Patching on OEM 12c.

Overview :

Below sketch describe the overall workflow of the patch management solution offered throughout the
integrated functionality within the Cloud Control.

Step 1 : Setup Infrastructure Meet the prerequisites and set up the infrastructure for rolling out patches. Essentially,
create admin roles for creating Patch Plans and Patch Templates, meet other mandatory and optional prerequisites, make
online or offline patching settings.

Step 2 : Identify Patches - View the recommendations made by Oracle on the patches to be applied, and identify the ones
you want to apply.

Step 3: Applying Patches - Create patch plans with patches and associated targets, perform prerequisite checks, analyze
the patches for conflicts and resolve the issues, and then save the successfully analyzed plan as a patch template. Then, create
a new patch plan out of the patch template and use that to deploy the patches in your environment.

.. need to update with the roles and privileges by setting up the user.

Supported Patching Mode.

Online Mode : It is use Cloud Control can connect to My Oracle Support using the internet connectio n. This is the
defualt mode. Using this mode,we can see recommendations from Oracle for the patches to be applied, and
manually search patches directly on My Oracle Support and add them to your patch plan. In addition, you can
access community information, knowledge articles, service requests, and so on, and also automatically resolve
patch conflicts with a merge patch directly from My Oracle Support.
Offline Mode: Offline Mode is useful when Cloud Control cannot connect to My Oracle Support. Using this
mode, you can search patches that were manually uploaded to the Software Library, and add them to
your patch plan.

Restriction on Offline Mode:

1) Search and download patches from My Oracle Support

2) View additional information about the patch
3) Access community information, knowledge articles, service requests
4) View the Related Activity region

Navigation : Setup Menu -> Provisioning and Patching -> Offline Patching.

Downloading Enterprise Manager Catalog Zip File From Another Host With Internet Connectivity

Click on the link https://updates.oracle.com/download/em_catelog.zip

Click Browse to specify the location of the latest em_catalog.zip file.

Uploading Enterprise Manager Catalog Zip File from your Host With No Internet Connectivity

Click Upload to upload the file to the Management Repository.

On clicking Upload, a Refresh From My Oracle Support job is created and submitted to the Enterprise Manager job system.

Uploading OPatch Patches to Oracle Software Library

For patching targets in offline mode, you must have already stored the patches and their metadata files in Software Library so that
they can be searched, selected, and added to the patch plans from Software Library. For this purpose, you must first manually
download the patches and their metadata files from My Oracle Support, and then upload them to the Software Library.

Software Library maintains entities that represent software patches, virtual appliance images, reference gold images, application
software and their associated directive scripts. You can pick any of the Oracle-supplied entities, customize them or create a custom
one of your own. Once defined, these reusable entities can be referenced from a Deployment Procedure to automate the patching,
provisioning, or deployment of the associated software.

We are creating a custom one of your own.

Created a directory structure to store the files.

After downloading the CPU Patches(From https:// support.oracle.com) copied to the location and unzip it.
Navigation: Setup Menu -> Provisioning and Patching -> Software Library

Click on ADD to create a Software Library

In the below screen you will see that a new Software Library is created.
Uploading Patches to Software Library Using the Cloud Control Console

There are 2 methods of uploading the to Software Library, ie. Using Cloud Control Console and EM CLI. Generally EM CLI is by
recommended by oracle if the patch size is huge and for multiple patches and it is faster. However we will discuss about the Cloud
Control Console method only.

Navigation: Enterprise Menu | Provisioning and Patching | Saved Patches

Click on Upload.

For Patch Zip File, specify the location of the patch zip file you downloaded onto your local host. If the patch zip file you
downloaded contains the PatchSearch.xml file (a file containing patch metadata information such as patch ID, product, platform,
language etc.), you do not need to specify a value for Patch Metadata. However, if the patch zip file you downloaded does not
contain the PatchSearch.xml file, and you downloaded the patch metadata file onto your local host separately, for Patch Metadata,
specify the location of the patch metadata file.

On a Unix based operating system, run the following command to verify whether the PatchSearch.xml file is contained within a
patch zip file:

unzip -l <patch zip file path> | grep PatchSearch.xml

Similarly if we have any other patch we need to upload that also.

