Upgrading Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11gR2 to 18c

Here I would be discussing how to upgrade Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.4) Grid Infrastructure to Oracle 18c (18.0.0.0) on the same server. This upgrade process was done on Linux 7 (x86_64).

1. Before the GI upgrade backup the OCR manually. This could be used in downgrading the GI from 18.0.0.0 to 11.2.0.4 later one. If you want to know how we install the database to 18c click here.
2. Download the Oracle Grid Infrastructure image file, create the Grid home directory, and extract the image files in this Grid home directory.

Unzipping the 18c Grid binaries

mkdir -p /u01/app/18.0.0.0/grid
chown oracle:oinstall /u01/app/18.0.0.0/grid
cd /u01/app/18.0.0.0/grid
unzip -q /u01/sw/18cgrid.zip

Before the upgrade check GI active version is 11.2.0.4 and upgrade state

[oracle@RAC18C ~]$ crsctl query crs releaseversion
Oracle High Availability Services release version on the local node is [11.2.0.4.0]
[oracle@RAC18C ~]$ crsctl query crs softwareversion
Oracle Clusterware version on node [rac18c] is [11.2.0.4.0]
[oracle@RAC18C ~]$ crsctl query crs activeversion -f
Oracle Clusterware active version on the cluster is [11.2.0.4.0]. The cluster upgrade state is [NORMAL].
[oracle@RAC18C ~]$

Verify the prerequisites with “runcluvfy”. Full log attached here: cluvfylog

./runcluvfy.sh stage -pre crsinst -upgrade -rolling -src_crshome /u01/app/11.2.0/grid -dest_crshome /u01/app/18.0.0.0/grid -dest_version 18.0.0.0.0 -fixup -verbose

Pre-check for cluster services setup was unsuccessful.
Checks did not pass for the following nodes:
rac18c

Failures were encountered during execution of CVU verification request "stage -pre crsinst".

Verifying Physical Memory ...FAILED
rac18c: PRVF-7530 : Sufficient physical memory is not available on node
"rac18c" [Required physical memory = 8GB (8388608.0KB)]

Verifying Network Time Protocol (NTP) ...FAILED

CVU operation performed: stage -pre crsinst
Date: Mar 12, 2018 3:47:48 AM
CVU home: /u01/app/18.0.0.0/grid/
User: oracle
[oracle@RAC18C grid]$

While pre-checking I found there were some prerequisites missing.

• In 18c, we need 8GB of RAM per node, as I have my test lab, so I will go to ignore this.
• There was a bug on NTP (PRVG-13602) confirmed by support with bug number (24314803) but unfortunately this bug fix is not released, they confirmed to ignore this and go further.
• There is must be July 2017  PSU or later installed before proceeding for upgrading.

Run the installer and select upgrade GI to continue the upgrade on OUI.
Starting with Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12c Release 2 (12.2), the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software is available as an image file for download and installation. You must extract the image software into the directory where you want your Grid home to be located, and then run the gridSetup.sh script to start the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

To use upgrade Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster:

Start the Grid Setup Wizard:

[oracle@RAC18C ~]$ cd /u01/app/18.0.0.0/grid/
[oracle@RAC18C grid]$ ./gridSetup.sh
Launching Oracle Grid Infrastructure Setup Wizard...

On the Select Installation Option page, select Upgrade Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

On the Oracle Grid Infrastructure Node Selection page, review the nodes you want to upgrade. Additionally, you can choose not to upgrade nodes that are down.
Continue adding your information on the remaining wizard pages.

As I told earlier we can ignore NTP related issues.

For the output log, RootUpgrade.log

After the upgrade, we can the status of software version and CRS

[oracle@RAC18C ~]$ crsctl query crs releaseversion
Oracle High Availability Services release version on the local node is [18.0.0.0.0]
[oracle@RAC18C ~]$ crsctl query crs softwareversion -all
Oracle Clusterware version on node [rac18c] is [18.0.0.0.0]
[oracle@RAC18C ~]$ crsctl query crs activeversion -f
Oracle Clusterware active version on the cluster is [18.0.0.0.0]. The cluster upgrade state is [NORMAL].
[oracle@RAC18C ~]$

Cheers!!! we completed the upgrade from 11gr2 to 18c.

Next, we can upgrade the Oracle database 11204 to 12201 manually or with DBUA

Stay tuned for More articles on Oracle 18c 

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