Credits go to Cameron Hodge who highlighted this issue to me following my previous entry about RMAN - and sorry for any disappointment but I wasn't aware of this.
Ok, you'd upgrade your RMAN Catalog to be ready to backup/recover Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 databases and you see this error:
RMAN> upgrade catalog;error creating create_deleted_object_seq
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-06004: ORACLE error from recovery catalog database:ORA-00439: feature not enabled: Partitioning
Now you start to wonder as your Catalog Database had been an Oracle Standard Edition (SE) database for quite a while - and of course an SE database does not have Partitioning on. And on the side the Oracle Partitioning Option is licensable option.
First of all this new behavior gets introduced with Oracle Database 12.1.0.2. And as far as I know it is not documented in relation to the "upgrade catalog".
The valid workaround leads to a new feature called Infrastructure Repository Database - which is always an EE database without the need for extra licensening as all feature will be used only by Oracle internal mechanisms.
Licensing doc:http://docs.oracle.com/database/121/DBLIC/editions.htm#DBLIC119
Infrastructure Repository DatabasesA separate single instance Oracle Database can be installed and used as an infrastructure repository for RMAN, Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) Warehouse, Global Data Services Catalog, and Grid Infrastructure Management Repository without additional license requirements, provided that all the targets are correctly licensed. It may not be used or deployed for other uses.
The infrastructure repositories for RMAN, Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, AWR Warehouse, and Global Data Services Catalog can be shared in one database, or deployed in separate databases. Enterprise Edition must be used for the infrastructure repository database(s).
Furthermore the Recovery Manager documentation mentions this:
Creating and Managing Virtual Private Catalogs with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2)
Note:
Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2), virtual private catalogs can be used only with the Enterprise Edition of the Oracle Database. This functionality is not supported for the Standard Edition.
Now this is a bit misleading as most of you won't use the Virtual Private Catalogs - but even though you may not use it still some of the functionality is in your catalog already. And therefore every RMAN catalog beginning with Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 must be hosted in an Enterprise Edition database which does not require an EE license.
The next question is:
How do I migrate my catalog into an EE database?
There are two options whereas I'd prefer the one mentioned in the RMAN documentation:
- Import the RMAN catalog
- Please see the doc - it's fairly straight forward
- Migrate your database to become an EE
- Please see the Upgrade Guide - also fairly simple and straight forward
-Mike