13 Lifecycle Management

Advantages of Using Enterprise Manager Provisioning and Patching Features

Following are the advantages of using the provisioning and patching features in Enterprise Manager:

• The provisioning and patching features provide a repeatable, reliable, and automated solution for performing mass, unattended, and schedulable deployment of

  • Software and servers based on Gold Images created using reference deployment or installation media

  • Software and operating system updates

  • Complex and multi-tier software like Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and Application Server Clusters

• Orchestrates not only provisioning of software but completely automates configuration of software and ensures zero-time for patching of mission critical systems by orchestrating rolling patching for complex multi-tier installation like Real Application Clusters (RAC) databases and Application Server clusters.

• Allows new resources to be provisioned at short notice based on compliant and tested gold images.

• Enterprise Manager's Critical Patch Facility proactively and regularly queries My Oracle Support for critical patches that have been released and notifies the administrators of only those patches applicable to them. It can also invoke the Patch application in context, and remedy the vulnerable installations. The Critical Patch Facility also supports an offline mode to serve the case of data centers that are not connected to the Internet.

• Completely automates the patching operations across the stack. For example, for database patching, it takes care of shutting down and starting up database instances as required by the patch.

• Allows multiple operations to be accommodated in a single change window.

• Enterprise Manager also provides command-line interface support to all out-of-box provisioning and patching deployment procedures. These features can hence be invoked by custom scripts.

• Software provisioning and patching features support SUDO and PAM authentication.

• Single interface for multiple players. For example, component designers responsible for creating gold images based on corporate standards and the operators all use the same Enterprise Manager console.

• Automation of repeatable installation and patching operations across the stack leads to substantial cost savings in terms of costs and man-hours.

Wide Coverage Across the Stack

Enterprise Manager provides provisioning and patching capabilities across the stack for:

• Operating Systems, with Bare Metal Provisioning on Linux and operating system patching

• Databases, with Real Application Clusters (RAC) provisioning, extension, and deletion and flexible patching for Oracle database and Oracle Real Application Clusters

• Middleware, with application server J2EE, BPEL, and SOA provisioning and patching

Once the above entities are available in the software library, one of the following features can be used mass deployment. Note that these features require Oracle Management Agents to be present on the target machines where the software has to be provisioned.

Deployment Procedures

The workflow of all the tasks that need to be performed for a particular life cycle management activity is encapsulated in a Deployment Procedure. A Deployment Procedure is a hierarchal sequence of provisioning steps, where each step may contain a sequence of other steps. It provides a framework where specific applications and procedures can be built. Oracle ships a set of best practices Deployment Procedures to accomplish provisioning and patching related tasks. Deployment Procedures can be extended and customized for customer needs. The Deployment Procedure to patch a single instance database differs from the one to patch a RAC environment or an Application Server.

Deployment Procedures can vary from one customer to another or a test installation to a production installation. Deployment Procedures take into account and resolve the reality that environments are often different with each having complexities across different tiers with multiple dependencies. The situation is further compounded by existing operational practices. In a typical data center, Deployment Procedures can involve a design time activity (typically performed by a Lead Administrator) and a runtime activity (typically performed by the Operator).

For more information about deployment procedures, see the Deployment Procedures Best Practices White Paper and "Using Enterprise Manager For Grid Automation With Deployment Procedures" in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Advanced Configuration Guide available on OTN.

Cloning

The cloning application was used during the earlier versions of Enterprise Manager to clone Oracle software either from reference installation or using gold images in software library. These have been replaced by the more flexible deployment procedures.

Use the cloning feature to clone older versions of applications such as Application Server 9.2.0.6. Use the cloning wizard available from the Grid Control Console to perform cloning operations.

It is recommended that you use deployment procedures for provisioning and patching operations.

For more information about cloning, see Cloning, Provisioning RAC & AS Environments Using Enterprise Manager 10g based Cloning.

Components

Components represent the primary building blocks that may be combined with other components as needed, to specify the complete software configuration or image that is provisioned on target machines. A component can represent operating system software, Oracle software or any third party software and applications. Software components are individually maintained within the Oracle Software Library. Versions, states, and maturity levels can be associated with each component.

