By Brian Fitzgerald

Here are a few notes on installing Oracle Database 12.2 binaries on a system with an existing grid 12.1 / Linux 6 64 bit installation.

Following these steps, in the order presented here, will avoid errors and delays.

Use only 64-bit OPatch

Error:

Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for 3145728KB object heap

3 GB! That’s a lot of RAM for just OPatch!

Here is a clue:

strace -f -o tr ./opatch lsinventory

…

[ Process PID=31538 runs in 32 bit mode. ]
[ Process PID=31536 runs in 64 bit mode. ]
[ Process PID=31579 runs in 32 bit mode. ]
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for 3145728KB object heap

Preventive:

On the Oracle Customer support download page for OPatch, the default is “Linux X86”, which is 32-bit. Perhaps you downloaded file p6880880_122010_LINUX.zip. You don’t want that. Select “Linux x86-64”.

File:

p6880880_122010_Linux-x86-64.zip

Make sure that OPatch is owned by oracle or grid, as appropriate.

error:

2017-07-01 19:26:08,028 WARNING [1] com.oracle.glcm.patch.auto.db.product.DBPatchingUtil – touch: cannot touch `/u01/app/12.1.0/grid/OPatch/auto/dbsessioninfo/localSessionInfoFile_stormking.txt’: Permission denied

Preventive:

chown -R grid /u01/app/12.1.0/grid/OPatch
chgrp -R oinstall /u01/app/12.1.0/grid/OPatch

Upgrade all OPatches on all grid and RBDMS homes to the most recent version.

Error:

The following Oracle Home(s) have opatch version lower than the expected version 12.1.0.1.7:
Location Version
/u01/app/12.1.0/grid 12.1.0.1.5

Preventive:

Download and install the latest OPatch into all RDBMS homes and the Grid home before you start.

Do not use opatch option -ocmrf

WARNING: the option -ocmrf is deprecated and no longer needed. OPatch no longer checks for OCM configuration.

Preventive: omit -ocmrf

Delete databases that are incompatible with your ocr, and re-add them later.

Error:

System Configuration Collection failed: oracle.osysmodel.driver.crs.productdriver.ProductDriverException: PRCD-1229 : An attempt to access configuration of database db11204 was rejected because its version 11.2.0.4.0 differs from the program version 12.1.0.2.0. Instead run the program from /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_2

Preventive:

issue srvctl delete database -d dbname for the problematic databases.

Re-add them later with (ex):

srvctl add database -d DB11204 -o /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_2

As an alternative, upgrade the database OCR registration.

Usage: srvctl upgrade database -db <db_unique_name> -oraclehome <oracle_home>

Apply patch 21255373 before attempting to upgrade grid 12.1

Patch 21255373 is mandatory. During gridSetup.sh, cvu checks for patch 21255373, and will not proceed.

Preventive: download and install patch 21255373 on top of grid 12.1

Upgrade grid before attempting to create a 12.2 database on ASM

Error:

cdb12201_asmb_17294.trc:2017-06-30 23:18:46.066 : [ CSSCLNT][ CSSCLNT]clsssInitNative: Connected to CSS daemon at a lower version, 12.1, which is not supported

Preventive:

Download and migrate to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.2.

Summary

If you want to create a 12.2 database on an existing 12.1 Linux grid, the steps in this  article can be followed to avoid difficulties.