Patching

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

Photo by Giovanna Gomes on Unsplash

What happens?

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

Two months after patching GI …

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

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?

Photo by Liana S on Unsplash

Which note, and what’s the statement?

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

Q18:

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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.

How to rollback an MRP

Photo by Darío Bonzi on Unsplash

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.

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LAOUC 2026: Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay

In a week from now I should arrive in Asuncion, Paraguay, if all goes well. It it time for the Latin America Oracle User Group tour 2026 – and it has been started already going from north to south. I will participate in three stops at LAOUC 2026: Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay. And I am looking forward to see you soon.

 

Paraguay

🇵🇾 August 26 | Paraguay | Oracle Users Group Paraguay (OUGPY)

Yeah, you beat us Germans at the world cup, and luckily, I did not watch it since I was traveling abroad. Congratulations 🙂 In reverse, I …

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New AutoUpgrade version 26.5 is available (plus 26.4)

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.

New AutoUpgrade version 26.5 is available (plus 26.4)

Photo by julien Tromeur on Unsplash

Download AutoUpgrade

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

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Join us in Bengaluru and Hyderabad for SANGAM 2026

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, …

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

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 …

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

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.

  1. Download patches directly from MOS/ARU by yourself
    This usually means that you go to the various MOS notes, such as KB106822 /
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AutoUpgrade Patching – From Zero to Hero – Part 2: MOS Credentials

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. …

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

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 …

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CPU, CSPU, MRP, RU – some clarifications

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

Photo by Daniel Salcius on Unsplash

The Prelude

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

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

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.

Why do some see the error again?

First of …

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Patch your databases against AI-enabled cybersecurity threats

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

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Read the official announcements

At first, please read the official announcements released here:

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

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.

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, …

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OJVM patching fails with ORA-1403 in 19.30 if JAVAVM is not installed

Thanks to all the people (Jeff, Daniele, Lothar and others) who alerted me about this topic. Some of you had even created their own fix already. So, this is about an issue which happens only if you have no JAVAVM installed in your database or PDB but you still apply the OJVM Bundle on to of the Oracle Database 19.30 Release Update. You may find then: OJVM patching fails with ORA-1403 in 19.30 if JAVAVM is not installed.

When does this happen?

This issue happens when you apply the OJVM bundle together with …

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The February 2026 release of AutoUpgrade (26.2) is available

This is a ground-breaking new release of AutoUpgrade, and the team worked hard to release it last weekend. This means for you that you should renew your AutoUpgrade tools as The February 2026 release of AutoUpgrade (26.2) is available now for download.

1..2..3..4..5..0 …

In case you wonder about this cryptic headline, no worries. a customer highlighted this well-chosen and easy-to-remember number to me the other day. And I was not aware, but it is true: KB123450 is the MOS note allowing you to download AutoUpgrade from MOS. Awesome … I already programmed this …

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Your chance: Full-day Upgrade to 26ai Workshop in Sydney on Jan 20, 2026

Happy New Year to all of you at first. And just at very short notice a quick announcement for next week in case you are in the Sydney area in Australia. This is Your chance: Full-day Upgrade to 26ai Workshop in Sydney on Jan 20, 2026 has still a few open seats, and you could join, I’d be happy to see and meet you there.

And of course, it will be 2026, and not 2025 … OMG … 🙂

When, how and why?

Well, this is potentially the day (or a few hours …

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A kill-switch terminates blocking sessions during patching

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

Photo by Yuko Tanaka on Unsplash

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:

  1. You invoke
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The October 2025 Release of AutoUpgrade (25.6) is available

It’s October – and while the leafs keep falling on the northern hemisphere, the October 2025 Release of AutoUpgrade (25.6) is available. Get it now – and find the list of features and fixes below.

How to download it?

As usual, that’s very simple. You either download it via the well-known

or you fetch it directly from oracle.com with curl, wget or by just clicking on the big button.

What’s new?

Again, a lot. 25.6 release has a significant and important number of enhancements. It includes the …

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Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai

Larry Ellison announced Oracle AI Database 26ai  today in his keynote at Oracle AI World conference in Las Vegas. And I am pretty certain you may want some clarification on what this means exactly. Therefore, let me clarify the details, and why Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai.

Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai

What did Larry Ellison announce?

Larry gave a spoiler already in the Q1 earnings call where he referred to Oracle AI Database instead of Oracle Database. He was clearly emphasizing the AI capabilities of our flagship product. From now on, it will be known as Oracle AI Database

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Oracle AI World 2025: Your guide to Upgrade, Migration and Patching Sessions

Oracle OpenWorld had been renamed to Oracle CloudWorld, and it got rebranded to Oracle AI World this year. And we PMs, Alex, Daniel, Rodrigo and myself look forward to see you there. It’s a perfect opportunity to touch base, discuss your migration challenges, your patching fun – and upgrades certainly, too. You not only can grab a sticker for your laptop lid but we’d love to hear about your experiences, wishes and pain points (if there are any) first hand.

Oracle AI World 2025: Your guide to Upgrade, Migration and Patching Sessions

And of course, we want you to come to our sessions. As usual, we’ll bring real stuff making …

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Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025

Summer season is almost over. And in between Oracle AI World in Las Vegas in October and now, there is one chance to meet us for a Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025. There are still some seats open, so please find the details below.

Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025

Photo by Ryan Lum on Unsplash

When and why should you attend?

September 17, 2025 – 9:30h-16:30h.

This is a full package of marketing-free technical content – we share not only slides but also information from our projects, lots of customer experience, gotchas, tips and …

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AutoUpgrade patching – getting started with Connor McDonald

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 🙂

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.…

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The August 2025 version of AutoUpgrade (25.4) is available

This time the AutoUpgrade team did magic and included so many great new features and useful enhancements into the new version of AutoUpgrade. So, please note: The August 2025 version of AutoUpgrade (25.4) is available for download. You should refresh your current versions, especially when you use it for patching, and especially if you attempt to do in an RAC (Real Application Clusters) environment.  But read more below.

How to download it?

As usual, that’s very simple. You either download it via the well-known

or you fetch

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Recap AIOUG OCYatra 2025 – a trip through India

I just returned the other day from the most strenuous trips I do once a year: The AIOUG Oracle Community Yatra tour. 6 cities in 9 days. It’s a wild ride with flights and bus transfers in between, monsoon rain, heat and nasty mosquitos – but it is still one of the most exciting trips I do. So, let me recap AIOUG OCYatra 2025 – a trip through India. And explain what’s so special about it.

But at first, a huge THANK YOU to the organizers, especially to Sai and all the volunteers making this a …

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