Patch Recommendation

Patching to Oracle 19.19.0 out-of-place with additional patches

Posted on May 23, 2023 by AutoUpgrade Patch Recommendation 27

From all my quarterly blog posts you know that I patch usually in-place for space and other reasons. And you may have similar reasons when you patch. But it is not ideal – and just speaking about risk and downtime, you should always patch out-of-place. So let me show you how Patching to Oracle 19.19.0 out-of-place with additional patches works.

What do I need?

Actually, this is not complicated at all. And if you never done it this way, give it a try now please.

  • Base release Oracle Database 19.3.0 image
  • opatch 37 from
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Patching process changes with MRPs

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Patch Recommendation 9

I blogged about the Monthly Recommended Patches (MRP) several times before. And due to the feedback you and we had given, a few things got changed. The main change is from having the MRP bundled as a system patch making opatchauto a requirement. See below what Patching process changes with MRPs were implemented recently.

Before …

As you could read already in:

the introduction of the MRPs added one major flaw: They’ve been built as system patches which made …

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Cleaning up older patch artifacts – improving opatch performance

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Patch Recommendation 18

This blog post is about a feature not only I but you did ask for actually for a long time. Cleaning up older patch artifacts – improving opatch performance. Both in one opatch release. And opatch 12.2.0.1.37 from April 2023 has it.

A little bit of history

One of the longest journey I had ever done in my long time in Oracle was helping customers to find a voice for patch cleanup. Oracle 19c is a long term support release. Many customers upgraded to it already. And you apply patches on a regular …

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Virtual Classroom Seminar 16: Release and Patching Strategy for Oracle 19c and 23c

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Patch Recommendation Release Schedule Workshop 9

There are just two days left to sign up for our Virtual Classroom Seminar 16: Release and Patching Strategy for Oracle 19c and 23c. We’ll talk to you on Wednesday, May 10 at 16:00h CET.

What’s the topic?

We’ll try to cover everything for your best release and patching strategy with Oracle Database 19c of course, but also moving forward to Oracle Database 23c. Our big focus will be several aspects of patching. You’ll hear us talking not only about standard database patching but especially about patching in RAC environments.

We’ll put together a …

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A patch (RU, OJVM, 32-bit) is not available yet – where will I find information?

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 2

A longer while ago I wrote a blog post about the topic that a patch (RU, OJVM, 32-bit) is not available yet – where will I find information? But I wrote it too specific. And it is even hard for me to find my older blog post. Since several of you mailed me the past weeks with a variety of questions regarding patch availability I decided to write down my thoughts – but this time in a more generic way. And I hope it is helpful.

Why are patches missing?

At first, I …

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Oracle Optimizer Statistics Advisor in Oracle 19c

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Flaws and Pitfalls Optimizer Patch Recommendation 18

Christian Pfundtner pointed me to the fact that my old blog post about the Statistics Advisor from 2017 may not be up to date anymore. And he further pointed out that some of his clients still suffer from issues with the tool. Hence, let me refresh the topic with Oracle Optimizer Statistics Advisor in Oracle 19c. And thanks to Christian for the pointers.

 

Overview

At first, I won’t rewrite the entire blog post but instead focus on recent findings. Therefore, you may please want to read my previous blog post about the …

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ORA-13516 “CATPROC not valid” during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 18

I thought I could relax this week using my leftover vacation days from 2022. But this issue is triggering me since some of you mailed me already. Maybe this blog post can prevent others from being trapped by this issue: ORA-13516 “CATPROC not valid” during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0. And as a prolog, you will NOT see the below issue when you started your database in NORMAL mode for the execution of datapatch.

 

What is the symptom?

Regardless of whether you patch to Oracle Database RU 19.18.0 manually or with …

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Hide and Seek with RU 19.18.0

Posted on February 2, 2023 by Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 44

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.

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 …

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Suppress nasty error messages and traces during datapatch

Posted on January 31, 2023 by Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 4

A few days ago I published my quarterly blog post in the series of Patching all my environments … And I mentioned that datapatch took a bit longer for 19.18.0 than usual. In the alert I’ve had nasty error messages or warnings. And Walter (thanks!) commented immediately with some advice.

 

What are these messages?

