Internally we can use a Gold Image service at Oracle. I can download a zip with 19.6.0 included. But externally for you as customers, the download of 19.6.0 required that you download 19.3.0 at first, then apply 19.6.0 on top of it. But a day ago, a tweet by my Belgium friend Philippe Fierens caught my attention. Do we offer patched Gold Images already?

Photo by Sergey Pesterev on Unsplash
What is a Gold Image?
Since Oracle 18c, the installation routine has changed to the better. You download zip file containing the Gold Image, you create a directory and unzip the file into it. Then you call the installer which configures the installation. And you are done. Of course, if you’d like to have the most recent (or any other) Release Update on top, you need to download it separately and install it into this home with opatch. I widely explained how to do this.
So basically, with a Gold Image you avoid this “copy” part of the install routine.
Do we offer patched Gold Images already?
Following up with Philippe, I learned about the [the following link disappeared after I posted this – please see the message in RED below] OEDA (Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant) readmes. And the most recent one has this section:
Now I was thrilled. Do we offer patched Gold Images already? And I wasn’t aware of it?
As above link disappeared, let me described the patch to access to most recent OEDA readmes:
-
- MOS Note 2542082.1 – 19c Grid Infrastructure and Database Upgrade steps for Exadata Database Machine
- Then scroll down to: Step 1.4.1 – Download the most recent gold images patch sets for 19c
- This section tells you the most recent patches with links
- Then you download for instance the patched DB home:
Example: 19.6.0 Database Gold Image Clone from May 5, 2020
The section mentions this as being intended for OVM – but actually it also says:
- A gold image is a copy of a software-only, installed Oracle home. It is used to copy an image of an Oracle home to a new host on a new file system to serve as an active, usable Oracle home.
I started the slow download of the 19.5.0 one for the database – 19.6.0 was not mentioned yet. But nevertheless, I just wanted to see what I get.
Btw, I find it VERY disturbing, that (whoever) includes now the date as a 5th number to the release. We changed to a 3-number schema. So 19.5.0 is it – not 19.5.0.0.191015.
File size is 3.99GB – that’s quite a lot. And took almost 4 hours to download but it has to travel over the Pond I guess …
$ unzip p30397799_195000DBRU_Linux-x86-64.zip Archive: p30397799_195000DBRU_Linux-x86-64.zip extracting: db-klone-Linux-x86-64-19000191015.zip inflating: README.txt
Let me check the README.txt at first:
Build Date: December 24, 2019 01:00 Software home of Oracle Database software This zip file contains Database software version: 19.5.0.0.191015 To use this patch with OEDA, copy this file to OEDA's WorkDir before running OEDA. Refer to the Exadata database machine owners guide for information about the Oracle Exadata deployment assistant Patches installed: 30165503;TRACKING BUG FOR CLIENT SIDE FIXES NEEDED FOR PMEMLOG 30165493;LOG FILE FAST SYNC PARAMETERS NEED TO BE FIXED FOR PMEMLOG 30128191;OJVM RELEASE UPDATE: 19.5.0.0.191015 (30128191) 30125133;Database Release Update : 19.5.0.0.191015 (30125133) 30122149;OCW RELEASE UPDATE 19.5.0.0.0 (30122149)
What do I get when I unzip it?
$ ls addnode dbjava instantclient odbc precomp sqldeveloper apex dbs inventory olap QOpatch sqlj assistants deinstall javavm OPatch R sqlpatch bin demo jdbc opmn racg sqlplus cfgtoollogs diagnostics jdk oracore rdbms srvm client dmu jlib ord README.txt suptools clone drdaas ldap ords relnotes ucp crs dv lib oss root.sh usm css env.ora md oui runInstaller utl ctx has mgw owm schagent.conf wwg cv hs network perl sdk xdk data install nls plsql slax
This doesn’t look very different from a normal home. Of course, there’s a .patch_storage
directory, too.
$ ls -lrt .patch_storage/ total 36 drwxr-xr-x. 3 oracle dba 74 Apr 18 2019 29517242_Apr_17_2019_23_27_10 drwxr-xr-x. 3 oracle dba 74 Apr 18 2019 29585399_Apr_9_2019_19_12_47 drwxr-xr-x. 4 oracle dba 87 Dec 24 07:44 30122149_Sep_19_2019_19_36_02 drwxr-xr-x. 4 oracle dba 87 Dec 24 07:45 30125133_Oct_9_2019_00_10_29 drwxr-xr-x. 4 oracle dba 87 Dec 24 07:46 30128191_Aug_29_2019_23_53_58 drwxr-xr-x. 4 oracle dba 87 Dec 24 07:46 30165493_Oct_11_2019_03_38_25 -rw-r--r--. 1 oracle dba 12177 Dec 24 07:46 record_inventory.txt drwxr-xr-x. 11 oracle dba 4096 Dec 24 07:46 NApply -rw-r--r--. 1 oracle dba 92 Dec 24 07:46 LatestOPatchSession.properties -rw-r--r--. 1 oracle dba 12292 Dec 24 07:46 interim_inventory.txt drwxr-xr-x. 4 oracle dba 87 Dec 24 07:47 30165503_Nov_6_2019_18_00_01
Then I call the ./runInstaller. And it looks exactly the same as for my standard 19.6.0 home.
A minute later, everything is installed and ready to go.
Afterwards I created a CUSTOM database with no extra components to see what I’ll get.
