1 What’s New in This Release

Oracle Database Appliance release 19.12 supports Oracle Database 19c 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, and X5-2. You can create a bare metal deployment on Oracle Database Appliance or patch your existing bare metal deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.12. You can also create and patch Oracle Database Appliance DB systems. Read the chapter Known Issues with Oracle Database Appliance in This Release for critical fixes before deploying Oracle Database Appliance release 19.12.

For Oracle Database 19c features, see the Oracle Database Documentation Library at https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/index.html.

The following new features are available in this release:

• Provisioning and Patching of Oracle Database Appliance Bare Metal and DB System Deployments

  This release supports provisioning and patching of Oracle Database Appliance bare metal deployments and DB systems.

  Oracle Database Appliance provides support for out of place patching. The patches for Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database are available as images. There are a few changes to the patching procedure. It is now mandatory to run the odacli create-prepatchreport command before you patch your server. You must fix the errors displayed in the report before you can proceed with the patching operation. Ensure that you follow the sequence of steps for patching your appliance as described in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

  See the chapter Patching Oracle Database Appliance in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

• Support for Oracle Database 21c on Oracle Database Appliance DB Systems

  In this release, Oracle Database Appliance supports creation of Oracle Database 21c databases on DB systems. You can provision Oracle Database 21c Grid Infrastructure and then create Oracle Database 21c databases in DB systems.

  For details on the JSON file changes for creating Oracle Database 21c databases on DB systems, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

• Support for KVM-based Database System on Oracle Database Appliance

  In this release, Oracle Database Appliance supports the following on DB systems:
  • Patching of DB systems
  • Scale up and scale down of database shapes within the DB system
  • Adding and modifying virtual networks
  • Life cycle management of DB systems using Browser User Interface (BUI)

  See the chapter Managing an Oracle Database Appliance KVM Deployment in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

• Enabling NUMA on Oracle Database Appliance

  NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) facilitates efficient use of the underlying NUMA hardware. On Oracle Database Appliance, you can enable NUMA for databases on bare metal and DB systems, CPU pools, and for KVM applications.

  See the topic About Enabling NUMA on Oracle Database Appliance in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model for more information.

• Support for STIG Compliance on Oracle Database Appliance

  Oracle Database Appliance provides support for Oracle Linux 7 Security Scripts (OLSS) to assist with documenting and aligning with the DISA Oracle Linux 7 STIG. OLSS enables you to verify your existing environment for STIG standards and secure your system against STIG settings that are not set to DISA standards.

  Oracle Database Appliance bundles the STIG script with the product for bare metal in the directory /opt/oracle/dcs/stig. The RunSTIG script replaces the stig.py script from the earlier releases of Oracle Database Appliance.

  See the Oracle Database Appliance Security Guide for more information.

• Optimizing Oracle ASM Disk Group Rebalance Operations

  Oracle Database Appliance ensures rebalancing of Oracle ASM disks to complete as quickly as possible, without overloading the system and the disks at the same time.

  See the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model for more information.

• Bringing Oracle ASM Disk Groups Online Automatically

  Oracle Database Appliance periodically checks the status of Oracle ASM disks in diskgroups. If any Oracle ASM disk is OFFLINE due to transient disk errors, then Oracle Database Appliance attempts to bring the disk ONLINE.

  See the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model for more information.

• Diagnostics Data Collection Using the Browser User Interface (BUI)

  Oracle Database Appliance BUI supports collection of diagnostics data to troubleshoot the appliance.

  See the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model for more information.

• Browser User Interface (BUI) Enhancements

  Oracle Database Appliance BUI supports lifecycle management of KVM-based database systems, including creation of databases, backup and restore functions, enabling of NUMA.

  See the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model for more information.

• ODACLI Command Enhancements

  There are new odacli commands and new options for existing odacli commands to manage storage on bare metal systems and modify KVM deployments.

  See the Oracle Database Appliance Command Line Reference chapter in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model for more information.

• Support for Registering TDE-Enabled Databases

  You can migrate and register TDE-enabled databases created outside the Oracle Database Appliance framework into your Oracle Database Appliance deployment using the odacli register-database command. In this release, Oracle Database Appliance supports limited TDE wallet management functionality.

  See the About Registering TDE-Enabled Databases topic in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model for more information.

• Support for Oracle Enterprise Manager Plug-in with Oracle Database Appliance Release 19.12

  You must install certain patches before you can use Oracle Enterprise Manager plug-in with Oracle Database Appliance release 19.12.

  See the Oracle Enterprise Manager Plugin for Oracle Database Appliance Release Notes for more information.

• Access to Oracle Database Appliance documentation from the Browser User Interface

  You can access the Oracle Database Appliance documentation set for this release from the Browser User Interface.

  Oracle Database Appliance provides an offline search tool integrated with BUI to search for relevant links from the documentation. There is a search box at the top right hand corner of every BUI page. Search results are links to documentation pages shown as a new window in the BUI. Also, the Help button is present in each BUI tab. When you click the Help button, links from the documentation relevant to the context of the tab are displayed.

  For the latest updates to the documentation for a release, see the online Oracle Database Appliance documentation library at https://docs.oracle.com/en/engineered-systems/oracle-database-appliance/index.html.

• Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database Updates

  The following Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database updates (July 2021 Oracle Database Release Update) for bare metal systems are available in this release:

  • 19.12.0.0.210720
  • 21.3.0.0.210720
  • 12.2.0.1.210720
  • 12.1.0.2.210720

Oracle Grid Infrastructure Clone, Oracle Database Clone, and ISO Image Patches

See the chapter Oracle Database Appliance Release 19.12 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 19.12 from the drop down list.

• Oracle Database Appliance 19.12.0.0.0 Server Patch for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use patch 33152232 to update your bare metal deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.12. You must download the Server Patch, Oracle Grid Infrastructure clone file, and the Oracle Database clone file to update your deployment to release 19.12.

• Oracle Database Appliance 19.12.0.0.0 Grid Infrastructure Clone for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use patch 30403673 to update your deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.12. You also use this patch to perform an initial deployment of Oracle Database Appliance. The bundle contains the latest Oracle 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 operating system ISO Image. This patch is for all Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (bare metal).

• Oracle Database Appliance 19.12.0.0.0 Database Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle Database 19.12.0.0.210720 Software Clone file to create 19.12.0.0.210720 Oracle Database homes. Patch 30403662 provides the database clone for this update. This patch is for all Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (bare metal).

• Oracle Database Appliance 12.2.0.1 Database Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.210720 Software Clone file to create 12.2.0.1.210720 database homes. Patch 27119402 provides the database clone for this update.

• Oracle Database Appliance 12.1.0.2 Database Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 12.1.0.2.210720 Software Clone file to create 12.1.0.2.210720 database homes. Patch 23494992 provides the database clone for this update.

• Oracle Database Appliance KVM Database System Template: Use the KVM Database System template to deploy KVM-based virtualization for Oracle Database Appliance. Patch 32451228 provides the database clone for this update.

• Oracle Database Appliance 21.3.0.0.210720 GI Clone for DB Systems: Use patch 33152235 to perform an initial deployment of Oracle Database Appliance on DB Systems for creating Oracle Database 21c databases. This patch is for Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models with DB systems only.

• Oracle Database Appliance 21.3.0.0.210720 Database Clone File for DB Systems: Use the Oracle Database 21.3.0.0.210720 Software Clone file to create 21.3.0.0.210720 Oracle Database homes. Patch 33152237 provides the database clone for this update. This patch is for Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models with DB systems only.