Gold Image Distribution Among Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Servers

You can share and synchronize gold images between Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (Oracle FPP) servers by using image instantiation. After you configure instantiation on the receiving server, the originating (peer) server pushes eligible gold images to that receiving server.

Deploy one Oracle FPP server per data center or network segment to manage Oracle FPP clients and rhpclient-less targets. If you have more than one data center, or if your data center is segmented, then deploy more than one Oracle FPP server to standardize deployments across multiple environments.

Each Oracle FPP server can create and manage gold images that are private to its scope so that you can preserve local customizations.

Before you replicate images, establish a peer relationship between two Oracle FPP servers. When you register a peer server, use the Oracle FPP server cluster names. Cluster names can match, but this restriction applies: An Oracle FPP server (for example, FPPS_1) cannot register a peer server if the peer has the same name as an Oracle FPP client or an rhpclient-less target in the FPPS_1 management domain.

An Oracle FPP server can have multiple peers. Oracle does not support chained relationships between peers. For example, if FPPS_1 is a peer of FPPS_2, and FPPS_2 is also a peer of FPPS_3, then no relationship is established or implied between FPPS_1 and FPPS_3, although you can make them peers if you want.

Use these steps to register two Oracle FPP servers as peers. This procedure does not require superuser (root) privileges.

  1. On the first Oracle FPP server (FPPS_1), export the server configuration to a file.
    $ rhpctl export server -serverdata file_path
  2. Copy the server configuration file created on FPPS_1 to a second Oracle FPP server (FPPS_2).
  3. On FPPS_2, register FPPS_1 as a peer.
    $ rhpctl register server -server FPPS_1_cluster_name 
    -serverdata server_cfg_file_copied_from_FPPS_1
  4. On FPPS_2, export the server configuration to a file.
    $ rhpctl export server -serverdata file_path
  5. Copy the server configuration file created on FPPS_2 to FPPS_1.
  6. On FPPS_1, register FPPS_2 as a peer.
    $ rhpctl register server -server FPPS_2_cluster_name 
    -serverdata server_cfg_file_copied_from_FPPS_2
After you register the peer servers, complete these postrequisite steps:
  1. Verify the peer configuration.
    $ rhpctl query peerserver
  2. To configure automatic replication, run rhpctl instantiate image on the receiving server, and specify the peer server cluster name.
    $ rhpctl instantiate image -server server_cluster_name
    When you run rhpctl instantiate image on FPPS_1, FPPS_2 starts pushing eligible images to FPPS_1. Whether a new gold image is copied automatically depends on the instantiation parameters that you specify:
    • -all: Creates an automatic push for all gold images created on FPPS_2 to FPPS_1
    • -image image_name: Creates an automatic push for all new descendant gold images of the named image created on FPPS_2 to FPPS_1. A descendant of the named image is an image that is created on FPPS_2 using the rhpctl add image command.
    • -series series_name: Creates an automatic push for all gold images added to the named series on FPPS_2 to FPPS_1
    • -imagetype image_type: Creates an automatic push for all gold images with the specified image type on FPPS_2 to FPPS_1

    Note:

    Each of these peers can instantiate the other peer’s images, but the images must first be created on their originating server.

    To stop receiving updates configured by rhpctl instantiate image, run rhpctl uninstantiate image and specify the peer Oracle FPP server and one of the following: all, image name, image series name, or image type.

  3. Query replicated images for a peer server:
    $ rhpctl query image -server server_cluster_name

    This command lists the images that the local server knows about for the specified peer server. For example, it lists images that were replicated as a result of instantiation. It does not list every gold image on the peer server; it lists only images that have been replicated through the peer relationship. To display details for a specific replicated image, include -image image_name.

  4. To end the peer relationship, run the following on any one of the Oracle FPP servers:
    $ rhpctl unregister server -server server_cluster_name

    Note:

    When you end a peer relationship, any images that were instantiated prior to running the command will persist and will not be deleted.

Related Topics

Parent topic: Advanced Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Configurations