Rapid Home Provisioning with Oracle Database 12c

The new paradigm for deploying and maintaining Oracle software

ORACLE WHITE PAPER

JANUARY 2016

Contents
Executive Overview
Introduction
How Does Rapid Home Provisioning Work?
Simplified Patching with Rapid Home Provisioning
Oracle Database 12c Provisioning Experience with Rapid Home Provisioning
Rapid Home Provisioning Architecture
Rapid Home Provisioning Server
Rapid Home Provisioning Client
Rapid Home Provisioning Roles
Rapid Home Provisioning Images
Using Rapid Home Provisioning
Creating a Rapid Home Provisioning Server
Adding Gold Images to the Rapid Home Provisioning Server
Provisioning Software
Creating a Rapid Home Provisioning Client
Managing Rapid Home Provisioning Clients
Scenarios to Use Rapid Home Provisioning
Scenario 1 Switch to Managed Homes
Scenario 2 Databases Provisioning
Scenario 3 Databases Patching
Scenario 4 Mass Patch Apply
Conclusion
Appendix 1 - New Concepts for Rapid Home Provisioning

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Executive Overview
Rapid Home Provisioning (RHP) represents a standard way for provisioning and patching at the organizational level,
in a unified manner, across all architectural layers of software infrastructure Oracle databases and custom
software. RHP increases performance and improves efficiency in provisioning and managing templates of Oracle
software, such as Oracle databases, on all nodes in a data center.
RHP benefits all stakeholders in an IT estate:

Administrators - a simple and efficient method of patching and deploying software homes to nodes in a
cloud computing environment from a single cluster.

Developers and testers - quick access to new environments.

Business users - a transparent mechanism that provides them access to the latest releases of Oracle
database software and custom software.

Rapid Home Provisioning allows the administrative tasks related to database software distribution and deployment
to be performed in an automated and standardized manner, thus allowing key people in the IT organization to focus
on innovative activities that bring the most value.

Extreme consolidation and a growing infrastructure footprint have made it increasingly difficult to keep our systems
up to date with the latest Oracle patches. With Rapid Home Provisioning, we are now able to manage patching and
upgrades with minimal impact to business, while also providing a reliable platform for our agile development
environment. Ravi Kulkarni, Senior IT Manager, Dell Inc.

Introduction
Many organizations struggle to keep their software current with the constant release of new patches and updates.
Database administrators are tasked with:

Installing required security patches

Creating many test and quality assurance environments for each patchset

Managing a number of production environments

Best practice tends towards more frequent patching, with several shorter duration windows being considered less
disruptive, and more easily scheduled, than one longer window. However, overall, maintenance windows are
diminishing as availability demands from both management and application owners are increasing.
Reducing or even eliminating the need to install software for each instantiation of a home can result in significant
time saving. Having a set of images, where each image in this set represents a different software configuration, aids
in rapid provisioning of test or quality assurance environments. With a series of logically related images it is easier to
devise a back-out strategy, which is integral to any patching scenario. Having gold images, which are then pushed
out to any number of hosts, underpins a standardized, automated provisioning system.

2 | RAPID HOME PROVISIONING WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12C

Rapid Home Provisioning (RHP) is a new feature that allows for centralized software deployment. Software need be
installed only once, then stored on the RHP server, and from there can be provisioned to any node or cluster in the
private cloud, as many times as needed.
RHP will

Eliminate the need to patch individual databases

Update any number of databases with a single command

Ensure standardization through gold image lineage

How Does Rapid Home Provisioning Work?

Rapid Home Provisioning is a method of deploying software homes to nodes in a cloud computing environment from
a single cluster where you create, store, and manage templates of Oracle homes as images - called gold images - of
Oracle software. The DBA can make a working copy of any gold image, and then can provision that working copy to
any node in the cloud.
RHP is installed as part of Grid Infrastructure. Oracle Clusterware manages the components that form the Rapid
Home Provisioning Server. These components include the RHP server itself, Grid Naming Service (GNS) which is
used to advertise the location of the RHP server to RHP clients, an HA-VIP to support NFS-based transfers between
the server and clients, and Oracle ASM Cluster File System (ACFS) which is used to store snapshots of the working
copies.
The gold images represent an installed home, whether that is an Oracle Database software home, or some custom
software home. The gold image is stored in an Oracle Automatic Software Management Cluster File System (Oracle
ACFS).
Metadata describing an installed home is stored as an image series in the Management Repository. The
Management Repository (Management Database) is created when installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure.
Using the rhpctl control utility, gold images can be imported from an installed home on the RHP server, or
promoted from an installed home or workingcopy on any of the RHP clients. Also, an existing working copy can be
promoted to a gold image.
Figure 1 presents a simplified diagram of the Rapid Home Provisioning Server and RHP Client.

