Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA)
Survived, partially.
✓ certified by the mortician
In life
Database Upgrade Assistant is the graphical wizard that upgraded a database to a newer Oracle release, running prechecks, the catalog upgrade and post-upgrade steps. Its alternatives were manual upgrades with the Parallel Upgrade Utility and the dbupgrade scripts.
Migrations care because upgrading the Oracle source is often a preliminary step, either to reach a release that assessment and replication tooling supports or as part of lifting the database to Oracle on Azure virtual machines or Oracle Database@Azure. The supported path for that step is now AutoUpgrade.
Oracle's 19c Upgrade Guide deprecates DBUA together with the manual upgrade methods (notice dated July 2023), and the 26ai guide desupports them (also July 2023). AutoUpgrade and Replay Upgrade are the only supported methods for upgrading to 26ai.
Cause of departure
Desupported in Oracle Database 26ai after deprecation in 19c. Oracle names AutoUpgrade as the successor.
Obituary
Database Upgrade Assistant, known as DBUA, was a tooling feature introduced before 11.2. In life, it provided an interactive desktop workflow for database upgrades.
Deprecated in 19c and desupported in 26ai, DBUA leaves Oracle’s AutoUpgrade as its documented replacement. The familiar GUI retires while configuration files and command-line jobs inherit the practical duties.
It is survived by Oracle Database@Azure only by workaround, where Oracle’s operations team patches infrastructure and database software and lifecycle operations use the OCI console or dbaascli. It is also survived partly by Oracle Database on Azure Virtual Machines, where AutoUpgrade analyzes, applies fixups, deploys, upgrades, converts non-CDBs to PDBs, and automates patching.
Survived by
Oracle Database on Azure Virtual Machines partial effort S
Oracle's AutoUpgrade utility is the documented replacement for the Database Upgrade Assistant on any self-managed host, including Azure VMs: it analyzes, applies fixups, deploys and upgrades from a configuration file, and can also convert non-CDBs to PDBs and automate patching. It is command-line driven rather than a GUI, so DBUA runbooks are rewritten as config files and jobs.
- Install the latest autoupgrade.jar on the VM.
- Write a config file per database with source and target homes and run the analyze mode.
- Apply fixups and run deploy during the maintenance window.
- Use Azure Backup or RMAN to take a restore point before the upgrade.
Oracle Database@Azure workaround effort S
On Oracle Database@Azure the infrastructure and database software are patched by Oracle's operations team through the OCI connection, and database lifecycle operations are performed from the OCI console or dbaascli rather than by running a desktop upgrade assistant. The interactive DBUA workflow therefore disappears in favour of service operations.
- Request or schedule database home and database upgrades through the OCI console for the VM cluster.
- Validate applications against the new release in a cloned PDB first.
- Track patching events in Azure Monitor logs.
Notices of correction
- oracle Oracle Database Changes, Desupports, and Deprecations (Upgrade Guide 19c) · Upgrade Guide 19c, E96252-82, Aug 2026 · read 2026-09-26
- oracle Oracle Database Changes, Desupports, and Deprecations (Upgrade Guide 26ai) · Upgrade Guide 26ai, G43570-12, updated Jul 2026 · read 2026-09-26
- oracle Oracle Database 23ai Upgrade Guide: Using AutoUpgrade for Oracle Database upgrades · Oracle Database 23ai Upgrade Guide · read 2026-09-26
- microsoft Overview of Oracle applications and solutions on Azure (Oracle Database on Azure VMs) · page updated 2026-02-05 · read 2026-09-26
- microsoft Overview: Oracle Database@Azure · page updated 2026-09-15 · read 2026-09-26
- microsoft Oracle Database@Azure: Exadata services · page updated 2026-04-15 · read 2026-09-26