Oracle April 2016 PSU and Proactive BPs are there

Martin Berger says:

Mike,

thank you for this good news. Hoefully it will reduce the list of one-off patches we non-Engineered DBAs needed to collect and check every time.
Unfortunately some MOS Notes (e.g. 12.1.0.2 Patch Set – Availability and Known Issues (Doc ID 1683799.1) ) still claim 22899531 as "12.1.0.2.160419 Bundle Patch for Engineered Systems and DB In-Memory (Apr 2016)" – which can be very confusing.

Martin

Kevin Moran says:

Does the April 2016 11gR2 PSU include changes released in the January 2016 PSU or must both be applied?

guest says:

Hi Mike,

even after 20+ years of patching Oracle RDBMS’s, I still hope someday Oracle patching woodo will be less messy as it is now, mostly due to the constant Oracle fiddling with the nomenclature. (Fortunately, Oracle also employs you. 🙂

You posted a good hint about MOS note "(Quick Reference to Patch Numbers for Database PSU, SPU(CPU), Bundle Patches and Patchsets (Doc ID 1454618.1). It would be even better and less confusing note if note also includes links to "bundles" for Linux/Unix as well. Someone reading this (otherwise splendid) note would think that that is all that it is available.

Regards,
Ales

Dave says:

Mike, is the "Proactive Bundle Patch" only for Exadata engineered systems?

And then the "GI PSU" for RAC systems (not on Exadata)?

And the regular "PSU" patch would be for non-Exadata, non-RAC systems?

Gerrit Haase says:

Found this now, which includes links to all PSUs for all platforms and versions:

Quick Reference to Patch Numbers for Database PSU, SPU(CPU), Bundle Patches and Patchsets (Doc ID 1454618.1)
https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocContentDisplay?id=1454618.1

😉
Gerrit

Mike Dietrich says:

@Dave

Dave, no it’s not – and Support is changing this miswording at the moment in most of the MOS notes.

Cheers
Mike

Mike Dietrich says:

Xabier,

I think during the installation the PSU will be removed – or you have to call opatch first to remove the PSU.

You can’t "jump" from one track to another directly but actually the removal process takes just a few minutes so personally I don’t see this is a big issue.

Cheers and thanks for asking!
Mike

Mike Dietrich says:

Timur,

I know these types of response from Oracle Support. We are internally working on some sort of clear communication (since March actually). I hope it will be clarified soon to everybody as (including myself) many people use the BPs for a reason. And as they are available not only for Engineered Systems but also on Solaris or AIX there’s no reason for such statements.

I have the written statement from the responsible VP about that change.

Sorry for the inconvenience – and don’t get angry with the Support people. It will take a while …

Cheers
Mike

Mike Dietrich says:

Jay,

no – and thanks for asking.
The Proactive Bundle Patches are recommended on all platforms regardless of using DBIM or having an Engineered System or anything else 🙂

Cheers
Mike

Mike Dietrich says:

Babak,

actually first of all: July 19th is the next patch day for the most recent PSU and BP – just to be aware.

Second, you can have different PSU or BP levels with GI and the database homes it is managing. "Different" means that GI can of course be higher but also lower – but only with the PSU and BP level, not as the general patch level.

E.g., GI 12.1.0.2.BP160119 with DB 12.1.0.2.BP160419 is possible. Whereas GI 12.1.0.1 with DB 12.1.0.2 is not possible.

Not sure if I answered your question as the patch 22738641 is the COMBO OF OJVM COMPONENT 12.1.0.2.160419 DBPSU + GIPSU 12.1.0.2.160419 (APR2016). If you’d ask an experience Oracle ACS Engieer the answer may be most likely: Please do it separately and don’t take the COMBOs combining GI and DB. Just heard this from one of the most experienced ACS engineers we have in Oracle Germany a day ago. But I’m really not experienced enough to give you a reliable answer.

Cheers
Mike

Robert Ortel says:

Hi Mike,

the PSU made a difference between GI home and DB home and so two versions have been made available (even though the GI PSU did contain also the DB PSU).