3 | RAPID HOME PROVISIONING WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12C

Figure 1. RHP Server and Client Architecture

Gold images are stored in a repository located on a Rapid Home Provisioning Server, which runs on any one of the
servers in the Rapid Home Provisioning Server cluster. This provisioning method simplifies quick patching of Oracle
homes, thereby minimizing or completely eliminating downtime.
Some additional terminology:

A workingcopy is an instantiation of an Oracle database software home. Workingcopies are writeable and
independent of one another, even when instantiated from the same gold image.

Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) is the recommended approach
for provisioning workingcopies using RHP. When Oracle ACFS is used, workingcopies can be deployed as
ACFS snapshots providing a fast, space-efficient approach to provisioning.

When using Rapid Home Provisioning, the DBA can provision Oracle Database software for the various versions of
the Oracle Database releases, such as 10.2.0.5 (Oracle Database 10g), 11.2.0.x (Oracle Database 11g), 12.1.0.1,
and 12.1.0.2 (Oracle Database 12c). When the DBA provisions such software, Rapid Home Provisioning offers
additional features for creating various types of databases (such as Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC),
single instance, and Oracle Real Application Clusters One Node (Oracle RAC One Node) databases on different
types of storage, and other options, such as using templates and creating Oracle Multitenant Container Databases

4 | RAPID HOME PROVISIONING WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12C

(CDBs). In addition, Rapid Home Provisioning makes patching of database software more efficient, thus allowing for
rapid and remote patching of the software, without any downtime for the database.
The benefits of using Rapid Home Provisioning are:

A simple and efficient method of deploying and patching software homes to nodes in a cloud computing
environment from a single cluster.

Rapid access to new environments.

A transparent mechanism that provides access to the latest versions of the applications, middleware, and
databases.

Increased performance and improved efficiency in managing templates of Oracle software.

A standard approach for provisioning and patching at an organizational level across all architectural layers
of software infrastructure Oracle databases, middleware, custom software.

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Simplified Patching with Rapid Home Provisioning

Patching the Oracle database involves multiple steps. At a minimum, the DBA must patch each of:
-

the Oracle database software

the data dictionary

Out-of-place patching is the typical approach to patching. The patched environment is created in a new directory
path and then each database has its home switched to the new path. This approach will work whether the database
home is shared (by several databases) or not. Prior to Rapid Home Provisioning there was no packaged way to
adopt this process; the DBA had to build the steps to perform the process each time. Scripting is possible, to some
extent, but the onus was always on the DBA to keep these scripts current.
Rapid Home Provisioning simplifies this solution, significantly reducing the possibility of human error.

Before Rapid Home Provisioning

With Rapid Home Provisioning

Prepare home for out of place patching

Single Command: Add a workingcopy

Run OPatch version check

Run Inventory check

Single Command: Switch database to

the new home

Run conflicts check

Run components check
Run Space check
As software owner, tar the existing software home
As software owner, untar the tarball into a new home

Apply the Patch

Run Opatch apply to install the patch
Attach the new home to inventory
Update the node list to the inventory

Orchestrate switching the database to the new home

Stop the database instance on the node
Modify the configuration of database CRS resource to start the
instance from newly cloned (patched) Oracle home
Start the database instance

REPEAT FOR EVERY DATABASE IN THIS HOME

Apply SQL
Run datapatch.pl or SQLs necessary for the patch

Fix Dependent Scripts

Fix static settings of ORACLE_HOME paths in wrapper scripts

Table 1 Comparison of patching activities: RHP and before

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Note that if a new gold image were being created there would be a one-time set of activities as:
Add a workingcopy
Opatch install
Validate
Push as new gold image

Oracle Database 12c Provisioning Experience with Rapid Home Provisioning

Rapid Home Provisioning Architecture
The Rapid Home Provisioning architecture consists of a Rapid Home Provisioning Server and any number of Rapid
Home Provisioning Clients. The clients may be clusters or individual nodes.

