11g upgrade issue!

Question

Hi,
We had upgraded Oracle 9i to Oracle 11g successfully but then during latest July 12 patchset installation, the binary got corrupted. Since we had the complete database up and running without any issue. We took the backup (os copy command) of all DBFs, CTLs, Redo logs, password file and spfile after that we deinstalled the software from the server and reinstalled Oracle 11g on the server. Once the DB was started with new controlfile and spfile, we shutdown the db and copied back the files in the same location where it was earlier. Now, the db can started using pfile but we are facing two problem.
1. DB was started with compatible parameter set as 11.1.0.0.0. Can we downgrade it? I mean can we set it back to 10.2.0.0.0 and start the DB? (I doubt)
2. while opening the DB, it says that db MUST be started in UPGRADE mode. When I use that option, DB comes up but then how should I upgrade it? There is nothing to be upgraded.
SQL> startup pfile='C:\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\database\pfile_devoltpa.ora' ;
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1448054784 bytes
Fixed Size                  1376940 bytes
Variable Size             268438868 bytes
Database Buffers         1149239296 bytes
Redo Buffers               28999680 bytes
Database mounted.
ORA-01092: ORACLE instance terminated. Disconnection forced
ORA-00704: bootstrap process failure
ORA-39700: database must be opened with UPGRADE option
Process ID: 1672
Session ID: 9 Serial number: 3
SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> startup pfile='C:\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\database\pfile_devoltpa.ora'  upgrade;
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1448054784 bytes
Fixed Size                  1376940 bytes
Variable Size             268438868 bytes
Database Buffers         1149239296 bytes
Redo Buffers               28999680 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL>

Answer 1

Kuljeet,
thanks for the reply. Our DB was in 9i first then upgraded to 11g (11.2.0.1) and on the top of that 11.2.0.3 patch was being applied. After which many of the DBMS_* packages were invalid and we were not able to run any of the utility from the server machine but could connect from remote. As the packages were invalid, we had to do this exercise. This backup is done after the patch and not before. I started the DB in upgrade mode and then tried to run DBUA but its erroring out with internal error.
ora-00600 internal error code arguments qcissetplsqlctx tzi initmetalink says that it timezone issue and we should run
select version from v$timezone_file;I ran this but it does not return anything which says that it could be timezone issue. As I can start the DB in upgrade mode, can I upgrade it to 11.2.0.3 from 11.2.0.1 (this is current version)?
-Onkar