Staying upto date with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)

A new year refocuses the need to upgrade and patch the Oracle Database, as most companies do not allow changes during the busy holiday season.

Any patching or upgrade plans should consider the recently released Jan-2024 Release update (RU) along with any Operating System (OS) upgrades, as Linux 7 is quickly reaching the end of life, and some customers plan to skip Linux 8 and directly use Linux 9.

It is always a good idea to create a gold image using the latest release update when deploying newer OS versions. This reduces the number of manual steps and is more efficient. Gold Images can be easily created using the steps documented by my colleague Philippe F. , Oracle Fleet Planning and Provisioning (FPP) product manager. Of course, by now, everyone is familiar with the concept of Gold Images. I spoke about it almost five years ago during my Oracle OpenWorld presentation, a copy of which can be accessed here. Gold Images can be used for new deployments, upgrades, or patching and can be customized to include one-off patches.

We have made it easier for customers to use Gold Images by providing it as a My Oracle Support (MOS) service. Customers can now use "Creating Gold Image for Oracle Database and Grid Infrastructure Installations (Doc ID 2915366.2."

and download a fully customized Gold Image. This personalized Gold Image simplifies installation and patching operations as the latest RU's contain the latest known fixes and security updates, including support for new OS releases.

Recommendations:

1.) Confirm the compatibility of the OS kernel version and Oracle kernel modules for the Oracle Filter Driver (AFD) and Oracle Advanced Cluster File System (ACFS) using the steps documented here.

2.) Run an Orachk or Exachk report and review the required patches section containing the known issues. This is the same information from My Oracle Support Note 555.1, and it is customized for your environment. If there are recommended patches, then re-create your Gold Image to include those patches.

3.) Once the upgrade, patching, or deployment is complete, run the cluvfy command to check the health of the Grid Infrastructure stack

$cluvfy comp vital 

Initializing ...

Verification of vital health checks was successful.

CVU operation performed:      vital health checks
Date:                         Jan 30, 2024, 1:34:59 AM
CVU version:                  23.4.0.23.0 (090123x8664)
Clusterware version:          23.0.0.0.0
CVU home:                     /u01/app/grid/23.3
Grid home:                    /u01/app/grid/23.3
User:                         crsusr
Operating system:             Linux5.4.17-2136.324.5.3.el8uek.x86_64        

4.) Remember to periodically review Mike's blog site, www.mikedietrich.com, for all the latest updates about Oracle database upgrades and patching.

Thank You

A big thank you to all our customers for choosing Oracle Database. We continue to simplify and ease database management, especially in upgrade and patch operations. In this regard, we continue to innovate, and you will hear about new features in our upcoming release very soon. If you'd like to test these features today, please message me, and I'll get you started.