Figure 2 Rapid Home Provisioning Architecture

The Rapid Home Provisioning Server cluster is a repository for all data, of which there are primarily two types:

Gold images

Metadata related to users, roles, permissions, and identities

The Rapid Home Provisioning Server acts as a central server for provisioning Oracle homes, and making them
available on Rapid Home Provisioning Client clusters.

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Users operate on the Rapid Home Provisioning Server or Rapid Home Provisioning Client cluster site to request
deployment of Oracle homes or to query gold images. When a user makes a request for an Oracle home, specifying
a gold image, the Rapid Home Provisioning Client communicates with the Rapid Home Provisioning Server to pass
on the request. The Rapid Home Provisioning Server processes the request by taking appropriate action to
instantiate a copy of the gold image, and to make it available to the Rapid Home Provisioning Client cluster using
available technologies such as Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS), network
file systems (NFSs), and snapshots.

Rapid Home Provisioning Server

The Rapid Home Provisioning Server is a highly available software provisioning system that uses Oracle Automatic
Storage Management (Oracle ASM), Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS),
Grid Naming Service (GNS), and other components. The Rapid Home Provisioning Server acts as a central server
for provisioning Oracle homes, making them available to Rapid Home Provisioning Clients.

The main features of the Rapid Home Provisioning Server are:

Efficiently stores gold images for the managed homes, including separate binaries, and metadata related
to users, roles, and permissions.

Provides highly available network file system (HANFS) exports for homes accessed using mounts on
remote clusters.

Provides a list of available homes to authorized clients upon request.

Allows patching a software home once and then deploying the home to any Rapid Home Provisioning
Client, instead of patching every site.

Provides the ability to report on existing deployments.

Rapid Home Provisioning Client

The Rapid Home Provisioning Client is part of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installed in the cloud pool. Database
administrators operate on a Rapid Home Provisioning Client to perform tasks such as requesting deployment of
Oracle homes and listing available gold images. When a user requests an Oracle home by specifying a gold image,
the Rapid Home Provisioning Client communicates with the Rapid Home Provisioning Server to pass on the request.
The Rapid Home Provisioning Server processes the request by instantiating a working copy of the gold image and
making it available to the Rapid Home Provisioning Client using Oracle ACFS (recommended), a different local file
system, or through NFS.
The Rapid Home Provisioning Client:

Uses Oracle ACFS to store workingcopies which can be rapidly provisioned as local homes; new homes
can be quickly created or undone using Oracle ACFS snapshots.

Provides a list of available homes from the Rapid Home Provisioning Server.

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Allows high availability NFS (HANFS) mounts from the Rapid Home Provisioning Server to be provisioned
as working copies on the Rapid Home Provisioning Client cluster.

The NFS home client is a Rapid Home Provisioning Client that does not have Oracle ACFS installed, and can still
access the Rapid Home Provisioning Server through an NFS protocol. In an NFS protocol environment, the Rapid
Home Provisioning Server must have an HA-NFS server configured so that the Rapid Home Provisioning Client can
maintain connectivity through failovers on the RHP server.

Rapid Home Provisioning Roles

An authorized administrator assigns roles to RHP users, with access-level permissions defined for each role. This
applies to users on both RHP Servers and Clients. Rapid Home Provisioning includes basic and composite built-in
roles to simplify the assignment of administrative and end-user capabilities..
Some of the roles and their functions are:

GH_WC_USER: A role that enables users to create working copies using the rhpctl add
workingcopy command. Users assigned this role do not have administrative privileges and can delete
only working copies that they create.

GH_WC_OPER: This role extends the GH_WC_OPER role by enabling users to create working copies for
themselves or others using the rhpctl add workingcopy command with the -user option (when
creating for others). Users assigned this role do not have administrative privileges and can administer only
the working copies that they create.

Other built-in roles address privileges for creating and administering gold images, image series, and user/role
administration itself.
The composite role GH_CA includes all the basic roles needed to administer an RHP client. The Oracle Grid
Infrastructure user on a Rapid Home Provisioning Client automatically inherits this role.
Similarly, the composite role GH_SA includes all the basic roles needed to administer an RHP server. This role
includes the roles available to GH_CA, plus the ability to administer roles and everything related to RHP clients.
The Oracle Grid Infrastructure user on a Rapid Home Provisioning Server automatically inherits this role.
The Rapid Home Provisioning Server can associate user-role mappings to the Rapid Home Provisioning Client.
There is a need for security and isolation if there are multiple user-communities involved in a single domain of RHP
Server and RHP Clients. The roles-based approach we have adopted with RHP controls access to various entities,
providing the necessary separation and security within the deployment. Assigning roles to a community prevents
other community users from acting on entities not belonging to them.

