Category Archives: Database Server

Exadata version 23.1.0.0.0 – Part 04

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On 08/March/2023 the Oracle Exadata team released version 23.1.0.0.0 and this include a significant change, OEL 8. I already explained that in my first post that you can read here. In my previous posts, I already described how to patch how to patch storage and switch, and the dom0. In this post, I will discuss how to patch the domU.

What you can do

I already wrote this previously but is important to understand the upgrade paths that you can do: If you are running the old Exadata with InfiniBand, your dom0 will always be updated until Oracle Linux 7 with UEK5. For domU you can upgrade to the OEL 8. And you can upgrade in any order, first dom0 or domU. If you are running RoCE, your dom0 can run the latest OEL 8 UEK6. The blog post from Oracle made an excellent explanation about the upgrade paths and below you can see the images that are there (I used the image from their post).

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Exadata version 23.1.0.0.0 – Part 03

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On 08/March/2023 the Oracle Exadata team released version 23.1.0.0.0 and this include a significant change, OEL 8. I already explained that in my first post that you can read here. In my second post, I wrote about how to patch storage and switch. In this post, I will discuss how to patch the dom0.

What you can do

Due to the changes for OEL 8, is important to understand the upgrade paths that you can take. As I wrote in my first post: If you are running the old Exadata with InfiniBand, your dom0 will always be updated until Oracle Linux 7 with UEK5. For domU you can upgrade to the OEL 8. And you can upgrade in any order, first dom0 or domU. If you are running RoCE, your dom0 can run the latest OEL 8 UEK6. The blog post from Oracle made an excellent explanation about the upgrade paths and below you can see the images that are there (I used the image from their post).

So, since the environment that I am patching is Exadata with InfiniBand, my dom0 will be upgraded until the OEL7 running the UEK5. But the Exadata-related software will be upgraded to version 23.1. The domU will be upgraded to OEL8, with UEK6. So, basically will be this (I used the image from the Exadata Team post):

Here, I patched first the dom0 because if I patch it first, all the versions already released for domU will be compatible with him. I am upgrading, so, the dom0 running at 23.1 will be compatible with domU running at a lower version.

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Exadata and ZDLRA, Patch Exadata Stack

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The process to patch Exadata stack and software changed in the last years and it became easier. Now, with patchmgr to be used for all (database servers, storage cells, and switches) the process is much easier to control the steps. Here I will show the steps that are involved in this process.

Independent if it is ZDLRA or Exadata, the process for Engineering System is the same. So, this post can be used as a guide for the Exadata patch apply as well. In 2018 I already made a similar process about how to patch/upgrade Exadata to 18c (you can access here) and even made a partial/incomplete post for 12c in 2015.

The process will be very similar and can be done in rolling and non-rolling mode. In the first, the services continue to run and you don’t need to shutdown databases, but will take more time because the patchmgr applies server by server. At the second, you need to shutdown the entire GI and the patch is applied in parallel and will be faster.

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Exadata X8M, Workshop

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When Exadata X8M was released during the last Open World I made one post about the technical details about it. You can check it here: Exadata X8M (this post received some good shares and reviews). If you read it, you can see that I focused in more internal details (like torn blocks, one side path, two sides read/writes, and others), that differ from the normal analyses for Exadata X8M.

But recently I was invited by Oracle to participate exclusive workshop about Exadata X8M and I needed to share some details that picked me up. The workshop was done directly from Oracle Solution Center in Santa Clara Campus (it is an amazing place that I had an opportunity to visit in 2015, and have a rich history – if you have the opportunity, visit), and cover some technical details and with the hands-on part.

Unfortunately, I can’t share everything (I even don’t know if I can share something), but see the info below.

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Repositório para o patch do Exadata

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Criar o repositório do yum para atualizar o Oracle Exadata não é um requisito do procedimento, já faz algum tempo que os patches do Oracle Exadata contêm uma imagem ISO com todos os arquivos necessários. Criar ou não o repositório depende dos seus requisitos e do que você pretende fazer.

Utilizei o repositório local para que eu possa ter mais flexibilidade no futuro. Assim, poderei usar o mesmo repositório em outros updates e outras atualizações de OEL que não são do Exadata. Se você não vai utilizar o repositório a única opção é o arquivo ISO e você não precisa dos passo descritos aqui neste artigo.

Se você ler o Readme do patch 21151982 (“Database server bare metal / domU ULN exadata_dbserver_12.1.2.1.2_x86_64_base OL6 channel ISO image”) verá que os passos para criação do repositório não estão descritos mas sim uma referência ao manual do Oracle Exadata, especificamente ao tópico “Preparing and Populating the yum Repository with the Oracle Exadata Channel Content”. É com base nestes que vou criar o meu repositório.

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