Database Upgrade from Liferay 6.2 to DXP 2024.Q4 Fails on Oracle 19

Issue

When upgrading from Liferay 6.2 to DXP 2024.Q4 quarterly release using the `db_upgrade_client.sh` script, the process fails with the following error:

Type change is not allowed when altering column name. Column LayoutBranch.LayoutBranchId has different type than LONG not null

Here it is the complete stacktrace:

2025-01-06 22:46:49.313 INFO  [main][UpgradeProcess:119] Upgrading com.liferay.portal.upgrade.v7_0_1.UpgradeLayoutBranch
2025-01-06 22:46:49.383 INFO  [main][UpgradeProcess:137] Failed upgrade process com.liferay.portal.upgrade.v7_0_1.UpgradeLayoutBranch in 71 ms
2025-01-06 22:46:49.383 INFO  [main][UpgradeProcess:137] Failed upgrade process com.liferay.portal.upgrade.UpgradeProcess_7_0_1 in 41227 ms
2025-01-06 22:46:49.393 ERROR [main][DBUpgrader:70] com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeException: java.sql.SQLException: Type change is not allowed when altering column name. Column LayoutBranch.LayoutBranchId has different type than LONG not null
com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeException: com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeException: java.sql.SQLException: Type change is not allowed when altering column name. Column LayoutBranch.LayoutBranchId has different type than LONG not null
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeProcess.upgrade(UpgradeProcess.java:128) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.util.UpgradeProcessUtil._upgradeProcess(UpgradeProcessUtil.java:172) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
[...]
	at com.liferay.portal.tools.db.upgrade.client.DBUpgraderLauncher.main(DBUpgraderLauncher.java:45) [com.liferay.portal.tools.db.upgrade.client.jar:?]
Caused by: com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeException: java.sql.SQLException: Type change is not allowed when altering column name. Column LayoutBranch.LayoutBranchId has different type than LONG not null
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeProcess.upgrade(UpgradeProcess.java:128) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeProcess.upgrade(UpgradeProcess.java:146) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
[...]
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.dao.db.BaseDBProcess.process(BaseDBProcess.java:381) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeProcess.upgrade(UpgradeProcess.java:107) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
	... 8 more
Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Type change is not allowed when altering column name. Column LayoutBranch.LayoutBranchId has different type than LONG not null
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.dao.db.BaseDBProcess.alterColumnName(BaseDBProcess.java:222) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
	at com.liferay.portal.upgrade.v7_0_1.UpgradeLayoutBranch.doUpgrade(UpgradeLayoutBranch.java:17) ~[portal-impl.jar:?]
	at com.liferay.portal.kernel.upgrade.UpgradeProcess.lambda$upgrade$0(UpgradeProcess.java:122) ~[portal-kernel.jar:?]
[...]

Environment

• Upgrading from Liferay Portal 6.2 to DXP 2024.Q4 quarterly release
• Oracle 19 database

Resolution

• This error is typically caused by using an incompatible or outdated Oracle JDBC driver (e.g., ojdbc7-12.1.0.2) during the upgrade process.
• Ensure you are using a supported and updated JDBC driver compatible with both Oracle 19 and Liferay DXP 7.4. The ojdbc17 driver is recommended for 2024.Q4.1.
• Place the correct JDBC driver (ojdbc17.jar) in the $CATALINA_BASE/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/shielded-container-lib folder (more information see article Configuring a Database in learn.liferay.com)