ExaCC: Patch Virtual Machine (VM) Cluster OS Image

Overview:

• Oracle is responsible for performing patches and updates to EXACC infrastructure every quarter (there is no patch in Dec). That includes:
  • Physical Compute Modes (Dom0)
  • Network Switches
  • Power Distribution Units (PDUs)
  • Integrated Lights-Out Management (ILOM)
  • Exadata Storage Servers
• The customer is responsible for managing patches and updates of OS for the VM cluster’s nodes
• The customer can apply Oracle Exadata software release updates to the VM cluster’s nodes at his/her convenience
• Patching of the VM cluster’s nodes will be executed in rolling mode to preserve database availability throughout the update process
• VM cluster patching tools:
  • Oracle OCI console
  • Patchmgr Utility. The customer can run the utility either from one of the ExaCC VM cluster nodes or from another server running Oracle Linux

In this blog, I’ll demonstrate the steps to patch/update the ExaCC VM cluster OS image to the latest available release update using the OCI console.

Steps to Update ExaCC VM Cluster OS Image

1.  Sign in to your OCI tenancy where your Exadata Database Service on Cloud @ Customer system is deployed.

2. Navigate to “Oracle Database” > “Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer” > “Exadata VM Clusters“.

3. Click on your VM Cluster Name.

4. On the VM Cluster details home page, next to “Updates Available” click the “View Updates” link.

5. Run patching Precheck. 

If the precheck is not successful, then the patch is not applied, and the system displays a message that the patch cannot be applied because the precheck failed.

    – On the Patches releases page, you will a list of available release update patches for “Virtual Machine OS Update” and “Grid Infrastructure Release Update“.

    – Review the list of available software updates. Click the Actions icon (three dots) at the end of the row listing the patch you are interested in, and then click the “Precheck” action, then run the “Run Precheck” button in the confirm precheck screen.

Note: once Precheck finishes, the update state will be “Available“. On the “Update History” page, the update state will be “Precheck Passed“.

6. Apply Exadata OS Image Update.

Note: Patching of the VM Cluster’s Nodes will be executed in rolling mode to preserve database availability throughout the update process.

Click the Actions icon (three dots) at the end of the row listing the patch that passed Precheck, and then click the “Apply Exadata OS Image Update” action, then run the “Apply Exadata Image Update” button in the confirm screen.

Note: Once patching finishes, on the “Update History” page, the update state will be “Applied“.

On the VM cluster details page, the Exadata Image Version will be updated.

7. Confirm the Exadata image version by running “imageinfo” command on VM Cluster nodes.

Congratulations, patching VM cluster OS is completed!