To patch and maintain Oracle Database deployed with Oracle Data Guard on premises, Oracle recommends that you use Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP).

Overview of Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning

Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) is the recommended maintenance method to use for Oracle Real Application Clusters and Oracle Database deployed with Oracle Data Guard.

Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) is a full fledged automation engine for patching upgrade and provisioning. The central Oracle FPP Server can serve a fleet of databases and Grid Infrastructure from a single central server, making it easy to patch thousands of databases simultaneously. You can deploy a single Oracle FPP server for a given data center and use it to patch your entire fleet in that data center.

It has the following features

  • Performs maintenance patching and software updates to Oracle Databases (Oracle RAC, Oracle RAC One Node, and Single Instance), Oracle Grid Infrastructure, Oracle Restart, and Oracle Exadata Engineered Systems (DBNode, Storage Cells, and Network).
  • Performs software upgrades to Oracle Databases and Oracle Grid Infrastructure.
  • Is designed with many advanced features to simplify global fleet standardization and management.

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Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

About Oracle Database Release Update Patches

Oracle provides quarterly updates in the form of Release Updates (RUs) to release new features, upgrade existing features, enhance security, or fix problems with supported software.

Starting with Oracle Database 23ai, RUs are delivered in two formats:

  • As a gold image that you can install out-of-place like a new software release.
  • As a binary patch that you can apply in-place using OPatch or OPatchAuto.

You can apply out-of-place Oracle Database patches using the following steps:

  1. Download the RU as a gold image.
  2. Create a new Oracle home (target) identical to the old Oracle home (source) in the same Oracle base as the source Oracle home, using runInstaller -setupDBHomeAs.
  3. Move Oracle Database from the old Oracle home to the new Oracle home.

After you move the database to the new Oracle home, all database services will start from the new home.

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Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

Fleet Patching and Provisioning for Oracle Real Application Clusters and Oracle Data Guard

For ease of deployment, Oracle recommends that you use Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning to maintain Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) and databases deployed with Oracle Data Guard.

Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) has been built from the ground up by the database development organization with Oracle Databases and Oracle Exadata in mind. From day one, FPP has been using a centralized gold image out-of-place maintenance approach offering versatility and flexibility and MAA-compliant patching with support of the latest Oracle Database features.

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Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

Start Database Maintenance for Oracle Data Guard with Fleet Patching and Provisioning

To perform maintenance, use the Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) Server to complete the recommended image-based, out-of-place patching.

Oracle recommends that you use the Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) server to manage software images and to patch Oracle Databases deployed with Oracle Data Guard using image-based, out-of-place patching. The patching process moves the Oracle Real Application Clusters database and Oracle Data Guard from its existing software homes to target homes containing new software.

This topic shows you how to complete the following steps in your software maintenance:

  1. Is an Oracle Database or Oracle Data Guard software update required?
  2. To which Release Update (RU) should I update Oracle Database or Oracle Data Guard software?
  3. How can I perform the update of Oracle Database or Oracle Data Guard software?

Before you can update the Oracle Database or Oracle Data Guard software, you must build a gold image using the steps documented in the My Oracle Support document Creating Gold Image for Oracle Database and Grid Infrastructure Installations (Doc ID 2915366.2). Be prepared to provide the following information:

  • The results of running opatch lsinventory on the source Oracle home. These results show what patches have been applied, and provide additional information about the Oracle home.
  • The target RU patch number that you want to apply, which you enter in the candidate patch input text box.
  • Any recommended one-off patches you want installed with the target RU for your database release, such as those for Oracle Database 19c listed in the My Oracle Support document Oracle Database 19c Important Recommended One-off Patches (Doc ID 555.1) in the candidate patch input text box.
  • Any additional patches you require for your application or deployment environment in the candidate patch input text box.
  1. To prepare for the software update, download the FPP gold image and import it into the source Oracle home.

    The order of these steps is as follows:

    1. Download the gold image you have built to your FPP system.
    2. Import the gold image to the FPP server using the FPP command rhpctl import. For details about the import command, with reference to either a database image (ORACLEDBSOFTWARE) or Grid image (ORACLEGISOFTWARE), refer to rhpctl import image in Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Administrator's Guide.
    3. Deploy a new target software home using the FPP command "rhpctl add workingcopy". For details about the add workingcopy command, refer to rhpctl add workingcopy in Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Administrator's Guide.
  2. Run Precheck for the Apply Software update
    To prevent issues during the patch operation, run a precheck evaluation for moving the database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure to the new software home using the FPP command rhpctl move . . . -eval. For details about the move . . . -eval command options for database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure, refer to rhpctl move database or rhpctl move gihome in Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Administrator's Guide.
  3. Apply the RU update, moving the database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure to the new home.
    Move the database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure to the new software home using the FPP command rhpctl move. For details about the move command options for database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure, refer to rhpctl move database or rhpctl move gihome in Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Administrator's Guide.
  4. After the software move operation is completed successfully, and you have verified the database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure functionality in the new target Oracle home or Grid home, remove the unused source software homes using the FPP command rhpctl delete workingcopy. For details about the delete workingcopy command, refer to rhpctl delete workingcopy in Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Administrator's Guide.