Rapid Home Provisioning Images

By default, when the DBA creates a gold image using either rhpctl import image or rhpctl add image,
the gold image is ready to provision working copies. However, under certain conditions, the DBA may want to
restrict access to an image, such as to ensure the image is validated before making it available for general use.

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Image State
The DBA can set the state of a gold image to TESTABLE or RESTRICTED so that only users with the
GH_IMG_TESTABLE or GH_IMG_RESTRICT roles can provision working copies from this gold image. Once the gold
image has been tested or validated, the DBA can change the state and make the gold image available for general
use by running the rhpctl promote image -image image_name -state PUBLISHED command. The
default image state is PUBLISHED when the DBA adds a new gold image if the state is not specified in either the
rhpctl add image or rhpctl import image commands.
Image Series
Rapid Home Provisioning treats each gold image as an independent entity with respect to other gold images. No
relationship is assumed between gold images, even if they follow some specific nomenclature.
Using an image series is a convenient way to group different gold images into a logical sequence. Use the rhpctl
add series command to create an image series and associate one or more images to this series. The list of gold
images in an image series is an ordered list. Use the rhpctl insertimage series and rhpctl
deleteimage series to add and delete gold images in an image series. The DBA can also change the order of
images in a series using these commands.

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Using Rapid Home Provisioning

Rapid Home Provisioning requires ASM, Grid Naming Service (GNS), an HA-VAP, and the Management DB. As
part of the Grid Infrastructure installation, ensure that:

ASM is configured

GNS is configured such that a GNS VIP is provided. A GNS sub-domain is not required by RHP.

An HA-VIP is configured for HA-NFS

The Management Repository (Management DB) is available. The Management DB is installed by default
with Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12.1.0.2

Once Grid Infrastructure is installed and configured the Rapid Home Provisioning server can be configured and
started as follows:

Creating a Rapid Home Provisioning Server

The Rapid Home Provisioning Server uses an Oracle ACFS file system for Oracle database software homes that will
be published to clients.
To configure the Rapid Home Provisioning Server you will need to:

Provide an ASM diskgroup. It is recommended that this diskgroup is at least 100Gb in size. The diskgroup
can be created using the ASM Configuration assistant (ASMCA). The diskgroup is used to store gold
images and RHP managed NFS-provisioned workingcopies.

Provide a mount path that exists on all nodes of the RHP server. The recommended path is <Grid
Infrastructure Home>/srvm/images, although any path may be provided. Oracle ACFS snapshots
can be used to provision server-local workingcopies or NFS-mounted workingcopies on clients.

Configure an HA VIP. The NFS client, on the RHP client clusters will communicate with the NFS server on
the RHP server over this IP address for some operations (and to access NFS mounted homes if used).
The VIP allows for the configuration of HA-NFS. Note that the HA VIP has to be configured in the same
subnet as the default network configured on the RHP server.

Once the pre-requisites mentioned above have been met, the RHP server can be added to Grid Infrastructure and
started.
An example of the commands to do this are:

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As the Grid Infrastructure owner:

$ $GRID_HOME/bin/asmca

$ mkdir p $GRID_HOME/srvm/images
As the root user:
# $GRID_HOME/bin/srvctl add rhpserver storage $GRID_HOME/srvm/images diskgroup
RHP
If an RHP client cluster will be used add an HA-VIP
# $GRID_HOME/bin/srvctl add havip id 130.130.10.10 description RHP IP
As the Grid Infrastructure owner:
$ $GRID_HOME/bin/srvctl start rhpserver
Following the start of the Rapid Home Provisioning Server, the DBA uses the Rapid Home Provisioning Control
(RHPCTL) utility to further manage Rapid Home Provisioning.

