Hide and Seek with RU 19.18.0

One and a half weeks ago we released the Database and Grid Infrastructure Release Updates (RU) 19.18.0. You could read on the blog how to apply it, and you could read also about an alert. So far, all was more or less transparent but apparently sort of an Hide and Seek with RU 19.18.0 has happened. So let me shed some light.

Photo by Braydon Anderson on Unsplash

Heads Up!

I am just the messenger trying to bring some light into the topic. Neither is our team responsible nor do we have any sort of control on this process. I write this upfront since my team has received some really nasty and angry comments from customers, ACEs and also colleagues. Don’t shot the messenger please!

Upload, Alert, Removal …

When Database and Grid Infrastructure 19.18.0 Release Update (RU) got uploaded, it all looked fine. We made it available on Linux at first, so everybody being on another platform is not affected by this anyway. Interestingly enough, there was an incredibly high download count of this RU within the first days. This makes me think very positive since it tells me that you download the RUs right when we release them. Great news.

But it turned out that the RUs have a flaw which affects RAC customers only. And since the RU got released on Linux only, it were RAC-Linux customers only. Still, this number is not small. The issue is described in Important Alert with RU 19.18.0. As a consequence, and to fix the issue, both 19.18.0 RUs for the Database and for Grid Infrastructure got removed.

Bad side effect:
The MyOracle Support portal (MOS) is not very user-friendly and only told you “Patch does not exist“. No further explanation, no information, nothing.

This is when the first emails and comments reached me asking why the patch bundles vanished. Even though I just had explained how to apply the January 2023 patch bundles.

Thanks to all of you being faster than I, Peter Lehmann in this case was the first to point me to the alert. It dawned me that this was the reason for the RUs being removed which they obviously were.

Some hours later I understood the issue and reason why this has happened. And I did update my original blog post with some additional information and the tentative re-upload date of Jan 31, 2023.

Upload, Removal, Upload again …

And so it happened.

The RUs appeared again, the first customers commented that the RUs are available again.

Until they disappeared. Again.
And certainly without any information or comment.

Of course, they did not disappear completely at first, but the option to download disappeared. So the button marked in red had no function. And since you could not choose the platform, there was no download possible.

The bad situation:
Some people had used the first drop of the RU, some had downloaded the 2nd drop – and some were still waiting since it had vanished again. At this stage, the first people commented about wrong inventory information with the 2nd drop.

• Previous one:
  34765931;Database Release Update : 19.18.0.0.230117 (34765931)
• New (intermediate) one:
  34765931;DATABASE RELEASE UPDATE : 19.18.0.0.0 (REL-JAN230131) (34765931)

The zero in the 5th number of the release looked strange. And I’m always amazed how many tech experts we have out there. Several customers noted this right away. And complained to me.

Well, it turned out that you weren’t the only ones wondering and complaining.

This 5th number broke the provisioning of 19.18.0 in our cloud tooling as well since it expects the date as above “230117” instead of a plain “0“. Making a long story short, the RU had to be removed and re-uploaded again, now with a new entry into the inventory which most likely is:

• 34765931;DATABASE RELEASE UPDATE : 19.18.0.0.230117 (REL-JAN230131) (34765931)

I haven’t verified it but this is what I’d been told.

Summary

An issue with the 19.18.0 RUs affecting only RAC customers on Linux made it necessary to repacked both, the Database and the Grid Infrastructure Release Updates. But unfortunately, and issue with the inventory identification of the reuploaded RUs happened, so another removal and upload was necessary.

Again, I am just the messenger here trying to explain what has happened.

And sorry for all the inconvenience and lack of transparency.

By now, the COMBO patches should have been reuploaded again, too.

Further Links and Information

• Important Alert with RU 19.18.0
• How to apply the January 2023 patch bundles

–Mike