Oracle Data Guard Out-of-Place Patching using Gold Image

Ansible automation for zero-downtime out-of-place patching of an Oracle 19c Data Guard environment using a pre-built Gold Image (a fully patched Oracle Home staged ahead of time, so patching a node becomes: stop services → point config at the new home → restart services → datapatch → validate, rather than patching binaries in place on a live home).

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Features

• Out-of-place patching using a Gold Image (new Oracle Home)
• Standby-first patching approach
• Automatic copy of dbs/* and network/admin/* from old home to new home
• Updates /etc/oratab, /home/oracle/.bash_profile, and listener.ora
• Listener management (LISTENER + LISTENER2)
• Data Guard Broker aware (dgmgrl)
• Uses sqlplus primarily for DB-level operations

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Directory Structure

oracle-ansible-dg-outofplace/
├── ansible.cfg
├── inventory/
│   └── dataguard-prim-stby/
│       └── hosts
├── playbooks/
│   └── patching/
│       ├── 01_prepare_new_home.yml       # Stage new Oracle Home on both servers
│       ├── 02_standby_outofplace.yml     # Patch standby
│       ├── 03_switchover_to_standby.yml  # Switchover: standby becomes primary
│       ├── 04_primary_outofplace.yml     # Patch (former) primary
│       ├── 05_switchback_to_primary.yml  # Switch roles back, if required
│       ├── 06_datapatch_primary.yml      # Run datapatch on new primary
│       ├── 07_validate.yml               # Post-patch validation
│       └── rollback.yml                  # Revert to pre-patch Oracle Home
├── files/
│   └── 19c/
│       └── gold_images/
│           └── RHEL8_DB1930_GoldImage/
└── README.md

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Quick Start

1. Prerequisites

• Ansible installed on the automation/bastion host
• SSH private key access to both primary and standby servers as cloud-user
• Gold Image .tar.gz / .zip built and ready to copy in

2. Configuration

Edit ansible.cfg:

private_key_file = /home/youruser/.ssh/id_rsa   # change this

Edit inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts:

[primary]
NARESH-POC-PRIM-DATABASE ansible_host=10.1.1.1

[standby]
NARESH-POC-STBY-DATABASE ansible_host=10.1.1.2

[all:vars]
oracle_home=/mnt/app/oracle/product/19.3.0/db_1          # Existing Oracle Home
new_oracle_home=/mnt/app/oracle/product/19.3.0/db_1930    # New Oracle Home
gold_image_zip=db-home-2026-03-27-03-06-11AM.zip           # Exact name of Gold Image zip file
patch_stage=/mnt/softwareRepo                              # Patch staging location on primary/standby
listener_name=LISTENER
listener2_name=LISTENER2

3. Place Gold Image

Copy your gold image archive to:

files/19c/gold_images/

4. Run Patching (in order)

cd ~/oracle-ansible-dg-outofplace

# Prepare new home on both servers
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/01_prepare_new_home.yml

# Standby patching
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/02_standby_outofplace.yml

# Switchover
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/03_switchover_to_standby.yml

# Primary patching
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/04_primary_outofplace.yml

# Switchback (if roles should return to original)
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/05_switchback_to_primary.yml

# Datapatch on new primary
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/06_datapatch_primary.yml

# Validation
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/07_validate.yml

Always run --syntax-check before real execution on any playbook you've edited:

ansible-playbook --syntax-check -i inventory/dataguard-prim-stby/hosts playbooks/patching/02_standby_outofplace.yml

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Required Variables

Variable	Description
oracle_env	Path to Oracle profile to source (e.g. ~/.bash_profile)
oracle_home	Current (pre-patch) ORACLE_HOME
new_oracle_home	Path to the new/patched ORACLE_HOME
gold_image_zip	Exact filename of the gold image archive
patch_stage	Staging directory for patch files on target hosts
listener_name	Primary listener name
listener2_name	Secondary listener name
standby_db_unique_name	Set automatically via set_fact in 02_standby_outofplace.yml — no manual definition needed

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Author

Naresh Sajwani — Senior Oracle DBA, Data Guard / GoldenGate / RAC / RMAN, building toward Cloud DevOps DBA tooling.