About This Release

1 About This Release

Read the release notes carefully to understand the new features and changes in this release of Oracle Database Appliance.

Availability of New DCS Agent Patch for this Release
Understand the new out of cycle DCS agent patch available with this release and how to apply it.
What’s New in This Release
Oracle Database Appliance release 19.6 supports Oracle Database 19c functionality on Oracle Database Appliance hardware models.

Availability of New DCS Agent Patch for this Release

Understand the new out of cycle DCS agent patch available with this release and how to apply it.

Why should I apply this patch?

If you have not yet upgraded your Oracle Database Appliance bare metal deployment from Oracle Database Appliance release 18.8 or earlier to release 19.6, and you plan to upgrade to release 19.6, then to ensure a smooth operating system upgrade, download and deploy the 19.6.0.1.0 DCS agent patch along with the 19.6.0.0.0 server patch.

How can I apply this patch?

To apply the DCS agent patch:

Download the 19.6.0.1.0 DCS agent patch along with the 19.6.0.0.0 server patch.

Update the repository with the server patch and the DCS agent patch.

unzip p31010832_196000_Linux-x86-64_1of4.zip
unzip p31010832_196000_Linux-x86-64_2of4.zip
unzip p31010832_196000_Linux-x86-64_3of4.zip
unzip p31010832_196000_Linux-x86-64_4of4.zip
unzip p31723973_196010_Linux-x86-64.zip

Update the DCS agent:

# /opt/oracle/dcs/bin/odacli update-dcsagent -v 19.6.0.1.0

Follow the complete procedure to upgrade to release 19.6 as described in the chapter "Patching Oracle Database Appliance" in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.

Note:

To apply the DCS agent patch, when you run the odacli update-dcsagent command, you must specify the version number as 19.6.0.1.0. All other steps to upgrade your appliance are as described in the chapter "Patching Oracle Database Appliance" in the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model. Note that to upgrade your appliance to 19.6.0.1.0, except for the odacli update-dcsagent command, you must run all the other commands with the version number as 19.6.0.0.0.

Patching Oracle Database Appliance Bare Metal Systems

Oracle Database Appliance 19.6 Patches

Parent topic: About This Release

What’s New in This Release

Oracle Database Appliance release 19.6 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 either create a bare metal deployment on Oracle Database Appliance or patch your existing bare metal deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.6. Read the chapter Known Issues with Oracle Database Appliance in This Release for critical fixes before deploying Oracle Database Appliance release 19.6.

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:

ODACLI Command Enhancements

The functionality for odacli modify-database command now includes options to configure backup options and attach and detach networks. The odacli update-database command is deprecated and will be desupported in a future release. Instead, use the command odacli move-database to move databases from one Oracle Database home to another.

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.
Oracle Flex Redundancy Support for Oracle ACFS Disk Groups

With earlier releases, Oracle Database Appliance supported database creation with Oracle Flex redundancy on Oracle ASM disk groups. With this release, the support for database creation with Oracle Flex redundancy is available with Oracle ACFS disk groups. You can specify the redundancy when you create a database at the time of creating the appliance, or when you create a database in your deployment, using ODACLI commands.

For more information, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Support for Standard Edition High Availability
Oracle Database Appliance supports Standard Edition High Availability solution with Oracle Grid Infrastructure that provides cluster-based failover for Oracle Database 19c Standard Edition.

With Standard Edition High Availability, when there is an instance or a node failure, the database automatically fails over to the other node, after attempting to restart on the local node. The database is restarted on the surviving node, thereby providing high availability for Oracle Standard Edition databases.

For more information about this feature, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Network Enhancements
With this release, for High Availability deployments of Oracle Database Appliance, you can specify SCAN (Oracle Single Client Access Name) and VIP (Virtual IP Address) for network connections for your databases. This provides enhanced management of network resources to better control service levels, improve availability, and segment database workloads based on network requirements.

For information about how the SCAN and VIP work to provide high-availability in a cluster, see the Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration Guide in the Oracle Database Documentation Library.
Oracle Linux 7 on Oracle Database Appliance Bare Metal Systems

Oracle Linux 7.7 is supported with this release of Oracle Database Appliance. You must upgrade the operating system before applying server patches.

For more information about upgrading the operating system prior to applying the server patches, see the Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model.
Deprecation Notice for Oracle Java Development Kit (Oracle JDK), available in the /bin/java directory

Starting with Oracle Database Appliance Release 19.6, Java is installed in a new location. Java Runtime environment (JRE) is installed in the /opt/oracle/dcs/java/ directory, and is updated during patching of Oracle Database Appliance. Patching of Oracle Java Development Kit (Oracle JDK), available in the /bin/java directory, during the Oracle Database Appliance server patching process is not supported. Oracle Java Development Kit (Oracle JDK), available in the /bin/java directory, is deprecated.
Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database Updates

The following Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database updates (January 2020 Oracle Database Release Update) for bare metal systems are available in this release:
- 19.6.0.0.200114
- 18.9.0.0.200114
- 12.2.0.1.200114
- 12.1.0.2.200114
- 11.2.0.4.200114

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

See the chapter Oracle Database Appliance Release 19.6 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 19.6 from the drop down list.

Oracle Database Appliance 19.6.0.0.0 Server Patch for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use patch 31010832 to update your bare metal deployment to Oracle Database Appliance release 19.6.
Oracle Database Appliance 19.6.0.0.0 GI Clone for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use patch 30403673 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 19.6.0.0.0 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 19.6.0.0.200114 Software Clone file to create 19.6.0.0.200114 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 18.9.0.0.0 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use theOracle RDBMS 18.9.0.0.200114 Software Clone file to create 18.9.0.0.200114 Oracle Database homes. Patch 27604558 provides the database clone for this update. This patch is forall Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models (bare metal).
Oracle Database Appliance 12.2.0.1 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 12.2.0.1.200114 Software Clone file to create 12.2.0.1.200114 database homes. Patch 27119402 provides the database clone for this update.
Oracle Database Appliance 12.1.0.2 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 12.1.0.2.200114 Software Clone file to create 12.1.0.2.200114 database homes. Patch 23494992 provides the database clone for this update.
Oracle Database Appliance 11.2.0.4 RDBMS Clone File for ODACLI/DCS stack: Use the Oracle RDBMS 11.2.0.4.200114 Software Clone file to create 11.2.0.4.200114 database homes. Patch 23494997 provides this update.
Oracle Database Appliance 19.6.0.0.0 ISO Image (Bare Metal): Use patch 30403643 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.

Related Topics

Parent topic: About This Release