- You can upgrade Oracle 19c Autonomous Database to 26ai through a scheduled in-place upgrade or by creating a clone.
- In-place Upgrade: This method schedules an in-place upgrade from the Oracle Cloud (OCI) Console, which handles the process automatically during a designated time.
- You may select the earliest available schedule or a future schedule.
- Selecting the earliest available schedule for an upgrade will incur no additional charges.
- Scheduling an upgrade for a future date will reserve additional upgrade resources and will incur additional charges until the upgrade completes.
- Upgrade windows are available based on the size of the database, connected standbys, and refreshable clones. If a date is disabled in the scheduler, it is because the date falls outside available upgrade windows.
- Create a Clone: This method creates a new 26ai version of your 19c database with minimal downtime, allowing for a cutover later.
In this blog, I'll demonstrate upgrading Always Free ADB with the In-place Upgrade method.
Prerequisites:
- A free tier or paid Oracle Cloud account
- A provisioned Always free ADB
Steps to upgrade ADB with In-Place Upgrade
1. Open the OCI console navigation menu and select Oracle AI Database > Autonomous AI Database.
2. On the Autonomous AI Database page, select the right compartment and click on the 19c ADB database you want to upgrade.
3. On the ADB home page, navigate to the Autonomous AI Database Information tab page and click on the Schedule upgrade to 26ai button next to the Database version property.
4. On the Schedule upgrade to 26ai window, select the Schedule option from the Select Schedule drop list item, then click the Schedule button.
Note: You can only select the Earliest available schedule for Always Free ADB as this option doesn't incur additional charges.
5. A work request will be created to schedule the ADB upgrade to 26ai. Navigate to the Work requests tab page. Notice operation name "Upgrade Autonomous AI Database scheduled time for DB upgrade to 26ai".
6. Navigate back to the Autonomous AI Database Information tab page, and notice that the database upgrade is scheduled to run on the Earliest available schedule, as highlighted below.
Note: The database is still available until the upgrade is scheduled upgrade time. The database will not be available during the upgrade. Database upgrade duration depends on database size.
7. After Oracle has upgraded the database on the scheduled time, the database version is 26ai now.
