I had upgraded oracle 8.1.7.0 to 8.1.7.4 on HP-UX 11i and did not encounter any issues. The only problem I had was while installing the patchset 8.1.7.4, one of the oracle process (listener process) that is dynamically linked to libwtc8.sl has locked the file and the installation could not open the file. So you should make sure the oracle listener process is not runing for 8.1.7.0 when installing patchset.
Here is the checklist for upgrading from 8.1.7.0 to 8.1.7.4
1. PERFORM a Full cold backup
2. Verify all necessary OS patches are installed.
3. Verify the kernel parameters according to the installation guide of the new version
4. Verify characterset of the database:
Select name, substrb(value$,1,40) value from props$;
5. Ensure that all Snapshot refreshes are succesfully completed. And replication is stopped.
Select distinct(trunc(last_refresh)) from dba_snapshot_refresh_times;
6. Stop the listener for the database
$ lsnrctl
Lsnrctl> stop
7. Ensure no files need media recovery:
$ sqlplus SYS/
Select * from v$recover_file;
Ensure no files are in backup mode:
Select * from v$backup where status!='NOT ACTIVE';
8. Resolve any outstanding unresolved distributed transaction:
Select * from dba_2pc_pending;
If this returns rows you should do the following:
Select local_tran_id from dba_2pc_pending;
Execute dbms_transaction.purge_lost_db_entry('');
Commit;
9. Run the appropriate the script to upgrade form 8.1.7.0 to 8.1.7 4
10. Verify for any invalid objects and re-compile them is any.
IA
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