PSU

Differences between PSU / BP and RU / RUR

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 26

Since Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 we change our patching model as well, switching from Patch Set Updates (PSU) and Proactive Bundle Patches (BP) to Release Updates (RU) and Release Update Revisions (RUR). But what are actually the differences between PSU / BP and RU / RUR patch bundles? Is there any or is it just a renaming of well known patch bundles?

No change on MS Windows

First of all, let me say that there won’t be any changes on the Windows platform. If your preferred operating system is MS Windows then stop reading here. On Windows you’ll see …

October 2017 RU, RUR, BP and PSU are available

Posted on October 18, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 6

It’s October 17, 2017. And the October 2017 RU, RUR, BP and PSU are available for download.

The most important links

Find the most important information here:

The Risk Matrix

Find the Risk Matrix here:

October 2017 RU, RUR, BP and PSU are available

Risk Matrix for the Oracle Database Server – October 2017

Database RU, RUR, BP and PSU – October 2017

To access the RU, RUR, BP and PSU for the Oracle Database Server you will have to logon to MyOracle Support:

MOS Note:

Download Assistant for RUs, RURs, BPs, PSUs, Patch Sets and Releases

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 7

How often did I launch a search in MyOracle Support (MOS) for a specific Bundle Patch or Patch Set Update. And usually the MOS search results don’t get me what I’m looking for no matter how clever I search. But there was relief. A MOS Note combined all PSUs and BPs and much more into table format including the links. But what if there would be a Download Assistant for RUs, RURs, BPs, PSUs, Patch Sets and Releases?

I did blog about the previous magic note a while back:
Where is the Jan 2017 PSU for Oracle Database 11.2.0.4?…

How to patch the Oracle Instant Client?

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 0

How to patch the Oracle Instant Client? That’s an interesting question a customer raised the other day:

How to patch the Oracle Instant Client?

I silently assumed that there’s a new release of the Oracle Instant Client every quarter or at least when we deliver fixes which apply to the client as well. Hm …

What is the Oracle Instant Client?

First of all, the Oracle Instant Client is a pretty cool thing. It gets distributed via OTN as a simple download. You deploy it to your client machine, you set LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or PATH on Windows) and add a tnsnames file if necessary, you may add SQL*Plus …

More Information about RU and RUR patches for Oracle 12.2

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Patch Recommendation 5

More Information about RU and RUR patches for Oracle 12.2 The first RU (Release Update) for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 has been released. And Oracle Support provides some very helpful documents to explain the implication of the new RU (Release Update) and RUR (Release Update Revision) patches.

More Information about RU and RUR patches for Oracle 12.2

First of all, these are the most important MOS notes to have a look at:

The first RU for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 is available

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 10

First RU is available for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 The first RU (Release Update) for Oracle 12.2.0.1 is available

Just in case the port you are looking for is not available right now please see the ETA dates in the link below.

Details of the July 2017 Critical Patch Advisory

Find the General Information about the July 2017 Critical Patch Advisory here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujul2017-3236622.html

Find the Risk Matrix for the July 2017 Critical Patch Advisory here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujul2017verbose-3236625.html#DB

The details about the Database are included in this document:
MOS Note: 2261562.1 – Patch Set Update and Critical Patch Update July 2017 Availability Document
Please find the “Missing patches” in section 2.2 …

Oracle 12.2.0.1 – June 2017 Bundle Patch is available for Linux

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Patch Recommendation 3

After the removal of the first Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Bundle Patch in May, the June 2017 Proactive Bundle Patch on Linux got released now:

Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Proactive Bundle Patch – June 2017 – BP170620

What’s inside?

The Proactive Bundle Patch 12.2.0.1.170620 contains the June Database Bundle Patch and the June Grid Infrastructure Patch Set Update.

Proactive Bundle Patch – June 2017 – Linux – Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

More information about previous and future BPs?

First of all, the well known schedule for BPs (and of course PSUs) will be kept – so please expect the next Proactive Bundle …

Can you apply Bundle Patches to SE2 databases?

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation SE2 - Standard Edition 2 0

Can you apply Bundle Patches (BP) to Standard Edition (SE2) databases?