Directives

Directives can be imagined as instructions to cook the final image (recipe) using components (ingredients). These are constructs used to associate scripts with software components and images. These scripts contain directions on how to interpret and process the contents of a particular component or an image. Directives encapsulate the script, the command line used to invoke the script, and the script configuration properties. They capture everything required for invoking the script on a machine during a provisioning operation. Directives are usually categorized based on the provisioning life cycle phases they are targeted for, or the actions they perform. Imagine Directives as set of executable instructions that run from a supported shell (for example, borne-again, Perl, Python), programming language (for example, Java), or execution framework or interpreter (such as “make” or “ant”). Directives are contained within a file stored in the Oracle Software Library and referenced from the software components that employ them.

Components and Directives are used by Deployment Procedures (both out-of-box and custom procedures) to mass deploy software and applications on to target servers.

Images

An image can be viewed as a set of components and may include directives that form the required software configuration, which is deployed on the target machines. An image contains the complete software stack from operation system to application, in the form of its components and is used for provisioning servers from ground up with the entire stack provisioned on them. Images reference the components they logically contain by version (rather than include them directly). Images are stored in the Oracle Software Library and versions, states, and maturity levels can be associated with them.

Software Library

Enterprise Manager allows a shared location accessible from the Oracle Management Server (OMS) to serve as a Software Library. Software library serves as the central repository for metadata and binary content for components, images, and directives. It allows maintaining versions, maturity levels, and states of components, directives, and images.

Setting up and configuring the environment

For both software and server provisioning the user needs to perform a one-time activity of setting up a Software Library. For server provisioning additional elements like Boot server, Stage server, and RPM repository have to be configured as required by the provisioning application. Once configured, the same elements will be used for any software or server-provisioning operation performed using the provisioning application.

Creating Components, Directives, and Images

Once the environment is ready, the user can use the Enterprise Manager user interface to create components, directives, or images for deploying them onto the target servers. This is explained in Figure 13-2.

Figure 13-2 Creating Software Components Using Enterprise Manager User Interface

Description of "Figure 13-2 Creating Software Components Using Enterprise Manager User Interface"

• You can use either tested reference installations or installation media to create software components from the Enterprise Manager User Interface. The RPM repository is used for creating the out-of-box operating system components that one needs to provision on the bare metal or live servers. You can use the Enterprise Manager User Interface to create Directives and other server provisioning constructs like Storage templates, Hardware templates, and Network templates.

• The reusable entities created above are stored in the Software Library.

• These reusable entities can then be used by deployment procedures for deployment or mixed and matched to create deployable images for the hardware servers, which are again stored in the software library.

• The images or components can then be deployed on test or production environments.

Patching Through Deployment Procedures

Deployment procedures are the best practices for orchestration of patching Oracle Software such as Databases including Real Application Clusters, Clusterware, Automated Storage Management, Application Servers, and Operating Systems. The Deployment procedure-based infrastructure has been leveraged to increase the power and flexibility of Oracle patching for complex multi-tier environments. The out-of-box Deployment Procedures are Oracle-provided best practices that can be customized for specific needs. Users can enable and disable or add custom steps for specific actions and create the best practice for their environment. This activity is a one-time design activity typically of the lead DBA, which can be the standard and carried over by the operator for the entire environment.

Deployment procedures also support secure host authentication using sudo or PAM. The entire exercise can be run in the command line (CLI) mode, thereby making it possible to integrate with the existing scripts. Refer to Enterprise Manager Advanced Configuration for details on Using Deployment Procedures.

Patching Features

Grid Control's patching tools simplify the patching of Oracle software products. Some key features are listed in Table 13–1.

Application of Critical Patch Updates

You can use Grid Control to manage Oracle Critical Patch updates:

• Assess Vulnerabilities: This helps identify the Oracle Software affected by the advisory. The list displays comprehensive detail on the Critical Patch applicable on specific products under version and platform. This also displays the affected Oracle Homes.