Actually, I saw them before already. Since I always create CUSTOM databases with a template I spotted those warnings the first time when I was wondering why DB creation took so abnormally long with Multitenant. I discovered KGL Heap …

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MRP3 for Oracle 19.17.0 adds an interesting surprise

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 9

You may have read my previous blog posts about MRPs (Monthly Recommended Patches). And today I did a quick check with Rodrigo. We both were a bit surprised to have the MRP3 for 19.17.0 add a lot of fixes to a standard RDBMS installation. So we were investigating a bit further. As a teaser, read on to see that MRP3 for Oracle 19.17.0 adds an interesting surprise.

 

How did we find out?

The MRP3 for Oracle Database 19.17.0 got released just a week ago. You can navigate to it via MOS …

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Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Patch Recommendation 26

Mid-of January. It’s patching time again. So let me show you the quarterly exercise of Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches. Let’s see this time if I will have to remove my Data Pump Bundle Patch and the 19.17.0 MRP2 at first when I patch in-place.

Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches

Photo by karokrasinska on Unsplash

As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to space issues. But in reality, you please patch always out-of-place with a separate home. Please see this blog post about how to apply the RU directly when you provision a new home with OUI…

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Important alert for Oracle Database and GI RU 19.18.0 on Linux

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 59

Some of you may have seen the alert already released yesterday. And thanks to Peter Lehmann again for alerting me. When you logon to MyOracle Support, you will find it simply in the alert section to the left. On Jan 25, 2023, this Important alert for Oracle Database and GI RU 19.18.0 on Linux has been released.

Important alert for Oracle Database and GI RU 19.18.0 on Linux

Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash

 

What is the situation?

Due to an issue described in MOS Note: 2923428.1 – LMON trace file with repeated entries of “Submitting asynchronized dump request” the Release Updates (RU) 19.18.0 for the Oracle Database and …

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RUs contain now all available DST patches

Posted on January 19, 2023 by Patch Recommendation Time Zone - DST 8

At first, Happy New Year everybody. There was silence on the blog for some weeks but I took an extended longer time off. Well, and once you return, there are some emails in your inbox which need some work. You’ll see several new blog posts getting published in the coming days. Back to normal, yesterday night RU 19.18.0 among other patch bundles has been released. And there’s a huge fantastic surprise in it: RUs contain now all available DST patches.

 

What’s the story?

There are some good news. We discussed this internally …

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Applying the MRP from December 2022 to Oracle 19c

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 16

Well, couldn’t there be a nicer pre-Christmas present than the December 2022 Monthly Recommended Patches (MRP)? You know, I’m just kidding. But since I received the first questions from customers – and before I send an email internally – I wanted to try out Applying the MRP from December 2022 to Oracle 19c.

 

Download the December MRP

Actually you need to access MOS Note: 888.1 -Primary Note for Database Proactive Patch Program since the link is not in MOS Note: 555.1 – Oracle Database 19c Important Recommended One-Off Patches even though it …

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Apply the Data Pump Bundle Patch – non-rolling but online?

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Data Pump Patch Recommendation 19

Yesterday I have blogged about an issue with the highly recommended Data Pump Bundle Patches. And today I would like to shed some light on how to Apply the Data Pump Bundle Patch – non-rolling but online?

 

Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch

You can download the correct Data Pump Bundle Patch from MOS Note: 2819284.1 – Data Pump Recommended Proactive Patches For 19.10 and Above. It’s just a few MB, and it is a generic patch with a separate download for the Windows platform. So far so good.

 …

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Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Data Pump Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 22

The Data Pump Bundle Patches get released on top of every RU since over a year now. But a real issue with missing files got detected recently. So in case you had applied Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again.

 

What is in the Data Pump Bundle Patch?

The Data Pump Bundle Patch is a convenient and very useful vehicle to apply Data Pump patches which are usually not included in a Release Update (RU). While RUs are per definitionem RAC-rolling and Standby-First, the Data Pump Bundle …

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Applying the first MRP for Oracle 19.17.0

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 31

A few weeks ago I blogged about the fact that we retired the RURs, and instead release the MRPs (Monthly Recommended Patches). In my previous blog post about this topic you’ll find also an FAQ hopefully answering all the questions you may have (had). And now it is mid of November, so I can show you the process of applying the first MRP for Oracle 19.17.0.

 

How do you get access to the MRPs?

