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Why is the fix for bug nnn not included in any RU?

Christian asked this question today. Specifically, in his case for Bug 26749785 – PERF_DIAG: NEED TO HAVE MORE CONTROL IN DICTIONARY FOR AUTO_STATS_ADVISOR_TASK. Several of his customers suffer from this issue, and they repeatedly need to ask for backports or merge patches. I have seen this several times as well. Anyway, he is not only one who asked: Why is the fix for bug nnn not included in any RU?

Why is the fix for bug nnn not included in any RU?

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Inclusion criteria

In order to be able to include a bug fix into an MRP, CSPU or RU, it has to be …

Can I apply an RU to a home with an MRP?

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 0

This question came up by a customer, and it was referring to the FAQ MOS note for MRPs. In brief, it was stated that you could apply a higher RU into a home where an MRP up to MRP3 had been installed in the previous home. So the question raised to me was: Can I apply an RU to a home with an MRP as it was mentioned in the FAQ document?

Can I apply an RU to a home with an MRP?

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Which note, and what’s the statement?

The FAQ2283 – Introducing Monthly Recommended Patches (MRPs) and FAQ stated the following under Q18:

Q18:

More clarifications on RUs, MRPs and CSPUs

Posted on August 24, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 4

There are questions coming in from time to time, and I see that not everything can be always covered in an FAQ document. But we try our best. And sometimes, there are questions even I need to think twice before I answer. Here is the newest for More clarifications on RUs, MRPs and CSPUs.

More clarifications on RUs, MRPs and CSPUs

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What do you need to read before?

Don’t even read further if you haven’t read already:

The latter MOS FAQ is incredibly …

CPU, CSPU, MRP, RU – some clarifications

Posted on June 9, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 24

I just returned from a 2 week vacation in Asia this weekend. And I was following from a distance. On May 28, the first CSPUs got released, some MOS notes got published. There are a lot of patching options now. CPU, CSPU, MRP, RU – some clarifications may be needed.

CPU, CSPU, MRP, RU - some clarifications

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The Prelude

On May 4, 2026, I published this blog post Patch your database against AI cybersecurity threads following these two announcements:

OCW 19.28 contains a tiny behavior change with DB_UNIQUE_NAME

Posted on March 18, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Behavior Change OCW 0

A colleague brought this to my attention the other week. And since the blog serves also as my partial memory, I wanted to put this out quickly. It is not a big deal, and most of you will never see this or be affected by it. Still, some may need to be aware that OCW 19.28 contains a tiny behavior change with DB_UNIQUE_NAME.

OCW 19.28 contains a tiny behavior change with DB_UNIQUE_NAME

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What has happened?

In the Oracle Clusterware (OCW) Release Update (RU) 19.28 and onward you will find a fix for Bug 34966087 – AH: CRS: FAIL START ACTION IF DB …

Datapatch return codes and helpful queries

Posted on February 17, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich datapatch 4

The other week I was visiting a customer in Germany who had specific questions for datapatch. And luckily, Alejandro Diaz who is the Product Manager for Data Pump in our team has a history in datapatch. He helped me with Datapatch return codes and helpful queries.

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Datapatch return codes

Yes, datapatch generates various return codes you can use to verify the outcome in case you program or maintain an automation.

0 for success
1 for prereq failure
2 for non-ignorable error during patch installation
255 runtime error

I may …

AutoUpgrade patching – getting started with Connor McDonald

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Patch Recommendation 22

AIOUG OC Yatra 2025 is over, and I somehow recovered as well. As I wrote here, it was (again) an incredible experience with all those wonderful people (you!!) and those crazy speakers (us!) – and I learned a lot again. Still, I had no clue that Database and Developer evangelist and video wizard Connor McDonald would react to my friendly nagging 🙂

AutoUpgrade patching - getting started with Connor McDonald

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Have you used AutoUpgrade before?

If you say “No, not really“, then this video is for you. See how Connor dives into AutoUpgrade which he had never used before.…

More about cleaning up datapatch patching files

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 10

One of the reasons why I love my job: We have the smartest customers out there. Incredible. When I blogged the other day (after a longer pause) about Cleanup datapatch patching files in your database some of you commented the other day with either success messages, or tried out to rollback – or simply missed steps in the README. And since we have also smart developers at Oracle, I received some additional facts from the datapatch architect which I let him explain below.

More about cleaning up datapatch patching files

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The README file

Well, Devin commented on the previous blog post…

Cleanup datapatch patching files in your database

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 16

A while back I wrote about datapatch stores rollback patching files in the database, and the amount of space it may consume over time, especially if you patch frequently. I am fully aware that it took a bit longer, but finally since a few months, there is a relief. You can now Cleanup datapatch patching files in your database, and reclaim the space as well.

Cleanup datapatch patching files in your database

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A quick recap

In my blog post from January 2024 I shared queries to check the space consumed by previous patches in your database. In brief, to allow …

ORA-39405 with impdp when you have mixed time zone versions

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich DBCA Patch Recommendation Time Zone - DST 24

Today, Gisela, a former team mate from CSS/ACS Support contacted me regarding an issue seen at a customer. She reported an ORA-39405 with impdp when you have mixed time zone versions. But how can this happen? And what are the potential workarounds? Since some of our hosted environments got into the same situation already, this may be worth a blog post and some explanation.

