Patching and Switching Oracle Grid Infrastructure Homes

Use the switchGridHome command to switch from the current Oracle Grid Infrastructure home to the patched Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.

You can use the switchGridHome command to switch between different RUs of the same release, for example from Oracle Grid Infrastructure 23.6 to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 23.7. You can also use the switchGridHome command to apply one-off patches.

1. As the grid user, download the Oracle Grid Infrastructure image files and extract the files into a new Oracle Grid Infrastructure home directory.

   $ mkdir -p /u01/app/23.7.0/grid
   $ chown grid:oinstall /u01/app/23.7.0/grid 
   $ cd /u01/app/23.7.0/grid 
   $ unzip -q download_location/grid.zip

   Note:

   The new Oracle Grid Infrastructure home path must be different from the current Oracle Grid Infrastructure home path.
2. Download the Release Update (RU) version that you want to apply from My Oracle Support.
   For more information, see, Downloading Release Update Patches
3. Download and install the latest OPatch version.
   For more information, see My Oracle Support note 274526.1.
4. Perform the software-only Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation in the new Grid home on all cluster nodes using the Oracle Universal Installer.
5. Switch to the patched Oracle Grid Infrastructure home using one of the following methods:
   • Start the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installer in silent mode, with the -switchGridHome flag, from the patched home.

     $ /u01/app/23.7.0/grid/gridSetup.sh -silent -switchGridHome [-zeroDowntimeGIPatching [-skipDriverUpdate]]

   • Start the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installer in interactive mode from the patched home.

     $ /u01/app/23.7.0/grid/gridSetup.sh

     Then perform the following steps:

     1. Select the Patch Oracle Grid Infrastructure option in the Select Configuration Option window.
     2. Select the Use Zero Downtime GI patching option to switch to the patched Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.
     3. Select the Do not update ACFS drivers option if the patch that you are installing contains operating system driver updates and you want to skip them.
     4. Respond to the installation screens with values appropriate for your environment.

        Follow the steps in the configuration wizard to complete the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

   All Oracle Grid Infrastructure services start running from the new Grid home after the installation is complete.
6. If the patching fails, then rollback the patch:

   $ /u01/app/23.7.0/grid/gridSetup.sh –switchGridHome -rollback –silent –oldHome Old_GI_Home

7. If you have successfully switched to the new Grid home on all nodes and want to switch back to the old Grid home, then perform the following steps:
   1. As the root user, unlock the old Grid home on all the cluster nodes.

      # Old_GI_Home/crs/install/rootcrs.sh -unlock -crshome Old_GI_Home

   2. As the grid user, run switchGridHome from the old Grid home.

      $ Old_GI_Home/gridSetup.sh -silent -switchGridHome [-zeroDowntimeGIPatching [-skipDriverUpdate]]