Patch

GI 19.31 and 19.32: trace file flooding in mgmtca.trc can happen

Thanks to Peter Lehmann who always alerts me about findings and encounters he had in his test and production RAC cluster environments. Peter dropped me an email the other day, and I share his suspicion that this may effect many in the coming weeks operating RAC environments. If you don’t have a RAC, you may not see this happening with GI 19.31 and 19.32: trace file flooding in mgmtca.trc can happen.

GI 19.31 and 19.32: trace file flooding in mgmtca.trc can happen

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What happens?

It took me a bit of searching, and Peter collected a lot of information already.

Two months after patching GI …

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

Posted on September 1, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 0

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,

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 …

ORA-600 [] and ORA-8103 errors can happen after TTS Import into 19c

Posted on August 19, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation Transportable 1

This is not a new finding – and it is a very rare error. But you may only find it days, months or even years after a TTS migration has been completed. You may see a rare corruption issue, and it may sleep in your database. The error pattern would be: ORA-600 [<objdchk>] and ORA-8103 errors can happen after TTS Import into 19c when you query certain data sets. A customer of ours has encountered this a two years after an xTTS migration in an archival database. And since my team works with a lot of large migrations, I think

New AutoUpgrade version 26.5 is available (plus 26.4)

Posted on August 13, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 14

I totally forgot to announce the 26.4 version of AutoUpgrade. And now, the new AutoUpgrade version 26.5 is available (plus 26.4) already. The AutoUpgrade Development team did an amazing job in shortening the release cycle. This way, we can deliver quick fixes faster to you. When you study the list of enhancements and fixes carefully, some of you will say: Great, this is what I was waiting for.

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Download AutoUpgrade

As I described already in AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 1: Download AutoUpgrade, you have several ways to fetch …

Long-Term Release Updates are paused

Posted on July 17, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 2

Since several customers asked me about it, I realized that I have never blogged about LTRUs – and as of now, Long-Term Release Updates are paused. Let me explain what the concept meant, where you can find information about it and what it would mean in your environment.

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Long-Term Release Update

The idea is smart for those customers who can’t move forward on Release Updates (RU) as quickly as we recommend it. Which means: apply them quarterly. Long-Term Release Updates (LTRU) seemed to be a good approach. You take an LTRU, and then we …

Join us in Bengaluru and Hyderabad for SANGAM 2026

Posted on July 16, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Conference 0

Many of you may have seen the social media posts already. But just in case you were in doubt, please get your ticket asap and join us in Bengaluru and Hyderabad for SANGAM 2026 this weekend. AIOUG (All India Oracle User Group – or more modern, AI Oracle User Group) is organizing the biggest and best Oracle conference in the APAC region with world-class speakers.

Still not convinced yet?

I understand, it will be on Saturday and Sunday. Your weekend.

But guess what: It’s our weekend, too.

Don’t waste time relaxing on your sofa – join us, come by, …

Upgrade to 26ai may hang due to block checking events

Posted on July 15, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Flaws and Pitfalls Oracle AI Database 26ai Patch Recommendation 0

This issue is caused by an internal change, and we hit this now with two very large customer upgrades recently. Therefore, I would like to point to a fix, a workaround and the following RU in case you see your Upgrade to 26ai may hang due to block checking events.

Upgrade to 26ai may hang due to block checking events

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What would you see?

This issue can happen with cloning, PDB refreshable clones or just a copy or restore of your database for the subsequent upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai. It is not dependent on AutoUpgrade but since AutoUpgrade is the only …

AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 4: Download Examples

Posted on July 9, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 7

Let me take off into the 4th part of this blog post series: AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 4: Download Examples. I’d like to show you some of the most common examples and use cases we came across. And of course, I will add some additional (and hopefully useful) information on top.

AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 4: Download Examples

The patch parameter

At first, in my previous blog post I used patch1.patch=RECOMMENDED (by the way, upper/lowercase does not matter). But I didn’t explain the whole extent and possibilities of the patch parameter to you.

Here’s a list of the most important parameter …

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 /

AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 2: MOS Credentials

Posted on July 7, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Patch Recommendation 11

In this blog post series AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 2: MOS Credentials will be our topic for today. If you are tired of going through MOS notes over and over again to identify the most important fixes and fetch them, you need to automate it. But in order to automate the download, you need to infuse your MOS credentials into the AutoUpgrade keystore. Let’s do this together now.

AutoUpgrade Patching - From Zero to Hero - Part 2: MOS Credentials

Create directories

Before we really start, you should define a few directories at first. In my case, I copied the newest version of AutoUpgrade into /Users/mdietric/TEMP/AU. …

AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 1: Download AutoUpgrade

Posted on July 6, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich AutoUpgrade Patch Recommendation 9

I was traveling the past two weeks, and I met a lot of customers who still “enjoy” navigating through MOS and searching for the right patches to download. This blog post series will give you ultimate relief, and it will ease your life as DBAs and sysadmins. You must patch more frequently – and this is the key solution for everyone. Let’s get us started with AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 1: Download AutoUpgrade today.

AutoUpgrade Patching - From Zero to Hero - Part 1

Download the newest version of AutoUpgrade

Our first task is simple. You will find autoupgrade.jar in your ?/rdbms/admin directory since Oracle …

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:

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – what it shows, and what oradiff lists

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c ORAdiff Parameters 2

I blogged multiple times about DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE, the package to work with the Fix Control Persistence (FCP) framework in the database. And we also gave recommendations over the years that you need to test carefully when you are going to enable the fixes while patching. But it is a good practice do enable them when you do upgrade testing, and also when you start creating new databases in a new environment. Just make sure you keep the settings equal across your environments. The other day I received a question from Dennis asking about DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – what it shows, and what oradiff …

Does OJVM patching fail again with ORA-1403 in 19.31?