  Grid control automates the entire process of critical patch application. It performs an assessment of vulnerabilities by examining your enterprise configuration to determine which Oracle homes have not applied one or more of these critical patches. Grid Control provides a list of critical patch advisories and the Oracle homes to which the critical patches should be applied.

  Some Oracle software patches have been identified as critical. To help ensure a secure and reliable configuration, all relevant and current critical patches should be applied to the appropriate targets in your enterprise.

  From the summary of patch advisories, you can navigate for more information about a particular patch, and get a list of the Oracle homes to which the patch has not been applied. Then you can launch the Grid Control Patch tool to download and deploy the patches to multiple targets.

• User Notification: This feature notifies users by identifying Criticality on the targets across the Target pages. Also, with the notification and reporting one can receive notifications and reports for the Critical Patch advisory and its assessment.

• Application of critical patches: The patch application process is automated directly form the assessment and the patch is downloaded from My Oracle Support and orchestrated:

  • Directly automate the patch application process using procedures

  • Download patches directly from My Oracle Support and apply

  • Schedule to apply patches on multiple targets simultaneously

• Configuration update: After applying the patch, the configuration is updated with the latest and reports can be generated based on the applied patches.

Application Server Patching

The patching application automates the deployment of Oracle patches for the application server and Management Agents. The application takes care of appropriate shutdown and startup of services and also allows execution of pre and post patching scripts to serve different use cases. Such flexibility makes mass deployment of interim patches and patchsets feasible even in complex multi-tier environments.

Linux Host Patching

The "Patch Linux Hosts" tool, a powerful new feature in Grid Control, facilitates the automated management of Linux hosts in an enterprise. Use this feature to keep the Linux hosts in your enterprise up to date with vital software updates from your Linux vendor.Patch Linux Hosts uses a reference-based grouped patching model, where you can create one or more reference package repositories containing up-to-date versions of various packages, and associate a group of Linux hosts with these package repositories.The Patch Linux Hosts tool uses package repositories to patch the hosts as well as to monitor the deviation of the packages installed on the hosts. You can create different groups suited to your administrative needs and even associate different package repositories with different priorities for each group. You can independently control when and how often to update the hosts in the group, and how to determine their compliance with respect to the package repositories.

The Linux patching feature provides the following functionalities:

• Setting up and managing RPM Repositories by subscribing to Unbreakable Linux network (ULN) channels

• Setting up and managing custom RPM Repositories and channels (cloning channels, copying packages from one channel into another, and deleting channels)

• Setting up Linux Patching Group to update a group of Linux hosts and compliance reporting from the Linux Patching group

• Scheduling Patching for non-compliant groups

• Managing Configuration file channels (creating/deleting channels, uploading files, and copying files from one channel into another)

• Patching through deployment procedures and emergency patching

• Undo Patching feature

Operating Systems Patching

Enterprise Manager supports patching of Solaris, Linux, and Windows Operating Systems. For Solaris, you can directly connect to the vendor's Website and download patches.

In addition to proactive patching method mentioned in the section above, Enterprise Manager also supports ad-hoc patching of Linux, Windows and Solaris operating systems using native patching methods.

Accessing Patching Pages in Grid Control

To access the patching pages in Grid Control:

• Click the Deployments tab, then click the links found under the Patching section:

  • Patching Through Deployment Procedures - This link takes you to the Deployment Procedure Manager page. Deployment procedures are best practices provided by Oracle for various Provisioning and Patching tasks. Procedures created by Oracle cannot be edited, but can be extended using 'Create Like', so that you can customize the procedure to fit your environment.

  • View/Upload Patch - This link takes you to the Patch Cache page and it provides a list of patches available in the Management Repository. These are patches that have been either automatically downloaded from My Oracle Support or manually uploaded to the patch cache.

  • Patch Linux Hosts - This link takes you to the Patch Linux Hosts page and helps keep Linux hosts up-to-date with vendor updates.

  • Patch Agent - This link takes you to the Agent Patching wizard.

• Click Setup, then click Patching Setup from the navigation pane. From this page, you can configure your settings for My Oracle Support and patching, proxy connection, offline patching, and Linux Staging server.