8.1 About Updating Exadata Software

Exadata software updates apply to three major components:

• Exadata storage servers
• Exadata database servers
• Exadata RDMA Network Fabric switches

Exadata storage server and Exadata database server updates generally contain updates for:

• Oracle Linux operating system
• Oracle Exadata System Software
• Firmware (for example: disk, flash, RAID controller, ILOM, HCA)

The updates do not modify the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home, Oracle Database home (other than relinking during the dbnodeupdate.sh -c step), or customer-installed software.

While it is generally recommended for components to stay in step with the recommended minimum release, you can choose to update different components at different times. For example, you can generally update the RDMA Network Fabric switches at a later time than the Exadata database servers and storage servers. However, you must check Exadata Database Machine and Exadata Storage Server Supported Versions (My Oracle Support Doc ID KB153930) for any dependencies.

It is not mandatory to apply each and every Oracle Exadata System Software update that comes out. For example, you can skip two or three releases and update directly to a newer release. Oracle recommends that you update database servers twice a year.

• About Updating to Oracle Linux 8 on Exadata Servers
  Starting with Oracle Exadata System Software release 23.1.0, the bundled Linux operating system is Oracle Linux 8.
• About Updating to Oracle Linux 7 on Exadata Servers
  Starting with Oracle Exadata System Software release 19.1.0, the bundled Linux operating system is Oracle Linux 7.