What’s New in This Release

1 What’s New in This Release

Oracle Database Appliance release 19.17 supports Oracle Database 19c functionality on Oracle Database Appliance hardware models.

New Features

This release supports Oracle Database Appliance models X9-2-HA, X9-2L, X9-2S, 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 19.17. 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 19.17.

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 Deployments
This release supports for provisioning of bare metal deployments, and patching of Oracle Database Appliance bare metal deployments from Oracle Database Appliance release 19.13 and later.

Oracle Database Appliance provides support for out of place patching. The patches for Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database are available as clone files. It is mandatory to run the odacli create-prepatchreport command before you patch the Oracle Database Appliance server and databases. You must fix the errors displayed in the report before you 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.
Provisioning and Patching of Oracle Database Appliance KVM and DB Systems
This release supports provisioning of KVM and DB Systems, and patching of DB Systems from Oracle Database Appliance release 19.13 or later.

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 and 19c databases on Oracle Database Appliance DB Systems
This release supports creation of databases of Oracle Database releases 21.8, 21.7, 21.6, 21.5, 21.4, 19.17, 19.16, 19.15, 19.14, and 19.13 on DB systems. The Oracle Grid Infrastructure software installed is of the same version as the Oracle Database version you install. The version is specified in the database system JSON payload, with the attribute version for database.
For details on the JSON file changes for creating Oracle Database 21c and 19c databases on DB systems, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Error Correlation Reports on Oracle Database Appliance Browser User Interface (BUI)
If a DCS job fails, an Error Correlation job is created automatically to generate an Error Correlation report. You can access and review the generated Error Correlation report from the BUI to explore possible ways of error resolution. Error correlation report displays errors from various logs, relevant Known Issues from the Oracle Database Appliance Release Notes, and Oracle Database Appliance documentation links.

For more information, see Viewing Oracle Database Appliance Error Correlation Reports in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Support for Linux Kernel Core Extractor on Oracle Database Appliance Bare Metal Systems for Troubleshooting
A Linux kernel panic can occur due to various reasons such as faulty hardware, driver crashes, or software bugs. To identify the cause of kernel panic, it is essential to collect and analyze the vmcore of the crashed kernel. When Linux Kernel Core Extractor is enabled on Oracle Database Appliance bare metal systems, the crash utility in the kdump kernel collects useful information for troubleshooting without generating vmcore. In this release of Oracle Database Appliance, the Linux Kernel Core Extractor is enabled to help troubleshoot your appliance.

For more information, see About Enabling Linux Kernel Core Extractor for Troubleshooting in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Patching Individual Oracle Database on Oracle Database Appliance
Starting with this release, Oracle Database Appliance provides the option to patch selected databases in a database home to a specific database home with the odacli update-database functionality. During the process, no extra database home is provisioned. A valid database home of later version must exist so that the specific database can be patched to this database home. You can also choose to run or rerun the odacli update-database workflow, to resume from the failed attempt of either an odacli update-dbhome or an odacli update-database job. The BUI also supports the odacli update-database functionality.

Important:
The odacli update-database command that enabled association of a backup configuration with database was deprecated in Oracle Database Appliance release 19.6. Starting with Oracle Database Appliance release 19.17, the odacli update-database command enables database patching and is similar to the patching functionality that the odacli update-dbhome command provides, with a few differences as described in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment Guide for your hardware model.

For more information, see About Updating Databases and Database Homes in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Oracle Data Guard Patching Enhancement

Oracle Database Appliance enhances Oracle Data Guard patching workflow of primary and standby databases to further minimize downtime using odacli update-database and odacli switchover-dataguard commands.

For more information, see Patching Oracle Data Guard Databases in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Browser User Interface (BUI) Enhancements
Oracle Database Appliance release 19.17 supports the following in the BUI:
- Display of Used and Available Space for VM storage
- New options to set the preferred node and failover for Oracle Database Appliance high-availability system
- Display of node name in the job details
For more information, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Support for STIG Version 2 Release 7 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 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.
Support for Oracle Enterprise Manager Plug-in with Oracle Database Appliance Release 19.17
You can install and configure Oracle Enterprise Manager plug-in for Oracle Database Appliance. Oracle Enterprise Manager plug-in releases 13.2.4 and 13.4.2 require a patch to run on Oracle Database Appliance release 19.10 and later. Oracle Enterprise Manager plug-in release 13.4.3 does not require additional patch.

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.

There is a search box at the top right hand corner of the BUI. Search results are links to documentation pages shown as a new window in the BUI. When you click the Help button, links from the documentation relevant to the context of the tab are displayed. Along with the search results from the Oracle Database Appliance documentation pages, BUI also provides relevant Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for the search query. Additionally, you can also search on DCS error codes such as DCS-10001, DCS-10032, and so on in the search box and get the links to documentation pages containing these error codes. When you specify the search query, relevant documentation, FAQs, and DCS error codes links are displayed in a new window in the BUI.

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 (October 2022 Oracle Database Release Update) for bare metal systems are available in this release:
- 19.17.0.0.221018
Additionally, note that the release also includes Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database 21.8 updates (October 2022 Oracle Database Release Update 21.8.0.0.221018) for DB systems. Note that to update your databases on Oracle Database Appliance to releases later than Oracle Database 21.8 in the Oracle Database 21c release, you must use out-of-cycle patching functionality.

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

See the chapter Oracle Database Appliance Release 19.17 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 19.17 from the drop down list.

Oracle Database Appliance 19.17.0.0.0 Server Patch for Bare Metal Systems: Use patch 34753059 to update your bare metal deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.17. You must download the Server Patch, Oracle Grid Infrastructure clone file, and the Oracle Database clone file to update your deployment to release 19.17.
Oracle Database Appliance 19.17.0.0.0 Grid Infrastructure Clone for Bare Metal Systems: Use patch 30403673 to update your deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.17. 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 19.17.0.0.0 Database Clone File for Bare Metal Systems: Use the Oracle Database 19.17.0.0.221018 Software Clone file to create 19.17.0.0.221018 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 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 21.8.0.0.221018 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 21.8.0.0.221018 Database Clone File for DB Systems: Use the Oracle Database 21.8.0.0.221018 Software Clone file to create 21.8.0.0.221018 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.
Oracle Database Appliance Upgrade Utility for 12.1.2.12, 12.2.1.4, 18.3, 18.5, 18.7, 18.8 OAK/DCS Stack: Use the Oracle Database Appliance upgrade utility to update your deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.17. You must download the utility to run the first step of Data Preserving Reprovisioning feature. Patch 33594115 provides the utility.

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