Patch Set

Certifying an application on a specific RU-only is wrong

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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Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 – End of Support and Patch Bundles

This will be a short blog post but since I received a number of messages yesterday after I published my usual Patching all my environments with the April 2022 Patch Bundles blog post I need to clarify a few things regarding Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 – End of Support and Patch Bundles.

Premier Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

If you remember this, the Premier Support period for Oracle 12.2.0.1 ended on November 30, 2020.

Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1

Since many of you were still on Oracle 12.2.0.1 when the end of Premier Support …

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Minor Upgrade? Going from 11.2.0.1 to 11.2.0.4?

My Belgium friend Phillipe Fierens raised a great question on Twitter last week and dropped me an email again after having a discussion with his client:

For Phillipe and myself the answer is pretty clear and straight forward:

There is no minor upgrade anymore since every (patch set) release is a full release and since new parameters, parameter values, features and whatever appears even in patch sets.

But the following discussion on Twitter with comments from all sides made me think about why people would honestly declare going for instance from 11.2.0.1 to 11.2.0.3 as a minor upgrade whereas going …

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Why people don’t patch and upgrade?!?

Please see the JAPANESE version of this blog post here!!

Discussing the topic “Why Upgrade” or “Why not Upgrade” is not always fun. Actually the arguments repeat from customer to customer. Typically we hear things such as:

  • A PSU or Patch Set introduces new bugs
  • A new PSU or Patch Set introduces new features which lead to risk and require application verification
  • Patching means risk
  • Patching changes the execution plans
  • Patching requires too much testing
  • Patching is too much work for our DBAs
  • Patching costs a lot of money and doesn’t pay out

And to be very honest sometimes it’s …

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Why is every patchset now a full release?

This question got posted by Naveen in the previous entry today – and I found it worth it to create a new blog entry as this question gets raised in nearly every 2nd workshop as well – so others might be interested as well.

Mike,

A question has been bothering me for a while and I thought I’ll throw
it out there. I didn’t raise a support ticket, I knew what the response
is going to be.

So here is the question. I have an 11g ORACLE HOME that was built as
11.2.0.1. Now if I want to upgrade to

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Patches, Patch Sets, Patch Bundles, Bundled Patches …

Ouch … just realized that it has been a while since I posted a new topic on the blog. But actually the past weeks I was busy doing workshops, working with customers – and finally (yes!!) participating on an Exadata training class. Sitting there for 3 days, listening the instructor, playing around with the cell simulator and all the exercises was quite a nice change from the daily business. And I believe I’ve learnt something useful 🙂

Well, daily business, this brings me back to a topic which hit my inbox today again for the 2nd time in a …

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Patch Set 11.2.0.2 for Win32 and Win64 now available

2010_12_16_win.jpg

Oracle Database Patch Set 11.2.0.2 for Windows (Patch: 10098816) is now available for download from support.oracle.com:

Please keep in mind:

  • It’s a full install – you don’t have to download 11.2.0.1 first, you can start right with 11.2.0.2
  • Installation will be done by default into a separate %ORACLE_HOME% .- and this is our strong recommendation.
  • If you’d like to install into your existing
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