Managing Patches

What is OPatch?

• Applying an interim patch.
• Rolling back the application of an interim patch.
• Detecting conflict when applying an interim patch after previous interim patches have been applied. It also suggests the best options to resolve a conflict.
• Reporting on installed products and interim patch.

Prior to release 10.2 (OPatch for 10.2 is only compatible with 10.2 and nothing earlier), OPatch was available from MetaLink as a patch in and of itself (p2617419_10102_GENERIC.zip for release 10.1.0.2). With 10.2, OPatch is installed as part of the RDBMS software.

Opatch has several options to execute it:

• "lsinventory" = Adding the lsinventory option to opatch produces a report saying the patches that were applied
• "-report" = Will report to screen and will NOT apply the real patch. Using "-report" is a good way of performing nondestructive testing of the patch installation process.
• "rollback"= Will undo the patch that was applied. Example: opatch rollback –id 4667809

Applying a patch is simple as:

• opatch lsinventory    -> To see he list of patches already installed
• opatch apply <patchid>     --> To REALLY aplply the patch

Steps to get Opatch (probably not needed, 1 time only)
From a command prompt:
    ftp updates.oracle.com (metalink username and password)
    ftp> bin
        ## For 9i R2(9.2.x) and 10GR1(10.1.x)
    ftp> cd /2617419
    ftp> get p2617419_10102_GENERIC.zip
    ftp> quit
        ## For 10GR2(10.2.x) ftp> cd /4898608
    ftp> cd 4898608
    ftp> get p4898608_10202_GENERIC.zip
    ftp> quit

Opatch Installation (probably not needed, 1 time only)
## For 9i R2(9.2.x) and 10GR1(10.1.x)
Then upload or move the p2617419_10102_GENERIC.zip to ORACLE_HOME and uncompress it. Example:
    % mv p2617419_10102_GENERIC.zip $ORACLE_HOME
    % cd $ORACLE_HOME
    % unzip p2617419_10102_GENERIC.zip
.......
........
% cd OPatch
% opatch version
PERL5LIB=/oracle/V920/Apache/perl/lib/5.00503:./perl_modules; export PERL5LIB
/oracle/V920/Apache/perl/bin/perl ./opatch.pl version
./opatch.pl version: 1.0.0.0.49

## For 10GR2(10.2.x)
% mv p4898608_10202_GENERIC.zip $ORACLE_HOME
% cd $ORACLE_HOME
% unzip p4898608_10202_GENERIC.zip
.....
.....
% cd OPatch
% opatch version
Invoking OPatch 10.2.0.2.1
OPatch Version: 10.2.0.2.1

Finally, you can set the Opatch directory in your PATH variable so you can execute the opatchcommand from anywhere. Example:
For Korn / Bourne shell
% export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/Opatch

For C Shell
% setenv PATH $PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/Opatch

Opatch Post-installation (post-deinstallation) steps (probably not needed, 1 time only)

Don't forget to check the readme file for post-installation/deinstallation steps. In general, the post-installation steps require running of the catcpu.sql script, followed by using the utlprp.sql script used to recompile invalid objects. Is that SQL script named utlrp or utlprp? In this case, the README file says utlprp, whose function is essentially the same as that of utlrp. What is the difference between the scripts? As it turns out, utlrp simply calls utlprp. The deinstallation tasks are nearly identical, with the main difference being that you use the catcpu_rollback SQL script.

For Patch 4667809, the catcpu/catcpu_rollback scripts are related to applying and unapplying changes related to the OWA toolkit (OWA = Oracle Web Agent, which uses modplsql, which uses PL/SQL to generate dynamic Web pages, and that's why you see modplsql in the patch-related files folders).

Example Applying Patch 4751921
After the Patch is Installed:
1.Log in as sys as sysdba.
2. cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
3. spool catpatch_database_name
4. shutdown immediate
5. startup migrate
6. @catpatch.sql   ( this takes at least 1 hour ). After catpatch completed,
7. select object_name,owner from dba_objects where ststus='INVALID';
( YOU WILL GET BETWEEN 230-3300 INVALID OBJECTS , DON'T PANIC )
8. @utlrp.sql
9.select object_name,owner from dba_objects where ststus='INVALID';   ( YOU WILL GET near 0 invalid objects )
10. shutdown immediate;
11. startup

Listing Patches

One other useful Opatch feature

Along with the log and inventory files, Opatch output includes a history file, which contains date and action performed information. The history file is named opatch_history.txt and is located in the $OH\cfgtools\opatch directory. As an example of its contents, the "rollback –help" action performed earlier was recorded as:

Date & Time : Sun Dec 18 12:00:50 MST 2005
Oracle Home : C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1
OPatch Ver. : 10.2.0.1.0
Current Dir : C:\
Command     : rollback -help
Log File    : $OH\cfgtoollogs\opatch\opatch-<date>.log

So, as yet another way to answer the "what patches are installed" question, you can use the OPatch history file.