RMAN Image Copy for Migrate, Upgrade, Patching, and Hardening a Large Oracle 12.2.0.1 File-Based VLDB to Oracle 19.20 With Asm Filter Driver (ASMFD)

We successfully Migrate more than 45TB of Oracle 12.2 database from the Oracle Linux 7.9 Physical Server to a New Redhat 8.8 Physical Server With Oracle RMAN Image Copy Technology.

Then Upgrade it from 12.2 File system based to 19.3 ASM Filter Driver Storage in the new Server and Patch the new Database until 19.20 latest CPU Hardening New database At OS level, and Database level.

This is the report of this project.

one of five servers of the NAK's Pars Oracle EDW pipeline database with more than 45TB in size was affected by rootkit malware. This server was OEL7.9 with Oracle Enterprise 12.2.0.1 with Linux LVM technology for data storage.

Since the reporting service is cut off due to security issues, we should quickly prepare a new Secure RHEL 8.8 Linux with Oracle 19.3 database server and harden and patch it as soon as possible.

Because of time limitations, we did not have enough time for backup and restore by rman as a common way. so we decided to use Oracle Image Copy for this project to just Migrate the DB to a new server, start it, and upgrade it to the latest Oracle 19c release. (Oracle & grid 19.20 )

To save time and reduce the migration risk, we decided to use an Oracle image copy for a full image copy backup of the source for migration to the new Server. We requested a new backup LUN and we created a larger XFS Linux mount point and used this path for rman image copy backup. It took about 45 hours to back up the Main DB as a Copy. You know that it is perfect for VLDB from RTO and minimum risk.

Then we dismounted the backup LUN and assigned this backup disk to the new RHEL 8.8 server. We mounted it with the XFS mount type, installed Oracle 12.2 on a new server, and then restored the DB to the backup path via the RMAN Switch to Copy option. It worked very well and Oracle 12.2 was migrated to a new RHEL8.8 physical Server.

The time for the upgrade was reached. DB was okay and we prepared to Upgrade DB to 19c. It should be upgraded to Oracle 19.20 with the ASM Filter driver option in the disk layer. We could not any documentation for a direct upgrade to Oracle 12c from NON-ASM to Oracle 19c with ASM Filter Driver. So

We divided this upgrade project into two separate tasks. One phase is upgraded to 19.20 and the second one moves data from FS to ASM.

For the upgrade, we used the Oracle auto-upgrade tool that was introduced in Oracle 18c.

We used the Follwong Document from our friend Mr Hassanpour:

https://mhassanpour.blog.ir/1399/04/07/Upgrade-Oracle-11g-to-19c-using-autoupgrade

It offers a straightforward and safe process in three steps: Analyze; Fixups; Deploy; and upgrade.

We had some problems with invalid objects and after many tries to resolve them, we ignored this error while applying the step of the upgrade with simple options.

It takes about 90 minutes to do the upgrade process. After that, we are in the new Oracle 19.20. We use Oracle image copy again to move the DB from FS to ASM. We just backed up a new db on the ASM path and switched the db to ASM.

It was easy and I am sure anyone could do it very well. For security, we should apply patches. After all of these steps, the security team penetrated the new server and reported some critical vulnerabilities and we fixed them again. We apply some additional Security patches such as OJVM and Oracle critical patch updates in July 2023.

All these tasks were done in one week and I think it might have been an excellent achievement for me and my good friend Alireza Monsefpour.Thanks for his advice and for attending to me during this heavy and time-limited project.