Upgrading an Encrypted Non-CDB or CDB

AutoUpgrade + TDE 2 Minutes

Upgrading a non-CDB or an entire CDB is straightforward with AutoUpgrade. There is only one requirement:

  • An auto-login keystore must be present.

Upgrade Non-CDB and CDB

The auto-login keystore enables the database to open the TDE keystore without a DBA manually entering the keystore password. During a database upgrade, the database will restart multiple times. The upgrade process embeds the restarts, and there is no way for a DBA to intervene halfway to enter the TDE keystore password. Hence, it is required to use an auto-login keystore.

You can query the database for the type of the TDE keystore:

SQL> select wallet_type from v$encryption_wallet;

AUTOLOGIN

It must be an AUTOLOGIN keystore or a LOCAL_AUTOLOGIN. I like the local autologin keystore because it adds an additional layer of security.

When a proper keystore is in place, you can start the upgrade.

Keystore Location and WALLET_ROOT

The Oracle Database must know where to find the TDE keystore. It will look in the following locations in the following order:

  • As of Oracle Database 19c, WALLET_ROOT initialization parameter.
  • ENCRYPTION_WALLET_LOCATION sqlnet.ora parameter.
  • $ORACLE_BASE/admin/DB_UNIQUE_NAME/wallet
  • $ORACLE_HOME/admin/DB_UNIQUE_NAME/wallet

Oracle recommends using the parameter WALLET_ROOT when your database is on Oracle Database 19c. The parameter is introduced in Oracle Database 19c, and all other methods have been deprecated.

It is easier to configure the TDE keystore using WALLET_ROOT than sqlnet.ora. AutoUpgrade can implement the changes needed to switch to the WALLET_ROOT parameter as part of an upgrade . I recommend doing that.

TNS_ADMIN

Often, sqlnet.ora defines the TDE keystore configuration. This means that the TNS_ADMIN location is important.

TNS_ADMIN defaults to $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin. But sometimes, it is relocated either via a profile (like .bashrc) or using srvctl setenv database. AutoUpgrade fully supports both methods.

But it does happen from time to time that there are issues with the TNS_ADMIN location. Recently, I saw it at a customer. The customer used a dedicated sqlnet.ora for each database. The parameter ENCRYPTION_WALLET_LOCATION was unique in each of the sqlnet.ora files. They had issues with their profiles and AutoUpgrade picked up the wrong sqlnet.ora. This caused AutoUpgrade to report issues with the TDE keystore during analyze phase.

Luckily, there is functionality in AutoUpgrade to override the TNS_ADMIN location:

You can put them into the config file. AutoUpgrade will set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable before executing any command. That will effectively override any other TNS_ADMIN setting:

upg1.target_tns_admin_dir=/etc/oracle/keystores/DB12

Usually, I would not recommend using these parameters. In most cases, the correct TNS_ADMIN location is set and all is good. Use only when you encounter issues.

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