Adding Gold Images to the Rapid Home Provisioning Server

The Rapid Home Provisioning Server stores and serves gold images of software homes. These gold images must
be instantiated on the Rapid Home Provisioning Server
Gold images are read-only, preventing a client from running programs from them. Gold images are not used as
software homes directly. Rather, the gold image is used to create working copies (software homes). To create a
usable software home from a gold image, the DBA creates a working copy.
The DBA can import software to the Rapid Home Provisioning Server using any one of the following methods:

Import a gold image from an installed home on the Rapid Home Provisioning Server using the following
command:
o

rhpctl import image -image <image_name> -path <path_to_installed_home>

[-imagetype ORACLEDBSOFTWARE | SOFTWARE]

Import a gold image from an installed home on a Rapid Home Provisioning Client, using the following
command run from the RHP Client:
o

rhpctl import image image <image_name> path <path_to_installed_home>

Promote an existing workingcopy to a gold image using the following command:

12 | RAPID HOME PROVISIONING WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12C

rhpctl add image image <image_name> -workingcopy <working_copy_name>

Provisioning Software
After importing an image, an authorized client can provision software by adding a working copy either on the Rapid
Home Provisioning Server or on the Rapid Home Provisioning Client. This software provisioning command can be
executed on either the RHP Server or any of the RHP Clients.

To provision software on the Rapid Home Provisioning Server:

o

rhpctl

add

workingcopy

-workingcopy

<working_copy_name>

-image

<image_name>

To create a working copy on the Rapid Home Provisioning Client using an NFS mount:
o

rhpctl

add

workingcopy

-workingcopy

<working_copy_name>

-image

<image_name> -storagetype NFS -path <path_to_software_home>

To create a local working copy on the RHP Client (from the RHP Server):
o

rhpctl

add

<image_name>

workingcopy
-path

-workingcopy

<working_copy_name>

<path_to_software_home>

-image
-client

<client_cluster_name>

Creating a Rapid Home Provisioning Client

A Rapid Home Provisioning client is a cluster to which software homes are deployed by the Rapid Home
Provisioning server.
Users operate on a Rapid Home Provisioning Client to perform tasks such as requesting deployment of Oracle
homes and querying gold images.
Software homes can be deployed on a local filesystem on the RHP client or over HA-NFS from the RHP server. If an
Oracle ACFS filesystem is available on the RHP client then snapshot workingcopies can be created from a clientlocal instantiation of a gold image.
Before creating a Rapid Home Provisioning Client several tasks have to be completed on the RHP server:
1.

An HA-VIP has to exist. This may have been created when the RHP server was configured.

2.

A credential file, for use by the client to authenticate with the server, has to be created for each RHP client.
The rhpctl utility is used to create the credential file. Note that the client name used when creating the
credential has to exactly match the cluster name used when installing grid infrastructure on the client. An
XML file will be created in the directory specified by the switch -toclientdata and will be named after
the client cluster name provided in the add client command.

3.

Copy the credential file created to the RHP client cluster. The file must be readable by the owner of the
Grid Infrastructure installed on the client.

Sample commands to perform these tasks are shown in the following text box:

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On the RHP server as the Grid Infrastructure owner determine if an HA-VIP has been created:
$ $GRID_HOME/bin/srvctl config havip
HAVIP exists: /rhp_vip/130.130.10.10, network number 1
Description: RHP VIP
Home Node:
HAVIP is enabled
HAVIP is individually enabled on nodes:
HAVIP is individually disabled on nodes:
If the HAVIP has not been created refer to the section on configuring the RHP server in this document
$ $GRID_HOME/bin/rhpctl add client client stormcloud-cluster -toclientdata
/home/grid
germany.oracle.com: Creating client data
germany.oracle.com: Client data created for user stormcloud-cluster
$ ls al /home/grid/stormcloud-cluster.xml
-rw-r-r-- 1 grid oinstall 3158 Oct 31 21:59 /home/grid/stormcloud-cluster.xml
Perform the following actions on the RHP client cluster:
1.

Create the RHP client using the XML wallet created for this cluster

2.

Start the RHP client.

Sample commands to perform these tasks are shown in the following text box:
On the RHP client as the Grid Infrastructure owner:
$ $GRID_HOME/bin/srvctl add rhpclient clientdata /home/grid/stormcloud.xml
Note that the add rhpclient command can take an ASM diskgroup argument. The client can then serve
local homes on shared ACFS filesystems
$ $GRID_HOME/bin/srvctl start rhpclient

The command srvctl add rhpclient has two optional arguments:

diskgroup <dg_name>

A diskgroup that will allow the creation of ACFS filesystems for

client-local image storage

-storage <storage path>

A location available on every node in the RHP client cluster. Does

not have to be shared. All images will be mounted on $ORACLE_BASE/images for client-local ACFS
storage.

