. In fact, if you can run Solaris 8 on a
>>newer system that will eventually run the Solaris 10, I'd make migration
>>to newer hardware a prerequisite project. Then use the old system as
>>the test system once you cutover to the new hardware.
>>
>>This isn't a quick and dirty project you can just do overnight--although
>>if you get all the kinks ironed out the eventual migration will happen
>>over a night or at least a weekend. I wouldn't expect this migration to
>>be done in any time short of 3-6 months.
>>
>><soapbox>
>>
>>Don't have another machine to do testing? Then it's time to get one and
>>update your resume while you're at it. Seriously, if a company that's
>>risking their production environment without first doing the due
>>diligence of getting the bugs out the first time because it's cheaper
>>wouldn't hesitate to cut you loose on the first sign of trouble.
>>
>></soapbox>
>>
>>--
>>DeeDee, don't press that button! DeeDee! NO! Dee...
>
>
> You know what? all of other 2 folks agreed to do a fresh installation,
> is there any reason NOT to do that?
> I suggested to do a fresh installation af the very begining, however,
> are there more risky than do an upgrade?

If you do a fresh install, you lose everything in every partition that
the install uses. This may be what you want to do. But it means ALL
your scripts, all modifications you may have made to system supplied
scripts, etc.

The advantage is the you get rid of the cruft that inevitably seems to
accumulate on any system. Be sure to document all the configuration
that you need to do on the clean install.

And be sure that you have a good backup!



Be certain that you have a good backup of your system disk before you start!

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
> CAT wrote:
>>
>> You know what? all of other 2 folks agreed to do a fresh installation,
>> is there any reason NOT to do that?
>> I suggested to do a fresh installation af the very begining, however,
>> are there more risky than do an upgrade?
>
> If you do a fresh install, you lose everything in every partition that
> the install uses. This may be what you want to do. But it means ALL
> your scripts, all modifications you may have made to system supplied
> scripts, etc.
>
> The advantage is the you get rid of the cruft that inevitably seems to
> accumulate on any system. Be sure to document all the configuration
> that you need to do on the clean install.
>
Also bear in mind that in moving form Solaris 8 to 10, a good number of
those modified scripts may no longer be relevant. This is particularly
true if you have modified init scripts.

While an upgrade is possible and safe, I would be tempted to build a
fresh system with Solaris 10, load your applications and compare the
differences in behaviour between the two systems.

You should spend some time with the new system to learn the
administrative differences between the two versions.

--
Ian Collins.