Patch And Maintenance Recommendations For Oracle Access Manager (OAM)

Introduction

The Oracle Access Manager Team recommends being at the latest product version release, patch-set, and Bundle Patch that is available for the specific component being used. This helps ensure that you have the latest fixes/product functionality and helps avoid unnecessary rediscovery of known issues.

Validating Oracle Software Versions

Defining Version Values and Placement

First, we will start with defining how the values and placement of the corresponding digits relate to the OAM 11g/12c products.

OAM Releases/PatchSets

• OAM 11gr1 product the 11.1.1.3.0 was the first version released and additional releases where not in numbered sequence (There is no 11.1.1.0.0, 11.1.1.2.0, 11.1.1.4.0, or 11.1.1.6.0)
• OAM 11gr2 product the 11.1.2.0.0 was the first version released and additional releases are in numbered sequence (11.1.2.0, 11.2.1.0., 11.2.2.0, 11.1.2.3.0)
• OAM 12c product the 12.2.1.3.0 was the first version released and additional releases are in numbered sequence (12.2.1.3.0, 12.2.1.4.0)

Digits 1^st.2^nd.3^rd.4^th.5^th

• The first three digits are the product Release(r) (11.1.1 or 11.1.2 or 12.2.1)
• The fourth digit is the patchset version (ps) (.3, .5, .7 or .1, .2, .3 or .2, .3)
• The fifth digit is the Bundle patch version(bp) (.0,1,2,3,4,5,etc) NOTE: Effective November 2015 the version numbering format has changed. The new format replaces the numeric 5th digit of the bundle version with a release date in the form “YYMMDD” where: YY is the last 2 digits of the year, MM is the numeric month (2 digits), and DD is the numeric day of the month (2 digits)

Oracle Access Manager (OAM)

viewInventory

Validate the OAM version using the “viewInventory” script.

Example

1. From a command prompt change the <ORACLE_HOME>/oui/bin/

cd <OAM_HOME>/oui/bin

2. Execute the command

./viewInventory.sh |grep “FeatureSet: oam”

3. This returns the version 12.2.1.4.0

opatch lsinventory

Validate the OAM version by using the “opatch lsinvnentory” script and the resulting “lsinvnetory Output file location”.

Example

1. From a command prompt change to the <ORACLE_HOME>/Opatch directory

cd <OAM_HOME>/OPatch/

2. Execute the command

opatch lsinventory – details

This will show a Log file location

3. cd <OAM_HOME>/cfgtoollogs/opatch/lsinv/lsinventory

Now we will use the “cat” command to display from log file location from the previous slide , to show the OAM version

Execute the command

cat <OAM_HOME>/cfgtoollogs/opatch/lsinv/lsinventory<TIME_STAMP>.txt |grep “Access Manager”

This returns the Oracle Access Manager version                 12.2.1.4.0

Installs Oracle Access Manager Server                                12.2.1.4.0

Oracle Access Manager for T2P                                          12.2.1.4.0

Patch And Maintenance Though Knowledge Management (KM) Documents

Stack Patch Bundle (SPB)

To simplify the patching process a quarterly release called Stack Patch Bundle (SPB) was made available for 12 versions of the Identity Management Products. The quarterly SPB includes the bundle patches for each of the select Identity Management products as well as the patches for their respective underlying components. The SPB also includes the SPBAT tool which can be used to apply all of the patches for a single product with a single command by using a phased approach. 

For more information refer to “Stack Patch Bundle for Oracle Identity Management Products (Doc ID 2657920.1)”

Bundle Patch (BP)

Bundle patches are applied on top of an existing Product. The are not meant to include the base product binaries. The patch contents are tested in QA and may contain small enhancements. For the OAM available BP’s please refer to OAM Bundle Patch Release History (Doc ID 736372.1)

Additional Patch Information

One-off Patch

This is an interim patch meant to resolve a specific issue for a specific product release based on release patchset. The One-off patch has only undergone basic unit testing and has not been through a complete test cycle generally followed for a bundle Patch.

Patchset

A patch whose contents are tested in QA and typically do not contain enhancements.

Warp up

The instructions to apply the Oracle Access Manger Bundle Patch (BP), whether it is separate or part of the Identity Management (IDM) Stack Patch Bundle (SPB), are located and detailed in the “patches” respective accompanying “Readme” file. Both methods use the Oracle patch mechanism (Opatch).

xamples

Examples

• Oracle® Fusion Middleware Oracle Access Management Bundle Patch Readme

OAM Bundle Patch 12.2.1.4.221208 Generic for all Server Platforms F75586-01

• Oracle® Fusion Middleware Bundle Patch Release Notes for IDM Stack Patch Bundle 12.2.1.4.230117

Related Articles:

• Simplify Knowing Your Identity and Access Management Environment – Overlooked Resources Part 1 of 6-part series that discusses overlooked resources that will help improve many aspects of an Administrators Duties, such as upgrade, maintenance and overall ease of resolving environment issues.