1 Introduction to Oracle SOA Suite and Business Process Management Upgrade
Understanding the Oracle SOA Suite and Business Process Management Upgrade to 14c (14.1.2.0.0)
Understand how your pre-upgrade environment will be affected by the upgrade.
When upgrading your existing SOA Suite 12c environment to SOA Suite and Business Process Management 14c (14.1.2.0.0), you should understand how your pre-upgrade environment will be affected by the upgrade. For example, schemas and domain directory upgrades are performed "in place" which updates the existing files during the upgrade. The 14c (14.1.2.0.0) Oracle home binaries are upgraded "out of place" as the binaries are installed in a new directory.
The upgrade to 14c (14.1.2.0.0) includes the midtier and the schemas. You cannot perform a midtier-only or schema-only upgrade.
The list below describes how the upgrade is performed for the following Infrastructure and SOA Suite components:
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Oracle WebLogic Server, JRF and SOA Oracle Home Binaries
You will install the Oracle Infrastructure ( WebLogic Server and JRF) 14c (14.1.2.0.0) and the Oracle SOA Suite and Business Process Management 14c (14.1.2.0.0) distribution binaries in a new Oracle home. The existing binaries are not overwritten.
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Schemas - Upgraded In Place
The schemas are upgraded "in place" which means that the Upgrade Assistant updates and overwrites the existing 12c schemas during the upgrade process. The servers must be down during this process.
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Instances - Migrated during the schema upgrade
The upgrade of active and closed instances happens automatically as part of the schema upgrade. You can manage the upgrade using administration scripts.
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Domain Directory Reconfiguration - Upgraded In Place
The existing SOA domain is upgraded "in place". During the upgrade you will provide the location of the existing 12c SOA domain and this domain will be reconfigured to point to the new SOA 14c (14.1.2.0.0) home directory.
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Domain Component Configuration - Upgraded In Place
After the reconfiguration of the existing SOA domain, the Upgrade Assistant is used again to upgrade any remaining domain component configurations that require an upgrade in the new SOA 14c (14.1.2.0.0) home directory.
Note:
Oracle recommends that you perform your domain upgrades in place. However, if an out-of-place domain upgrade is required, see Performing an Out-of-Place Domain Directory Upgrade in Planning an Upgrade of Oracle Fusion Middleware
Understanding the Starting Points for a SOA Suite 14c (14.1.2.0.0) Upgrade
Verify that your pre-upgrade environment is at a supported version before an upgrade.
You can upgrade to Oracle SOA Suite and Business Process Management 14c (14.1.2.0.0) from the following production starting points:
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SOA Suite and Business Process Management 12c (12.2.1.4.0)
Note:
Upgrading from a previous 12c release to 14c (14.1.2.0.0) requires a complete upgrade — it is not considered a patch set.
Understanding the Interoperability and Compatibility Restrictions Before You Upgrade
Read and understand how all of the components within your pre-upgrade domain will interact with the upgraded 14c (14.1.2.0.0) components.
Before you begin the upgrade process for SOA Suite and BPM to 14c (14.1.2.0.0) you must read and understand how all of the components within your existing domain will be impacted by the upgrade. Understanding Interoperability and Compatibility provides a detailed matrix of which components can and cannot be upgraded together.
In general, you cannot upgrade a domain that contains components that are not yet available in Oracle Fusion Middleware 14c (14.1.2.0.0). There are other restrictions on the components that can be upgraded to 14c (14.1.2.0.0) and you need to be sure that you have reviewed this information carefully before you proceed with the upgrade.
Understanding SOA Domain Upgrade Restrictions
Review the domain upgrade restrictions before starting the upgrade.
Some domains should not be upgraded to 14c (14.1.2.0.0) because of known limitations and configuration changes from previous Fusion Middleware releases. Review the following to ensure your domains are not impacted by these restrictions. Domains that are impacted by these restrictions cannot be upgraded.
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Domains that include SOA Core Extension cannot be upgraded in–place to 14c (14.1.2.0.0).
If your pre-upgrade environment contains SOA Core Extension, then you cannot upgrade to this release of Oracle Fusion Middleware. An upgrade of these products is not supported in 14c (14.1.2.0.0). If you want to include these products in your 14c (14.1.2.0.0) domain, you will have to manually migrate the files. Contact Oracle Support for more information.
- Domains that include Oracle Enterprise Repository cannot be upgraded
in-place to 14c (14.1.2.0.0)
If your pre-upgrade domain includes Oracle Enterprise Repository (OER), then you cannot upgrade to this release of Oracle Fusion Middleware. An upgrade of these products is not supported in 14c (14.1.2.0.0). If you want to include these products in your 14c (14.1.2.0.0) domain, you will have to manually migrate the files. Contact Oracle Support for more information..
Understanding the Standard SOA Upgrade Topologies
Your actual topology may vary, but the topologies described in this guide can be used to upgrade similar SOA Suite component topologies.
This upgrade documentation provides detailed instructions for upgrading two typical SOA Suite configurations. These topologies are referred to as the Oracle Fusion Middleware standard upgrade topologies. Specifically, for the purposes of this guide, a standard installation topology consists of a WebLogic Server domain that contains an Administration Server and a cluster containing two Managed Servers or a standalone domain.
A standalone domain is a container for system components, such as Oracle HTTP Server. It has a directory structure similar to an Oracle WebLogic Server domain, but it does not contain an Administration Server or Managed Servers. It can contain one or more instances of system components of the same type, such as Oracle HTTP Server, or a mix of system component types. For more information on the standalone topology, see What Is a Standalone Domain?