Managing Rapid Home Provisioning Clients

Rapid Home Provisioning Client management tasks include:

Enabling and Disabling Rapid Home Provisioning Clients

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From the RHP Server, the DBA enables or disables Rapid Home Provisioning Clients by running
the following command:
rhpctl modify client -client client_name -enabled TRUE | FALSE
If an RHP client is disabled, all rhpctl commands from that client cluster will be rejected by the
RHP Server.

Note: Rapid Home Provisioning Clients communicate with the Rapid Home Provisioning Server for all
actions. A client cannot run any RHPCTL commands without a connection to a Rapid Home
Provisioning Server.

Creating Users and Assigning Roles for Rapid Home Provisioning Client Cluster Users
o

The commands rhpctl add client and rhpctl grant roles allow for the creation or
assignment of users and roles within the context of the Oracle Homes managed by the RHP
client. The maproles argument to these commands is used to create users and assign roles to
RHP Client users.

Managing the Rapid Home Provisioning Client Password

o

The RHP Client uses a password stored internally to authenticate itself with the RHP server. The
DBA on the client cannot query this password. If there is a need to reset this password, this task
is done by the DBA on the RHP server.

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Scenarios to Use Rapid Home Provisioning

Scenario 1 Switch to Managed Homes
A DBA can switch databases from an Oracle home that was not provisioned using Rapid Home Provisioning
(unmanaged Oracle home) to an Oracle home provisioned and managed by Rapid Home Provisioning Server.
Assume the following:

We have an installed Oracle Home at /u01/app/product/12.1.0/dbhome (a home we now term

unmanaged) on an RHP client cluster named payrollCluster. This home has one or more databases
created from it.

We have a gold image named ORACLEDB12 managed by the RHP server

(Optionally) the gold image ORACLEDB12 has a working copy named myDB12HOME1 created on the client
cluster payrollCluster from it.

In order to switch the Oracle Homes for the databases from the unmanaged home to a managed home we run the
following command:
On the RHP server as the Grid Infrastructure owner:
$ $GRID_HOME/bin/rhpctl move database -sourcehome /u01/app/product/12.1.0/dbhome oraclebase

/u01/app/product/12.1.0/obase

-client

payrollCluster

-patchedwc

myDB12Home1 -image ORACLEDB12

Note that in this example, the patchedwc myDB12HOME1 does not exist. It will be automatically created from the
ORACLEDB12 image.
When moving to an existing patchedwc, you do not need to specify an image.

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Scenario 2 Databases Provisioning

The command rhpctl add workingcopy is used to provision an ORACLE_HOME for use by an Oracle
database. This command can be run on the RHP Server or on the RHP Client. If run on the RHP Server, the
command can provision an Oracle database either RHP-server-local or remotely on any RHP Client. When using
the rhpctl command on the RHP Server, use the -client option to specify the remote cluster.
Table 2 compares the provisioning of a new Oracle home and a RAC database using the traditional approach and
with Rapid Home provisioning.

Before RHP
Prepare installation media for each cluster
Log into the cluster to invoke oui
Log into each node to run root.sh
Log into the cluster to invoke dbca (software only)
Install a shared Oracle Home
Create an Oracle RAC database using dbca
Start each instance

RHP Provisioning

rhpctl add workingcopy

Table 2 Comparison of provisioning using RHP versus traditional approach

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Scenario 3 Databases Patching

Similar to Scenario 1, patching involves moving a database from one workingcopy to a new patched workingcopy.
Workingcopies are independent and multiple workingcopies can be created from the same gold image.
A typical scenario would involve creating an initial workingcopy from a base release. As new patches, PSUs are a
good example, get released create a new workingcopy from your current gold image and apply the PSU.
The latest workingcopy would be promoted as a new gold image from which new databases are created. Existing
databases can then be moved to this latest gold image (which contains the current PSU).
This maintains a lineage of homes, allows for reverting to an older home if necessary, and keeps databases up to
date, with regard to PSU application.
Assume we are moving all databases from a workingcopy named wcDB12PSU1 to a workingcopy named
wcDB12PSU2, we would issue the command:
rhpctl

