I’ve had some interesting discussions with Anil Nair, our RAC Product Manager and a customer in the past days. The customer was looking for a definite statement that they can have a higher version of Patch Set Updates (PSUs) or Proactive Bundle Patches (BPs) in the Database homes than in the Grid Infrastructure home managing the resources.
For Oracle Database 18c, 19c and onward, please read instead:
Can you have different PSU/BP versions between Database and GI homes?
Yes, you can have a higher version PSU or BP in the Database home than in the Grid Infrastructure home managing the resources. This is implicitly documented in MOS Note 337737.1 – Oracle Clusterware (CRS/GI) – ASM – Database Version Compatibility where it says:
“The Oracle Grid Infrastructure (GI) /Clusterware (CRS) version must be of the highest version down to the 4th digit in the possible combinations at all times.“
Therefore you can deviate that this rule does not apply for the 5th digit anymore. Anil and I discussed that this may be documented a bit more clear – and he will take care.
Should you have different PSU/BP versions between Database and GI homes?
Well, this question is a bit harder. I can see why some customers have a higher patch level (5th digit) in the Database homes than in their GI homes. Actually some of my customers have this setup as well. GI is pretty stable above a certain patch level and often gets not treated with the same importance than the database homes as the need for patching in database homes is more obvious and visible. When it’s stable don’t touch it. And honestly speaking, patching is no fun – but hard work.
But we strongly recommend that you keep your patch levels in synch. If you apply the GI PSU of April 2017 then please apply the Database PSU or BP of April 2017 as well. These are the combinations we test internally. Please bear in mind that while the GI and DB are separate entities, they are tightly integrated and work cohesively. This way you mitigate the potential risk of an untested issue by having differences in the 5th digit.
And as a final hint:
Grid Infrastructure PSUs (and BPs) can be applied always in a rolling fashion causing no downtime. Just saying …
–Mike
Hi mike
On a mixed rdbms home under GI Clusterware Do I need to apply DB PSU or GI PSU on those rdbms homes?
This is what I have on my env
2 server Linux
1 home GI 12.1.0.2
2 homes RDBMS 12.1.0.2 RDBMS 11.2.0.4
Best regards
William,
on the GI homes you’ll apply the GI PSU.
On the databases homes I’d recommend you to apply the Database BP for 12c – and for your 11.2.0.4 installation the Database PSU for 11.2.0.4.
Cheers
Mike
Hello Mike,
How’s the situation with the new RU/RUR versioning scheme? Can we run RDBMS RU/RUR > GI RU/RUR?
Regards,
Christoph
Hi Christoph,
same as before – the patch version of the DB can be higher that the GI but this is not recommended.
See:
https://mikedietrichde.com/2017/04/26/keep-your-patch-versions-between-grid-infrastructure-and-databases-homes-in-synch/
Cheers, Mike
Hi Mike,
We have a customer with a 12.1.0.1 GI and 11.2.0.4 DB home, not having applied any PSU since 2014.
They ask us to do a move to a new server and an upgrade to version 12.2.
Is it possible (on the old server) to only patch the DB home with the latest 11.2.0.4 PSU?
I will explain why….
Next step in the project is to move the databases to a new server. On that new server we will install GI 12.2 (and apply the latest RU for GI 12.2) and create physical standby databases in 11.2.0.4 DB home.
After a failover to the new server, last step is to upgrade the databases to 12.2 on this new server.
I think it is a good idea to patch the databases with the latest 11.2.0.4 PSU before upgrading to 12.2, but I see no need to apply 12.1 PSU because of the move to a new server.
What do you think about this?
Best regards,
Els
Hi Els,
yes, that should work. The conflict check of Opatch will tell you if there’s any obligation to apply this PSU.
But you may be right – for the upgrade itself there shouldn’t be any need before June 2019.
https://mikedietrichde.com/2018/03/13/databases-need-patched-minimum-april-2019/
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
What should be the compatibility.asm and compatibility.rdbms when you have both 12.2.0.2 and 11.2.0.4 databases running on a 12.2 cluster.
Cheers,
Sandeep S
Hi Sandeep,
is has to be 11.2.0.4 or lower as otherwise your 11.2.0.4 database won’t start anymore.
Cheers,
Mike