It’s true I learn something new all the time. Is it just me? Did everyone know about this?
I was talking to one of the other DBAs at work on Friday who was telling me that one of the dbs we’ve taken over looks like it wasn’t upgraded properly. I connected okay, v$version looked okay, so I asked him what he meant and he pointed me at dba_registry. (I’ve had to fake this slightly because it was 9i at work and I have 10g at home where I’m doing this – you’ll see what I mean in a minute)
SQL> l
1* select comp_id, comp_name, version, status from dba_registry
SQL> /
COMP_ID
------------------------------
COMP_NAME
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VERSION STATUS
------------------------------ -----------
CATALOG
Oracle Database Catalog Views
9.2.0.1.0 VALID
CATPROC
Oracle Database Packages and Types
9.2.0.1.0 VALID
The database was using 9.2.0.4 binaries and other databases that were showed 9.2.0.4 in dba_registry.
I have to be honest and say I didn’t know about this. He pointed out that I should from when I’ve applied patches, but I know I’ve upgraded plenty of dbs without checking this (although I always check the log files of dictionary scripts I’ve run).
Anyway, it was good to learn something new. So when I applied the 10.1.0.4.0 patch to my home set-up this weekend, I thought I’d check this view out again.
1* select comp_id, comp_name, version, status from dba_registry
SQL> /
COMP_ID
------------------------------
COMP_NAME
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VERSION STATUS
------------------------------ -----------
CATALOG
Oracle Database Catalog Views
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
CATPROC
Oracle Database Packages and Types
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
OWM
Oracle Workspace Manager
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
JAVAVM
JServer JAVA Virtual Machine
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
XML
Oracle XDK
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
CATJAVA
Oracle Database Java Packages
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
EXF
Oracle Expression Filter
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
ORDIM
Oracle interMedia
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
ODM
Oracle Data Mining
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
CONTEXT
Oracle Text
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
XDB
Oracle XML Database
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
APS
OLAP Analytic Workspace
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
XOQ
Oracle OLAP API
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
AMD
OLAP Catalog
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
SDO
Spatial
10.1.0.2.0 VALID
EM
Oracle Enterprise Manager
10.1.0.2.0 VALID16 rows selected.
I obviously have a lot more stuff installed at home, or this view shows more information in 10g. However, the version numbers aren’t 10.1.0.4.0 which means that it’s obviously not a sure-fire way of checking an upgrade’s been applied correctly. I suppose the dictionary may not have changed.
I’m intrigued – is this something that’s widely-known?