Exadata Quick Reference 3: Oracle Exadata Patching Commands

Compute Node Patching: 

Patching on Database server can be performed serially or in parallel using DCLI utility.

dbnodeupdate.sh utility is used to perform the database server patching

What dbnodeupdate.sh utility does?

• Stop/unlock/disable CRS for host restart
• Perform LVM snapshot backup of / filesystem
• Mount yum ISO image and configure yum
• Apply OS updates via yum
• Relink all Oracle homes for RDS protocol
• Lock GI home and enable CRS upon host restart

Oracle Exadata Interview Experience

Faisal is from UAE who recently appeared for the Exadata interview and successfully grab the opportunity to be an Exadata Consultant in one of the telecom company in UAE. He has shared his interview experience with us on mail which we are sharing here which will help you to get an idea of the interview questions which can be asked in the interview.

We are hearty thankful to Faisal who shared his feedback here. Your little effort will really guide other techies to boost the confidence while appearing into the interview for Exadata Database Machine. You can get the reference mail snap which is sent by Faisal HERE. We have trimmed his mail ID and full name for security purpose.

Below text we have taken from Faisal's mail which describes his interview experience.

Hello Sir,

Recently I have been appeared in exadata DBA interview for one of the telecom company in Dubai. There were three rounds of interview two F2F technical and one HR. I have cleared all three rounds of interview got selected for my dream job as Exadata Consultant. You guys helped me a lot to prepare for the interview, because of that only I have cleared it. Mostly all the exadata interview questions came from your ebook which was the best part for me as I have purchased it just before 10 days of first round. I dont' have enough words to thank you so thought to share what I have been asked in interview from technical front which can help 

you and others also. This will also help you to motivate yourself to keep continue what you are doing.

Exadata Patching - Infiniband Switch

Here we have listed down bullet points to patch IB switches on Exadata Database Machine.

Syntax: #patchmgr -ibswitches [ibswitch_list_file] <-upgrade | -downgrade [-ibswitch_precheck] [-force]]

Here 

ibswitch_list_file contains IP of all the IB switches
Upgrade - to upgrade the switch
Downgrade - to downgrade the switch
ibswitch_precheck - to check the prerequisites

Patchmgr utility would be available in storage server patch directory.

Patching

#./patchmgr -ibswitches ibswitches -upgrade -ibswitch_precheck


How it works?

• Disable Subnet Manager
• Copy firmware to switch
• Check minimal firmware version to upgrade it
• Verify enough space in /tmp and /
• Verify for free memory to start upgrade
• Verify host details in /etc/hosts and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
• Verify for NTP server
• Pre-upgrade validation
• Start upgrade
• Load firmware
• Disable Subnet Manager
• Verify that /conf/configvalid is set to 1
• Set SMPriority to 5
• Reboot switch
• Restart Subnet Manager 
• Start post-update validation
• Confirmation: Inifiniband switch is at target patching level
• Verifying host details in /etc/hosts and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
• Verifying NTP Server
• Firmware verification on InfiniBand switch 
• Post-check validation on IBSwitch 
• Final Confirmation: Update switch to 2.1.3_4 (Firmware version)

Once it completes on one switch, it will start to upgrade next available switch and in last it will give overall status of upgrade.

You would also like 

• What Should Be The Order of Exadata Machine Patching?
• Exadata Patching - Download, Extract, Prepare
• Things To Do Before Applying Bundle Patch On Exadata

Exadata Patching - Download, Extract, Prepare

Let's go through the Exadata machine patching procedure in bullet points based on our patching experience.

Initially planned to write a article for entire patching activity for all database machine components in single post but it will look bit nasty so thought to write a post for each database machine component separately which would be easy to understand.

Exadata patching activity is very easy task if you plan it well.

Well, let's start from downloading the bundle patch and extract it to compute node. 

1. First go to the Oracle Document ID 888828.1, this is the first read requirement for any exadata database machine patching activity.