To upgrade your Siebel 7.8 database instance to Siebel 8.1 / 8.2, start off with a fresh Siebel 8 installation including a database instance. Get that all up and running before you do anything else.

What you REALLY want to do next is have a look at Siebel Bookshelf! The Database Upgrade Guide shows you EVERYTHING that you need to do. I’ve outlined steps below but you really want to be following the instructions in Bookshelf, without exception. Some things may seem irrelevant or unnecessary at the time but don’t be tempted to skip things! It’ll come back and bite you later on down the line.

Once you’re happy, backup your vanilla Siebel 8 database instance (just in case you ever want to go back to vanilla) and restore a Siebel 7.8 database backup onto the database server. You’ll probably restore the 7.8 backup a number of times as you run and re-run the upgrade, so keep it to hand. Now follow these steps:

1. Using 7.8 Tools, rename the target Siebel Repository to ‘Prior Customer Repository’
2. Delete all other Repository instances
3. Stop the Siebel Server Services
4. Ensure the Siebel Gateway Service is running
5. Run the Database Configuration wizard via All Programs > Siebel Enterprise Server Configuration 8.1 > Database Server Configuration
6. Select ‘Configure Product in Live Mode’ and click ‘Next’
7. Siebel Server Directory is displayed, click ‘Next’.
8. Siebel Database Directory is displayed, click ‘Next’.
9. Click ‘Next’, ‘Next’ and ensure ‘Oracle Database Enterprise Edition’ is selected’ and click ‘Next’
10. Select ‘Upgrade Database’ and click ‘Next’
11. Select ‘Development’ and click ‘Next’
12. Select ‘Upgrade Siebel Database Schema (upgrep)’ and click ‘Next’
13. Select ‘Siebel Industry Applications’ and click ‘Next’
14. Select ‘v7_8_2′ and click ‘Next’
15. Select ‘UNICODE Database’ and click ‘Next’
16. Enter the ODBC Datasource created by the Siebel Server installation and click ‘Next’
17. Enter the SADMIN username and password
18. Enter the SIEBEL username and password and click ‘Next’
19. Enter the Siebel Index table space name (SIEBINDX) and the Siebel Data table space name  (SIEBDATA) and click ‘Next’
20. Select ‘Windows’ and click ‘Next’
21. Select ‘Do not use the Oracle parallel indexing option’ and click ‘Next’
22. Keep the defaults (SSE_ROLE) and click ‘Next’
23. Click ‘Yes, apply the changes now’ and click ‘Next’
24. Review the configuration and, if happy, click ‘Next’ to start the upgrade

You should now have a basic Siebel 8.1 schema with vanilla 7.8 and 8.1 repositories, along with your custom 7.8 repository. You’re now ready for the real work to begin – the Siebel Tools Application Upgrader will take the 3 repository instances and compare them to produce a 4th instance – your upgraded, 8.1 custom Siebel repository.

That’s for next time!