Importance of Upgrade’s and how to Upgrade OMC Agent
Authors: Monowar Mukul (OCM), Nassyam Basha (Oracle ACE Director, OCM)
Introduction
In this article, we will walk through how to upgrade the agent software on the specific targets. To upgrade the agent software, we will initiate the process from Oracle Management Cloud console with easy navigation and step by step instructions.
Why Agent Upgrade?
Upgrading or patching is very important for mission-critical systems, and in our case, we are dealing with the upgrade of OMC agent on the targets, which is also very important because the agent collects important data and sends to the OMC. For example, the database is not running because of critical issues, and an agent will collect data periodically and push to the OMC as notifications.
So Agent rule is crucial and should be available 24/7, and also there should be transparency when sending the data. However, there should be a workaround in most of the cases, and in some cases, patching/upgrade helps to fix the bug permanently. For example from our previous articles, if we see agent reported with below fatal alert and there is no workaround except upgrading the agent version to 1.33 and more details, please follow the below bug related document.
“Oracle Management Cloud :FetchletException: Result has repeating key value (Doc ID 2478679.1)”
How to Upgrade the Agent
To upgrade the agent software connect to the Oracle Management Cloud console and follow the navigation “Management Cloud →Administration → Agents.”
Next Page, click on Agents
We can see all the cloud agents associated with the OMC. The good part is if there is any new agent version is available it will show a notification at the version column.
In our example, we can see two hosts of a single RAC cluster. Here there is no rule that we have to upgrade both the agents in a single shot, we can also perform a rolling upgrade of the agents.
To perform a single host agent upgrade, we can see the “Action” Button at each of the agents. Click on Actions button and then we can see the option “upgrade.”. However, we will perform an upgrade of agent for both of the nodes. Hence click on the upgrade button as shown in the screen below
Note: When we upgrade the agent, it will perform an upgrade to the higher version available with OMC.
Now, let’s proceed to upgrade the agent for the multiple nodes.
After clicking on the “Upgrade” button, it will list the agents to be upgraded and proceed to click “Yes” for the final confirmation.
After submitting the agent upgrade request, we can see the job is submitted in the status.
Observer the above screen and below the screen at the column “Version,” we can see the clock sign — that means the agent’s upgrade currently is in progress.
For interactive monitoring of the job, we can view more details of the specific agent as below.
This target console shows the status with complete details including the logfile of the upgrade and with the current status.
Now we can see that the agent is upgraded to the latest version. To view again overall status check “View Details” from the action menu of the specific agent.
Summary
We’ve learned what the importance of upgrade/patching to the infrastructure with one of the example and also we’ve seen how to upgrade the agent for the Oracle RAC nodes with troubleshooting the agent upgrade process.
Authors Bio
Nassyam Basha is a Database Administrator. He has around ten years of experience as a Production Oracle DBA, currently working as Database Expert with eProseed KSA. He holds a master’s degree in Computer Applications from the University of Madras. He is an Oracle 11g Certified master an Oracle ACE Director. He actively participates in Oracle-related forums such as OTN with a status of Super Hero, Oracle support awarded as “Guru” and acting as OTN Moderator and written numerous articles with OTN and on Toad World. He maintains an Oracle technology-related blog, www.oracle-ckpt.com and can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nassyambasha/
Monowar Mukul is currently working as a Principal Oracle Database Specialist. I am an Oracle certified Master (Oracle 12c Certified Master Administration, Oracle 12c Certified Master MAA, and Oracle 11g Certified Master Administration). He has been working as an Oracle DBA consultant over 17 years with Oracle MAA space for both Exadata and non-Exadata Systems, Oracle Cloud Space and SOA Middleware. He worked across various business sectors including tertiary education, energy, government, mining and transport in Australia. He demonstrated highly developed critical thinking and analytical skills working as a Principal Oracle Database Specialist. You can find more details about him and his work achievements at https://www.linkedin.com/in/monowarmukul/