But the BP does not make this difference. So what to apply in the GI home? The very same BP as I should apply to the DB home?

And is the BP also suitable for client homes?

Thx,
Robert

PS: All the communication regarding PSUs & BP and what is the recommended path to go is extremly confusing. Even the support engineers struggled with that topic.

Mike Dietrich says:

@Robert:

I know, I delivery two trainings last week mostly support people and not everybody is familiar with the changes and directions.

Regarding your question:
Please see in MOS Note:1683799.1 – 12.1.0.2 Patch Set – Availability and Known Issues
the table describing all the patch options. In your case it is the section headlined by "Non Exadata Real Application Clusters (RAC)".

Then you’ll find 5 patch options.

23615334 ==> Database Proactive Bundle Patch + OJVM (no GI)
23615308 ==> Database PSU + GI PSU + OJVM
23273686 ==> Database Proactive BP + GI PSU (no OJVM)
23273629 ==> Database PSU + GI PSU + OJVM
23177536 ==> OJVM Database PSU only

Especially the 23273686 is somewhat unclear to understand as it says: "12.1.0.2.160719 Database Proactive Bundle Patch (Jul 2016)" which as a naive person (which I am) would silently assume it contained only the DB BP. But it’s under the RAC section and therefore it contains the GI PSU as well.
When I look up the contents via the readme it tells me that "OCW PSU 12.1.0.2.160719" is included as well. OCW is Oracle Cluster Ware.

And further down the road 23273629 is also not clear as it says only something about the OJVM mitigation patch (which actually should allow you to patch without downtime) but the readme does not tell you anything about OJVM patch being included – and the base note 1683799.1 tells me it is NON ROLLING (which for me is the indication that OJVM is included).

I don’t know who created this chaos. It should be much more simple and obvious. I promise that I will drop emails to the people I know in that area. But I can promise that it will be changed with a "click".

Sorry for all the inconvenience … 🙁

Cheers
Mike

Mike Dietrich says:

@Robert:

Yes, you are right – this is slightly misleading.
But Single Instance HA (using clusterware with Single Instance but ASM thus Grid Infrastructure) means that you’ll have to look into the "non Exa / RAC" section as otherwise you’ll miss the Grid Infrastructure (or Oracle Clusterware – OCW) part.

Hope this helps – and I sent a long email to the involved parties.

Cheers
Mike

guest says:

Eric,

good point – and I don’t know the answer.
But I’ll try to find it out.

Cheers
Mike

Tim says:

Patch 23615308 has a bug 24393547. Oracle Development has been working on this for over a month. Seems like a long time for a PSU fix.

Current state of SQL patches:
Patch 22674709 (Database PSU 12.1.0.2.160419, Oracle JavaVM Component (Apr2016)):
Not installed in binary or the SQL registry
Patch 23177536 (Database PSU 12.1.0.2.160719, Oracle JavaVM Component (JUL2016)):
Installed in the binary registry only
Bundle series PSU:
ID 160719 in the binary registry and ID 160419 in the SQL registry

Adding patches to installation queue and performing prereq checks…
done
Installation queue:
Nothing to roll back
The following patches will be applied:
23177536 (Database PSU 12.1.0.2.160719, Oracle JavaVM Component (JUL2016))
23054246 (Database Patch Set Update : 12.1.0.2.160719 (23054246))

Error: prereq checks failed!
patch 23177536: The database must be in upgrade mode
Prereq check failed, exiting without installing any patches.

Please refer to MOS Note 1609718.1 and/or the invocation log
/u01/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/sqlpatch/sqlpatch_15195_2016_08_01_16_01_12/sqlpatch_invocation.log
for information on how to resolve the above errors.

SQL Patching tool complete on Mon Aug 1 16:02:09 2016

Mike says:

@Rene:

Sorry to hear that – and I can only tell you if it is available in the Oct16 PSU when it is finally available. So please check with Oracle Support – and if necessary request a backport on top of your current PSU.

Cheers
Mike