Oracle Patching in Multitenant Environment with Minimal Downtime

Starting 12c, it is even easier to patch/upgrade existing databases if you have already employed multitenant environment. To do patching in multitenant environment, we can install a new Oracle home and patch it to the level we want to patch, and then run requited scripts (post-patch scripts) in the container database (CDB). At this point, you will have 2 oracle homes, one new and one old home where you have current pluggable database(s) running (which remain available while we install and patch new oracle home).

Unplugging and Plugging in of a Pluggable Database

In a multitenant environment we can unplug a pluggable database (PDB) from a container database (CDB), and then plug it into another CDB. After we unplug a PDB, it needs to be dropped from dba CDB as it become unusable in this CDB. We can plug the same PDB back into the same CDB as well. In this article I will explain how we perform this operation. I will unplug a database and plug it back in the same CDB, method of plugging it into a different CDB is essentially the same.

Point in Time Recovery of a Pluggable Database

In this article I will explain how we can perform a point in time recovery for a single pluggable database. Point in time recovery of a single pluggable database would not have any effect on other pluggable databases in the same container database, or container database itself. In the following, a real time scenario of a pluggable database point in time recovery is explained. Following are the points to consider this scenario.