Updating an Exadata software is one of the crucial tasks for any Database Machine Administrator (DMA). Though not necessarily one has to patch the environments whenever there is a new patch released by Oracle, but, it is highly recommended to patch the systems at least twice a year to fix any known &unknown bugs, security vulnerabilities and other issues.
This blog post summarizes the overall overview of software updates on an Exadata Database Machine. The post explains what components are needed the updates, the update order of components, pre-requisites and etc.
Typically, Exadata database machine updates are divided in the following categories:
- Exadata Infrastructure Software
- Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database Software
Updating the Exadata Software comprises of following components:
- Storage Servers
- Database Servers
- InfiniBand Switches
Software upgrade for Cell and DB nodes typically contains the updates for the following:
- OLE OS
- Exadata Software
- Firmware (Disk, Flash, RAID Controller, HCA, ILOM etc)
Pre-requisites
The following pre-upgrade activities are highly recommended before upgrading the Exadata software in any environment:
- Review MOS Doc 888828.1 and download the target version software
- Download observer.patch.zip from MOS Doc 1553103.1
- Review MOS Doc 1270094.1 for any critical issues
- Run the latest version of ExaCHK utility. Fix any FAIL and WARNINGS issues reported in the ExaCHK report. Also, review version recommendations in the MAA scoreboard section
- Ensure you have latest upgrade/patching utilities, such as, patchmgr, opatch etc. (MOS Doc 1070954.1)
- Perform prerequisites checks
- Backup the Exadata database servers before the update
Rolling vs Non-rolling upgrades
Software updates can be performed online or offline (rolling or non-rolling) fashion. For online updates, it is highly recommended ASM high level disk group redundancy to avoid any data or service loss.
As part of best practices, the following is update order is recommended and treated as safe:
- GI and Oracle Database home
- Database Servers
- Storage Servers
- IB Switches
patchmgr update utiity
patchmgr update utility is used to patch the Exadata infrastructure components. Following are the capabilities of patchmgr:
- Single invocation for Database servers, storage servers and IB Switches
- updates firmware, OS and Exadata softwares
- Online update advantage
Conclusion: Though the procedure looks pretty straight forward & simply when reading, with my past experience, patching each environments comes up with surprises and we need to be ready, unless we are very lucky on the particular day to have a smooth patching experience.
In the upcoming posts, I will talk about how to use patchmgr and other update utilizes to update Exadata software, Database, Storage servers and IB Switches.
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