PSU

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

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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:

A patch (RU, OJVM, 32-bit) is not available yet – where will I find information?

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 2

A longer while ago I wrote a blog post about the topic that a patch (RU, OJVM, 32-bit) is not available yet – where will I find information? But I wrote it too specific. And it is even hard for me to find my older blog post. Since several of you mailed me the past weeks with a variety of questions regarding patch availability I decided to write down my thoughts – but this time in a more generic way. And I hope it is helpful.

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Why are patches missing?

At first, I …

Certifying an application on a specific RU-only is wrong

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Best Practice Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 15

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.

Certifying an application on a specific RU only is wrong

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What’s the story?

At first, …

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 …

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 …

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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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 …

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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Why do you need a password to download older patch bundles?

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 14

A customer raised this question recently: Why do you need a password to download older patch bundles? The customer wanted to download a PSU from July 2020 on the MyOracle Support (MOS) platform but this wasn’t possible without a password.

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Why is there an extra password required?

In MOS Note: 888.1 – Master Note for Database Proactive Patch Program we documented the following:

1.4 Policy to obtain older Oracle Database Bundles, Updates & Revisions

Through our review of customer Service Requests (SRs), we find that customers frequently run into issues because they have unknowingly downloaded

Patching all my environments with the April 2021 Patch Bundles

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 62

Oh well, time flies. And it is April 2021, and hence I will start Patching all my environments with the April 2021 Patch Bundles. In my case, this will be 19.11.0 and 12.2.0.1 Release Updates. But there will be an additional blog post for the OJVM bundle, too.

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No RURs for 12.2.0.1 – and Oracle 11.2.0.4 left Extended Support

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation Release Schedule 0

Last week I blogged about the quarterly patching fun when applying the Release Updates to my environments. But I completely forget to mention and explain a few things. There are No RURs for 12.2.0.1 – and Oracle 11.2.0.4 left Extended Support.

No RURs for 12.2.0.1 - and Oracle 11.2.0.4 left Extended Support

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No Release Update Revisions for Oracle 12.2.0.1

Thanks to my friend Rodrigo Jorge who messaged me on the weekend. He goes way deeper with applying the quarterly patches and highlights the differences. And he recognized and blogged already about the fact that there are no RURs available for Oracle 12.2.0.1.

And …

Patching all my environments with the October 2020 Patch Bundles

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 25

I have to confess: Time didn’t allow to rearrange my lab yet to have GI and ASM. Hence, this will be another blog post about Patching all my environments with the October 2020 Patch Bundles with only non-RAC patching. But it is in the works …

Patching all my environments with the October 2020 Patch Bundles

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Security Alert

Patching all my environments with the July 2020 Patch Bundles

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 26

Quarterly routine: When the new security alert get published, then it is patching time again. I’ll show you as usual how Patching all my environments with the July 2020 Patch Bundles works. And I heard your comments – in the next round in October, I will do this for GI and OJVM most likely, too. If not earlier …

Patching all my environments with the July 2020 Patch Bundles

Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash

And just 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.

Security Alert July 2020

This is the Security Alert for …

JDK patching happens with every RU since January 2020

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 29

A while ago, a customer asked me whether he needs to apply JDK patches separately. He discovered that the JDK in the $ORACLE_HOME is quite outdated. But there was no clear answer available. And the MOS Note he pointed me to, seemed to be quite incomplete. But times have changed. And JDK patching happens with every RU since January 2020.

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JDK who?

JDK stands for Java Development Toolkit. As the Wikipedia article explains, “the JDK includes a private JVM and a few other resources to finish the development of a Java Application”. …

Patching all my environments with the April 2020 Patch Bundles

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 54

My quarterly routine happens when the new security alerts get published. And it is time again. I’ll show you as usual how Patching all my environments with the April 2020 Patch Bundles works.

Patching all my environments with the April 2020 Patch Bundles

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Security Alert April 2020

Let’s start with the Security Alerts for April 2020. It leads me to the April 2020 Critical Patch Advisory. I’m a database guy, so I’m interested in: Oracle Database Server, versions 11.2.0.4, 12.1.0.2, 12.2.0.1, 18c, 19c. And this link brings me directly to the Risk Matrix for the database products.

You will spot three …

Patching all my environments with the January 2020 Patch Bundles

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 40

I was traveling last week and had not enough time to download and apply the January 2020 Release Updates and PSUs. Yes, I’m one week late. But nevertheless, I’d like to check whether patching my databases with the January 2020 RUs will work fine.

Patching all my environments with the January 2020 Patch Bundles

Wörthsee near Munich in January 2020 – Water temperature is 3.4°C

Security Alert January 2020

My usual approach is to start with the Security Alerts for January 2020. It leads me to the January 2020 Critical Patch Advisory. As I’m a database guy, this is the line I’m interested in: Oracle Database Server, versions 11.2.0.4, …

Patching all my environments with the Oct 2019 Patch Bundles

Posted on October 17, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 20

Yesterday I blogged about the Oct 2019 Patch Bundles being available for download. And while I wrote this blog post, I downloaded all of them for my environments. Here I’d like to share with you the most simple path to apply them. As I have no cluster or ASM, I don’t have to patch Grid Infrastructure. And I don’t even have OJVM in any of my databases right now. Due to space constraints in my lab environment I will apply the patches in-place. You shouldn’t do this but instead use always a new home you patch. This allows you …

CPU October 2019 Patch Bundles are available

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 2

As of Oct 15, 2019, the CPU October 2019 Patch Bundles are available for download. So let me do the quarterly exercise to download and install all of them into my various environments.

