Problems opening existing Oracle 9i in new 11g environment

Question

Hi everybody,
Have I got a challenge for you! Just to be clear, I'm not an Oracle specialist (or just call me an Oracle-noob).
Challenge: Open up an existing Oracle 9i database in a new Oracle 11g environment.
End result: Be able to connect to a running Oracle database with 'SSMA for Oracle' to convert it to a SQL database.
Starting point:
- Received from customer: DBF, CTL and LOG files from an existing Oracle environment.
- Since I cannot download Oracle 9i environment, I chose to install the 11g environment and hope for a proper backwards compatibility.
How far I got:
- Installed 11g environment
- Configured a database pointing to the DBF files
~ Change init.ora to use the CTL files
~ Create spfile from init.ora
~ Startup database mount and rename database and datafiles using sqlplus (connecting with "sys as sysdba")
Issues:
Now I can startup the database, but it comes up with an *"ORA-00704: bootstrap process failure"* and recommends me to start it up with UPGRADE option. Starting it up with UPGRADE option works and I can browse through the database using the Toad tool (connecting "as sysdba"). But 'SSMA for Oracle' does not have an option to connect "as sysdba" and gives me an "ORA-39710: Only connect AS SYSDBA is allowed when OPEN in UPGRADE mode".
Since the SSMA for Oracle client cannot log me into a database started with UPGRADE option I probably will have to fix the "ORA-00704: bootstrap process failure".
I tried to avoid the upgrade-option by trying to upgrade the database to 11g. But utlu112i.sql and catalog.sql give me errors like "ORA-04023: Object SYS.STANDARD cannot be validated".
Questions:
- Do you think that what I'd like to achieve is possible at all?
- Can I easily run a Oracle 9i database in a 11g environment or do I really have to upgrade?
- Do you think this is the best way to get an existing Oracle database running in a new environment?
- If yes: How do I solve the ORA-00704 error?
If you need any more information, alert logs, .ora files or anything to give a proper answer, please ask and I will provide them.
Thanks in advance!
Regards,
Dirco

Answer 1

You can find the Oracle binaries here I think for 9i...
http://edelivery.oracle.com
No matter which direction you go here you are going to probably run into issues and setup needs that it would probably be better for you to hire a DBA to help out with. In the end it will probably cost you less in your time and effort.
One "quick" method to upgrade a system (depending on your database size) and probably the simplest for you is to do an import and export. However, that will require that the client sends you and export of their database.
You could then simply install the Oracle 11g database on your system and then import the previous database into the 11g instance. With 10g and on they recommend using a product called DataPump, but the import and export utilities are still available for use and I would stick with them for this.
The trick about the import and export is that there are things that you will probably need setup within the 11g instance that mimic the 9i instance to have the import smoothly. Objects get created in areas called tablespaces which are logical abstration of the storage on the system. You will need tablespaces created that mirror the tablespaces on the 9i instance. So for a basic outline.
1) Get client to create export of 9i instance.
2) Get client to provide a list of tablespaces on the 9i instance and the size of those tablespaces.
3) Install 11g on your new machine....in the process allow it to create a database (this is an option).
4) Create tablespaces that mirror the 9i instance in naming and size on the 11g instance
5) Do full import into the 11g instance of the 9i dump.
I still suggest hiring a DBA for a few hours to make life easier on yourself and get the job done quickly and correctly.
Regards
Tim