To perform a patching operation, the dbpatchm subcommand reads and acts on the content of the /var/opt/oracle/patch/dbpatchm.cfg patching configuration file. This file, which is created when the database deployment is created, provides information about the locations of various files that may be used in patching operations.

Before using dbpatchm to perform a patching operation, set the value of the psunum key in the dbpatchm.cfg file to the patch ID of the patch to apply. To find out what patches are available, see Viewing Available Patches.

The dbpatchm.cfg file contains additional keys you can edit to customize the patching operation, and comment lines describing the purpose of each key and how to set its value. Here is a sample dbpatchm.cfg file showing these keys and comments.

# sample config file

# oss storage container url with public access, normally should not be changed
# there is a default for this now, that is set to production container
oss_container_url=""

# change this following golden image zip/psu zip file to be used in patching
# this will be used only if you run dbaascli/dbpatchm directly
# keep these files in different location from temporary_space given below & /u01/psu
gold_img_loc="</tmp/db11.2.0.4.0_EE_PSU.tar.gz>"
psu_zip_loc="</tmp/p19121551_112040_Linux-x86-64.zip>"

# location where the temporary files will be kept - should have 15GB space minimum
# change this location if needed but do not use /u01/psu - used for conflict check
temporary_space="/u01/download";

# turn this ignore_patch_conflict to 1 to let patching ignore conflicts
ignore_patch_conflict=0

# turn this ignore_space_less_than_15g to 1 to let patching proceed if discspace < 15g 
ignore_space_less_than_15g=0

# create /var/opt/oracle/patch/files_to_save.ora with full path of directory or 
# files to preserve any special files you may have in your /u01/app directory. 
# set this to yes, if you have files_to_save.ora
special_files="no"

# type could be "psu", "upg"
type="psu"
# psunum is the bugid for PSU's - needed to rollback the psu patches
psunum=

# patching method could be cloning (for temporary instance validation) or psu way
# when cloning is yes, remote node IP needs to be provided and also sys password
cloning="no"
remotenode=""
syspasswd=""

# ssh private key needed for cloning that needs a 2nd VM connectivity
# "/root/.ssh/pat.key"
sshkey_fl=""

# oracle recovery manager catalog connect string - if configured
rcatconnect=""

# data guard patching - need to provide primary and standby ip's and 
# private sshkeys to connect to the same
# if dg_inst="yes", then all dg_ parameters need to be provided
dg_inst="no"
dg_primary=""
dg_primary_sshkey_fl=""
dg_standby=""
dg_standby_sshkey_fl=""