This question got raised by Adam (thanks!) via the comments section of the blog. But a few days later I read it on the internal mailing lists as well. Adam was referring to this sentence in the BP READMEs since October 2015:

“In this document Oracle Database Home refers to Enterprise Edition. Standard Edition Database software installs should install Database PSU.”

Why was this sentence added?

There were issues with enabling functionality on SE2 databases by accident with a Proactive Bundle Patch – something which got fixed and …

PSU or BP? Patch Set Update or Bundle Patch? RUR or RU?

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 28

Well, in my new role as unofficial Junior Product Manager for Patching (just kidding) I get asked once a day (at least!) via email or in customer meetings or workshops: Should we take the PSUs or the BPs? Or RUs or RURs?

Addition: I updated the blog post due to the arrival of the RUs and RURs in Oracle Database 12.2.0.1.Changes are marked in orange.
See. https://mikedietrichde.com/2017/07/19/first-ru-oracle-12-2-0-1-available/

Should we take the PSUs or the BPs? RURs or RUs?

PSUs are Patch Set Updates, BPs are (sometimes called: Proactive) Bundle Patches.
RUs are Release Upgrades which replace …

Keep your patch versions between Grid Infrastructure and Databases Homes in synch

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich ASM / RAC / GI Patch Recommendation 10

Keep your patch versions between Grid Infrastructure and Databases Homes in synch I’ve had some interesting discussions with Anil Nair, our RAC Product Manager and a customer in the past days. The customer was looking for a definite statement that they can have a higher version of Patch Set Updates (PSUs) or Proactive Bundle Patches (BPs) in the Database homes than in the Grid Infrastructure home managing the resources.

For Oracle Database 18c, 19c and onward, please read instead:

Does your GI RU/RUR patch level has to match your database’s? (June 11, 2020)

Can you have different PSU/BP versions between Database and GI homes?

Yes, you can have a higher version PSU …

DBMS_QOPATCH does not work in PDBs (right now)

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 Oracle Database 12c Patch Recommendation Single-/Multitenant 4

Thanks to Murthy who commented on this blog post and Jeannette Holland (SimCorp) who opened an SR resulting in an ER.

DBMS_QOPATCH in Multitenant

DBMS_QOPATCH will deliver useful information about installed patches only when executed within the CDB$ROOT. It has been designed this way for security reasons in Oracle Database 12.1 but I can easily see a need to check for installed patches within a PDB as well.

Testcase

I “borrowed” this test case from Jeannette’s SR:

SQL> COLUMN NAME FORMAT A8

SQL> SELECT NAME, CON_ID, DBID, CON_UID, GUID FROM V$CONTAINERS ORDER BY CON_ID;

 NAME     CON_ID DBID       CON_UID    GUID
 --------

New SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 with July 2016 (and newer) PSU/BP

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Behavior Change Oracle Database 12c Parameters 7

New Parameters in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 with July 2016 PSU/BP

By following an internal discussion and checking parameter changes between Patch Set Updates (PSU) and Proactive Bundle Patches (BP) I learned that we introduced two new SPFILE parameters in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 with the July PSU and BP. One is documented in the patch readme, the other one can be found right now only in the Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 manual:

ALLOW_GROUP_ACCESS_TO_SGA

ENCRYPT_NEW_TABLESPACES

The Oracle 12.2 documentation about ALLOW_GROUP_ACCESS_TO_SGA, the parameter which appears not in the Oracle 12.1 documentation right now, says:

ALLOW_GROUP_ACCESS_TO_SGA controls group access to shared memory

Where is the Jan 2017 PSU for Oracle Database 11.2.0.4?

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 11g Patch Recommendation 24

Where is it?

This question reached me a week ago:
“Where is the January 2017 PSU for Oracle Database 11.2.0.4?”

“What’s the deal?” was my first thought – just go and download it from MOS.
Well, not really …

Where to download Proactive Bundle Patches, Patch Set Updates and Patch Sets?

My favorite note is:
MOS Note:1454618.1
Quick Reference to Patch Numbers for PSU, SPU(CPU), BPs and Patchsets

It gives me access to all the download links for the patch bundles I’m looking for.

