2.3 Changes and Improvements in Release 2.0.1

External Storage Support

As of this release, Oracle PCA storage can be extended by connecting and configuring external storage hardware. This allows customers to provision virtual machines with virtual disks beyond the capacity of the internal storage, and to provide ample disk space for large repositories and for backup and recovery purposes. The storage hardware is connected to the Fabric Interconnects using either InfiniBand or Fibre Channel technology.

For additional information and instructions to extend Oracle PCA storage, refer to the chapter Extending Oracle Private Cloud Appliance - External Storage in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Installation Guide.

Integrated Command Line Interface

Oracle PCA command line utilities are now consolidated into a single command line interface (CLI), which is accessible from the Oracle Linux shell on the management node. The CLI provides both single-command and interactive access to all of the tools available in the Oracle PCA Dashboard, as well as many other functions that have no UI equivalent. The design of the CLI makes it possible to script actions that may need to be performed on a regular basis, or to write integration scripts for existing monitoring and maintenance software not directly hosted on the appliance.

For details about CLI usage and an overview of the available commands and their options, refer to the chapter The Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Command Line Interface (CLI) in the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Administrator's Guide.

VLAN-Enabled Appliance Management Network

The appliance management network now supports the use of VLANs. The IPs you assign to the management node cluster may belong to a VLAN in use at the customer data center. To configure the appliance accordingly, select the VLAN in the Dashboard. The network interfaces of the management nodes are configured to accept VLAN tags.

Synchronization Service

A synchronization service has been implemented to allow configurable parameters to be set and maintained across heterogeneous sets of components within an Oracle PCA environment. Throughout the life cycle of the appliance, software updates, capacity extensions and configuration changes will occur at different points in time. The synchronization service is an extensible foundation for any mechanism implemented to eliminate configuration mismatches.

Provisioning Lock

The Oracle PCA Dashboard allows administrators to temporarily disable compute node provisioning with the click of a button. When provisioning is suspended, maintenance tasks or management node upgrades can be carried out safely.

Bugs Fixed in Release 2.0.1

The following table lists bugs that have been fixed in Oracle PCA Release 2.0.1.

Table 2.2 List of Fixed Bugs

Bug ID	Description
17431002	“Restarting Oracle PCA Service Causes Compute Node Provisioning to Fail” A new mechanism has been implemented to query the internal DHCP database for the availability of IP addresses for a new compute node and its corresponding ILOM. If the Oracle PCA service is stopped, for example with a management node failover, during the provisioning of a compute node, an IP address may have been assigned to an unprovisioned server, and becomes unavailable for future use. Because the appliance provisioning software expects the ILOM to obtain an IP in the same subnet as the compute node, with a value +100 (IPv4 decimal notation) for the final byte, the new DHCP query looks for matching available IPs before assigning them, thereby eliminating the risk of provisioning failing due to mismatches or unavailable IPs. It is still recommended to lock provisioning of new compute nodes during planned failovers such as management node upgrades.
18435883	“Running `pca-node-db delete` Without Options Deletes All Node Entries from Database” It is no longer possible to delete the contents of the node database this way.
18967069	“Management Node Cluster Configuration Fails During Software Update” During appliance management software upgrade, when the secondary management node takes over the master role, it requires connectivity to the internal storage appliance. New checks now ensure that there is a route to the storage appliance before the software update continues. As a result, the update process will no longer hang because the `ovca` service is not started when the master role is transferred between management nodes.

Bug ID

Description

17431002

“Restarting Oracle PCA Service Causes Compute Node Provisioning to Fail”

A new mechanism has been implemented to query the internal DHCP database for the availability of IP addresses for a new compute node and its corresponding ILOM. If the Oracle PCA service is stopped, for example with a management node failover, during the provisioning of a compute node, an IP address may have been assigned to an unprovisioned server, and becomes unavailable for future use. Because the appliance provisioning software expects the ILOM to obtain an IP in the same subnet as the compute node, with a value +100 (IPv4 decimal notation) for the final byte, the new DHCP query looks for matching available IPs before assigning them, thereby eliminating the risk of provisioning failing due to mismatches or unavailable IPs.

It is still recommended to lock provisioning of new compute nodes during planned failovers such as management node upgrades.

18435883

“Running pca-node-db delete Without Options Deletes All Node Entries from Database”

It is no longer possible to delete the contents of the node database this way.

18967069

“Management Node Cluster Configuration Fails During Software Update”

During appliance management software upgrade, when the secondary management node takes over the master role, it requires connectivity to the internal storage appliance. New checks now ensure that there is a route to the storage appliance before the software update continues. As a result, the update process will no longer hang because the ovca service is not started when the master role is transferred between management nodes.