Purpose

You can schedule software updates by setting SOFTWAREUPDATE attributes. The ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE command enables you to alter modifiable Software Update attributes, to validate the pre-requirements for the software update, or to start the upgrade immediately.

You can also run the ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE command using exacli.

Syntax

ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE {VALIDATE PREREQ | UPGRADE [FORCE] | attribute = attribute value [,attribute = attribute value...]}

Options for the ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE Command

• VALIDATE PREREQ

  Run software update check pre-requirement steps now. This will download the software update pre-requirement code for the update specified by the store attribute. These checks are run automatically as part of update. Use this option only if you want to run prerequisite checks explicitly. Any error found will be displayed. A stateful alert will be raised if any error is found by the VALIDATE PREREQ command.

• UPGRADE [FORCE]

  Run the software update (including the pre-requirement steps) now, using the software location specified by the Software Update store attribute. Use this command if you want to perform the update now rather than wait for the time specified by the Software Update time attribute.

  If FORCE is specified, then the upgrade continues despite any pre-requirement check errors.

• attribute = attribute value

  Modify the specified Software Update attributes to the values provided.

Attributes for SOFTWAREUPDATE

The following attributes for the ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE command are modifiable:

• frequency: Storage server updates can automatically be done periodically by setting the frequency attribute to the desired frequency. You can specify one of the following values: {none | daily | weekly | biweekly }. If the value specified for frequency is '' or none, then the scheduled update is only done once. The value none can be used for the frequency in Oracle Exadata System Software release 19.1.0 or later.

• name: The name of the patch to use in the update, which includes the software version string such as 18.1.1.0.0.171018. If you use the ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE UPGRADE or ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE VALIDATE PREREQ command, then the software store is checked and the name attribute is set automatically (if not already set) to the latest available version in the software store. Otherwise, the name attribute has a value of unknown. If there are multiple software versions at the store site, then this attribute can be used to specify which version should be used.

  Patches downloaded from My Oracle Support use a different name format, for example p26875767_181100_Linux-x86-64.zip. If you are using Oracle Exadata System Software 18c (18.1.0) or 18c (18.1.1), then you must rename the downloaded patch file so it has a name like 18.1.1.0.0.171018. Starting with Oracle Exadata System Software release 18.1.2, the ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE command accepts patch names of the form p26875767_181100.

• store: A URL for the location of the software store.

  If you specify a network store location using the HTTP or HTTPS protocol:

  • The URL must be accessible using the management network or RDMA Network Fabric.

  • MS automatically finds and downloads the required software update files.

  • The local staging location for the downloaded software update files is /root/swupdate or /var/swupdate.

  Alternatively, you can use the FILE protocol to specify a URL for a local store. When using a local store:

  • MS does not need to download the patch zip files or perform the associated space checks.

  • MS does not manage the local software store content. You must download the required patch files before patching and remove them afterward to free up space.

  • The file URL must use one of the following formats:

    • file:///localpath
    • file:/localpath

• time: A future date and time at which the software update should be performed. The time can be specified as a local informal date and time, for example "1 AM, next Tuesday". If the date and time is valid then the output from setting this attribute shows the interpreted time in standard format with timezone offset, such as 2017-08-22T01:00:00-08:00.

  If you set this attribute to the empty string, "", then it cancels the scheduled software update.

• timeLimitInMinutes: An update may wait for other storage servers to complete their updates in order to preserve disk group redundancy. By default, there is no limit on the amount of time which can be spent waiting to update. This attribute may be set to a positive, maximum integer which represents the number of minutes a storage server will spend waiting to update. If an update does not start within the time specified by the limit, then the update is canceled and an update alert is reported.

Usage Notes

• The storage server software is initially updated on the unused system partition. Then, according to the desired schedule, the storage server activates the update by booting from the updated partition.
• Software download and the prerequisite check will begin up to a week before the scheduled update time.
• The update progress can be monitored by displaying the non-modifiable Software Update status attribute.
• Software updates do not occur if the upgrade software is already installed
• You can use dcli or exacli to schedule and install updates using the ALTER SOFTWAREUPDATE command.

• The Software Update feature supports using HTTPS transport for software downloads. When using HTTPS, TLS certificate checks are performed by default. If the remote server’s certificate cannot be validated then the following error is reported:

  CELL-00076: An error occurred during download of software update:
  source https://hostname:port is not available.
  CELL-00092: The store's TLS certificate cannot be authenticated with known CA certificates.

  This can happen if the remote server uses a self-signed certificate or if the remote server uses a certificate signed by a certificate authority (CA) that is not included in the storage server’s CA store. You can use the following procedure to add a CA certificate to the storage server’s CA store. This is a security setup step which requires shell access as root on the storage server.

  1. Get a CA certificate that can verify the remote server. The certificate should be stored in PEM or DER file format.
  2. Copy the file to the storage server at this directory: /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/
  3. Run following commands:

     update-ca-trust enable
     
     update-ca-trust extract

  Use the operating system man utility to get more information about the update-ca-trust command.

Examples