But for 11.2.0.4. there’s only “NA” (not available) stated:

And a very …

DBA_REGISTRY_HISTORY vs DBA_REGISTRY_SQLPATCH

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Flaws and Pitfalls Patch Recommendation 9

At the DOAG Conference in November in Nürnberg in November 2016 a customer asked me right after my talk about “Upgrade to Oracle Database 12.2. – Live and Uncensored” why the DBA_REGISTRY_HISTORY does not get updated when he applies a Bundle Patch and follows all instructions including the “./datapatch -verbose” call.

I was wondering as well and asked him to open an SR. Which he did. And he received the message from Support that it is not supposed to appear in Oracle 12c anymore this way but only in DBA_REGISTRY_SQLPATCH. Now I dug a bit deeper …

October 2016 Proactive BP got replaced

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 0

Just received a message from Oracle Support this early morning as I did install the Proactive Bundle Patch from October 2016 into my Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 environment saying:

Dear Oracle Customer,

You are receiving this email because our recordsindicate you downloaded the following patch:

Patch number: 24448103
Release: DB Proactive Bundle 12.1.0.2.161018
Platform: Linux x86-64

This patch has been replaced and is now available for download. Please review section 1.1 of the
following My Oracle Support note for further technical details and instructions:

Note: 2171506.1 – Oracle Database Proactive Patch 12.1.0.2.161018 Known Issues

Issue found:

SCAN Listener or local listener

October 2016 PSU and BP – Database Patching?

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 6

What will you get when you download the most recent Oracle Database PSU or BP from October 2016?

MOS Note: 1683799.1 – 12.1.0.2 Patch Set – Availability and Known Issues is not entirely clear. Therefore lets shed some light …

The Matrix

This matrix in MOS Note: 1683799.1 tells you about the availability of PSUs and BPs for a regular database installation (non-RAC, non-Exadata). But it doesn’t clearly tell you what’s included – and the names being used aren’t very revealing either.

Non Exadata Non RAC

Document Description Rolling RAC Patch Download

Note:24448103.8 12.1.0.2.161018 Database Proactive Bundle Patch

October 2016 PSU and Proactive BP are available

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 0

When the leafs are falling down …

… then it’s time for the October 2016 Patch Set Update (PSU) and Proactive Bundle Patches (BP).

Things you need to know:

General information: Critical Patch Update – October 2016
Risk Matrix for: Oracle Database Server, version(s) 11.2.0.4, 12.1.0.2
Patch Availability: MOS Note: 2171485.1
Download the Database PSU or BP:
MOS Note: 1683799.1 – 12.1.0.2 Patch Set – Availability and Known Issues

Interesting information:

Newly scheduled final patches:
- Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 – July 2021 (See MOS Note 742060.1)
- Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 – October 2020 (See MOS Note 742060.1)

I’ll update you …

Can I apply a BP on top of a PSU? Or vice versa? PART 2

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 4

I thought I won’t blog about this again:

Can I apply a BP on top of a PSU? Or vice versa?

But then a colleague of mine raised this simple question:

“I have a customer that would like to change from patching using PSU to patching using Bundle Patch. I am
wondering what happens if my home has had several PSUs installed. Before applying a BP, would I need to rollback one by one all the PSUs that have been installed in reverse order (tedious) OR only the latest PSU (good)?”

Unfortunately the “simple” solution is hidden deep down in …

PDB unplug/plug/patch with PSUs or BPs

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation Single-/Multitenant 2

This question was posted on the blog a few days ago referring to my previous blog posts describing the two techniques to upgrade in an Oracle Multitenant environment:

Question:

We are planning to upgrade from 12.1.0.2.1 to 12.1.0.2.5.
The plan is to create new 12.1.0.2.5 oracle home and
gradually moving PDB from 12.1.0.2.1 to 12.1.0.2.5.
Should I follow the same steps?
Is there any document for what we want to do?

And luckily there is a MOS Note out there describing the steps:

MOS Note:2102849.1
Unplug/Plug on different PSU

Proactive Bundle Patches – Change reflected now in MOS as well

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 6

Now the Known Isuses and Alerts and Recommended Patches Notes in MOS reflect the naming and classification change of the different types of patches as well.

See in:

MOS Note:1683799.1 – 12.1.0.2 Patch Set – Availability and Known Issues

We don’t speak about Bundle Patches for Exadata and DBIM anymore making it easier to find the correct patch for your platform.

