The table below shows the major comparable steps in the 11i to 12.1.3 upgrade and the 12.1.3 to 12.2.6. The highlighted sections in the 12.2.6 upgrade indicate the new steps relative to past upgrades. These new sections, while they don’t take very long to complete during the downtime window, require extensive effort to prepare the instance for the upgrade.

For example, the more customizations you have, the longer it will take to make sure your customizations are minimally compliant to the Release 12.2 development standards. The process of updating your customizations to match new table structures is still a major part of fixing your customizations, but now you must also make sure your customizations are at least minimally compliant.

The second new step highlighted below requires your database (DB) and middle tier (MT) to be patched to a level specified in the ETCC scripts, checkDBpatch.sh and checkMTpatch.sh. While these scripts are easy to run, it’s not always straightforward to resolve patch conflicts in the database or the middle tier. This step is complicated because the list of required patches is continuously changing.

It’s not so much that these new steps are difficult, but they are new and different from all previous upgrades and take some time to understand and implement.

Upgrade to 12.1.3                               Upgrade to 12.2.6

11i  -> 12.1.3                                       12.1.3  -> 12.2.6

Major Functional Changes                  Major Technical Changes

11i pre-upgrade patches                     12.1.3 pre-upgrade patches

Upgrade to 12.1.1 (16 hours)              Upgrade to 12.2.0 (8 hours)

1) Online Enablement Patch –

Requires minimal compliance

for customizations

2) DB and MT to have all patches

specified by ETCC

Upgrade to 12.1.3                                Upgrade to 12.2.6