Types of Patches

Patches:-

Types of Patches:-

1)  Interim Patch (Old Name - One off Patch):- A patch containing one or more fixes made available to customers who cannot wait until the next patch set or new product release to get a fix.

2)  SPU Patch (Old Name – CPU):- An iterative, cumulative patch consisting of security fixes. Formerly known as Critical Patch Update. 

3)  Patch set Update (PSU):- A quarterly patch that contains the most critical fixes for the applicable product, allowing customers to apply one patch to avoid many problems. The key with PSUs is they are minor version upgrades (e.g., 11.2.0.1.1 to 11.2.0.1.2)

4) Overlay Patch:-When a one-off interim patch conflicts with a PSU, an overlay patch is required. This is basically a merge of the patch you want and the PSU.

5) Overlay PSU: - During the lifecycle of a patchset, PSUs will normally be released every quarter. As the patchset reaches maturity it would be expected that there are less critical bugs which can be considered as candidates for inclusion in PSUs. At some point the number of bug fixes included in each PSU will reach a low enough number that it is no longer considered worthwhile to make the PSU cumulative. At this point the previous PSU becomes a baseline and all future PSUs are released as “overlay PSUs”. An example of this is 10.2.0.4.4 which is the last base PSU for the 10.2.0.4 patchset. From 10.2.0.4.5 all PSUs are overlay PSUs, which means that in order to install, for example, 10.2.0.4.10, the user must first install 10.2.0.4.4 and then install 10.2.0.4.10 on top. The overlay PSU is cumulative down to the base PSU, which means that by installing 10.2.0.4.4 the user automatically gets all of the fixes in 10.2.0.4.3 and below, then by installing 10.2.0.4.10 all of the fixes in 10.2.0.4.9 down to 10.2.0.4.5 are also included. If a conflict were to occur between an interim patch and the overlay PSU then a merge of the overlay PSU would be required. For example, if patch 999999 conflicted with 10.2.0.4.10 then the user would install 10.2.0.4.4 as usual and then require a merge overlay patch of 10.2.0.4.10 merged with 999999.

Composite Patching:-

Composite patching was not there before below release. Composite Patching started for PSU/Cumulative patches after below release.

11.2.0.3.2(Base release 11.2.0.3)    & 11.2.0.2.7(Base release 11.2.0.2)

Drawbacks when composite patching was not there:-

1) Applying a newer version of the cumulative/PSU patch causes the original patch to be rolled back. This has a performance impact of doubling the time to apply a patch (the rollback plus the application of the new patch).

2) The new cumulative content is difficult to identify using current OPatch inventory support, the patch is treated as a single large patch and will not identify the new bug fix content

3) Any applied conflict resolution patches must be recreated, rolled back and reinstalled for the new cumulative patch version.

4) Each conflict is resolved by creating an overlay patch matching the version of the cumulative patch being installed. Unless the fix is included in a later cumulative patch, the overlay patch must be re-created for every subsequent cumulative patch being applied.

Pros in composite patching:-

1) A packaging format used for Cumulative patches

2) Eliminates the need to roll back previously applied Composite patch releases

3) Reduces the need to roll back previously applied overlay patches

4) Improves patch apply performance.

5) A composite patch is constructed of one or more sub-patches, the sub-patches are installed separately with the most recent sub-patch being named the composite patch. You can imagine a composite patch as a wedding cake, where the whole wedding cake would be termed the composite and each tiered cake would be termed the sub-patch. 

e.g.

·         A new version of a composite patch will always include the previous releases (sub-patches).

·         If no prior composite patch was installed all sub-patches contained in the composite patch will be installed

·         If prior sub-patches are installed, only the new sub-patches of the composite patch will be installed and will not roll back the prior sub-patch(es) installed

·         The composite patch will appear in the inventory as one patch installed with sub-patches. In the example below, composite patch 11.2.0.3.2 is installed:

Interim patches (1) :

Patch 13545268: applied on Fri Dec 09 10:59:28 EST 2011

Patch Description: "Database Patch Set Update : 11.2.0.3.2 (13545268)"

  Created on 2 July 2012, 07:52:00 hrs PST8PDT

Sub-patch 13343438; "Database Patch Set Update : 11.2.0.3.1 (13343438)"

  Bugs fixed:

    9275072, 9352237 ...

When a later composite patch is installed, the inventory will reflect the new composite patch number as the patch installed, and the previously installed composite patches as sub-patches. In the example above, composite patch 11.2.0.3.2 is installed. In the example below, Composite patch 11.2.0.3.3 was installed on top of 11.2.0.3.2

Patch 13795248 : applied on Fri Dec 10 10:00:28 EST 2011

Patch Description: "Database Patch Set Update : 11.2.0.3.3 (13795248)"

  Created on 2 July 2012, 07:52:00 hrs PST8PDT

Sub-patch 13545268; "Database Patch Set Update : 11.2.0.3.2 (13545268)"

Sub-patch 13343438; "Database Patch Set Update : 11.2.0.3.1 (13343438)"

  Bugs fixed:

    9275072, 9352237 ...

Conflict Resolution with composite patches:-

Composite patches have been designed to greatly reduce the need to recreate overlay patches each time a new Composite Patch is released.

·         Conflicts can occur for any sub-patch of a Composite patch.

·         Resolutions to conflicts will be against the specific sub-patch that is conflicting.

Scenario 1    - a sub-patch conflicts with a patch already installed:

11.2.0.3.1 is installed

Patch 12646784 is installed

When installing 11.2.0.3.3 (13795248) , the 11.2.0.3.2 sub-patch (13696216) shows to conflict with 12646784

Composite Patch 13795248 conflicts with installed patch(es) 12646784

Conflict Description:

Here are the specific sub-patches of composite patch 13795248 that conflict with 12646784

Sub-Patch 13696216 conflicts with 12646784

Conflict Remedy:

Refer to My Oracle Support Note 1299688.1 for instructions on resolving patch conflicts.

                    

Resolution:

Rollback the conflict (12646784)

Install 11.2.0.3.3 PSU

Install an 11.2.0.3.2 version of 12646784

 Scenario 2 - a new patch being installed conflicts with a sub-patch of a composite patch already installed:

11.2.0.3.3 (13795248)  is installed

Installing patch 12646784 shows to conflict with the sub-patch 11.2.0.3.2

For example:

Patch 12646784 conflicts with the composite patch 13795248 (specifically, sub-patch(es) 13696216). Please refer to the following to resolve the conflict(s): Patch conflict resolution (Doc ID 1299688.1)

Resolution: install the 11.2.0.3.2 version of 12646784

Imp documents:-

Composite Patches for Oracle Products [Video] (Doc ID 1376691.1)

Patch Set Updates - One-off Patch Conflict Resolution (Doc ID 1061295.1)

Quick Reference to Patch Numbers for Database PSU, SPU(CPU), Bundle Patches and Patchsets (Doc ID 1454618.1)

http://flashdba.com/database/all-about-patching/