    Caution:

    Only remove the source Oracle home after you verify the functionality of the relocated database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure in the new target home.

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Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

Oracle Database Maintenance with Gold Images Using Manual Mode

Learn about the manual options available to you for performing regular database maintenance using Gold Images.

Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

Creating a Gold Image for Database Maintenance

Learn how to obtain a Gold image for database maintenance using either Fleet Patching and Provisioning, or using manual patching.

Oracle recommends that you use Gold Image Release Updates (RUs) as part of your database maintenance plan. Gold Images promote a more stable and standardized environment, and simplify the maintenance process by providing a single installable software image that contains all critical fixes.

Example 1-1 How to obtain a Gold Image

A gold image can be obtained in the following ways:

After you obtain a gold image, you either can deploy it by using Fleet Patching and Provisioning, or by using the Database Setup Wizard.

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Parent topic: Oracle Database Maintenance with Gold Images Using Manual Mode

Setup Wizard Installation Options for Creating Images

Gold image-creation options to use with your Oracle Database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation setup wizards.

Options

In image-based installations, you can start your Oracle Database installation or Oracle Grid Infrastructure installations by running the setup wizards runInstaller and gridSetup.sh respectively. Both these wizards come with the following image-creation options.

Table 1-1 Image-Creation Options for Setup Wizard

Option Description

-createGoldImage

Creates a gold image from the current Oracle home.

-destinationLocation

Specify the complete path, or location, where the gold image will be created.

-exclFiles

Specify the complete paths to the files to be excluded from the newly created gold image.

—help

Displays help for all the available options.

For example:

./runInstaller -createGoldImage -destinationLocation /tmp/my_db_images -exclFiles /u01/app/oracle/product/23.0.0/dbhome_1/relnotes
./gridSetup.sh -createGoldImage -destinationLocation /tmp/my_grid_images -exclFiles /u01/app/oracle/product/23.0.0/dbhome_1/relnotes

Where:

/tmp/my_db_images is a temporary file location where the image zip file is created.

/tmp/my_grid_images is a temporary file location where the image zip file is created.

/u01/app/oracle/product/23.0.0/dbhome_1/relnotes is the file to be excluded in the newly created gold image.

Parent topic: Oracle Database Maintenance with Gold Images Using Manual Mode

Patch Conflict Resolution

If you choose not to use Gold Image patch maintenance, then interim patches used in conjunction with other proactive maintenance methods, including custom Gold Images, may cause patch conflicts.

Note:

Oracle recommends that you use one of the Quarterly Gold Image deployment methods for database maintenance. With Gold Image deployment, patch conflict resolution and merges are included as part of the Gold Image creation. Custom gold images do not have this optimization.

For the quarterly proactive patches (Quarterly Exadata Patch, RU, and MRPs), Oracle proactively produces new interim patches for existing patches that would conflict. The new interim patches are usually released at the same time as the proactive patches.

For information about resolving patch conflicts, see the My Oracle Support notes for patch conflicts.

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Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

Patching Oracle Database and Oracle GoldenGate

When you use Oracle GoldenGate with Oracle Database, you must ensure that Oracle GoldenGate processes are shut down before patching the database.

When you patch Oracle Database, and you are using Oracle GoldenGate, you must disable Oracle GoldenGate processes before starting to patch the database. The reason for this is that patches and upgrades can modify the RDBMS internal tables and views, which cause stored procedures that call them to be invalidated. All dependent objects are invalidated as well.

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Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

Documentation Accessibility

For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program website at http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=docacc.

Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customer access to and use of Oracle support services will be pursuant to the terms and conditions specified in their Oracle order for the applicable services.

Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard

Rolling Back RU Updates for Oracle RAC or Oracle Grid Infrastructure

To roll back an RU patch update performed with Fleet Patching and Provisioning, you move the database or infrastructure to the old Oracle home.

You can undo an RU update by moving the Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure to the old software home using the Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) command rhpctl move. When you use rhpctl move to undo the update, you change the sourcehome and desthome options so that sourcehome is the new release software home, and desthome is the old release software home.

Example 1-2 Rolling back an Oracle Grid Infrastructure update

In this example, the RU is rolled back for Oracle Grid Infrastructure, where gi_home is the source Grid home, and dest_path is the target Grid home: 

rhpctl move gihome -sourcehome dest_path -desthome gi_home

Example 1-3 Rolling back an Oracle RAC home

In this example, the RU is rolled back for an Oracle RAC database, where sourcehome is the source Oracle RAC home, dest_path is the target Oracle RAC home, and orcles is the database name. 

rhpctl move database -sourcehome dest_path -desthome source_home -dbname orcles

Parent topic: Patch Delivery Methods for Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard