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

How To Customize Shell Prompt To Database SID ?

Typically shell has its own default prompt with $ sign when you logged into the Linux server using Oracle user. 

Question might be come that why we should change it. 

Well, If there are multiple databases configured on the server than customizing prompt will help us to identify session where we are working at a time. 

This will help to eliminate human error by accidentally running particular command on wrong database or session.

Following are the steps to customize your default prompt to Database SID.

Default Prompt:

[oracle@db01 ~]$ 

Change it to Oracle SID

Step 1 First check the value of $PS1 prompt by executing below command

It will give below values 

[oracle@db01 ~]$ echo $PS1
[\u@\h \W]\$

PS1 (Prompt String 1) is one of the prompts available in Unix

Step 2 Export Oracle SID:

$export ORACLE_SID=test

Step 3 Now export PS1 with ORACLE_SID 

$export PS1=[$ORACLE_SID]

Step 4 After executing above command you will get the prompt like below

[oracle@db01 ~]$ export PS1=[$ORACLE_SID]
[test]
[test]
[test]pwd
/home/oracle

You would also like below examples for customization of prompt.

How To Calculate Network Bandwidth On Exadata Database Servers?

Let's get understanding to calculate bandwidth between Database servers on Exadata. Exadata available for both 10Gig and 1Gig network configuration.

Here we have given example for 1Gig network configuration. Same methodology can be used for other network configuration.

There are multiple tools to calculate network bandwidth between two points.

Like, Iperf, NDT, NC, PCATTCP etc...

Here we will use NC utility to calculate bandwidth.

We have two database node on exadata 

DB01

DB02

Step 1 Download nc-1.84-10.fc6.x86_64.rpm and copy on the nodes where you want to carry out the bandwidth test.

You can get this rpm from HERE 

Step 2 Install RPM on both nodes.

[root@db01 ~]# rpm -ivh nc-1.84-10.fc6.x86_64.rpm

Preparing...      ################################# [100%]

   1:nc             ################################# [100%]

[root@db02 ~]# rpm -ivh nc-1.84-10.fc6.x86_64.rpm

Preparing...    ################################## [100%]

   1:nc           ################################## [100%]

   

Step 3 Using NC utility start receiver on free port. Make sure port which you are using is not utilized. Here we have used 9999 port.

What Should Be The Order of Exadata Machine Patching?

In earlier post we have given overview for downloading and extract patch on database system.

Now lets have an overview of patching order for Oracle Exadata Machine with list of utility which need to be used to apply it, as it is not compulsory to maintain this order but usually we should follow it to mitigate risk.

We have give the patch location of particular component based on patch number 19625719 (QFSDP).

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1. InfiniBand Switch 

• It will be available with storage server patches
• First apply it on spine switch than leaf switches

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.