Oracle AI Database Patching

After you upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai, you can install patches either as gold images or individual software patches by downloading the patches from My Oracle Support.

About Oracle AI Database Release Update Patches

Oracle provides quarterly updates in the form of Release Updates (RUs) to release new features, upgrade existing features, enhance security, or fix problems with supported software.

Starting with Oracle AI Database 26ai, RUs are delivered in two formats:

As a gold image that you can install out-of-place like a new software release.
As a binary patch that you can apply in-place using OPatch or OPatchAuto.

You can apply out-of-place Oracle AI Database patches using the following steps:

Download the RU as a gold image.
Create a new Oracle home (target) identical to the old Oracle home (source) in the same Oracle base as the source Oracle home, using runInstaller -setupDBHomeAs .
Move Oracle AI Database from the old Oracle home to the new Oracle home.

After you move the database to the new Oracle home, all database services will start from the new home.

Applying Out-of-Place Oracle AI Database Patches

Use this procedure to perform an out-of-place patching of Oracle AI Database.

Download the gold image of the desired Release Update (RU) on the first node and extract the files into a new Oracle home directory. For example:

$ mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/23.5.0/dbhome_1
$ chgrp oinstall /u01/app/oracle/product/23.5.0/dbhome_1
$ cd /u01/app/oracle/product/23.5.0/dbhome_1
$ unzip -q /tmp/23_5_ru.zip

Configure a new Oracle home identical to the old Oracle home runInstaller.
```
$ ./runInstaller -silent -setupDBHomeAs source_Oracle_home
```
This step retrieves configuration information, such as users and groups used for installing Oracle AI Database software for the first time, and installs the Oracle AI Database software in the new Oracle home.
Move Oracle AI Database from the old home to the new home using the Oracle DBCA command-line interface. Run the following Oracle DBCA command from the new Oracle home.
```
$ /u01/app/oracle/product/23.5.0/dbhome_1/bin/dbca -silent -moveDatabase -sourceDB db_unique_name
```
Where, -sourceDB is the database unique name (DB_UNIQUE_NAME) for Oracle AI database or system identifier (ORACLE_SID) for single-instance Oracle AI Database.

Refer to Oracle Multitenant Administrator's Guide for additional Oracle DBCA commands and options for Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) and single-instance Oracle AI Database.

Alternatively, you can also use Oracle DBCA in GUI mode to perform out-of-place Oracle AI Database patching.

Patching Oracle AI Database Using Oracle FPP Local Mode

Use this procedure to patch Oracle AI Database using Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (Oracle FPP) Local Mode.

Download the gold image of the desired Release Update (RU) and extract the files into a new Oracle home directory. For example:

$ mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/23.6.0/dbhome_1
$ chgrp oinstall /u01/app/oracle/product/23.6.0/dbhome_1
$ cd /u01/app/oracle/product/23.6.0/dbhome_1
$ unzip -q /tmp/23_6_ru.zip

Configure a new Oracle home identical to the old Oracle home using runInstaller.
```
$ ./runInstaller -silent -setupDBHomeAs source_Oracle_home
```
This step retrieves configuration information, such as the users and groups used for installing Oracle Database software for the first time, and installs the Oracle Database software in the new Oracle home.

Switch from the old Oracle Database home to the new Oracle Database home using Oracle FPP Local Mode.

$ rhpctl move database -desthome /u01/app/oracle/product/23.6.0/dbhome_1 –sourcehome /u01/app/oracle/product/23.0.0/dbhome_1

Note:

During Oracle FPP Local Mode patching, you must run the patching command only on one node. The patching completes automatically on all other nodes.
If any command fails in the first run, then you must re-run the command from the same node where it was started initially.