Oracle EBS 12.2 Online Patching

Refer :http://www.strsoftware.com/blog/oracle-ebs-12-2-online-patching-first-glance Anyone that’s been following the release of 12.2 knows that Online Patching is the BIG feature that everyone is talking about. I’ve had the opportunity to utilize this new functionality and it’s been quite interesting. Online Patching is based on the Oracle Database 11.2 feature called Edition-Based Redefinition. The patch process has completely changed. There is now a patch edition and a run edition in the database. Additionally, the filesystem itself has 2 editions, a patch and run edition (there’s also one other filesystem that is non-editioned). There are 5 major steps in the patching process. Prepare – Creates the patch edition. Apply – Applies the patches to the patch edition Finalize – Ensures the system is ready for cut over (from patch to run edition) Cutover – This is where the patch edition becomes the run edition. Cleanup – Removes unnecessary code from obsolete editions. Steps 1-3 can be run while users are actively using the system. All of the patching is done in the patch edition of both the database and file system. Users essentially have no clue that patching is happening. Step 4 does require users to be booted off the system as the physical cutover is performed making the patch edition the new run edition, but this time should be nominal as all of the time consuming patching has already occurred in Steps 1-3. Additionally, the cutover process can be scheduled anytime after steps 1-3. For example you could take care of Steps 1-3 and then wait a week for an optimal time to run the actual cutover itself. Step 5 also does not require the system to be down and can be run anytime after the cutover and before the next prepare phase. One of the features of EBR is the ability to have certain users using the new functionality while other users use the old, non patched functionality. I was pretty excited about this. What a great way to test patches in the wild right? Give access to some power users to the patch edition and let them have it to really test it out. Unfortunately, this particular feature of EBR does not seem to be available in the online patching functionality of EBS. Users are quarantined to the RUN edition only. This new patching methodology is going to be mean changes for a lot of people. Both 3rd parties like STR Software that have bolt on products and individual companies that are maintaining customizations will require modifications to their code base to support Online Patching. I am currently going through the process of determining what those changes are and what they mean to our product and installation/upgrade scripts. I will likely have more comments on that subject once I’m further along in my investigation! For now, if you’ve been maintaining and patching previous versions of EBS and you are moving to 12.2, I would highly recommend that you thoroughly read the Oracle EBS Concepts Guide and Oracle EBS Maintenance Guide focusing on the patching and filesystem sections as everything has changed. It will give you a good primer as to what you are in for! Please watch the below youtube video whihc will give you more information about 12.2 Patching .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXLkna6GbQY adop phase=prepare Note:‐ In case, the previous patch cycle did not complete its cleanup phas, The new adop prepare phase will execute the clean‐up phase of previous cycle, if needed, and then proceed with preparing the new patch edition for new Online patching cycle. Create a new database patch edition Synchronize the file system patch edition with the run edition Configure the patch edition for use by the patching tools File system synchronization may be done by applying the delta (changes) from the previous patching cycle, or by re‐creating the entire patch edition file system as a fresh copy of the run edition (called "fs_clone"). When complete, check the exiting status code (success is '0'): adop exiting with status = 0 (Success) Once prepare phase is complete, the database and file system patch edition will contain a copy of the run edition code and seed data. 2) Apply ‐ apply ARU or manual patches to the patch edition. Below steps can be followed for ARU Patches Download the patch bundle from ARU from metalink. SCP the ZIP files in the "fs_ne/EBSapps/patch" directory on the Middle‐tier Use "adop phase=apply" command for patch application. >adop phase=apply patches=12345678 ... adop phase=apply patches=12345678,12312345 ... Below steps can be followed for Manual Patches. Manual patching is similar to our old R12.1 or 11i methods but the only difference being that the update happens in the patch edition only. Copy patch files to their destination directories in the patch edition. Execute any commands necessary to deploy changes to the file system. Execute any commands necessary to deploy changes to the database Update the custom synchronization driver to include any file system actions that must be executed again on the next prepare phase, in order to synchronize the alternate file system. Note:‐ The above steps can be automated using code migration tools like HP PPM Kintana or Dell Stat or Any other tools. My Favourite is HP PPM tool  (Its deployment module). 3) Finalize ‐ perform any actions required to prepare for cutover.  The finalize phase is used by the Online Patching system to perform any final actions needed to make the system ready for the fastest possible cutover. The finalize command is run as follows: [ajithpathiyil1:ajithebs:applmgr]> adop phase=finalize The finalize command should not have any error, In case of error, the system is not ready for cutover  After successful completion of the finalize phase, the system is ready for cutover Note:‐ We do not need to execute the cutover immediately; Cutover can be delayed until a convenient time in the future. In the meantime, We may also apply additional patches if needed, but you will need to run the finalize phase again after doing so. 4) Cutover ‐ Promote Patch Edition to be the new Run Edition.  The cutover phase will configure the patch edition to become the new run edition, and restart the application on this new run edition. Note:‐ Since the run/patch designation of the dual file systems are swapped during cutover, you must re‐source the run edition environment directly after cutover. adop phase=cutover ... ]> . /u02/app/applmgr/120//EBSapps.env run EBusiness Suite Environment Information RUN File System : /u02/app/applmgr/120//fs1/EBSapps/appl PATCH File System : /u02/app/applmgr/120//fs2/EBSapps/appl NonEditioned File System : /u02/app/applmgr/120/ajithebs/fs_ne DB Host: abc.lab.com Service/SID: abcebs Sourcing the RUN File System ... 5) Cleanup ‐ remove obsolete code and data from old editions. The cleanup phase will remove unnecessary code and data from old editions that are no longer needed by the running application. Cleanup should be run after cutover, at any time before the next prepare phase. It is best to run cleanup immediately after cutover so that there is no delay when preparing the next online patching cycle. There are two levels of cleanup available: quick ‐ the minimal cleanup required before starting the next patching cycle. full ‐ removes all obsolete code and data to recover maximum free space. Quick cleanup is the default, and is all that is necessary after normal patching.