The AutoUpgrade utility is designed to automate the upgrade process, both before starting upgrades, during upgrade deployments, and during postupgrade checks and configuration migration

When you perform upgrades, Oracle recommends that you download the most recent version of the AutoUpgrade Utility from My Oracle Support Document 2485457.1, and use autoupgrade.jar to prepare for and to deploy your upgrade. You use AutoUpgrade after you have downloaded binaries for the new Oracle Database release, and set up new release Oracle homes. When you use AutoUpgrade, you can upgrade multiple Oracle Database deployments at the same time, using a single configuration file, customized as needed for each database deployment.

The autoupgrade.jar file exists by default in the Oracle home. However, before you use AutoUpgrade, Oracle strongly recommends that you download the latest AutoUpgrade version. AutoUpgrade is included with each release update (RU), but the most recent AutoUpgrade version is always available from My Oracle Support Document 2485457.1.

The AutoUpgrade Analyze (analyze) processing mode checks your database to see if it is ready for upgrade.

When you run AutoUpgrade in Analyze mode, AutoUpgrade only reads data from the database, and does not perform any updates to the database. You can run AutoUpgrade using the Analyze mode during normal business hours. You can run AutoUpgrade in Analyze mode on your source Oracle Database home before you have set up your target release Oracle Database home.

You start AutoUpgrade in Analyze mode using the following syntax, where Java-8-home is the location of your Java 8 distribution, or the environment variable set for the Java 8 home, and path/yourconfig.txt is the path and filename of your configuration file:

Java-8-home/bin/java -jar autoupgrade.jar -config /path/yourconfig.txt -mode analyze

For example, suppose you have copied the most recent AutoUpgrade release to the new release Oracle home under rdbms/admin, and set an environment variable for that home to 21CHOME, and copied the configuration file under the Oracle user home, under the directory /scripts, and called it 21config.cfg, you then enter the following command:

java -jar $21CHOME/rdbms/admin/autoupgrade.jar -config /scratch/scripts/21config.cfg -mode analyze -mode analyze

Oracle Database Release 12.2 (12.2.0.1) or newer Oracle homes have a valid java version by default.

The AutoUpgrade Analyze mode produces two output files, which are given the name of the system identifier (SID) of the database that you check:

• SID.html: View this file using a web browser.

• SID_preupgrade.log: View this file using a text editor.

Each report identifies upgrade errors that would occur if you do not correct them, either by running an automatic fixup script, or by manual correction. If errors occur, then they are reported in the user log file, and also in the status.json file.

The Analyze mode also generates a status directory in the path cfgtoollogs/upgrade/auto/status. This directory contains files that indicate if the analysis was successful or failed. This directory has two JSON files, status.json and progress.json:

• status.json : A high-level status JSON file that contains the final status of the upgrade.
• progress.json: A JSON file that contains the current progress of all upgrades being performed on behalf of the configuration file. If errors occur, then they are reported in the log file of the user running AutoUpgrade, and also in the status.json file.

If your target database Oracle home is not available on the server, then in your configuration file, you must set the source Oracle home parameters to the same path, so that the AutoUpgrade analyze processing mode can run. For example:

#
# Source Home
#
sales3.source_home=d:\app\oracle\product\12.2.0\dbhome_1
#
# Target Oracle Home
#
sales3.target_home=d:\app\oracle\product\21.0.0\dbhome_1

Earlier releases of AutoUpgrade required you to set target_home. In later releases of AutoUpgrade, this restriction has been lifted for both Analyze and Fixups modes.

When your Oracle Database Source and Target Oracle homes are installed on the same physical server, use this example.

java -jar autoupgrade.jar -config config.txt -mode analyze

java -jar autoupgrade.jar -config config.txt -mode deploy

If the Oracle Database you plan to upgrade uses Oracle Database Vault, then you must disable Oracle Database Vault before starting the upgrade.

During the upgrade process, if your source Oracle Database uses Oracle Database Vault, then you must first disable Oracle Database Vault before you start the upgrade. .

You have two options you can use:

1. Use a manual procedure: Log on as the common Database Vault (DV) administrator in the CDB$ROOT and grant the DV_PATCH_ADMIN role to SYS, or log in and disable Oracle Database Vault on every container. Procedures vary slightly, depending on your upgrade scenario. This procedure is described in My Oracle Support, "Requirement for Upgrading Database with Database Vault (Doc ID 2757126.1)".
2. Download the latest AutoUpgrade Jar file, and perform the procedure described here.

With either option, when you run AutoUpgrade in Analyze mode, it detects that Oracle Database Vault is enabled, and indicates in its report that you must ensure the prerequisites for Oracle Database Vault and upgrade are met.