Update

Oracle Security Alerts for July 2019 got published

It’s patching day. And I’m already downloading the patch bundles for all my installations (11.2.0.4, 12.1.0.2, 12.2.0.1, 18c and 19c). The Oracle Security Alerts for July 2019 got published today.

Oracle Security Alerts for July 2019 got published

Patch Advisory and Risk Matrix

You can find the July 2019 Patch Advisory here. I checked the risk matrix for the database. It contains 8 new fixes for the database server. Please pay attention that 3 of the vulnerabilities may be exploitable from a client without an Oracle Database server being installed. The highest score is 9.8.

Please check the risk matrix by yourself:

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Oracle Database 19c (19.3.0) for Linux is available for download

Oracle Database 19c (19.3.0) for Linux is available for download as of now from OTN and eDelivery. For those of you who started with Oracle Database 19.2 already, the Updates (RU) 19.3.0 for the database and GI are available as well for Linux and Solaris.

Oracle Database 19c on premises for Linux

You can download Oracle Database 19.3.0 on-prem for Linux now from the usual sources:

The download offering includes the zip, the RPM for the database, and Grid Infrastructure, the Client and more.

Oracle Database 19c (19.3.0) for Linux is available for download

The other ports will follow soon.

Oracle 19c Documentation

And of course …

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Does OJVM patching require a specific Database Release Update?

This question came up several times in the past days: Does OJVM patching require a specific Database Release Update? People mentioned that there’s a significant difference between the OJVM Patch Readme between Oracle 12.2.01 and Oracle 18.4.0.

Photo by Jimmy Ofisia on Unsplash

What’s the point?

In the OJVM (Oracle Java Virtual Machine) Patch Readme for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 a sentence clarified that you can combine different states of OJVM and Database patch bundle with each other. Your database home could have been patched with the April 2018 Update, whereas you decided to apply the October 2018 OJVM patch.

The …

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Why Release Update Revisions (RUR) are tricky

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.

Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

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 …

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Why is the October Patch Bundle from July?

Strange blog headline, isn’t it? Intentionally. Peter Lehmann mailed me a question – and asked more or less: Why is the October Patch Bundle from July? Sounds strange? It is strange …

Strange notation

Peter wanted to download the most recent patch bundle for Grid Infrastructure from October. And he found patch 28507693:

But he was wondering about the headline having the date of October 18, 2018 together with JUL 2018.

Why is the October Patch Bundle from July?

How does this make sense??

Flashback

When you flash back to the day when we introduced “Updates” (RU) and “Revisions” (RUR) you may remember that we release quarterly “Updates” …

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

Patching my databases with the July 2018 PSU, BP and RUAs 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 …

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July 2018 Update, Revision, BP and PSU

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:

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When you patch, please use UPDATES – and not REVISIONS

I can just repeat what I’m saying not for almost a year: When you patch, please use UPDATES – and not REVISIONS. Updates (or Release Updates – short: RU) and Revisions (or Release Update Revisions – short: RUR) are patch bundles for the Oracle Database since Oracle 12.2.0.1. There are no PSUs (Patch Set Updates) anymore. And Revisions are not the same as PSUs.

When you patch, please use UPDATES – and not REVISIONS

One of the reasons why we recommend Updates, and not Revisions, simply is: Updates keep you more current whereas Revisions will let you miss a lot …

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Patching to Oracle 18.2.0 in the Oracle Cloud (OCI Classic)

Patching to Oracle 18.2.0 in the Oracle Cloud (OCI Classic)I was quite surprised when I spotted the Update (RU) Oracle 18.2.0 mid of April in my OCI Classic (DBCS, DBaaS) account. Of course I was thrilled immediately and started the patching to Oracle 18.2.0 in the Oracle Cloud (OCI Classic).

Patching to Oracle 18.2.0 in the Oracle Cloud (OCI Classic)

The April 2018 Updates (and Bundle Patches and Patch Set Updates for Oracle releases below 12.2) got released on April 17, 2018. You can read more here on how I applied all of them to my Oracle 11.2.0.4, 12.1.0.2 and 12.2.0.1 databases. But I was positively surprised when …

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

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 – …

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

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 …

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January 2018 Database RU and RUR got released

It’s patching time again. The January 2018 Database RU and RUR got released. And of course other patch bundles as well. And of course not only for the database but for many other products as well. I try to summarize below the most important information and links.

January 2018 Database RU and RUR got released

First of all always have a look at the Critical Patch Alert and the Risk Matrix:

Then you’ll see that there are three fixes included for vulnerabilities which may be remotely exploitable without authentication, …

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