1. Release Notes
  2. What’s New in This Release

1 What’s New in This Release

Oracle Database Appliance release 18.7 supports Oracle Database 18c functionality on Oracle Database Appliance hardware models.

New Features

This release supports Oracle Database Appliance models X8-2-HA, X8-2M, X8-2S, X7-2-HA, X7-2M, X7-2S, X6-2S, X6-2M, X6-2L, X6-2-HA, X5-2, and X4-2. You can either create an Oracle Database Appliance deployment or patch your existing deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 18.7. Read the chapter Known Issues with Oracle Database Appliance in This Release for critical fixes before patching or deploying Oracle Database Appliance to release 18.7.

The following new features are available in this release:
  • Oracle Database Appliance X8-2 Hardware Models

    This release introduces the new Oracle Database Appliance X8-2S, X8-2M, and X8-2-HA hardware models. For information about installing and setting up the hardware, see Oracle Database Appliance Owner's Guide.

    For information about cabling the appliance, and configuring and deploying the software, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your hardware model.

    For information about managing storage on your appliance, see the Managing Storage chapter in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your hardware model.

  • Enabling Kernel Updates

    Oracle Database Appliance provides several features to help you keep your deployment current with operating system updates and Oracle Database patches. With this release, you can download and install the latest Oracle Ksplice updates (uptrack-updates) from either the local ULN repository or ULN channel. Oracle Ksplice enables you to download and install critical security patches for operating system kernel RPMs outside the Oracle Database Appliance releases. For more information, see the topic Enabling Kernel Updates in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

  • Repository Cleanup

    With this release, you have the option to clean up unused or obsolete patch files from the local repository. Cleaning up the repository ensures enough free space for new patches and clone files. Use the new command odacli cleanup-patchrepo to clean up the repository. For more information about this command, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

  • Unified Auditing for Databases

    This release of Oracle Database Appliance enables unified auditing for databases created in new database homes. Unified audit trail captures audit information and places them in one location and in one format. This consolidated view enables auditors to co-relate audit information from different components. Having a single audit trail also improves management and security of the audit trail.

    For more information about unified audit trail for Oracle Database, see the Oracle Database Security Guide.
  • Cloning Databases (Database Snapshots) Using the Web Console

    This feature enables creation of an Oracle Database from an existing Oracle ACFS database. Cloning ensures standardization of gold images, and ease of deployment. You can also use the Web Console to clone databases using Oracle ACFS snapshots.

    For more information, see the Cloning a Database Using the Web Console topic in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your model.
  • Deleting Database Backups Using the Web Console

    You can use the Web Console to delete your database backups. For more information, see the topic Deleting a Backup Using the Web Console in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your hardware model.

  • Updates to the Patching Procedure

    There are two new CLI commands odacli update-dcsadmin and odacli update-dcscomponents, to update the DCS admin and DCS infrastructure components such as the Zookeeper server. You must run these commands when you patch your bare metal deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 18.7. For the procedure to update your bare metal deployment to release 18.7, see the topic Patching Oracle Database Appliance Bare Metal Systems Using the Command-Line in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your hardware model.

  • Oracle Trace File Analyzer (TFA) and ORAchk Enhancements

    Oracle TFA and ORAchk are essential diagnostic tools for troubleshooting your Oracle Database Appliance deployment. Oracle TFA and ORAchk RPMs are installed when you provision or patch an Oracle Database Appliance deployment. For information about the new CLI command options for odaadmcli manage diagcollect command for diagnostic data collection, see the chapter Troubleshooting Oracle Database Appliance in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

  • Other Web Console Enhancements

    The Web Console provides a user-friendly interface to quickly view and perform many of the tasks needed to deploy, patch, and manage your bare metal system. This release enhances the monitoring information available on the Web Console. You can now view disk group storage utilization such as free and used space on the Web Console. For high-availability deployments, you can view monitoring information for each node.

    For information about the Web Console, see the topic About Web Console in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your hardware model.

  • CLI Command Options Enhancements

    There are two new command line options for the odacli modify-database command, to modify the database shape and size.

    The odacli update-database command now provides an option to disable database backups.

    For more information about these command options, see the Oracle Database Appliance Command Line Reference chapter in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your hardware model.

  • Disabling of High-Availability Internet Protocol (HAIP)

    When you patch your deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 18.7, the patching process creates a network bond between two private networks. High-Availability Internet Protocol (HAIP) is disabled. For more information, see the topic Verifying That HAIP is Disabled After Patching to Release 18.7 in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User’s Guide for your hardware model.

  • Deprecation of opt/oracle/oak/lib/setupX4network.pl for Oracle Database Appliance X4-2

    The setupX4network.pl utility for defining the public network interface is deprecated. To set the public network interface type, use the command odacli configure-network on bare metal deployments, and the command oakcli configure network on Virtualized Platform.