Just wanted to share this as I’m refreshing our upgrade slide deck at the moment 🙂

–Mike…

July 2016 – Proactive BPs and PSUs are available

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 9

Last night the July 2016 patches got released

Not all of them actually. In case you miss AIX, Intel Solaris and zLinux versions those should be available by Friday, July 22, 2016.

See the Oracle Critical Patch Update Advisory July 2016 for further details, and especially the Database announcement on MOS.

What’s new, what’s important?

First of all the renaming of DBIM and Exadata Bundle Patches into PROACTIVE BUNDLE PATCHES is now settled in more MOS notes.

2.1 Database patch for Engineered Systems and Database In-Memory 12.1.0.2 renamed to “Proactive Bundle Patch 12.1.0.2”

Starting from Apr2016 onwards the prior

Are BPs, PSUs and Proactive BPs cumulative?

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 2

Are Bundle Patches (BPs) and Patch Set Updates (PSUs) cumulative?

That is a question sounding trivial to many people but actually it does get asked quite often. And sometimes I forget to mention this during the workshops – and luckily usually somebody asks the question reminding me to explain it.

Yes, Bundle Patches and Patch Set Updates (and of course Proactive Bundle Patches and Critical/Security Patch Updates (CPUs/SPUs) are all cumulative.

You’ll find this mentioned in the first paragraph of MOS Note: 854428.1 – Patch Set Updates for Oracle Products:

…

Interesting note on the side:
I would have …

Can I apply a BP on top of a PSU? Or vice versa?

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 10

This question was in my inbox this morning raised by a customer via a colleague.

“Can I apply a BP on top of a PSU? Or vice versa?”

Our feeling said:
Yes, but you’ll have to deinstall the PSU first before applying the BP.

Having a feeling is one thing, knowing the truth is better. And as I have so much fun by applying PSUs and BPs back and forth since two weeks I thought “let’s give it a try”. So here we go …

Apply a BP on top of a PSU

This is my starting point – Oracle …

MOS Note 1454618.1: Quick Reference to Database PSUs, CPUs, BPs and Patchsets

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich MyOracle Support Patch Recommendation 8

Sometimes my mouse arm gets tired by clicking myself through MOS notes just to download a specific PSU or BP – and as I experiment a lot with PSUs and BPs right now I clicked a lot in the past days and nights.

Usually I’d start with either MOS Note:161818.1 – then click on the release link (e.g. 12.1.0.x) in the left-most column, then into the Availability and Known Issues not (e.g. MOS Note:1683799.1 for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2.0) and then select the most recent patch from the list of Current Recommended Patches.

Even though we all agree that you should …

Oracle Database BP April16 applied successfully

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 13

Usually I don’t post twice a day but as my post scriptum for the previous blog post got longer and longer I decided to write an entry about it – maybe simply because I feel soooo happy that my patch application succeeded flawless.

For many of you the following steps may look very boring as you have done this many times. But I use the blog also to brain-dump information for myself 😉 And for those who’d like to play with it, I summarized the steps fitting exactly into our Hands-On-Lab environment.

Download

I downloaded the following patches:

Database Proactive

PSU

No change on MS Windows

The most important links

The Risk Matrix

Database RU, RUR, BP and PSU – October 2017

What is the Oracle Instant Client?

More Information about RU and RUR patches for Oracle 12.2

Details of the July 2017 Critical Patch Advisory

What’s inside?

More information about previous and future BPs?

Can you apply Bundle Patches (BP) to Standard Edition (SE2) databases?

Why was this sentence added?

Should we take the PSUs or the BPs? RURs or RUs?

Can you have different PSU/BP versions between Database and GI homes?

DBMS_QOPATCH in Multitenant

Testcase

New Parameters in Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 with July 2016 PSU/BP

Where is it?

Where to download Proactive Bundle Patches, Patch Set Updates and Patch Sets?

Issue found:

The Matrix

Things you need to know:

Interesting information:

Last night the July 2016 patches got released

What’s new, what’s important?

2.1 Database patch for Engineered Systems and Database In-Memory 12.1.0.2 renamed to “Proactive Bundle Patch 12.1.0.2”

Are Bundle Patches (BPs) and Patch Set Updates (PSUs) cumulative?

Apply a BP on top of a PSU

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