ORA-39405 with impdp when you have mixed time zone versions

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Why does this happen?

You never cared about DST (Daylight Savings Time) files and versions of your database? This isn’t unusual, and in many environments actually not a problem …

datapatch stores rollback patching files in the database

Posted on January 17, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 29

I held back this blog post for a longer while. A customer (Thanks Jannes!) reported this to me many months ago but the fix was not as trivial as we thought initially, and there were several unlucky circumstances delaying it multiple times. But now it is time to tell you how datapatch stores rollback patching files in the database. And of course, how to cleanup.

datapatch stores rollback patching files in the database

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Why is this important?

At first, you may ask yourself: Why should I care? And you are right. This is normally nothing you should care about. …

The downsides of in-place patching – and a patching lab

Posted on January 10, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Best Practice Patch Recommendation 40

Happy New Year to all of you at first. I hope you all had a good start – and for myself, I promise to blog a bit more again in 2024. Let me start with my first post since I received a question very often: Why should I patch out-of-place with a new Oracle Home? Since I need to patch a bit today I can easily show the downsides of in-place patching – and a patching lab.

The downsides of in-place patching - and a patching lab

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It all started at OCW 2023

Ok, we didn’t really start it at OCW 2023 in …

Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Time Zone - DST Transportable 18

This morning I received a very reasonable question from a customer who has a time zone mismatch between source and target database. And he wants to transport into a PDB on Exadata. Even though, this sounds trivial at first sight, unfortunately it isn’t. But a bug fix done recently for a German automotive customer is very handy here. So let me show you how you can Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade.

Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade

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Where does the problem start?

In this particular – and not unusual case – the customer wants to migrate …

Patching process changes with MRPs

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 12

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.

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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 …

Oracle Optimizer Statistics Advisor in Oracle 19c

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Optimizer Patch Recommendation 22

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.

Oracle Optimizer Statistics Advisor in Oracle 19c

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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 …

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

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich 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.

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

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What is the symptom?

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

MRP3 for Oracle 19.17.0 adds an interesting surprise

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich 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.

MRP3 for Oracle 19.17.0 adds an interesting surprise

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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 …

RUs contain now all available DST patches

Posted on January 19, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation Time Zone - DST 14

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.

RUs contain now all available DST patches

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What’s the story?

There are some good news. We discussed this internally …

Applying the MRP from December 2022 to Oracle 19c

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich 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.

Applying the MRP from December 2022 to Oracle 19c

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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 …

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

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Patch Recommendation 24

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?

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

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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.

…

Patching all my environments with the October 2022 Bundle Patches

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 56

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.

Patching all of my environments with the October 2022 Bundle Patches

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

Patching all my environments with the April 2022 Patch Bundles

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 37

Easter time is patching time. And since I was hiking and biking every day the last week up in the Northern Italian mountains, this blog post is coming with a slight delay. But better late than never. Time to show you my usual exercise, this time Patching all my environments with the April 2022 Patch Bundles.

Patching all my environments with the April 2022 Patch Bundles

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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 …

Patching all my environments with the January 2022 Patch Bundles

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 60

It’s patching time. When I checked an SR and had a quick discussion with a customer yesterday, Peter reminded me that it’s patching day. And at about 20:00h CET the new patch bundles appeared on MOS. So let me show you again Patching all my environments with the January 2022 Patch Bundles for 11.2.0.4, 12.2.0.1, 19c and 21c.

Patching all my environments with the January 2022 Patch Bundles

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Patching all my environments with the October 2021 Patch Bundles

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 20

My calendar has no error or NLS conversion issue – I was just way to busy the past two months with seminars. But today a colleague asked me whether my 21.4 install reports a 21.3 Build Label in the trace files. And this reminded me that I should now finally apply the patch bundles from October 2021 to our Hands-On Lab environment. So again, another blog post about Patching all my environments with the October 2021 Patch Bundles.

Patching all my environments with the October 2021 Patch Bundles

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As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to space issues. But in reality, you …

We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director “Database Utilities”

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich General 0

This is the first time that I send out such a blog post. But since many of you read this blog, and a high number of people follow me on LinkendIn, maybe you’ll be interested as We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director “Database Utilities”. And it could be you!

We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director "Database Utilities"

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I can tell you by heart that you’d join one of the best teams in Oracle.

So please read the job description here – and if your profile matches plus you are looking for a new challenge, you should apply right away. You …

Apply

Inclusion criteria

Which note, and what’s the statement?

What do you need to read before?

The Prelude

What has happened?

Datapatch return codes

Have you used AutoUpgrade before?

The README file

A quick recap

Why does this happen?

Why is this important?

It all started at OCW 2023

Where does the problem start?

Before …

Overview

What is the symptom?

How did we find out?

What’s the story?

Download the December MRP

Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch

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