• Arpit Narula
    • Jan 2
    • 4 min read

Cut the Clutter: SOA Upgrade from 12.2.1.x to 12.2.1.4

Updated: Jan 4

Introduction: Oracle SOA Suite 12.2.1.4 was released on Sep 27, 2019, and is the latest SOA release in the market. The complete upgrade process is listed in Oracle SOA Upgrade Documentation, however, it is too exhaustive and a bit hard to follow. https://docs.oracle.com/en/middleware/fusion-middleware/12.2.1.4/fupss/preface.html#GUID-97108791-B395-4339-824C-2E8404C54DAD

Hence, to simplify the upgrade exercise, I have divided it into several activities that are explained in detail below. And have also listed several issues that you might encounter during the upgrade and their corresponding action plans.


Here is the list of activities we need to complete for the upgrade task.

1. Obtain the 12.2.1.4 Installer

2. Capture the Current Versions

3. Capture key configurations

4. Domain Shutdown and Backup

5. Infrastructure 12.2.1.4 Install

6. SOA 12.2.1.4 Install

7. Upgrade Readiness Check

8. Schema Upgrade

9. Domain Reconfiguration

10. Component Upgrade

11. Reconfigure Plan XMLs

12. Re-import SSL Certificates

13. Necessary Patching/Other fixes

14. Domain Startup

15. Capture the New Versions

Now let's start the upgrade activity and follow the above sections in given order:


Obtain the 12.2.1.4 Installer

For SOA Upgrade you would need 2 installers and a bundle patch

V983368-01.zip - Infrastructure 12.2.1.4 Installer

V983383-01.zip - SOA 12.2.1.4 Installer

Patch 31396632 - 12.2.1.4 Bundle Patch 200524 (12.2.1.4.200524)


Installers can be obtained from Oracle Edelivery and Patch can be downloaded from Oracle Support Portal.


Capture the current versions

OS

JAVA

DB Schema

SOA

WebLogic

Capture Key Configurations

Oracle Homes: These values will be referred in various GUI screens to follow during the upgrade process.

  • SOA HOME: /oracle/wls/12c/soa

  • WLS HOME: /oracle/wls/12c/wlserver

  • JAVA HOME: /usr/java8_64/jre/

  • DOMAIN HOME: /oracle/wls/12c/user_projects/domains/soa

  • FMW HOME: /oracle/wls/12c

Domain Shutdown and Backup

Shutdown the SOA domain and take the following backups:

  • Orainventory file: mv oraInventory oraInventory_backup12212

  • Product/Binaries: mv 12c 12c_backup12212_new

  • Domain: I had the domain in 12c folder only so no separate backup required. However it is good practice to have Binary and Domain in separate folder structures. I have created a new 12c folder that will hold the new binaries and also copied over the domain from the backed up folders.

cd /oracle/wls/

mkdir 12c

cd /oracle/wls/12c_backup12212_new

tar -cvz user.tar user_projects/

mv user.tar ../12c/

tar -xvf user.tar

  • SOA Database: You can use RMAN or FLASHBACK to take the SOA Database Backup

Infrastructure 12.2.1.4 Install

Now all backups are done and domain is shutdown. We are good to proceed with the installation activities.

Important Note: Do not install weblogic from fmw_12.2.1.4.0_wls.jar as it will result in error while installing SOA on top of it. WLS jar does not have required components to support SOA. You need to install weblogic and other components from fmw_12.2.1.4.0_infrastructure.jar (Doc ID 1904280.1)


Unzip the Installer:

Execute the Installer:

Screenshots: I have added the key screenshots below.

SOA 12.2.1.4 Install

After Infrastructure Installation we need to install SOA 12.2.1.4. We will install it in the new FMW home that we created during backup stage.

Unzip the installer:

Execute the installer:

Screenshots: In 3rd screenshot, BPM will include SOA and BPM both for upgrade

Upgrade Readiness Check

This step is executed to make sure that all components are in proper to be upgraded. In case some schemas having custom objects and locked objects, you will see warning/errors in this step.

