Recommendation

Patching process changes with MRPs

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 10

I blogged about the Monthly Recommended Patches (MRP) several times before. And due to the feedback you and we had given, a few things got changed. The main change is from having the MRP bundled as a system patch making opatchauto a requirement. See below what Patching process changes with MRPs were implemented recently.

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Before …

As you could read already in:

the introduction of the MRPs added one major flaw: They’ve been built as system patches which made …

ORA-13516 “CATPROC not valid” during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0

I thought I could relax this week using my leftover vacation days from 2022. But this issue is triggering me since some of you mailed me already. Maybe this blog post can prevent others from being trapped by this issue: ORA-13516 “CATPROC not valid” during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0. And as a prolog, you will NOT see the below issue when you started your database in NORMAL mode for the execution of datapatch.

ORA-13516 "CATPROC not valid" during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0

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What is the symptom?

Regardless of whether you patch to Oracle Database RU 19.18.0 manually or with …

Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 24

The Data Pump Bundle Patches get released on top of every RU since over a year now. But a real issue with missing files got detected recently. So in case you had applied Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again.

Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again

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What is in the Data Pump Bundle Patch?

The Data Pump Bundle Patch is a convenient and very useful vehicle to apply Data Pump patches which are usually not included in a Release Update (RU). While RUs are per definitionem RAC-rolling and Standby-First, the Data Pump Bundle …

Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE?

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Optimizer Patch Recommendation 15

Today, Paul mailed me asking a question we internally discussed many times in the past weeks: Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE? And there is no easy simple answer. But I can give a recommendation based on my experience from many projects.

Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE?

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DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – a quick recap

Just in case you haven’t dealt with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE recently, here is a quick recap.

With below procedure, you can list the available potentially behavior changing optimizer fixes in the current patch bundle – and you can turn them on or off at will:

SQL> set serveroutput on;

Some very important MOS Notes when you upgrade and patch

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 16

Today, I would like to publish only a short blog post with some hints to MyOracle Support (MOS) notes we find quite helpful. The idea of all these notes I will list below is to help you finding the right patches before you upgrade or patch to Oracle 19c. So see our collection of Some very important MOS Notes when you upgrade and patch below.

Some very important MOS Note when you upgrade and patch

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Why do you need patch bundles?

At first, it is always our recommendation to upgrade to the most recent Release Update (RU). This is currently Oracle 19.11.0 while I’m …

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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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 when you provision a new home with OUI…

Important Recommended Patches for Oracle Database 19c

Posted on February 23, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 18

It took a while – but now you can find a new MyOracle Support (MOS) Note with a list of Important Recommended Patches for Oracle Database 19c. It is actually a must-read, regardless whether you are upgrading or migration to 19c, or in case you are already on 19c.

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What do you get?

Please check MOS Note: 2720807.1 – Oracle Database 19c Important Recommended One-off Patches. It gives you a list of important fixes for Oracle Database 19c. In the initial version of the note you could select for each available Release …

JDK patching happens with every RU since January 2020

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 27

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 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 …

Update (RU) 19.3.0 withdrawn and superseded with 19.3.1

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 8

Actually I really refused to blog about this for a few weeks now. But as I receive more questions and read more tweets, I think I need to shed some light and help avoiding confusion. And as readmes and MOS notes are not entirely in sync, you may get confused if you don’t read the “correct” document.

Update (RU) 19.3.0 withdrawn and superseded with 19.3.1

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Oracle 19.3.0 Update (RU)

In April, Oracle released the 19.3.0 Release Update (RU) on Linux and Solaris only. As you can read in my blog post from April 25, 2019, this is a patch bundle meant for …

Why you should set _EXCLUDE_SEED_CDB_VIEW=FALSE

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Single-/Multitenant 3

Why you should set _EXCLUDE_SEED_CDB_VIEW=FALSE

There usually a philosophic battle happening when it comes to underscore parameters. The official statement is more or less: It’s an underscore, hence it is undocumented and you shouldn’t touch it unless Oracle Support advises you to do so. I agree in many cases. But in this specific one, I don’t. And in this post I will explain why you should set _EXCLUDE_SEED_CDB_VIEW=FALSE in all your singe- and Multitenant environments. Always!

A bit of history

At first, a little bit of a history excursion. This parameter wasn’t an underscore in Oracle 12.1. You can find it as EXCLUDE_SEED_CDB_VIEW in 12.1.0.1 …

Why Release Update Revisions (RUR) are tricky

Posted on November 8, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Patch Recommendation 12

A while ago we introduced Release Updates (RU) and Release Update Revisions (RUR). And despite the fact that not only we but also well known external experts such as Ludovico Caldara recommend to stay with Release Updates and simply ignore the Revisions, some people use them. There may be reasons for doing so. But in this blog post I will explain why Release Update Revisions (RUR) are tricky.

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Differences between Updates and Revisions?

I tried to explain the differences between Updates and Revisions a while ago – and also compare them to PSUs and …

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

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 …

Recommendation

Patching process changes with MRPs

Before …

ORA-13516 “CATPROC not valid” during datapatch or autoupgrade to 19.18.0

What is the symptom?

Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again

What is in the Data Pump Bundle Patch?

Should you enable _fix_controls with DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE?

DBMS_OPTIM_BUNDLE – a quick recap

Some very important MOS Notes when you upgrade and patch

Why do you need patch bundles?

Patching all my environments with the April 2021 Patch Bundles

JDK patching happens with every RU since January 2020

JDK who?

Patching all my environments with the Oct 2019 Patch Bundles

Update (RU) 19.3.0 withdrawn and superseded with 19.3.1

Oracle 19.3.0 Update (RU)

Why you should set _EXCLUDE_SEED_CDB_VIEW=FALSE

A bit of history

Why Release Update Revisions (RUR) are tricky

Differences between Updates and Revisions?

July 2018 Update, Revision, BP and PSU

July 2018 Update, Revision, BP and PSU

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

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

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