move

database

-sourcewc

wcDB12PSU1

-patchedwc

wcDB12PSU2

image

DBIMGPSU2

This command creates a new ORACLE_HOME based on the patched image, if it does not exist, and then switches
all Oracle databases from their current ORACLE_HOME location to the new ORACLE_HOME.
By default, patching is performed in a rolling mode. Use the -nonrolling option to perform patching in non-rolling
mode. The database is then completely stopped on the old ORACLE_HOME, and is then restarted using the newly
patched ORACLE_HOME.
For databases versions 12.1.0.1 or higher, the command rhpctl move database also executes any SQL
commands required for database patching. For database versions earlier than Oracle Database 12c Release 1, a
message is displayed asking the user to run the SQL commands for database patching manually.
If only a specific database is to have its ORACLE_HOME moved, include the dbname switch:
rhpctl move database -sourcewc wcDB12PSU1 -patchedwc wcDB12PSU2 -dbname myDB

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Scenario 4 Mass Patch Apply

Rapid Home Provisioning allows for patch once apply many to be enacted.

Figure 2 Mass Patch Apply

Consider one Gold Image containing the latest patched Oracle Home is created.
In a typical enterprise there would be many (client) clusters: m RHP Clients.
Each RHP client has a number of databases running on them: n databases
Using Rapid Home Provisioning, the patch is deployed/distributed to m RHP Client clusters x n Oracle databases
In comparison with the traditional approach, the efficiency of mass patch apply method is significantly higher: patch
once, validate, and then distribute to m x n targets.

19 | RAPID HOME PROVISIONING WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12C

Conclusion
Rapid Home Provisioning represents a standard for provisioning and patching at an organizational level, in a unified
manner, across many architectural layers of software infrastructure.
Rapid Home Provisioning is a method for deploying software homes and databases to nodes in a cloud computing
environment from a single cluster. The database administrator stores gold images of Oracle homes as well as
custom software. Using a workingcopy, which is a writeable Oracle ACFS snapshot of the gold image, the DBA can
provision an Oracle home, and then deploy that ORACLE_HOME to any number of RHP clients in the private cloud.
Gold images can be deployed to any cluster where a Rapid Home Provisioning Client is installed.
The benefits of using Rapid Home Provisioning are:

For Administrators: a simple method of patching and deploying software homes to nodes in a cloud
computing environment from a single cluster.

For developers and testers: quick access to a new provisioned environment for development or testing.

For users and businesses: a transparent mechanism that provides access to the latest releases of
applications, middleware, and databases.

Overall: increased performance and improved efficiency in provisioning and managing templates of Oracle
software, such as databases, middleware, and applications on any node in a cloud environment.

20 | RAPID HOME PROVISIONING WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12C

Appendix 1 - New Concepts for Rapid Home Provisioning

The following terms and concepts are used with Rapid Home Provisioning
Gold Image
An image of an installed Oracle home. This could be a copy of a software-only installation or a copy of an existing
(used) Oracle Home. The existing home could contain base distributions, patches, patchsets, PSUs, or other
modifications. Database-specific and cluster-specific information is excluded when the Oracle Home is used to
create a gold image, allowing for the home to be copied independently of where it was first installed. Databases can
then be easily moved between gold images.
Rapid Home Provisioning will store gold images of any software, but in the context of this paper gold images
correspond to Oracle Software installations.
Rapid Home Provisioning Client
The RHP client is a remote cluster, in the sense of being a separate cluster from the RHP Server. The RHP client
cluster subscribes to the RHP Server for the provisioning of gold images.
Rapid Home Provisioning Server
The Rapid Home Provisioning Server is the cluster which manages the repository of gold images. All clients
communicate through the server for provisioning of workingcopies.
Working Copy
These are provisioned read/write copies built from a gold image from which users run their databases or other
applications. Workingcopies are independent, and multiple workingcopies may be built from a single gold image.
These are the Oracle Homes that a database will use. Workingcopies can be on a local ACFS or mounted over HANFS from the RHP server.
Managed Homes
An Oracle Home that was provisioned using Rapid Home Provisioning.
Unmanaged Homes
An Oracle Home that was not provisioned using Rapid Home Provisioning; it was provisioned using the traditional
approach.

21 | RAPID HOME PROVISIONING WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12C

Oracle Corporation, World Headquarters

Worldwide Inquiries

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Phone: +1.650.506.7000

Redwood Shores, CA 94065, USA

Fax: +1.650.506.7200

Rapid Home Provisioning

December 2015
Author: Troy Anthony
Contributing Authors: Burt Clouse,Silviu Teodoru

CONNECT W ITH US

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