CPU October 2019 Patch Bundles are available

Critical Patch Alert October 2019

At first, I check the Alert and the Risk Matrix whether critical issues with a high risk score are included. I will install the patch bundles anyway, but I’m curious. In my particular case I will take care on the database only. You of course will check for other products you are using, too.

July 2018 Update, Revision, BPs, PSUs – delays and other issues

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 7

This is a Friday morning blog post. And actually I had no intention to write it. I don’t mean it offensive. But yesterday I received an interesting email from Frits Hoogland from Enkitec/Accenture. Frits asked me about the July RUR and some unlogic things on MOS. Once I had answered his email, the next question came in. Hence, I thought I need to write something about our July 2018 Update, Revision, BPs, PSUs – delays and other issues.

From being on stage at last year’s DOAG Conference for a “Patching Forum” I know that things aren’t as …

Patching my databases with the July 2018 PSU, BP and RU

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 38

Patching my databases with the July 2018 PSU, BP and RU As usual I download the patch bundles and apply them to our Hands-On Lab environment as quickly as possible. First of all for the simple reason that I don’t want to trap into issues which are fixed already. Second for the reason that I always tell you: YOU MUST PATCH! But if I’m saying this over and over again, then I can’t have my own environments unpatched. And at third, because I want to learn if anything is not working correctly or has changed (see below).

Of course my tiny single instance environments are not comparable to your critical production …

July 2018 Update, Revision, BP and PSU

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 13

Hurray, it’s patching day! I know, YOU did look forward to July 17, 2018 as it is patching day again. Last night we released the following Patches: July 2018 Update, Revision, BP and PSU.

July 2018 Update, Revision, BP and PSU

First of all, I’m doing the usual check for the alert and the risk matrix to see whether there’s are really important security patches included. For the risk matrix you’ll have to scrooooooooooolllll down quite a bit as the list of products is strictly alphabetically ordered:

Critical Patch Update – July 2018 – Patch Advisory
Risk Matrix for Oracle

Video: The New Database Release and Patching Model

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Video / Viewlet 8

Video: The New Database Release and Patching Model The last Office Hours I’ve run about the New Release and Patching Model didn’t go very well technically. I’ve had screen/display issues. And Steven Feuerstein tried to save the best parts – but despite Steven’s awesome work neither him nor I did really like the result. So I decided that it may be better to record a Video: The New Database Release and Patching Model again (which I actually planned for quite a while already anyway.

Video: The New Database Release and Patching Model

The video is based on the slide deck you’ll find in the Slides download section of …

Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich DBCA 4

Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database? Roberto Valsania asked this question once he read my blog post about whether you have to execute datapatch after creating a new 12c database: Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?

I’d bet you all are aware that Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 will go out of Waived Extended Support by end of 2018. But that doesn’t answer the question. So I did a quick experiment and created a fresh 11.2.0.4 database to answer the question.

Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?

First of all, let me clarify …

Patching my databases with the April 2018 PSU, BP and RU

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 29

Patching is fun, isn’t it? And you may have heard already that the April 2018 patch bundles got released on April 17, 2018. And I thought I share a little bit of fun with you with a quick guide to patching my databases with the April 2018 PSU, BP and RU. For this exercise I use our Hands-On Lab with Oracle 11.2.0.4, Oracle 12.1.0.2 and Oracle 12.2.0.1 installed.

Prerequisites for patching my databases with the April 2018 PSU, BP and RU

First of all, in my VBox environment, I shutdown the databases for each release before patching them – …

Do you have to execute “datapatch” when you create a new database?

Posted on April 19, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 30

Do you have to execute "datapatch" when you create a new database? Thanks to Connor McDonald (Mr. AskTom) I learned today that one topic is not clear from our patches readmes: Do you have to execute “datapatch” when you create a new database? And it’s true. It does not get explained in the readme anywhere.

Do you have to execute “datapatch” when you create a new database?

If you never applied an Oracle patch bundles you may ask now: What is “datapatch” doing. And the answer is very simple. When you apply a patch bundle usually the patch does not include only binary files but also …

PSU

The Prelude

Why are patches missing?

What’s the story?

Is this necessary?

Why is there an extra password required?

No Release Update Revisions for Oracle 12.2.0.1

Security Alert

Security Alert July 2020

JDK who?

Security Alert April 2020

Security Alert January 2020

Critical Patch Alert October 2019

July 2018 Update, Revision, BP and PSU

Video: The New Database Release and Patching Model

Do you have to execute catbundle.sql when you create a new 11g database?

Prerequisites for patching my databases with the April 2018 PSU, BP and RU

Do you have to execute “datapatch” when you create a new database?

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