Upgrade / Migration

Hi,

I may be asking a silly question. But, still I am not 100% clear as to what is the difference between Upgrade and Migration.

Can someone explain me with example?

Thanks in Adv.

You get to use the term upgrade when you are going a level up on the same release. Say for example that you want to move your database from 8.1.6 to 8.1.7. You would call it to be an up grade since you are still on 8i release i.e 8.1.x.

On the other hand you would use the term migrate when you move from one major release to the another. i.e say 7 -> 8 (8.0.x) --> 8i (8.1.x) --> 9i (9.0.x)

When you say that you did an upgrade, as I mentioned above, you would be moving up within the same release. This would not bring in any major changes, intead it would be some patch application or some minor new entries. When you say migrate, it would mean a major feature changes,

Sam

Which one is easier...

Is the risk factor of same level for both...

An upgrade is usually "easier" although they are really hard to compare as they are two different options.

As far as risks go, the risks in either case (provided you have tested your plan and have a proper backup of the data and software) are minimal.