$ export ORACLE_SID=HUGO [CDB2] oracle@hol:/u01/app/oracle/product/19GOLD $ s SQL*Plus: Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production on Thu Jan 23 18:48:21 2020 Version 19.5.0.0.0 Copyright (c) 1982, 2019, Oracle. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production Version 19.5.0.0.0
And here we go:
SQL> select con_id, comp_id, version from cdb_registry order by 1,2; CON_ID COMP_ID VERSION ---------- ------------------------------ ------------------------------ 1 CATALOG 19.0.0.0.0 1 CATPROC 19.0.0.0.0 1 OWM 19.0.0.0.0 1 RAC 19.0.0.0.0 1 XDB 19.0.0.0.0 2 CATALOG 19.0.0.0.0 2 CATPROC 19.0.0.0.0 2 OWM 19.0.0.0.0 2 RAC 19.0.0.0.0 2 XDB 19.0.0.0.0 3 CATALOG 19.0.0.0.0 3 CATPROC 19.0.0.0.0 3 OWM 19.0.0.0.0 3 RAC 19.0.0.0.0 3 XDB 19.0.0.0.0 15 rows selected.
Which patches are included already?
With a fiinal check using my check_patches_18.sql script I’d like to find out which patches have been applied to this home.
CON_ID ACTION_TIME PATCH_ID PATCH_TYPE ACTION DESCRIPTION SOURCE_VERSION TARGET_VERSION ---------- ------------ ---------- ---------- ---------- -------------------------------- --------------- --------------- 1 2020-01-23 30125133 RU APPLY Database Release Update : 19.5.0 19.1.0.0.0 19.5.0.0.0 .0.191015 (30125133) 1 2020-01-23 30128191 INTERIM APPLY OJVM RELEASE UPDATE: 19.5.0.0.19 19.1.0.0.0 19.1.0.0.0 1015 (30128191) 2 2020-01-23 30125133 RU APPLY Database Release Update : 19.5.0 19.1.0.0.0 19.5.0.0.0 .0.191015 (30125133) 2 2020-01-23 30128191 INTERIM APPLY OJVM RELEASE UPDATE: 19.5.0.0.19 19.1.0.0.0 19.1.0.0.0 1015 (30128191) 3 2020-01-23 30125133 RU APPLY Database Release Update : 19.5.0 19.1.0.0.0 19.5.0.0.0 .0.191015 (30125133) 3 2020-01-23 30128191 INTERIM APPLY OJVM RELEASE UPDATE: 19.5.0.0.19 19.1.0.0.0 19.1.0.0.0 1015 (30128191) 6 rows selected.
OJVM of course wouldn’t have been needed in this case. On purpose, I didn’t configure JVM. But it doesn’t hurt.
Summary
Actually, apart from the huge download and the fact that 19.6.0 is not available yet, that’s pretty neat. I don’t have to go through the opatch
exercise. I’m really surprised. Still, I didn’t dig into the details yet. But I can’t see a reason why this should be good to go with. Except the fact, that I’d prefer 19.6.0 instead.
Of course, the intention for these images is different as you can see from the README:
I don’t have an OEDA home or an install.sh
script here. Still, it works 😉
Take this blog post not as a recommendation to download these images – more as an explanation what would work and what it is meant for.
Further Information and Links
- New Installation procedure since Oracle 18c
- Patching all my environments to the January 2020 patch bundles
- OEDA 19.5.0 Readme
–Mike
Please provide more details about locating the “Gold Image Patch Sets”. I receive the error “File not found.” when I click on the links for OEDA (Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant) readmes or OEDA 19.5.0 Readme. A search of MOS for “Gold Image Patch Sets” does not return any information. I have not found “Gold Image Patch Sets” in the “Patches and Updates” tab of MOS.
Thank you.
Hi Dean,
I see that the links I added magically disappeared.
Now I added a section with more general guidance. Sorry for the inconvenience, I wasn’t aware that these documents get wiped 🙁
Cheers,
Mike
Mike,
Doc ID 2542082.1 is helpful. 2111010.1 and 2369422.1 contain links to the most recent gold image for 12.2 and 18c. I am only able to find the images using the specific patch number, when searching the Patches & Updates tab on MOS. I was not able to find them using the description. I did not find any other related documents on MOS. It appears that only the most recent image for 12.2, 18, or 19 on Linux x86-64 is available.
Example patch:
Patch 30766421: Grid Software clone version 19.6.0.0
Last Updated 10-Feb-2020 17:51 (2+ months ago)
Product Oracle Exadata Storage Server Software
Release Oracle Database 19.6.0.0.0 GIRU
Platform Linux x86-64
Size 5.1 GB
Download Access Software
Classification General
Patch Tag
p30766421_196000GIRU_Linux-x86-64.zip
Thanks for the information.
Thanks Dean – and I have a rough idea why those are so well hidden …
Cheers,
Mike
Mike,
it seems that some results for “database Software clone version” are now popping up on MOS. E.g. “Patch 29212701: Database Software clone version 11.2.0.4.190115”. These are required to install new Oracle Homes on Virtualized Exadatas (via oedacli)
Hi Mike,
Can you please advise if we need to mount the gold image manually before running OEDA to add home via oedacli.
Steps for mounting gold image for Exadata OVM is mentioned in 2111010.1
Regards,
Junaid C M
Hi,
you please need to verify this with either the documentation or with Support. As I don’t have such an environment, I can’t tell you. I doubt that you need to mount it – but please double check.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike
This realy sounds great.
However, can I use this image vor non Exadata System (Just an “normal” Server) running under Linux?
Is this supported, if I need to open an SR?
I’m afraid it is not…
Cheers
Christian
Hi Christian,
we’ve had this discussion before, and even though the images have not been created for non-Engineered system, I see no reason why they wouldn’t be “supported” on a non-Engineered system. It is an Oracle image, whether we built it or you built it makes no difference from the software to me.
Cheers
Mike