Execute Readiness Check:

Key Screenshots:

Schema Upgrade

Now the readiness check is successfully done and we are good to execute the Database schema upgrade. Here you will notice that not all schemas are getting upgraded to 12.2.1.4, some of those will remain in their existing version as there are no changes introduced in those for this upgrade.


Schema Upgrade Execution:

Key Screenshot:

*Below warning can be ignored


Domain Reconfiguration

Execute Domain Reconfiguration:

Key Screenshots:

Any Schema connection error should be resolved before proceeding further. We had faced issues with account locked and incorrect port details in the environment that were resolved during the upgrade.

Component Upgrade

In this section, we are required to upgrade the WebLogic domain components such as JRF, WSM etc.


Execute Component Upgrade:

Key Screenshots:

Reconfigure Plan XMLs

If the plan XMLs are located inside the product home directories, we need to move them to new oracle home directories that are created in new Product home.

Copy the following to new Product home:

/oracle/wls/12c_backup12214/ soa/soa/Plan.xml /oracle/wls/12c_backup12214/ soa/soa/Plan1.xml /oracle/wls/12c_backup12214/ soa/soa/Plan_AQ.xml /oracle/wls/12c_backup12214/ soa/soa/applications/Plan.xml /oracle/wls/12c_backup12214/ soa/soa/connectors/Plan.xml

To

/oracle/wls/12c/soa/soa/Plan.xml /oracle/wls/12c/soa/soa/Plan1.xml /oracle/wls/12c/soa/soa/Plan_AQ.xml /oracle/wls/12c/soa/soa/applications/Plan.xml /oracle/wls/12c/soa/soa/connectors/Plan.xml


Best Practice:

For Clusters: Keep Plan XMLs in a shared location

For Standalone: Keep Plan XMLs outside the Product home


Re-import SSL certificates

As the Demotrust keystore resides in weblogic home, we need to move the old keystore to new oracle home.

mv $WLS_HOME/server/lib/DemoTrust.jks $WLS_HOME/server/lib/DemoTrust.jks_bkup

cp $OLD_WLS_HOME/server/lib/DemoTrust.jks $WLS_HOME/server/lib/


Necessary Patching and other fixes


Issue 1:

ORABPEL-15235 - Failed To Translate JSON To XML. Cannot Normalize!

Resolution:

Patch 31396632: 12.2.1.4 Bundle Patch 200524 (12.2.1.4.200524) in your 12.2.1.4

Please Note: This patch is mandatory after the upgrade as many features were not working after the upgrade and some of the components were still showing the previous version despite the successful upgrade.


Issue 2:

Deployment failed with ANT not found error

Resolution:

Copied over ANT related modules from old binary backup

ANT Copy

cd /oracle/wls/12c_backup12212_new/oracle_common/modules/

tar cvf ant.jar org.apache.ant_1.9.2/

mv ant.jar /oracle/wls/12c/oracle_common/modules

cd /oracle/wls/12c/oracle_common/modules

tar xvf ant.jar

rm ant.jar


ANTCONTRIB Copy

cd /oracle/wls/12c_backup12212_new/oracle_common/modules/

tar cvf sf.jar net.sf.antcontrib_1.1.0.0_1-0b3/

mv sf.jar /oracle/wls/12c/oracle_common/modules/

cd /oracle/wls/12c/oracle_common/modules

tar xvf sf.jar

rm sf.jar


Issue 3:

Custom XA Data Sources were reverted to Non XA Driver after the upgrade

Resolution:

Verify the drivers for XA Datasources post upgrade. If its non-XA driver (oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver), update to XA driver (oracle.jdbc.xa.client.OracleXADataSource) from Admin console.


Restart Domain and verify the versions

Schema Version:

WebLogic Version:

SOA Version:

Conclusion:

However it is a minor version upgrade but from 12c onwards we need to do a complete installation and re-configuration of existing domain to upgrade SOA. A thorough testing of all critical composites, Data Sources (especially using XA drivers), SSL outbound calls and JSON based REST services is advised.

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