Fleet Patching & Provisioning

Features & Key Benefits

Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) has a rich set of features that help manage the lifecycle of the database fleet. From provisioning new clusters to patching and upgrading databases, all the common operations that are usually time-consuming and complex can now be achieved with a single command.

This standardized way of managing the database lifecycle dramatically reduces human labor and increases the efficiency and predictability of operations. Both the powerful command line and the embedded RESTful APIs can be easily integrated into CI/CD pipelines, orchestration frameworks, or configuration management tools widely used by companies embracing the DevOps methodology.

Key Benefits:

• Enables and enforces standardization
• Simplifies provisioning, patching, and upgrading
• Minimizes the impact and risk of maintenance
• Integrates with Oracle Update Advisor, providing optimized software health recommendations and automated gold image generation
• Increases automation and reduces touch points
• Supports large-scale deployments

Fleet Patching & Provisioning Architecture Principles

Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) is a feature of Oracle Grid Infrastructure (GI). When Oracle Grid Infrastructure is installed, FPP is configured by default in Local Mode, and the FPP Server is managed through Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

The FPP Server maintains a space-efficient repository that stores gold images. A gold image is a standardized Oracle home, which is the directory containing an Oracle software installation, including the software binaries, libraries, configuration files, and supporting utilities.

Gold images can be provisioned, or deployed, to any number of target machines, helping ensure that systems across the database fleet are deployed with the same validated software. Gold images can be organized into image series, which group related gold images into a logical sequence to track the evolution of a software release. Separate image series can also be created using the built-in integration with Oracle Update Advisor for tailored solutions while ensuring optimized software health, such as database patch bundles for specific applications.

Flexible Supported Products and Architecture

Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning supports a wide array of configurations and Oracle AI Database and Grid Infrastructure versions and OS platforms

• Oracle AI Database (Single instance  and RAC) - 11g through 26ai
• Oracle Grid Infrastructure- 11g through 26ai
• OS Linux, AIX, and Solaris
• Multitenant or Non-CDB