Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Patching the Oracle Database
Appliance
Patching is one of the biggest challenges a modern IT organization faces today. Patching is a regular task that most
probably involves most of the support team's efforts after supporting functional and business requests. It involves a
lot of effort to plan, verify, test, and execute patching activities. Patching is an ongoing activity that addresses existing
problems and reduces risk of facing potential problems discovered by other product users. Patching also simplifies
work, with Oracle Support in troubleshooting issues your team has faced or will possibly face in the near future. The
good news is that the Oracle Database Appliance significantly reduces the amount of effort necessary to keep
a database system on the current level. This chapter explains how the Oracle Database Appliance addresses the
never-ending patching challenge and makes it significantly less resource consuming.
Introduction to Patching
The Oracle Database Appliance takes a very simple and practical approach to patching. A single patch delivers
updates for all system components. The patching process is automated and fully scripted. It takes just a few
commands to patch the whole system, starting from the internal hard-drive firmware and ending with Oracle
Database patches. Oracle Corporation releases patches and patch bundles on a quarterly basis. This simplifies your
planning process.
Conventional Systems Limitations
What is so special about patching you ask? Just install a new version of software and you are done. Right? Would that
it were that simple. The problem is that a modern server is a complex system. It contains many separately updatable
components, starting from the BIOS and lights-out adapter, and ending with the operational system. Furthermore, a
database system doesn't consist of a server only. There are other important components that need regular software
updates. There are network components, internal storage, external storage, and more. The storage could be a complex
system by itself. To make a long story short, a database system consists of a dozen or more components that need to
be patched on a regular basis.
Updating a single component is a relatively simple task. However, each of the components interacts with others.
To make sure that all will operate without issues, an administrator or a group of administrators should verify the
compatibility of all components at their current version level. The lights-out adapter version should be compatible
with the current BIOS version; disk and network card drivers should be compatible with the operational system
version, and so on.
Often, different groups within the organization are responsible for patching different system components.
A storage team, for example, is responsible for storage components, whereas a network team maintains network
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search