VARIOUS TYPES OF PATCHES IN ORACLE

VARIOUS TYPES OF PATCHES IN ORACLE

this post is all about the various types of patches available in oracle and the various methods of applying those patches,the various types of patches in oracle are as follows:-

1)CPU = Critical Patch Update, quarterly delivered to fix security issues. Critical Patch Updates are sets of patches containing fixes for security flaws in Oracle products. The Critical Patch Update program (CPU) was introduced in January 2005 to provide security fixes on a fixed, publicly available schedule to help customers lower their security management costs. As of January 2011, Oracle Critical Patch Updates for products other than Java Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition, are released at 1 p.m. Pacific Time on the Tuesday closest to the 17th day of the months of January, April, July and October. Starting each quarter, Oracle Critical Patch Updates (CPU) will now contain both the PSU and CPU, so the DBA may choose to apply a whole CPU or only the selected patches in  the PSU patch bundle

     2)PSU = PatchSet Update, also quarterly delivered, it includes CPU and a bunch of other one-off patches. The naming conventions for CPU and PSU is the last-order digit, so it's easy to see of you are patching with CPU or PSU:

CPU = 10.2.0.4.1
PSU = 10.2.0.4.2

Also, the PSU supports Oracle's zero-downtime patching, a method for RAC databases whereby each node is patched independently with no downtime

Note that  OPATCH is required for installation of PSU

3) One-off patches =One-off patch is single fix, to fix a particular issue.

4) Upgrade patches= These are the patches which are basically used for the upgradation

NOTE:- As of 14 July 2009, Oracle is now introducing a new method for patching, patch set updates, or PSU. According to MOSC notes 854428.1 and 850471.1, Oracle PSU is a new patching strategy whereby the DBA can choose only "recommended" and "proactive" patches, instead of all of the patches in a quarterly Critical Patch Update (CPU). MOS note also mentioned that the Patch Set Updates and Critical Patch Updates that are released each quarter contain the same security fixes

METHODS OF APPLICATION OF VARIOUS PATCHES

1  1)      PSU (PatchSet Update) -Applying a patchset usually requires the use of the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) and then running a script inside each database using that ORACLE_HOME. When you download the patchset, it will be accompanied by a detailed, step-by-step guide for how to apply the patchset.

    2) Using Opatch-The OPatch utility is a tool that allows the application and rollback of interim patches to Oracle products. The various Opatch commands are as follows.

• apply Command
• napply Command
• auto Command
• lsinventory Command
• query Command
• rollback Command
• version Command

OPatch Utility Basic Syntax

The OPatch utility is located in the <Path_to_Oracle_Home>/OPatch directory. You can run it with various commands and options. The following command shows the syntax for the OPatch utility:

<Path_to_OPatch>/opatch <command> [-options]

In the preceding command, the following variables are used:

• command: The OPatch command.
• options: The command-line arguments for the command.