Update and Synchronize with ULN Mirror

When new appliance software packages are posted to ULN, they are not automatically pushed to the ULN mirror in the data center, because you need to control when the new software is made available to your environment. When you decide to patch your system to the latest version, you refresh the local data center ULN mirror first, and then synchronize the internal repository of the management nodes with its upstream mirror, which is the data center ULN mirror.

Log in to the data center ULN mirror server and update the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance repositories.
- Oracle Linux 8 repository update command:
```
# dnf reposync --delete --download-metadata -p /var/www/html/yum
```
- Oracle Linux 7 repository update command:
```
# /usr/bin/uln-yum-mirror
```
Caution:

Keep the mirror repositories at a given version until all appliance components have been patched. Ensure that automatic synchronization is disabled.

If the mirror is synchronized between patch operations, components will be patched to different software levels. This leads to unreliable appliance operation and potential service disruption.
Ensure that the patch RPM files are updated and in the location you expect, and note the path. Details about the package repository structure can be found in the section "Populate the Package Repositories".
Once the data center ULN mirror has been updated, synchronize the management nodes' local repository used for compute node patches by running the syncUpstreamUlnMirror command from the Service CLI:
```
PCA-ADMIN> syncUpstreamUlnMirror
Command: syncUpstreamUlnMirror
Status: Success
Time: 2022-01-04 15:52:07,120 UTC
Data:
  Upstream mirror sync started. UpstreamMirror status = success
```
Note:

Alternatively, you can synchronize the appliance local repository from the Service Web UI, as described below. However, this UI function is unavailable in software version 3.0.2-b892153.

Caution:

Synchronization with the upstream mirror might fail due to a timeout issue. The following error message is returned: An exception occurred during processing: Operation failed. The timeout might occur when network bandwidth is limited or the volume of packages to be synchronized is very large. As a workaround, rerun the syncUpstreamUlnMirror command to complete the synchronization process.

Caution:

ULN channels only become available for subscription, and thus mirroring, when they contain updates. When a new channel is announced, you must repeat a part of the process described in Configure Your Environment for Patching: subscribe to the new channel, create the appropriate soft link, download packages to the mirror, and if necessary, sync the appliance internal repository.

View the status of the local repository update and confirm it completes successfully.

Alternatively, you can perform this step in the Service Web UI.

With appliance software newer than version 3.0.2-b892153 use the getUpstreamUlnChannels command. For more details, display the channel properties.

PCA-ADMIN> getUpstreamUlnChannels
Data:
  id                         lastSync              syncStatus
  --                         --------              ----------
  pca302_x86_64_hypervisor   2023-06-22/09:46:01   success
  pca302_x86_64_mn           2023-06-22/09:46:04   success

PCA-ADMIN> getUpstreamUlnChannel channel=pca302_x86_64_hypervisor
Data:
  Type = UlnChannel
  Channel Name = pca302_x86_64_hypervisor
  Last Synced = 2023-06-22/09:46:01
  Sync Status = success
  Message = upstream channel sync succeeded
  Mirror URI = http://host.example.com/yum/pca302_x86_64_hypervisor

Note:

In version 3.0.2-b892153 the command is getUpstreamUlnMirror(s). It is functionally identical to getUpstreamUlnChannel(s).

With appliance software 3.0.2-b852928 or earlier, use the showUpstreamUlnMirror command.

PCA-ADMIN> showUpstreamUlnMirror
Command: showUpstreamUlnMirror
Status: Success
Time: 2022-01-24 17:29:48,965 UTC
Data:
  Mirror URI = https://host.example.com/yum

Update the Local Packages Using the Service Web UI

In the navigation menu, click ULN Mirror.
In the top-right corner of the ULN Mirror page, click Update ULN Mirror.

The ULN Mirror window appears.
Click Sync ULN Mirror.

The ULN mirror is updated.