Before upgrading your Oracle WebCenter environment to 14c (14.1.2.0.0), you should understand how your pre-upgrade environment will be affected by the upgrade. Also, you must understand the difference between in place and out of place upgrades.

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.

• Oracle WebLogic Server, JRF and WebCenter Oracle Home Binaries - Upgraded Out of Place

  You install the Oracle Infrastructure 14c (14.1.2.0.0) (which includes WebLogic Server and JRF) and the Oracle WebCenter distribution binaries in a new Oracle home. The upgrade of binaries is considered out of place as the existing binaries are not overwritten.

• Schemas - Upgraded In Place

  The existing schemas are upgraded in place, which means that the Upgrade Assistant updates and overwrites the schemas during the upgrade process. The servers must be down during this process.

• Domain Directory Reconfiguration - Upgraded In Place

  The existing domain is upgraded in place. During the upgrade you identify the location of the existing 12c domain that will be reconfigured to point to the new 14c (14.1.2.0.0) home directory.

• Domain Component Configuration - Upgraded In Place

  After the reconfiguration of the existing domain, the Upgrade Assistant is used again to upgrade any remaining domain component configurations to point to the new 14c (14.1.2.0.0) home directory.

Before you begin your upgrade, verify that your components are eligible for an upgrade to this release. If a component is not at a supported starting point, then you must upgrade it to a supported starting point before you can start an upgrade to 14c (14.1.2.0.0).

The only supported starting point for Oracle WebCenter is 12c (12.2.1.4).

Before you begin the upgrade process, you should understand how all of the components within your existing domain will be impacted by the upgrade. Verify that components in your pre-upgrade environment will not have compatibility or interoperability issues post-upgrade.

In general, you cannot upgrade a domain that contains components that are not yet available or have been deprecated 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.