Very Computer

My company is running a 64-bit version of Oracle 8.1.6.1 on 64-bit Solaris7.

Recently, we have run into a problem with our application and Oracle.
The application vendor informs us about an Oracle patch that might address
our problem, BUT: The vendor is running 32-bit Oracle and OracleSupport
informs us that the aforementioned patch is not available for our platform.

We have raised this as an issue with the vendor, but the system owner wants
to know if 'downgrading' the server to 32-bit just to be able to apply this
patch(.!.)  can be possible.

First: Can it be done? (I kinda hope it's not..)
I'm quite new to Oracle and this whole idea appears quite stupid. Wouldn't
it defeat the purpose and advantages of 64-bits OS+DB? Wouldn't it be sort
of like teaching a dog to walk on two legs--possible, but not terribly
efficient..(Dog trainers: pls don't shoot me for this analogy)

Any insights appreciated

Knut E. Meidal
(Wannabe Oracle DBA)

Knut,

There is no problem in "downgrading" from 64 to 32 bit Oracle. All you need
to do is something like:

1) Install the 32-bit Oracle in a new ORACLE_HOME
2) Shutdown the database
3) Take a full backup! (Just in case something goes wrong)
4) Change ORACLE_HOME from the 64-bit Oracle to the 32-bit Oracle
5) Startup database
6) As internal run the script: $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlirp (which
invalidates and recompiles all PL/SQL)
7) You are up and running! (You might want to do a backup at this stage)

The main disadvantage with 32-bit Oracle compared to 64-bit Oracle is that
you cannot address as large amounts of memory, so unless you have a real
need for a large SGA nothing is wrong with using the 32-bit version (it is
definitely not slower!).

About the patch: If the bug mentioned cannot be backported to 8.1.6.1 (talk
to Oracle Support about this) then perhaps it is an option for you to
upgrade to 8.1.7 instead (assuming the bug is fixed here)?

HTH,
Gollum

Quote:> My company is running a 64-bit version of Oracle 8.1.6.1 on 64-bit
Solaris7.

> Recently, we have run into a problem with our application and Oracle.
> The application vendor informs us about an Oracle patch that might address
> our problem, BUT: The vendor is running 32-bit Oracle and OracleSupport
> informs us that the aforementioned patch is not available for our
platform.

> We have raised this as an issue with the vendor, but the system owner
wants
> to know if 'downgrading' the server to 32-bit just to be able to apply
this
> patch(.!.)  can be possible.

> First: Can it be done? (I kinda hope it's not..)
> I'm quite new to Oracle and this whole idea appears quite stupid. Wouldn't
> it defeat the purpose and advantages of 64-bits OS+DB? Wouldn't it be sort
> of like teaching a dog to walk on two legs--possible, but not terribly
> efficient..(Dog trainers: pls don't shoot me for this analogy)

> Any insights appreciated

> Knut E. Meidal
> (Wannabe Oracle DBA)

it is not at all unusual for releases and patches to be available first
in 32-bit, and for the port to 64-bit to lag behind.

the only reason i would have for migrating to a 64-bit release of oracle
would be to support an SGA of over 2GB  (the maximum allowed with
32-bit oracle).  following oracle's sizing recommendations, that would
require a minimum of 4GB of RAM on the database server.

there is no significant difference in performance between the 32-bit
and 64-bit oracle releases.  the difference is the maximum allowed size
of the SGA.

the two-legged dog analogy is comical, but way off target.

HTH

Quote:> My company is running a 64-bit version of Oracle 8.1.6.1 on 64-bit
Solaris7.

> Recently, we have run into a problem with our application and Oracle.
> The application vendor informs us about an Oracle patch that might address
> our problem, BUT: The vendor is running 32-bit Oracle and OracleSupport
> informs us that the aforementioned patch is not available for our
platform.

> We have raised this as an issue with the vendor, but the system owner
wants
> to know if 'downgrading' the server to 32-bit just to be able to apply
this
> patch(.!.)  can be possible.

> First: Can it be done? (I kinda hope it's not..)
> I'm quite new to Oracle and this whole idea appears quite stupid. Wouldn't
> it defeat the purpose and advantages of 64-bits OS+DB? Wouldn't it be sort
> of like teaching a dog to walk on two legs--possible, but not terribly
> efficient..(Dog trainers: pls don't shoot me for this analogy)

> Any insights appreciated

> Knut E. Meidal
> (Wannabe Oracle DBA)

Thanks for your timely response. Seems like this is not as big an issue as I
feared.

Quote:

> the two-legged dog analogy is comical, but way off target.

Yeah, sorry about that.. Only I could think of to illustrate "possible, but
try another solution.." But I'm learning new Oracle stuff all the time.

K

If had not done so, you want to change you /var/opt/oracle/oratab file
to the new ORACLE_HOME then do the shutdown startup