Probably you saw the note from Tim Hall and Julian Frey about the release of the new version of Enterprise Manager 24ai (24.1.0.0.0). It was released on the Oracle edelivery site, but the documentation is not out yet, documentation was released and can be accessed here. But I recommend registering at Oracle Enterprise Manager Technology Forum 2024 to check what it is the new version and what to expect when using the EM 24ai.
Keeping your EM/OMS updated is an essential task to avoid performance and security issues of your monitoring/observability tools. Here you can see the steps to patch your EM from 13.5.0.20 to 13.5.0.24 (the last patch for now). And I also updated the agent running in the EM server to the latest version too.
The main note to check the updates for the EM is Enterprise Manager 13.5 Main Release Update List (Includes Plug-ins) (Doc ID 2760230.2) and this other as well Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Updates: List of Available RUs (Release Updates) and PSUs (Patch Set Updates) (Doc ID 1605609.1). But I prefer this one Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Database (DB) Plug-in 13.5 Release Update (RU) Bug List (Doc ID 2811987.1) because it lists the patches for EM and Agent in one single page (and the solved bug per each version).
From there, we got the links for EM patch 36761595, and Agent patch 36761598. Both they are the RU 24.
My two last posts (about the GI update) used the GOLD IMAGE (link post#1, and post#2), where we basically deploy a patched image of the desired version. But this is different when we use the Release Update patch. Below I will describe how to do this, covering all the steps, using the silent install (easily adapted for automation), and with Zero-Downtime Oracle Grid Infrastructure Patching – ZDOGIP (that can easily bypassed if you want).
My previous post was about the Zero-Downtime Oracle Grid Infrastructure Patching (ZDOGIP) for 23ai using the gold image. In that case, I used the GUI interface to do the installation and patch, but as you know, this is not good for the automation process. So, here in this post, I will describe how to do the same operation using the silent mode for the installation. I will show what parameters you need to set in the response file and all the other steps.
The focus of this post is to show how to do the same process as my previous post using the silent mode. I will not “prove” (like I made in the last one) that databases continue to receive inserts or details about the AFD/ACFS drivers not being updated. I really recommend that you read my previous post to understand all of these details. Here I will show how to do in silent mode what I made in the previous post.
As you know, the 23ai was released for Cloud and Engineered Systems (Exadata and ExaCC) first, I already explored these in previous posts as well. And since the patches already started to be released, now with the patch for 23.6, we can re-test the feature Zero-Downtime Oracle Grid Infrastructure Patching (ZDOGIP). The steps here are not specific to the Exadata version and can be used for any 23ai version.
I already demonstrated how to use it for 21c (using graphical, and silent mode) and the same can be done for 19c as well.
But now, I will show how to do for 23ai, and this post includes:
This will be done while the database is running to show that we can patch the GI without downtime. I will show how to do this:
With the official release of Oracle 23ai to Exadata on-prem, it is now possible to manually upgrade Grid Infrastructure (GI) from 19c to 23ai. Nowadays the process is simpler than it was in the past, and I already published several examples of how to do this:
So, several examples that you can use as a guide to reach from GI 12.1 to 19c. In this post, I will upgrade from GI 19.23 (19.23.0.0.240416) to GI 23.5 (23.5.0.24.07).
Recently I was playing with 23ai at ExaCC and got a strange error reporting format mismatch for the password file for my standby. Digging over it I saw that the orapwd has a different default value than dbca.
First, check below my database created with dbca (the same process that I described in the previous post):
[oracle@exxc05db01 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba SQL*Plus: Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Production on Tue Jul 23 16:32:29 2024 Version 23.4.0.24.05 Copyright (c) 1982, 2024, Oracle. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle Database 23ai EE Extreme Perf Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Production Version 23.4.0.24.05 SQL> col file_name format a80 SQL> set linesize 255 SQL> select * from V$PASSWORDFILE_INFO; FILE_NAME FORMAT IS_AS IS_EX CON_ID -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ ----- ----- ---------- +DATAC5/ORCL23A/PASSWORD/pwdorcl23a.1071.1172152403 12 TRUE FALSE 0 SQL> exit Disconnected from Oracle Database 23ai EE Extreme Perf Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Production Version 23.4.0.24.05 [oracle@exxc05db01 ~]$
With the 23ai it is possible to create a database protected with TDE from the beginning. In a previous post, for OCI Cloud and ExaCC, was already described what are the options and what can be used. Here, let’s discuss other options, and troubleshoot some other details.
To contextualize. The OCI, by default, requires that databases are encrypted. When calling the dbca for 23ai, it detects that it is executing in the cloud, and forces it to use TDE. And since ExaCC is considered cloud, it is needed there as well. The previous post already described this in detail.
When running the 23ai on-prem more options are available. The examples below were made using the Free Edition of 23ai, but when the full release of 23ai will be available, the options will be the same.
Yes, it is a game-changer. It is for DBAs. It is for DevOps. It is for Enterprises too. And it is not because of new internal services, new ways to access data, or the scalability. But because it changes and improves a lot the way that databases can be refreshed, the way that databases are cloned, how to do CI/CD, and how to deliver databases.
Forget all the slowness and painful process when it is needed to clone production databases over lower environments, or when it is required to clone the dev database to another one. Let’s discover below what can be done with Exascale.
Exascale is built on top of Exadata software. So, all the software features from Exadata are there, the smartscan, the bloom filter, the resource manager, the AI Vector, the JSON, the RDMA, and the RoCE. Even details like the internal services, the MS, CS, and RS continue the same.
On top of that, comes the Exascale software. Several additional services are created to control the communication with the database and deliver the new features. Exascale can be used, deployed, and scaled the way that is needed. It can start, for example, with 300GB until hundreds of terabytes. So, scalability is not an issue.
At Exascale, the usable space is called Vault and the database clusters can share this Vault (imagine that it is the same as ASM diskgroup) to put datafiles redo’s and archivelogs. Going beyond, the storage can be shared (as block devices) by iSCSI to allow plug the Exascale into your network and facilitate the database migrations. When it is OCI, virtual machines can be booted using the Vault as a bootable device.
The communication with databases does not change too much, the Oracle database kernel talks directly with Exascale Vault. So, the first big change, ASM does not exist for 23ai and newer versions. All the redundant processes consuming CPU and memory (by ASM) are gone (imagine all the clusters of ExaCC/ExaCS/Exadata, all of them with their own ASM process). With Exascale they don’t exist anymore because, now, the databases talk directly with Exascale and the Vault. For the 19c database, the ASM is still in place. But at the same Exadata Exascale appliance can have clusters running in 23ai, and others in 19c.
In my previous post, I talked about why use the new parameters DB_FLASHBACK_LOG_DEST_SIZE and DB_FLASHBACK_LOG_DEST for Oracle 23ai. I spoke about how to configure them and the benefits. Here you will find additional details about these two parameters and what they change for internal views and the restore points.