DB071 Zero-Downtime Application Upgrades with EBR Made Easy

Do you shut your Oracle-based system down for application upgrades? Do you upgrade only at nights and weekends (when you are tired and angry) for minimizing downtime? I don’t, for more than 5 years now, because I use Edition-Based Redefinition. Join this session and learn from my experience.

Edition-Based Redefinition (EBR) is a powerful feature of Oracle (added in version 11.2), that enables application upgrades with zero downtime, while the application is actively used and operational. I have been using it on a daily basis for 5 years now, in a production site that requires frequent application upgrades with very limited downtime, and find it very useful and fascinating. Join this session to learn how to use EBR, see many live examples, and get tips from real-life experience in a production site using EBR extensively.

I have been using EBR in a production site that requires frequent application upgrades with very limited downtime, and find it very useful and fascinating. To my surprise, this feature is rarely used, although it is included in all Oracle Editions and requires no extra license, option or pack. I think the reason is that only few know about it, and I take various opportunities to share my experience with EBR with fellow developers and DBAs.