DOWNgrading a database from 8.1.6 to 8.0.4 1

[DBAwhosaysNIE]

I have to downgrade a database from 8.1.6 to 8.0.4 (license reasons/long story/don's ask) but have not had any luck using export (8.0.4 import hacks on 8.1.6 export). I know several UGLY ways I could do this (DB links, extracting DDL from export file, SQL*Loader, etc.) but was hoping there's some secret export parameter (or an obvious one and I'm just stupid) that will enable 8.0.4 import to read an 8.1.6 export and save me writing a whole bunch of ugly SQL*Plus, PL/SQL, kshell and who knows what else. HELP! Never had to do this before.

 

[karluk]

Believe it or not, this topic is covered in the Oracle 8.1.6 documentation. (I never thought Oracle would admit that anyone might want to downgrade). Please read chapter 13 in Oracle8i Migration Release 2 (8.1.6) A76957-01 I haven't looked at it closely, but it appears that one can take the existing database and run scripts that will recreate the 8.0.4 catalog.

Chapter 14 (downgrading to Oracle 7) also contains some potentially useful information. The key concept presented is that if you want to do an export/import to get the 8.1.6 data you should do the export using the export utility from the earlier release. In your case you could install Oracle 8.0.4, do an export using exp80, create an Oracle 8.0.4 database, and then import.

 

[DBAwhosaysNIE]

thanks for the reference pointer but YUCK!

Chapter 13's more work than doing it across links (this is actually a minor app that gets <1K hits/day) so I did it that way (w/DDL extracts from 8.1.6 export file). SME is still QA-ing app functionality but so far everything looks good.

I also didn't have any luck with Chapter 14. My observation is somewhat inconsistent with the manual's claims.

bottom line appears to be that there's no painless way to do this so hopefully I won't have to again!