At the moment while I write this, you can find the MRPs only in MOS Note: 888.1 -Primary …

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Patching all my environments with the October 2022 Bundle Patches

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 55

Oh yes, it is patching time (again). And this time I somehow missed the slot since the quarterly critical patch updates got released right during Oracle Cloud World. Since I didn’t want to stretch the hotel WiFi too much – and since I wouldn’t have had enough time to install and write-up this blog post, I do it now with a week of delay. So as usual every quarter, follow me for patching all my environments with the October 2022 Bundle Patches.

As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to …

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Silent ORA-918 behavior change in RU 19.17.0 and newer

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Behavior Change Patch Recommendation 26

I think we have the best customers out there. It is incredible what some people find. We would be lost without you, and this blog would contain only a fraction of the information we can share with you. In this case let me explain the silent ORA-918 behavior change in RU 19.17.0 and newer. And all credits go to Peter Lehmann from Deutsche Telekom who found this issue only a few days after we released 19.17.0.

What is happening?

Peter shared an awesome and simple test case with me. A query with ambiguously defined …

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Patching News: RURs are gone – long live MRPs

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 24

Sorry for the headline using TLAs (three letter acronyms). But I was tempted – and those of you being interested in Oracle Database patching my quickly realize that there are some Patching News: RURs are gone – long live MRPs.

Patching News: RURs are gone - long live MRPs

Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

 

RURs are gone?

Andy Mendelsohn announced the MRPs (Monthly Recommended Patches) in October at DOAG Conference in Nuernberg already. Due to Oracle Cloud World bussiness, I’ve had no time to write about it yet. And the introduction of the MRPs means that we won’t produce RURs anymore after a transition grace period.…

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Certifying an application on a specific RU-only is wrong

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Best Practice Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 15

Well, there are still 80+ comments I need to answer and reply to on the blog. So please be patient – nothing gets deleted or ignored. But it happens that a topic crosses my inbox, and I need to blog about it right now. Today, it is a case where a customer asked me for advice, and mentioned on the side that they are going to 19.6.0 in OCI. In this relation I’d like to explain why Certifying an application on a specific RU- only is wrong.

What’s the story?

At first, …

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Two recent issues you may need one-off patches for

Posted on August 15, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 12

Uh … my blog counter tells me I have 57 unanswered comments in the queue at the moment. Forgive me, but July and August so far were really very busy months with some travel activity as well. And another proof that I’m not used to travel anymore: Last week I forgot the power adapter for my Mac at home and just realized it when I pulled out my Mac to do emails. Anyhow, this is a short Monday-vacation-time-blog post about two recent issues you may need one-off patches for since you otherwise may get trapped by them as well. Both …

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Virtual Patching – the biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard about

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 9

It’s time for my Monday morning rant. I guess, I’m turning slowly into a grumpy old man. And today, it is about something which came on my radar some weeks ago. After understanding what it means, I declare Virtual Patching – the biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard about.

Virtual Patching - the biggest nonsense I've ever heard about

Photo by Trym Nilsen on Unsplash

 

Virtual Patching??

If you read this term for the first time, you may scratch your eyes at first as I did weeks ago when I read “Virtual Patching” in a brochure from a company offering Oracle services. I did ask the person …

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Patching most of my environments with the July 2022 Bundle Patches

Posted on July 21, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 42

It’s brutally hot out there. It must be July. And I sit in my cool basement office and start my quarterly patching journey hoping that you can enjoy the sun and the sea somewhere. It is time to do my usual exercise, this time Patching most of my environments with the July 2022 Patch Bundles.

As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to space issues. But in reality, you please patch always out-of-place with a separate home. Please see this blog post about how to apply the RU directly …

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How to speed up datapatch – and much more information

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 18

Ok, I promised to write more about patching speed. And this blog post will be just the root post targeting datapatch speed. I will link also to blog posts I’ve written before but also share knowledge which may not be obvious at first stage. The overall topic will be How to speed up datapatch – and much more information.

.

What is datapatch

Let me start at the ground level and explain what datapatch is and why it exists.

When you are still on Oracle Database 11g, you may wonder what datapatch …

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Mike Dietrich
Oracle Senior Director of Product Manager for Database Upgrade, Migrations and Patching writing just another blog.

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