Can we migrate oracle database 10gR2 to cross platform I want to know can we migrate Linux based oracle database 10gR2 (10.2.0.1.0) to windows server 2003 with oracle database 10gR2 (10.2.0.3.0). I have seen the documentation related to database migration where i don't understand the compatibility section. Is this important in migration that both host and target database versions and patch level should be same. 
Please help me.

this is the output that i get when i run the transport.sql to migrate my database from Linux to Windows

E:\new\test&gt;set ORACLE_SID=newdb
E:\new\test&gt;sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production on Fri Dec 19 20:49:08 2014

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle.  All Rights Reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

SQL&gt; @transport.sql
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area  452984832 bytes
Fixed Size                  1291120 bytes
Variable Size             150998160 bytes
Database Buffers          293601280 bytes
Redo Buffers                7094272 bytes

Control file created.

ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01092: ORACLE instance terminated. Disconnection forced


ERROR:
ORA-03114: not connected to ORACLE


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Your database has been created successfully!
* There are many things to think about for the new database. Here
* is a checklist to help you stay on track:
* 1. You may want to redefine the location of the directory objects.
* 2. You may want to change the internal database identifier (DBID)
*    or the global database name for this database. Use the
*    NEWDBID Utility (nid). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ORA-24324: service handle not initialized
ORA-01041: internal error. hostdef extension doesn't exist
ORA-24324: service handle not initialized
ORA-01041: internal error. hostdef extension doesn't exist
SQL&gt;
SQL&gt; WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT;
SQL&gt;
SQL&gt; DOC
DOC&gt;#######################################################################
DOC&gt;#######################################################################
DOC&gt;   The following statement will cause an "ORA-01722: invalid number"
DOC&gt;   error if there the database was not opened in UPGRADE mode
DOC&gt;
DOC&gt;   If you encounter this error, execute "SHUTDOWN", "STARTUP UPGRADE" and
DOC&gt;   re-execute utlirp.sql
DOC&gt;#######################################################################
DOC&gt;#######################################################################
DOC&gt;#
SQL&gt; SELECT TO_NUMBER('MUST_BE_OPEN_UPGRADE') FROM v$instance
2  WHERE status != 'OPEN MIGRATE';
ERROR:
ORA-03114: not connected to ORACLE


Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Pr
oduction With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
To answer your question if you can migrate a linux database to a higher oracle release on a windows platform: Yes you can.

There are a few things to keep in mind...

Linux and windows use little endian, unix uses big endian -- basically it depends on the CPU not so much on the OS.

If you want to minimize downtime and restore the database on the windows server while the linux server is still productive, you have to apply the archivelogs from the linux database on the windows database until you do the switch. Basically this should work but there are some bugs I faced when doing this. So I would not recommend this option at least not with 10g or 11g (never tried it with 12c). Oracle officially supports DataGuard with windows and linux from 11gR2 but as I said there are some bugs. It failed in 3 of 5 attempts.

I personally don't like export-import migrations because you always have some trouble with invalid objects, characterset conversion, missing data, missing public synonyms etc.

--> I would recommend the the following action plan:


shutdown the linux database
startup mount the linux database
create an rman backup
restore the database on windows
open the database with alter database open resetlogs upgrade
run catupgrd.sql
do post-upgrade tasks