Lab resources for practicing Oracle database upgrades from 11g/12c to 21c using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources.
Older versions of Oracle (pre-12.2) do not enjoy a direct path upgrade to 21c. Instead, users must first upgrade the older database to an intermediate version, then migrate that database to 21c. At some point, the older, non-Container Database (non-CDB) must be converted to a Pluggable Database (PDB). In this lab, that's performed in the final, non-CDB to PDB migration step.
This lab uses Docker images and prepared snapshots, allowing students to quickly refresh the lab to any point. It runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure but does not use Always-Free resources. However, it will run on an Oracle Free Tier account using credits during the introductory period. Cost for running the lab is approximately $2.50/day for block storage and $3-5/day for compute resources. Compute doesn't incur charges if the instance is stopped. It is possible to run this on Always Free resources but the performance and experience are poor. Setup takes a very long time due to bandwidth limits on Always Free compute; rebuilding the lab is time-consuming; the upgrade process is slow; and we have to "trick" Oracle to get it to run two databases (source, target) on a machine with 1GB RAM.
To deploy this lab on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, create a new Always Free Tier account, log in to an existing Free Tier account during the trial period, or log into a paid account.
Then, click on the "Deploy to Oracle Cloud" button:
Accept the Oracle Terms of Use and click the "Next" button.
Confirm that you have accepted the License Agreement by checking the box.
Select the source database version, either 11 (for 11.2.0.4) or 12 (for 12.1.0.2).
Check "Show advanced options" and uncheck the "Auto-generate SSH key" box if you want to add your own SSH key.
Add or paste an SSH key. How to generate an SSH key
Click the "Next" button. On the next page, make sure the "Run Apply" checkbox is checked, then click the "Create" button.
Resource Manager will begin building the stack. It will take 30-35 minutes.
When the job completes, the "RMJ" box turns green and a new tab will appear (you may need to reload the page) titled "Application Information". Select this tab and copy the "Compute instance public IP".
Open a terminal or shell session on your local machine and enter the following command, substituting the path to your SSH key and the public IP address of the compute instance you just copied from OCI:
ssh -l opc -i <path to your key> <compute public IP address>
Full provisioning takes roughly 33 minutes. The instance is ready when the last line of /tmp/setup-docker.log reads Docker and database setup is complete.