Tag Archives: Oracle

21c, DG PDB, New Steps

2 Replies

When the DGPDB was released for 21c (at version 21.7) I wrote a blog post about how to use the feature (you can read it here). This was in August of 2022 and since that time, we got small changes and corrections, but with the update 21.12 (patch 35740258) we got new commands like “EDIT CONFIGURATION PREPARE DGPDB”.

Not just that, but Ludovico Caldara (Data Guard PM) recently wrote one blog post about new commands for Data Guard preparation that can be used with Broker. Is an evolution of the commands I covered in one previous blog post.

So, in this post, I will cover the new commands for DG PDB and the changes/improvements that appeared in the last version. It is a long post, but everything is covered here. No gaps or information are missing, all the steps, logs, and outputs are described and documented.

Click here to read more…

Exadata, REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB and GRID 19.19

6 Replies

I already wrote about the issue introduced with GI 19.16 in my previous post (click here to read) where (only at Exadata) more space was allocated/reserved by Oracle to guarantee mirror/rebalance. Fortunately, after some months of discussion, they rollbacked the change and released one patch that can be applied at GI 19.19.

The patch was released on 12 of June and it is the number 35285795 and can be only applied at GI 19.19. But to have your space back again there is one important rule: your mirroring needs to be HIGH. This is necessary because the “Smart Rebalance” that allows your disk to be dropped without losing the mirroring. I will write another post just to talk about it.

Click here to read more…

Exadata version 23.1.0.0.0 – Part 04

Leave a reply

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).

Click here to read more…

Exadata version 23.1.0.0.0 – Part 03

Leave a reply

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.

Click here to read more…

Exadata version 23.1.0.0.0 – Part 02

Leave a reply

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. Here I will show how to patch to the 23.1.0.0 version for switch and storage cells.

Patching

As you know, I am working with Exadata since 2010 and have already posted about how to upgrade to the 19x version,  18.x version, version 12.x (Portuguese only), and many other details for Oracle Engineered Systems. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to apply the 23.1 version over one environment and will show the details.

Here, my environment is:

  • Exadata X6 for storage and dbnodes.
  • InfiniBand Switches.
  • Virtualized configuration (dom0 and domU).
  • dom0 running over version 22.1.0.9.
  • domU running over version 22.1.0.9.
  • Grid Infrastructure running version 19.17.

Since I am running with dom0/domU, my base machine (from where I will call most of the patches) is the dom0. There, I have ssh passwordless/keyless to all other cells, dbnodes, domU, and switches.

Before you start the patch please check the readme for the patch and identify if you have everything in compliance. Do not start any patch if you meet the requirements. Even from a simple database version, grid, and switch versions. And as well, do not start the patch if your machine has HW errors. So, please read the note Exadata System Software 23.1.0.0.0 Update (32829291) (Doc ID 2772585.1).

Click here to read more…

Exadata version 23.1.0.0.0 – Part 01

4 Replies

On 08/March/2023 the Oracle Exadata team released version 23.1.0.0.0 and this include a significant change, OEL 8. But is not just that, other interesting requirements are there and I will discuss them below. I will show you how to patch to the 23.1 version and some other details as well. In this first part, I will just discuss one interesting point that you need to take care of before you start to patch. And probably is more important than you imagine.

Before you patch

The new version brings some requirements (over what you need to be running) to allow you to patch. For the Grid Infrastructure, you need to run 19.15 or a newer version. You can even run the 21c (21.6 or newer) version if you want. If you want to know how to do that, I already discussed how to upgrade both in previous posts (19c, and 21c).

For databases, the recommendation is the same, 19c or 21c. You can still run older versions (11,g, 12c, and 18) but they are already (or will be soon) under Market Driver Support. You can read the MOS note over that (here), but to be clear (now) only the 19c have premier support available.

And now things became quite interesting because the new 23.1 version is the first running with OEL 8. And if you check the supplemental README for the 23.1 version just the 19c support the database and GI are listed. So, be aware and check the compatibilities.

One important detail for this version is that you can only upgrade to 23.1 if your base Exadata running version is newer or equal to 21.2.10 (basically one year old only). If not, you need to upgrade to (at least) this version before you patch to 23.1. And this will be the same in the one-year future, it will be only possible to upgrade to 24.x if you will be running (at least) 23.1.

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, as usual, the version includes everything, switches, storage, and database node. And while for switches and storages, the patches are quite normal, for virtualized environments the upgrades paths start to be a little more challenging to plan. I will explain, but (as hinted in the blog post) the upgrade of the Hosts and Guests independently and in any order. And is hard not because of the patch apply itself, but will be to create the plan. Remember the requirements for Oracle Database and GI? So, you can spend a lot of time patching others parts than the Exadata version.

But let’s put pieces together, the small lines written in several places. With this version 23.1, Oracle is telling you that you need to be running at least the Oracle Database 19c to be allowed to have a continuous upgrade for future releases (and possible usage) of Exadata. And whatever the machine version that you use, IB or RoCE network. You can’t anymore use GI older than 19.15, and the databases are enforced, as well, to be this version too. Imagine that you have some kind of incapability between 11g/12c and OEL 8, if you need to open one SR, you need to have/pay for that support, and will not be cheap.

And if you think the upcoming 23c (and that it will be the new LTS version) being in OEL 8 is a requirement. Imagine one year in the future, when the Exadata 24.x version will arrive, do you think that Oracle still supports 11g to the new OEL 9? I don’t think so.

And by the way, IMHO you should be running to 19c. 11G is from 2009, 12.1 from July 2013. So, they are old and out of support for good reasons. I understand the point that they are working on and the legacy applications that maybe you have. But the point is not just to support them, is the case to be possible to continue to upgrade/update your Exadata. Please do not postpone your database upgrades anymore, for the good sake of your Exadata. 

