question on Solaris OS patch on VCS 5.0 MP1

[nathanhz]

Hi, we have solaris 10 with SFRAC 5.0 MP1 on two nodes, my question is for the OS patch ( solaris recommended OS patch) . is it recommended to patch one node and let it run for couple of weeks and patch another one ? or rather to say is it recommended to run both nodes on different OS patch level ?

[Aerosmith1]

Hello nathanh,

I Patched solaris 9 with the cluster patch and let the other system run for a week. VCS works.

but let me tell you, it was Version 3.5 and solaris OS 9 which I am using in 2 node - active- passive cluster.

I think you should be good with VCS on 2 system with different OS patch levels. I guess solaris clustering is very particular about patch levels on cluster nodes.

Ofcouse, more experienced may want to correct me but generally it is suggested to wait and see if applications work on patched system then patch another node. As soon as you can make sure applications work fine on patched system , install patches on unpatched node and hopefully VCS should also work fine 

Thanks

[nathanhz]

Hi Aerosmith

below is what i got from Oracle , however i couldn't find any answer so far from symantec. 

Does Oracle Clusterware or Real Application Clusters support heterogeneous platforms?

---

Oracle Clusterware and Real Application Clusters do not support
heterogeneous platforms in the same cluster. Enterprise Manager Grid Control
supports heterogeneous platforms. We do support machines of different speeds and
size in the same cluster. All nodes must run the same operating system (I.E.
they must be binary compatible). In an active data-sharing environment, like
RAC, we do not support machines having different chip architectures.

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In your case you are asking about patch levels and therefore the OS should be binary compatible. While you can have the os at different patch levels I would not advise running a production system with major differences (e.g v9 on one node and v10 on the other). Small patch level differences should not cause an issue (check with os vendor for any os issues), but I would advise keeping the timeframe for the differences to a minimum.

The oracle recommendation is that you should have the same OS patches on all nodes and if you do need differences these should be for the minimum period of time.