I know, many of you were asking several times already about the certification of the Oracle Database on Oracle Linux 9 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. And originally I think an announcement was planned for Oracle Cloud World in Las Vegas. But certification mean that you really certify, and not just wave things through. We’ve done thorough testing, and some issues were found which needed to be fixed at first. Good news: Oracle Database 19c is certified on OL9 and RHEL9.
Photo by Ilia Bronskiy on Unsplash
Certification Tab
You can check certifications quickly on MyOracle Support by yourself. Please use the CERTIFICATIONS tab, then choose:
- Product: Oracle Database
- Release: 19.0.0.0.0
- Platform: Linux x86-64 Oracle Linux 9
And then you will get:
Or you access the above directly with this link.
The fine print
Please do click always at the tiny link below the certification information saying “See Certification Details for Notes and Support Information”. This will then display the fine print you should be aware of.
There is a minimum RU: 19.19.0. That is important to mention. And there are minimum kernel versions you need to settle on at least:
- Oracle Linux 9 with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7: 5.15.0-1.43.4.2.el9uek.x86_64 or later,
or - Oracle Linux 9 with the Red Hat Compatible kernel: 5.14.0-70.22.1.0.2.el9_0.x86_64 or later
For ACFS please refer to ACFS Supported on OS Platforms for Oracle ACFS certification details (MOS Note: 1369107.1)
As far as I see, the certification does not apply to Oracle Database 21c.
The Oracle Database 19c Installation Guide for Linux contains the information already, too. And thanks to Rebacca from HP pointing me to the Oracle Linux KVM User’s Guide being updated as well.
OEM Agent and ACFS
Thanks for asking questions. I learn a lot, and the internal teams learn also about your requirements.
Andreas did ask straight away for the OEM Agent support. And the EM team replied at speed of light that they are in the process to certify OEM Agent 13.5.0 on OL9 / RHEL9. If I don’t forget, I will update the blog post as soon as I hear about the certification.
Zarko did quickly realize that MOS Note: 1369107.1 – ACFS and AFD Support On OS Platforms (Certification Matrix) misses the information about OL9/RHEL9 either. The ACFS team replied super-quickly as well and pointed me to the yellow box titled Note 1 – ACFS support for new OS updates. It has a line for the Enh 35697907 – 19C BUILD OL9.0 RHCK COMPATIBLE ACFS, AFD MODULES (5.14.0-284.11.1 AND 5.15.0-0.30.19). But since this is non-public I can tell you that you need to wait for the RU 19.22.0 in January 2024 for the ACFS and related component support in OL9/RHEL9.
Further Links and Information
- Certification Oracle Database 19c on OL9 and RHEL9
- MOS Note: 1369107.1 – ACFS Supported on OS Platforms for Oracle ACFS certification details
- Oracle Database 19c Installation Guide for Linux
- Oracle Linux KVM User’s Guide
- MOS Note: 1369107.1 – ACFS and AFD Support On OS Platforms (Certification Matrix)
–Mike
…and 19c RAC is certified, too… (with the same minimal RU and kernel requirements)
Hi MIke,
does that also mean, that Database 19c is also certified on OL8 with UEKR7? Previously it was not and I can’t see any change on the certification page for OL8.
— Sven
Hi Sven,
I can only repeat what the doc says. I added the link to the install guide at the end of the post.
Cheers,
Mike
Dear Mike,
thanks for providing the certification information. As far as I know OL9 with UEK 7 or RHCK does not provide any Oracle ASMLib kernel driver (oracleasm). Do you know how to install ASM on OL9 without this driver?
Best,
Boris
Hi Boris,
are you asking about how to use ASM or ACFS?
You should be able to create ASM instances straight forward.
But ACFS is different.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike, thanks for your response. I was asking about how to use ASM but in the meantime I have found out that installing ASM without Oracle ASMLib kernel driver (oracleasm) is possible.
Best,
Boris
Hi Mike,
I´ve checked MOS and it looks like OEM agent is not yet certified on OL9/RHEL9.
This might be still a showstopper for OL9/RHEL9 usage.
Thanks Andreas – let me quickly check with the OEM and the cert teams.
I’ll get back to you.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
I just setup a test Oracle Linux VM (9.2 with all updates ). I tried installing oracleasm-support rpm. It installed however I was unable to issue oracleasm init, it would fail.
[root@ol9-test ~]# oracleasm init
Creating /dev/oracleasm mount point: /dev/oracleasm
Loading module “oracleasm”: failed
Unable to load module “oracleasm”
Mounting ASMlib driver filesystem: failed
Unable to mount ASMlib driver filesystem
I am not interested in using ACFS, asm will be for datafiles, fast recovery area, etc.
After reading more, some sources say that oracleasm is built in to the kernel, however I am still not able to run the command init to setup disks for use in ASM / Grid.
Can you shed some light on the proper way to use oracleasm with Oracle Linux 9 / UEK R7
Thank you,
Hi Kevin,
you don’t need the asmlib driver (oracleasm) to use ASM.
Just ignore this part and create your ASM.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
sure, but you need the asmlib driver to manage the disks with ASM (if you cannot use the ASM filter driver (AFD)).
Regarding MOS 1089399.1 the oracleasmlib and oracleasm-support should be provided by Oracle also for RHEL-9 (because both products are in support right now). Or am I wrong?
Cheers
Bernd
Hi Bernd,
it reads to me the same way but if you want to double-sure, then you need a quick SR please. This way, the people in charge learn about customer requests.
I stopped discussing it (and I tried VERY hard, trust me). Hence, it is MUCH BETTER if you signal this to Oracle as it then will be seen by the owners.
Cheers,
Mike
Hello Mike,
Thanks for the post, great new that OL9/RHE9 are now certified. However, I checked 1369107.1 (ACFS and AFD Support On OS Platforms (Certification Matrix).) and OL9/RHEL9 are still not there. For us, not being able to use AFD is a major blocker. Any idea if this is really not certified yet or just that the Doc is not up to date yet? Bottom line, when can we expect for AFD and ACFS to be certified on these operating systems?
Thanks a lot for your great work, kind regards,
-Zarko
Thanks Zarko,
fully see your point – and I did ask the Dev Mgr – will get back as soon as I get a reply.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Zarko,
I learned that the MOS note is pointing to:
Enh 35697907 – 19C BUILD OL9.0 RHCK COMPATIBLE ACFS, AFD MODULES (5.14.0-284.11.1 AND 5.15.0-0.30.19)
which you can’t see since it is non-public.
The OL9/RHEL9 support will be available with 19.22.0 in Jan 2024.
I will update the blog post.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike, thanks for the reply, including for the post contents above which now has a complete information. Sorry for delays, I did not realize you already answered (did not get automatic notification this time). So I guess, we will just have to wait for 19.22 and I admit this does spoil all our current gold image creation and patching efforts which were all based on 19.20 / RHEL7 in an attempt to align internal Oracle RUs with OS versions currently in use and an upcoming RHEL9 migration project :-(.
Kind regards,
-Zarko
Hi Zarko,
no, you can also request the necessary ACFS fixes as a one-off backport for your RU.
Take the bug numbers I highlighted, and open an SR, upload your opatch lsinventory and request the backport to be built.
So you don’t have to wait for January 2024.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
i clusterware 19.19 certified for oel9 with uek? We use oracle restart/asm?
Best regards,
Andreas.
Hi Andreas,
see the last line of the first screenshot, and of course the ACFS addition.
Hence, yes for GI. And for ACFS, you need a one-off.
Cheers,
Mike