Applying patches

• Find the patches on Metalink under the tab "Patches & Updates"

I find it easier to click the "Recommended Patch Advisor" tab and fill in the 3 fields. This will then find all relevant patches.

• After choosing the correct product, release and platform, click on the desired patch.
• Click on and read the README to understand if there are any special circumstances.
• Click on Download to download the patch.
• Copy the zip file to a place accessible to the server to be patched. Could be directly to the server, an NFS mount etc.

Opatch

As Oracle software owner:

export ORACLE_BASE=/oracle/product
export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/bin:$PATH

Get the patch zip file and unzip it to the OPatch directory

cd /oracle/stage/112_64/11203
oracle@solax042:/oracle/stage/112_64/11203> ll
total 15232
drwxr-xr-x   12 oracle   dba            1024 May 04 00:49 .
drwxrwxr-x   11 oracle   dba            1024 Jun 25 17:38 ..
drwxr-xr-x    4 oracle   oinstall        512 Jan 13 2012  13443029
drwxr-xr-x    4 oracle   oinstall        512 May 21 2012  13947840
drwxrwxr-x   29 oracle   oinstall       1024 Dec 27 2012  14841409
drwxrwxr-x   33 oracle   oinstall       1024 Mar 20 08:52 16294378
oracle@solax042:/oracle/stage/112_64/11203> cp -rp 16294378 $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch
oracle@solax042:/oracle/stage/112_64/11203> cd $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch

Test the patch installation

oracle@solax042:/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/OPatch> cd 16294378
oracle@solax042:/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/OPatch/16294378> opatch napply -skip_subset -skip_duplicate -report -invPtrLoc $ORACLE_BASE/oraInst.loc
Invoking OPatch 11.2.0.1.7
...

Install the patch for real

oracle@solax042:/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/OPatch/16294378> opatch napply -skip_subset -skip_duplicate -invPtrLoc $ORACLE_BASE/oraInst.loc
...
Patching component oracle.rdbms, 11.2.0.3.0...

Patching component oracle.rdbms.rsf, 11.2.0.3.0...
Applying interim patch '16314467' to OH '/oracle/product/11.2.0.3'
ApplySession: Optional component(s) [ oracle.network.cman, 11.2.0.3.0 ]  not present in the Oracle Home or a higher version is found.

Patching component oracle.network.listener, 11.2.0.3.0...

Patching component oracle.network.rsf, 11.2.0.3.0...

Patching component oracle.rdbms, 11.2.0.3.0...

Patching component oracle.rdbms.rsf, 11.2.0.3.0...
Applying interim patch '16314468' to OH '/oracle/product/11.2.0.3'

Patching component oracle.ovm, 11.2.0.3.0...
Applying interim patch '16314469' to OH '/oracle/product/11.2.0.3'

Patching component oracle.rdbms, 11.2.0.3.0...
Applying interim patch '16314470' to OH '/oracle/product/11.2.0.3'

Patching component oracle.sdo.locator, 11.2.0.3.0...
Patches 13742433,13742434,13742435,13742436,13742438,13742464,14062792,14062794,14062795,14062796,14062797,14480674,14480675,14480676,14548763,14664355,15862016,15862017,15862018,15862019,15862020,15862021,15862022,15862023,15862024,16294378,16314466,16314467,16314468,16314469,16314470 successfully applied.
Log file location: /oracle/product/11.2.0.3/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch2013-07-12_17-45-41PM.log

OPatch succeeded.