Grid Infrastructure

Hide and Seek with RU 19.18.0

One and a half weeks ago we released the Database and Grid Infrastructure Release Updates (RU) 19.18.0. You could read on the blog how to apply it, and you could read also about an alert. So far, all was more or less transparent but apparently sort of an Hide and Seek with RU 19.18.0 has happened. So let me shed some light.

Heads Up!

I am just the messenger trying to bring some light into the topic. Neither is our team responsible nor do we have any sort of control on this process. I …

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MRP3 for Oracle 19.17.0 adds an interesting surprise

You may have read my previous blog posts about MRPs (Monthly Recommended Patches). And today I did a quick check with Rodrigo. We both were a bit surprised to have the MRP3 for 19.17.0 add a lot of fixes to a standard RDBMS installation. So we were investigating a bit further. As a teaser, read on to see that MRP3 for Oracle 19.17.0 adds an interesting surprise.

 

How did we find out?

The MRP3 for Oracle Database 19.17.0 got released just a week ago. You can navigate to it via MOS

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Intel uses AutoUpgrade to upgrade from Oracle 11.2.0.4 to 19c

Funny, I was traveling recently with RAC PM Anil Nair – but he forgot to tell me that this cool story has been published just a few days before we took of for YATRA 2022 to India: Intel uses AutoUpgrade to upgrade from Oracle 11.2.0.4 to 19c. I know that Anil is simply so busy – and my surprise was huge.

What’s the story?

Gagan Singh, Enterprise Architect at Intel, shared it with me last week. The goal was to upgrade from Oracle 11.2.0.4 to Oracle 19c with the least amount of downtime

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Binary patching is slow because of the inventory

The headline of this blog post may sound a bit cryptic: Binary patching is slow because of the inventory. But actually this seems to be one of the main causes when your binary patching gets slower and slower with every patch you apply.

The more you patch, the worse it gets

Well, this is a tough headline. But you may have read my blog posts about my quarterly patching experience. It actually started with the July 2021 RU in my 19c environment when I wrote:

At least in my environment, both checks with the

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Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 – End of Support and Patch Bundles

This will be a short blog post but since I received a number of messages yesterday after I published my usual Patching all my environments with the April 2022 Patch Bundles blog post I need to clarify a few things regarding Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 – End of Support and Patch Bundles.

Premier Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

If you remember this, the Premier Support period for Oracle 12.2.0.1 ended on November 30, 2020.

Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

Since many of you were still on Oracle 12.2.0.1 when the end of Premier Support …

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Some additional information regarding the Oracle 19.14.0 RUs

You may have read my previous blog post about patching all my environments to the January 2022 patch bundles. But since I do this in a very simple non-RAC, non-GI environment, I may not see issues you may have encountered. Some people commented – and I would like to share Some additional information regarding the Oracle 19.14.0 RUs . Still, please, this is NOT a collection of all open issues. I just see this blog post as a summary of the issues I have seen and/or heard about so far.

Some additional information regarding the Oracle 19.14.0 RUs

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

555.1 is one

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Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 and GI are certified on OL8 and RHEL8

No worries, this isn’t a blog post from the vault. And I haven’t accidentally published something from the past just today. It is real. Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 and GI are certified on OL8 and RHEL8.

Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 and GI are certified on OL8 and RHEL8

Photo by Derek Oyen on Unsplash

What has been certified?

Thanks to my colleagues and a large customer in the UK, I received an email asking whether I have seen this information already on MOS. I haven’t. I knew that there were discussions but I had no actual date for the 12.2.0.1 certification on OL8 on my radar.

So in brief, these Linux 8 releases …

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Which database version can be used with Grid Infrastructure 19c?

This will be a very short blog post today. But a colleague asked me this question just a few minutes ago: Which database version can be used with Grid Infrastructure 19c? And I realized that I neither put it on the blog yet nor did I bookmark it. But I answered this question several times already.

Which database version can be used with Grid Infrastructure 19c?

There are 4 sources I did check:

  • MOS Notes on MyOracle Support
  • Oracle Documentation
  • Certification Information on MyOracle Support
  • Database Upgrade Blog

At first, I answered with MOS

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Do you need to apply OJVM patches to Grid Infrastructure?

From time to time, when I discuss OJVM patching with customers, I hear the following question: Do you need to apply OJVM patches to Grid Infrastructure? I’m carrying around this topic since months actually.

Do you need to apply OJVM patches to Grid Infrastructure?

Photo by Jakub Kriz on Unsplash

A quick MOS check

Well, you’d assume this is something MOS does give you an answer within fractions of a second. But nope. I found a lot but unfortunately not what I was looking for. What I found instead where community discussions where applying OJVM patches to a 12.1.0.2 GI installation corrupted the inventory. Hence, there seems to be some …

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Exadata Upgrade to OL7 and to Oracle 19c

This is just a short blog post to ensure I will find the necessary information when somebody asks me again.. In case you plan to do an Exadata upgrade to OL7 and to Oracle 19c, the below links are the most important ones you should start with.

Exadata Upgrade to OL7 and to Oracle 19c

Exadata Upgrade to OL7 and to Oracle 19c

–Mike…

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Where does the database link SYS_HUB come from?

This blog lives a lot from customer’s feedback and updates. And these days, Nicolas Jardot from dbi-services in Switzerland sent me an email asking: Where does the database link SYS_HUB come from? And if he can delete it or if it has any deeper purpose. Neither Google nor MOS reveal a lot of useful information

Where does the database link SYS_HUB come from?

Where does the database link SYS_HUB come from?

I took my vanilla 18.3.0 database in our hands-on lab and check:

column owner format a5
column db_link format a12
column username format a12
column host format a12

select con_id, owner, db_link, username, host from cdb_db_links;

    CON_ID 
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Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you’ve patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homes

Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you've patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homesThis blog post title sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you’ve patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homes. Why the heck should you patch your 12.1.0.2 database homes upfront?

Oracle 12.2.0.1 RESTART: Make sure you’ve patched your Oracle 12.1.0.2 homes

Well, there’s an interesting issue happening. When you work with Oracle Grid Infrastructure, no matter if you operate a cluster or “just” use Oracle Restart, you’ll have to upgrade GI to Oracle 12.2 first before you can manage 12.2 databases with it. That’s not new. It’s a well understood rule.

Now guess you operate Oracle RESTART (SIHA …

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