Preface

This manual guides you through the process of planning and executing Oracle Database upgrades. In addition, this manual provides information about compatibility, upgrading applications, and important changes in the new Oracle Database release, such as initialization parameter changes and data dictionary changes.

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide contains information that describes the features and functions of Oracle Database (also known as the standard edition) and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition products. Oracle Database and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition have the same basic features. However, several advanced features are available only with the Enterprise Edition, and some of these are optional. For example, to use application failover, you must have the Enterprise Edition with the Oracle Real Application Clusters option.

This preface contains these topics:

• Audience

• Documentation Accessibility

• Related Documentation

• Conventions

Audience

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide is intended for database administrators (DBAs), application developers, security administrators, system operators, and anyone who plans or executes Oracle Database upgrades.

To use this document, you must be familiar with the following:

• Relational database concepts

• Your current release of Oracle Database

• Your operating system environment

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to all users, including users that are disabled. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing Access to Oracle Support Services

To reach Oracle Support Services, use a telecommunications relay service (TRS) to call Oracle Support at 1.800.223.1711. An Oracle Support Services engineer will handle technical issues and provide customer support according to the Oracle service request process. Information about TRS is available at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trs.html, and a list of phone numbers is available at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/trsphonebk.html.

Related Documentation

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

• "The Upgrade Companion" Web site available in Note 785351.1 on My Oracle Support at http://metalink.oracle.com/.

• Oracle Database Concepts for a comprehensive introduction to the concepts and terminology used in this manual

• Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about administering Oracle Database

• Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for information on Oracle Database SQL commands and functions

• Oracle Database Utilities for information about utilities bundled with Oracle Database, including Data Pump, Export, Import, and SQL*Loader

• Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide for information about Oracle Net Services

• Oracle Database Enterprise User Security Administrator's Guide for information about Oracle Label Security

• Oracle Database High Availability Best Practices for Oracle operational best practices and help choosing an upgrade method that will minimize downtime.

Many of the examples in this guide use the sample schemas, which are installed by default when you select the Basic Installation option with an Oracle Database installation. Refer to Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information on how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.

Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document: