Cloning Oracle Grid Infrastructure (GI) homes is a convenient way of getting a new GI Home. It’s particularly helpful when you need to patch out-of-place using the SwitchGridHome method.

When you have created a new GI home and applied all the necessary patches, you can turn it into a golden image. Later on, you can deploy from that golden image and avoid updating OPatch and apply patches.

How to Create a Golden Image

First, only create a golden image from a freshly installed Oracle Home. Never use an Oracle Home that is already in use. As soon as you start to use an Oracle Home you taint it with various files and you don’t want to carry those files around in your golden image. The golden image must be completely clean.

Then, you create a directory where you can store the golden image:

export GOLDIMAGEDIR=/u01/app/grid/goldimages
mkdir -p $GOLDIMAGEDIR

Finally, you create the golden image. This command creates a golden image of the specified GI home:
```
export NEW_GRID_HOME=/u01/app/19.20.0/grid
$NEW_GRID_HOME/gridSetup.sh -createGoldImage \
   -destinationLocation $GOLDIMAGEDIR \
   -silent
```
Be sure to do this before you start to use the new GI home.
The installer creates the golden image as a zip file in the specified directory. The name of the zip file is unique and printed on the console. You can also use the secret parameter -name to specify a name for the zip file. To name the zip file gi_19_20_0.zip:
```
$NEW_GRID_HOME/gridSetup.sh -createGoldImage \
   ... \
   -name gi_19_20_0.zip
```

No software must run out of the Oracle Home, when you create the gold image. Don’t use a production Oracle Home. I recommend using a test or staging server instead.

Check the documentation for further details.

How to Deploy from a Golden Image

You must create a folder for the new GI home. You do it as root:

export NEW_GRID_BASE=/u01/app/19.20.0
export NEW_GRID_HOME=$NEW_GRID_BASE/grid
mkdir -p $NEW_GRID_HOME
chown -R grid:oinstall $NEW_GRID_BASE
chmod -R 775 $NEW_GRID_BASE

If you install the new GI home in a cluster, you must create the folder on all nodes.

Then, you extract the golden image as grid:

export NEW_GRID_HOME=/u01/app/19.20.0/grid
cd $NEW_GRID_HOME
unzip -q /u01/app/grid/goldimages/gi_19_20_0.zip

Finally, you use gridSetup.sh to perform the installation:
```
./gridSetup.sh 
```

That’s it!

I recommend using golden images when you patch out-of-place using the SwitchGridHome method.

Appendix

Oracle Restart vs. Oracle RAC

If you create a GI home for use with Oracle RAC, you can’t use that gold image for a new GI home for Oracle Restart.

Such two GI homes would be very different. You must have two gold images. One for RAC and one for Restart.

Tag: golden image

How to Clone Oracle Grid Infrastructure Home Using Golden Images