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich JVM Patch Recommendation 8

Some of you had been trapped by ORA-1403 during patching to Oracle Database 19.30. I blogged about this in February this year, and I had to update the blog post a few times until we collected all the issues. The root cause got fixed and included in Release Update 19.31. But over the past days I received a good number of messages about the issue being there in 19.31 again. So, does OJVM patching fail again with ORA-1403 in 19.31?. Yes, and no.

Does OJVM patching fail again with ORA-1403 in 19.31?

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Why do some see the error again?

First of …

Patch your databases against AI-enabled cybersecurity threats

Posted on May 4, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation Security 35

I guess you all read the announcements and predictions over the past weeks. New AI models and improvements to existing models may allow to find security issues in existing software much quicker. While this sounds alarming on one side (yes, it does), it also enables software vendors to secure their software. But in order to benefit from it, you must patch your databases against AI-enabled cybersecurity threats.

Patch your databases against AI-enabled cybersecurity threats

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Read the official announcements

At first, please read the official announcements released here:

Accelerating Vulnerability Detection and Response at Oracle (3 min read – April 29,

April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 are delayed

Posted on April 23, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 69

Yesterday, I delivered a full-day workshop for ora2know in Düsseldorf. And we discussed the most recent RUs as well, especially since “Database Patching” consumed a significant part of the day content-wise. I learned that the RUs have now a target date of April 28 for Linux, and May 12 for other ports. Which means that the April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 are delayed.

April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 are delayed

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Why are the April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 delayed?

I don’t know the reason, and there is (as far as I can see) no official …

Upcoming in-person workshops in Düsseldorf, London, Vienna, Utrecht and Brussels

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

I am ready to take off for some vacation soon. But I’d like to share with you a list of the upcoming workshops we are offering. All those events are in-person events – except the Virtual Classroom Seminar I will list below. Therefore, you need to show up at the day of the event. Zero marketing, no duplication of content either. See you soon in one of the upcoming in-person workshops in Düsseldorf, London, Vienna, Utrecht and Brussels.

Upcoming in-person workshops in Düsseldorf, London, Vienna, Utrecht and Brussels

Workshops and Events in April / May 2026

It is very important to say that we aren’t duplicating content. This …

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 …

Sign up for the next Virtual Classroom Seminar: Patch Smarter, Not Harder

Posted on March 9, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 2

Some of you may have realized: We moved the Virtual Classroom Seminar #27 from its original date in February to March 12 this week. Usually we don’t do this – but we ended up with so much content. If you haven’t already, it is time for you to sign up for the next Virtual Classroom Seminar: Patch Smarter, Not Harder.

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What are we going to talk about?

Database Patching – with or without RAC or Data Guard. With demos, as usual.

The idea is that you may learn a lot. And of course, …

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 …

How do you check whether a list of bug fixes is included in an RU?

Posted on February 5, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich ORAdiff Patch Recommendation 6

Today, a customer sent me a workaround for the misbehavior they were seeing with the Conflict Checker Tool in the Support portal. They use oradiff to check whether a given fix they have a one-off right now is included in a future Release Update (RU). This works nicely, but I have a recommendation for an even easier check (thanks Rodrigo!).

How do you check whether a list of bug fixes is included in an RU?

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Ask ORAdiff …

I am using this specific customer case as an example. Of course, this will work with your list of fixes as well. Let’s assume that this is the list of one-off …

Finally … Oracle AI Database 26ai is going to be available on non-Oracle hardware

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle AI Database 26ai 65

Many of you have read my blog post from October during Oracle AI World in Las Vegas about Oracle AI Database 26ai replacing Oracle Database 23ai. But the main question remained: When is it available on-prem on non-Oracle hardware? It’s December now, and Christmas is coming soon, it is time for presents. Yes, finally … Oracle AI Database 26ai is going to be available on non-Oracle hardware.

Finally ... Oracle AI Database 26ai is going to be available on non-Oracle hardware

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When is it going to be released?

You still need to wait a few weeks, potentially until the 2nd half of January 2026. The CPU …

A kill-switch terminates blocking sessions during patching

Posted on November 12, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Behavior Change Oracle AI Database 26ai Patch Recommendation 4

You will find a good number of datapatch posts on my blog. And with Oracle AI Database 26ai from RU 23.26.0.0.0 onward (the October 2025 RU), we introduce a new functionality when you run datapatch: A kill-switch terminates blocking sessions during patching.

A kill-switch terminates blocking sessions during patching

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What is changing?

From Oracle AI Database 26ai onwards by default the invocation of datapatch will terminate any session currently holding a requested KGL X lock (Kernel Generic Library cache), an exclusive lock on an SQL or an PL/SQL procedure.

In reality this means:

You invoke

Patch

What happens?

Which note, and what’s the statement?

What is an MRP?

What do you need to read before?

Download AutoUpgrade

Long-Term Release Update

Still not convinced yet?

What would you see?

The patch parameter

Which download?

Create directories

Download the newest version of AutoUpgrade

The Prelude

Why do some see the error again?

Read the official announcements

Why are the April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 delayed?

Workshops and Events in April / May 2026

What has happened?

What are we going to talk about?

Datapatch return codes

Ask ORAdiff …

When is it going to be released?

What is changing?

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