A big part of an Apps DBA's job is patching, so I know the Patch Wizard in Oracle Applications Manager is something about which you have a few opinions. These opinions are sometimes expressed in energetic and colorful language. It's clear that some of you feel strongly about this area.
- Patch Wizard downloads patches which have already been downloaded
This is by design in the current Release 11i version. Release 12 will download a patch from Metalink only if it doesn't match an existing patch in your staging directory.
- Patch Wizard gets some patch prerequisites wrong
This is a known issue, complicated by the interrelationships between patches, Family Packs, and the wide array of bundles that patches can be delivered in. The issue of handling patch prerequisites more sensibly is being revisited in Release 12.
- Patch Wizard recommends patches included in already-installed patches
This shouldn't happen for patches that are explicitly included, i.e. patches whose definitions directly include specific sub-patches. If you encounter this behaviour, file a bug with Oracle Support and we'll investigate this.
If a patch is implicitly included (i.e. all files in a patch are included in an already-applied patch), this can happen.
- Patch impact analysis doesn't note when a patch is significantly changing your installed patch level, e.g. from Minipack H to Minipack J.
This is true. This is functionality that is slated to be improved in Release 12.
- Patch Wizard should show analysis results even when no patches are recommended.
This is a commonly requested enhancement request. This functionality is slated to be delivered in Release 12.
- There should be better correlation between analysis runs and concurrent requests.
The technology used for concurrent requests places some restrictions on this; we're looking at what's feasible for future releases.
- Analysis runs may take some time to complete.
This is true. Some of the current analysis being performed by the Patch Wizard take some serious computation time.
It's expected that Release 12 will include some performance gains over earlier releases, partially resulting from avoiding downloads of existing patches, changes in .LDT file packaging, and changes in the logic used by the prerequisite analysis engine.
- Large patches may trigger "out of memory" errors in some rare cases.
If you encounter this behaviour, please file a bug and we'll investigate this.
Related
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Comments (5)
Thank you very much Steven,
It is first time I am (we are) receiving that good feedback from Oracle development.
Just wonder if there plans to release some of mentioned enhancements in 11i ?
Is there any plans to release OATG family pack for 11i? If yes, what would be the time schedule for new releases?
Thank you again,
Yury
Posted by Yury Velikanov | July 27, 2006 4:55 AM
Posted on July 27, 2006 04:55
I've passed on your comments to the Patch Wizard team and will watch for their reply.I'm assuming that "OATG" = "Oracle Applications Technology Group". We have no current plans for a new Family Pack for 11i at this point, but do have plans for future Rollup patches on top of Family Pack H. A new Rollup patch is coming soon -- watch this blog for announcements.Regards,Steven
Posted by Steven Chan | July 28, 2006 10:44 AM
Posted on July 28, 2006 10:44
Follow-up: There are currently no plans to backport the Release 12 Patch Wizard features to Release 11i. Given the prerequisites for some of the Release 12 improvements, it may not be technically feasible to backport all of the new features.More updates on R12 patching coming; stay tuned.Regards,Steven
Posted by Steven Chan | July 31, 2006 10:34 AM
Posted on July 31, 2006 10:34
Thanks for your comments, Paul. I've forwarded them on to the Patch Wizard team.Regards,Steven
Posted by Steven Chan | August 10, 2006 2:38 PM
Posted on August 10, 2006 14:38
Some of the other things missing from Patch Wizard .. applcust.txt functionality (to track customized files and have them reported in patch impact analysis)
Ability to drill down to the header of a file from the patch impact analysis.
Ability to generate a single report for patch impact analysis, for printing or off-line review so you don't have to use those limiting OA Framework 15 row tables.
Should intergrate or take into account customized files currently handled by autoconfig (some customizations may have been included in the new version of the file so could be backed out).
Posted by Paul Emblin | August 10, 2006 4:56 PM
Posted on August 10, 2006 16:56