    For the procedure to set the public interface for the Oracle Database Appliance X4-2 hardware model, see the Oracle Database Appliance X5-2/X4-2 Deployment and User’s Guide.

  • Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database Updates

    The following Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RDBMS updates (July 2019 Oracle Database Release Update) for bare metal and Virtualized Platform are available in this release:

    • 18.7.0.0.190716
    • 12.2.0.1.190716
    • 12.1.0.2.190716
    • 11.2.0.4.190716

    The following Oracle RDBMS updates (April 2019 Oracle Database Release Update) for bare metal and Virtualized Platform are available in this release:

    • 18.6.0.0.190416
    • 12.2.0.1.190416
    • 12.1.0.2.190416
    • 11.2.0.4.190416

GI Clone, Database RDBMS Clone, and ISO Image Patches

See the chapter Oracle Database Appliance Release 18.7 Patches for patch details and links.

Oracle Database Appliance patches are available in My Oracle Support. When selecting a patch, ensure that you select Oracle Database Appliance release 18.7 from the drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 18.7.0.0.0 GI Clone for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use patch 27604593 to perform an initial deployment of Oracle Database Appliance. The bundle contains the latest Grid Infrastructure components for deployment on an Oracle Database Appliance in the "shipped from factory" state, or an Oracle Database Appliance that has been re-imaged using the OS ISO Image. This patch is for all Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (Bare Metal).

  • Oracle Database Appliance18.7.0.0.0 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 18.7.0.0.190716 Software Clone file to create 18.7.0.0.190716 Oracle Database homes. Patch 27604558 provides the database clone for this update. This patch is for all Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (Bare Metal). You can also optionally use this patch to create 18.6.0.0.190416 database homes on the ODACLI/DCS stack, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 12.2.0.1 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 12.2.0.1.190716 Software Clone file to create 12.2.0.1.190716 database homes. Patch 27119402 provides the database clone for this update. This patch is for all Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (Bare Metal). You can also optionally use this patch to create 12.2.0.1.190416 database homes on the ODACLI/DCS stack, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 12.1.0.2 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 12.1.0.2.190716 Software Clone file to create 12.1.0.2.190716 database homes. Patch 23494992 provides the database clone for this update. This patch is for all Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (Bare Metal). You can also optionally use this patch to create 12.1.0.2.190416 database homes on the ODACLI/DCS stack, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 11.2.0.4 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 11.2.0.4.190716 Software Clone file to create 11.2.0.4.190716 database homes. Patch 23494997 provides this update. This patch is for all Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (Bare Metal). You can also optionally use this patch to create 11.2.0.4.190416 database homes on the ODACLI/DCS stack, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 18.7.0.0.0 ISO Image (Bare Metal): Use patch 27604623 to perform a bare metal restore (re-image) of the operating system. Bare metal is a non-virtualized Oracle Database Appliance configuration. Use only when you must re-image the operating system.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 18.7.0.0.0 ISO Image (Virtualized Platform): Use patch 16186163 to re-image the server with an operating system that includes virtualization capabilities. After re-imaging, use the VM Template to deploy ODA_BASE for the Virtualized Platform. The bundle contains the latest Grid Infrastructure components for deployment.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 18.7.0.0.0 RDBMS Clone for Virtualized Platform: Use the Oracle RDBMS 18.7.0.0.190716 Software Clone file to create 18.7.0.0.190716 database homes for Virtualized Platform. Patch 28864456 provides this update. You can also optionally use this patch to create 18.6.0.0.190416 database homes for Virtualized Platform, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 12.2.0.1 RDBMS Clone File for Virtualized Platform: Use the Oracle RDBMS 12.2.0.1.190716 Software Clone file to create 12.2.0.1.190716 database homes for Virtualized Platform. Patch 27449599 provides the database clone for this update. You can also optionally use this patch to create 12.2.0.1.190416 database homes for Virtualized Platform, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 12.1.0.2 RDBMS Clone File for Virtualized Platform: Use the Oracle RDBMS 12.1.0.2.190716 Software Clone file to create 12.1.0.2.190716 database homes for Virtualized Platform. Patch 19520042 provides the database clone for this update. You can also optionally use this patch to create 12.1.0.2.190416 database homes for Virtualized Platform, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

  • Oracle Database Appliance 11.2.0.4 RDBMS Clone File for Virtualized Platform: Use the Oracle RDBMS 11.2.0.4.190716 Software Clone file to create 11.2.0.4.190716 database homes for Virtualized Platform. Patch 17770873 provides the database clone for this update. You can also optionally use this patch to create 11.2.0.4.190416 database homes for Virtualized Platform, by selecting 18.6 in the release drop down list.

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