Note: By using Cloud Control Console we can upload single patch at a time.

Looking at the below screen we have uploaded the patches 18139695 (DB CPU APR 2014) and 17631895 APPS patch.
Analyzing the Environment and Identifying Whether Your Targets Can Be Patched

Before creating a patch plan to patch your targets, Oracle recommends that you view the patchability reports to analyze the
environment and identify whether the targets you want to patch are suitable for a patching operation. These reports provide a
summary of your patchable and non patchable targets, and help you create deployable patch plans. They identify the problems with
the targets that cannot be patched in your setup and provide recommendations for them.

Patchability reports are available for Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, and Oracle SOA Infrastructure targets.

Navigation: Enterprise Menu -> Reports -> Information Publisher Reports

Click on Explan All

To view the patchability report for Oracle Database targets, under the Deployment and Configuration branch, and the Patching
Automation Reports sub branch, select EM Target Patchability Report.

To view the patchability report for Oracle Fusion Middleware (Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle SOA Infrastructure) targets,
under the Deployment and Configuration branch, and the Patching Automation Reports sub branch, click EM FMW Target
Patchability Report.

Applying Patches

Create the Patch Plan

Navigation: Enterprise menu -> Provisioning and Patching -> Patches & Updates.
On the Patch Recommendations page or on the Patch Search page (depending on how you identified the patch), select a patch you
want to add to the Patch Plan.

From the context menu, click Add to Plan, and select Add to New.
In the Create a New Plan window, enter a unique name for your Patch Plan, and click Create Plan.

To access the Patch Plan ; Accessing Patch Plan from Plans Region
Navigation: Enterprise menu->Provisioning and Patching -> Patches & Updates
In the Overview section, validate the Patch Plan name. You can choose to edit it if you want.

On the Patches page, do the following:

Review the patches added to the patch plan. Any recommended patches for your configuration are automatically added to the
patch plan. In addition, any patches that you added manually are listed.
On the Deployment Options page, do the following:

In the Where to Stage section, select one of the following options:

Yes, if you want the wizard to stage the patches from the Software Library to a temporary location on the target host, before the
patch is applied on the target. By default, the wizard stages the patches to a default location on the target host, but if you want to
change the location, you can enter a location where the patch can be staged. The patches are staged to the default or specified
temporary location using SSH.

No, if you have already manually staged the patches to a temporary location accessible to the target host. This can even be a shared,
NFS-mounted location. In this case, ensure that you download the patch you want to apply.
In the How to Patch section, select one of the following:

For standalone (single-instance) database targets, Oracle RAC targets, and Oracle Grid Infrastructure targets you have a choice
between in-place patching and out-of-place patching. Out-of-place patching is available for Oracle RAC targets and Oracle Grid
Infrastructure targets that are not a part of Oracle Exadata, only if you have the 12.1.0.5 Enterprise Manager for Oracle Database
plug-in deployed. Select an option that suits your requirement:
In Place, if you want to directly patch the existing original Oracle home of the target without cloning the original Oracle home.

Out of Place, if you want to clone the existing Oracle home of the database and patch the cloned Oracle home instead of the original
Oracle home.

Note: For Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Fusion Applications, and Oracle SOA Infrastructure targets, the only patching
mechanism offered is in-place patching. Out-of-place patching is not offered for these targets.

If you have selected out-of-place patching, then click Create New Location against the Oracle home that you want to clone, then
enter the path to a location that is empty and has write permission. You can clone the Oracle home to any directory on the host
where the target is being patched. After providing a location, if you want to change it, click Edit.

If you have selected in-place patching, then review the details of the Oracle homes that will be patched. By default, all of the
database instances are migrated.
Issues : Unable to validate the patch plan due to wrong OPatch version.

Solution: Downloaded and uploaded the correct OPatch version ( 11.2.0.3.6) patch no 6880880 which is common for all the
version of OPatch.

Issue: Unable to upload the patch files.

Reason : Cant remove the patch upload files from OS Level directly. Need to remove it from front end and do the Removed and
Migrate Option.

Note: if we set the MOS in offline mode we will get the below message to enable the online we need to