One of the most spectacular new facilities in Release 2 of the Oracle 11g Database is called Edition Based Redefinition – not a name perhaps that suggests any spectacle. EBR (Edition Based Redefinition) is a mechanism that allows on line application upgrade with no planned downtime. In short, the new release is built up in parallel to the existing one, in the same schema and using the same database objects; only the new (modified) objects live in another dimension and do not impact the existing objects. Once the entire set of new and changed objects has been created and recompiled, the database administrator can start routing new sessions to the new release; existing sessions can continue to run against the original set of objects – and new sessions if so desired can also run against the orginal set.

A set of object versions – mutually consistent and interdependent – which in software engineering terms would be duped a release or stripe and in Oracle Software Configuration Manager (Designer) terms a configuration is called an edition in 11gR2 lingo. An Edition is a combination of new objects, new versions of objects and inherited pre-existing versions that together make up a More >