opatch

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:

How to rollback an MRP

You know, I am not a fan of in-place patching. Actually, I think everyone should always patch out-of-place. But I know that for instance EBS with a 19c database requires in-place patching, and out-of-place will be supported only with 26ai for EBS. Therefore, in relation to an exercise I did over the weekend, let me share how to rollback an MRP.

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What is an MRP?

Very briefly, it stands for Monthly Recommended Patch – thus MRP. And it co-exists with CSPUs. I described the difference here. Read more if you are interested.

CPU, CSPU,

AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 3: Download Patches

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 38

You completed Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog post series already? Then you are ready for AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 3: Download Patches. Let us start simple, and then increase the scope to fetch the patches for various operating system platforms in your local patching folder.

AutoUpgrade Patching - From Zero to Hero - Part 3: Download Patches

Which download?

Strange headline – but you’ll see what I mean. At first, we need to clarify the various download options for patches.

Download patches directly from MOS/ARU by yourself
This usually means that you go to the various MOS notes, such as KB106822 /

News and updates in opatch 12.2.0.1.45 (Jan 2025)

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 10

Are you interested in the news and updates in opatch 12.2.0.1.45 (Jan 2025)? This is the opatch version being released on January 21, 2025 together with the January Release Updates (RUs) and other patch bundles.

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What’s new in opatch 12.2.0.1.45 (Jan 2025)?

When I refer to opatch, I mean the opatch tool for the Oracle Database installations. You can always download it via OPatch Download: Patch 6880880. You will use this opatch for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2, 12.2.0.1, 18c, 19c and 21c. In addition, the same changes and updates are present in opatch 11.2.0.3.49 …

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 …

Your chance – in-person Oracle 23c upgrade workshops in Warsaw and Munich

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 9

We have a rare offer for you. Not Santa but Daniel and I are coming to town. So, this is your chance – in-person Oracle 23c upgrade workshops in Warsaw and Munich. You are signing up for a packed day of tech. No marketing slides – just facts and features, not only Oracle Database 23c, the new upcoming long-term support release. But certainly we’ll have enough for all those you are just in the process of moving to Oracle Database 19c.

Your chance - in-person Oracle 23c upgrade workshops in Warsaw and Munich

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When?

We are absolutely excited to offer you a full-day in-person all-tech …

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 …

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 …

Cleaning up older patch artifacts – improving opatch performance

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 51

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.

Cleaning up older patch artifacts - improving opatch performance

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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 …

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

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich 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.

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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 …

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 …

Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 30

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

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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 directly when you provision a new home with OUI…

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 most of my environments with the July 2022 Bundle Patches

Posted on July 21, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich 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.

Patching most of my environments with the July 2022 Bundle Patches

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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 directly …

Binary patching is slow because of the inventory

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 57

The headline of this blog post may sound a bit cryptic: Binary patching is slow because of the inventory. But actually this seems to be one of the main causes when your binary patching gets slower and slower with every patch you apply.

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The more you patch, the worse it gets

Well, this is a tough headline. But you may have read my blog posts about my quarterly patching experience. It actually started with the July 2021 RU in my 19c environment when I wrote:

At least in my environment, both checks with the

How to speed up your database and GI patching

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 12

Several of you mailed me already and commented. And I know that I promised this blog post for weeks, if not longer. So let me try to explain How to speed up your database and GI patching. Since this blog post has a longer history, I’d say far over 6 months, it will be a bit longer than the usual posts. At when I started writing it, I decided to split it up into several pieces to make it more digestible but also to allow easier finding of certain topics. I hope it may help easing some recent patching …

What does datapatch do when you have different components in PDBs?

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 10

The last weeks, literally weeks, I have spent a lot of time with several patching topics. And in order to clean up my inbox a bit I will dump the learning into several blog posts. This one today will be about an interesting case I came across when a customer ran into problems with the runtime of datapatch in an ExaCC environment. Hence, today’s topic will be: What does datapatch do when you have different components in PDBs?

What does datapatch do when you have different components in PDBs?

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Annotation

If you are on 19.16.0 or higher, than you can safely ignore this blog post …

Adding the Oracle 19.14.0 OCW / GI bundle patch to my database home

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 16

Actually I planned for a different blog post this morning. But since I have a backlog of unanswered comments accumulated I came across this interesting question from Pedro. He wanted to know how he can patch the OCW component in his database home. So I thought I will show you the process of Adding the Oracle 19.14.0 OCW / GI bundle patch to my database home.

Adding the Oracle 19.14.0 OCW / GI bundle patch to my database home

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Is this necessary?

That’s a good question for a Monday morning. I think: No, that isn’t necessary for a “Database only” home where you don’t have or …

Can I cleanup the previous Patch Bundles with opatch?

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Best Practice Patch Recommendation 36

Addition May 16, 2023:

Before you read on, better jump to this blog post. With opatch 37, released in April 2023, a cleanup option is available – and this significantly improves performance:

Cleaning up older patch artifacts – and improve opatch performance

Today I will step on mined territory. Can I cleanup the previous Patch Bundles with opatch? Or can I just wipe out the old ones? That is a question which will bring people with temper quickly close to explosion. But let me start step by step, especially for those of you who aren’t familiar with this topic.…

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 …

Patching all my environments with the July 2021 Patch Bundles

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 49

It’s patching day again. Hurray! Or not. I realize that at patching day, the 19c bundles are all missing. So wrote this blog post a bit after the usual release day. In my case this will include Oracle 19.12.0 RU and the July 2021 RU for Oracle 12.2.0.1. Please find the details about Patching all my environments with the July 2021 Patch Bundles below.

Patching all my environments with the July 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 please patch always out-of-place with a separate home. Please see this blog post …

Important Recommended Patches for Oracle Database 19c

Posted on February 23, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 18

It took a while – but now you can find a new MyOracle Support (MOS) Note with a list of Important Recommended Patches for Oracle Database 19c. It is actually a must-read, regardless whether you are upgrading or migration to 19c, or in case you are already on 19c.

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What do you get?

Please check MOS Note: 2720807.1 – Oracle Database 19c Important Recommended One-off Patches. It gives you a list of important fixes for Oracle Database 19c. In the initial version of the note you could select for each available Release …

opatch

Which note, and what’s the statement?

What is an MRP?

Which download?

What’s new in opatch 12.2.0.1.45 (Jan 2025)?

The README file

A quick recap

When?

It all started at OCW 2023

Before …

A little bit of history

What’s the topic?

How did we find out?

Download the December MRP

Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch

The more you patch, the worse it gets

Annotation

Is this necessary?

What do you get?

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