 

Click here to read more…

Exadata, REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB and GRID 19.16

Leave a reply

Starting with Grid Infrastructure/ASM 19.16 Oracle changed how the REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB is calculated and the impact is more than expected. Check below examples of the changes, and how this will impact you. This is valid for all GI/ASM starting with 19.16 and only for Exadata/ExaCC.

Please read my new post about this issue.

REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB

The REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB (according to 19c documentation) is:

“amount of space that must be available in a disk group to restore full redundancy after the worst failure that can be tolerated by the disk group without adding additional storage. This requirement ensures that there are sufficient failure groups to restore redundancy”.

And (at Exadata environment until 19.16) is calculated based on the disk redundancy that you have. If you choose the HIGH, the raw size of two disks (the largest in your diskgroup) is reserved; at NORMAL, is the raw size of one disk. At Exadata, it differs from other environments because does not consider the whole failgroup failure and the way that extends are written/spread (more info below and in another post).

But for now, understand that the required size is what you need to reserve (as raw space) at your diskgroup to ensure protection in case of disk failure. And it is directly related to the USABLE_FILE_MB because the space that you can allocate at your diskgroup (USABLE_FILE_MB) comes from (FREE_MB- REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB)/redundancy factor (3 for HIGH, 2 for NORMAL). So, when you increase the REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB you reduce the USABLE_FILE_MB. I will explain more later.

Click here to read more…

Friends, Conferences, and Community

Leave a reply

Last September was pretty special for me because had some opportunity to meet friends again after COVID/Pandemic situation.

POUG

First, POUG is POUG. There is no way to describe what it is if you were never there. I had the opportunity to be there talking about ExaCC. The whole conference is amazing, not just because of the technical content (that is surreal), but also because of the friends that were/are there. Everyone that was there was enjoying the conference, but most important, enjoying being there with friends.

For POUG I need to say thank you to Kamil Stawiarski (https://twitter.com/ora600pl) and Luiza Nowak (https://www.ora-600.pl/en/tp/luiza-koziel-2/) for organizing the event. You, together with the whole POUG team, made one fantastic conference.

Click here to read more…

21c, DG PDB

1 Reply

Since the 21c was public available the Data Guard per Pluggable Database – DG PDB – was intended to be there, but Oracle needed more time to make things work and some weeks ago released the feature with the 21.7 version. Here in this post, I will show to configure it and also how to troubleshoot, and the pitfalls of using it. As usual, all the steps, logs, and outputs are covered here and I hope that it helps you understand the whole DG PDB process.

My environment

The environment that I am using here is:

  • Two databases running in RAC mode (two nodes in each cluster).
  • ASM: same DATA and RECO diskgroups names in each cluster.

About the databases I have:

  • ORADBDC1, that have the pdb PDBDC1. So, they represent the DC1.
  • ORADBDC2, that have the pdb PDBDC2. So, they represent the DC2.

Each of these clusters is in a separate environment, this means that both are primary databases inside each datacenter. So, they have no DG configured between them.

The main target for this post is to have the pdb from DC2 protected by the ORADBDC1 at the DC1. I used RAC and ASM because this is usually the normal configuration for the MAA (following the recommended architectures baseline) when using DG. This increases the protection and reduces the SPOF of your environment.

DG PDB

The idea of DG PDB differs a little from what we see commonly for Data Guard, here each container have own life. This means that only the pdb is protected and not the entire cdb. This puts the DG PDB close to Cloud than On-Prem because it fit perfectly at the OCI structure since you can create your pdb in one region and choose another region to protect it. And even closer if you think for Autonomous Database that your ownership is pdb only. I will not say that is good or not, but is linked to how Oracle works with OCI. Personally, I prefer to have normal DG configured to protect my databases and I choose where I want to open my pdb (maybe they add this feature in the future).

Another detail is that DG PDG (from now) works only in MaxPerformance mode, so, there is no SYNC mode for the archive destinations. There are more limitations for the DG PDB and you can check it in the topic DG PDB Configuration Restrictions from official documentation (I recommend that you read it).

Please read my new blog post about the new changes to the process. You can see how the process evolved and it is better. Read it here. 

Click here to read more…

21c, Zero-Downtime Oracle Grid Infrastructure Patching – Silent Mode

1 Reply

Recently I made two posts about the process for patch/upgrading your 21 Grid Infrastructure (GI) while the databases continue to be running. The first post shows how to do this using the GUI interface, and the second one show more details about the process for AFD/ACFS Kernel Driver Update. But here in this post, I will show how to do the Zero-Downtime Patch (zeroDowntimeGIPatching – ZDGIP) in silent mode.

This way to do the patch is important because allows you to automatize it. You can create your own script and call it (using Ansible, Puppet, Chief, etc.) to upgrade your servers (or farms) remotely.

Current Environment

The current environment is the same of the first post:

  • OEL 8.4 Kernel 5.4.17-2102.201.3.el8uek.x86_64.
  • Oracle GI 21c, version 21.3 with no one-off or patches installed.
  • Oracle Database 21c, RU 21.5 (with OCW 21.5).
  • TFA version is 21.4 (last available in March 2022).
  • Nodes are not using Transparent HugePages.
  • Is a RAC installation, with two nodes.

You can see the output for the info above in this txt file.

And I will apply the same RU 21.5 (21.5.0.0.220118) for GI which is patch 33531909.

Patch Process

The patch process is almost the same as the first post, the main change is the response file and the way to call the gridSetup.sh. So, for this reason, I recommend for you read the first (and second) post. Below you will see a quick review of previous steps and a focus on the new 

Click here to read more…