This chapter describes how you can manage Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper patches to fix issues or improve the system.
If you are planning to upgrade your Services Gatekeeper system, use the information in "You Upgrading Services Gatekeeper".
You can develop and maintain a strategy to handle the installation of patch releases so that your customers experience a seamless transition.
Oracle Communications distributes the following types of patch releases for Services Gatekeeper to resolve issues, to resolve any perceived vulnerability in the software, or to improve its overall performance:
Patch Set. See "About Patch Sets".
Debug patch. See "About Debug Patches".
Temporary fix. See "About Temporary Fixes".
A Patch Set is the most comprehensive patch release. It contains the accumulated resolutions and updates in Service Gatekeeper from the time of the last general release up to the current Patch Set release.
Services Gatekeeper 6.0 Patch Sets use the release numbering scheme 6.0.0.x, where x is the Patch Set number. For example, the first Patch Set for Services Gatekeeper 6.0 would be Services Gatekeeper 6.0.0.1.
Note:
Oracle recommends that you stay up-to-date by installing Patch Sets as soon as they become available.A debug patch is used to troubleshoot an ongoing issue in your Services Gatekeeper system.
A debug patch represents a concerted attempt by you and Oracle Technical Support to fix an issue in your Services Gatekeeper system. Oracle Technical Support uses debug patches as a tool to extract better data from your Services Gatekeeper system as a way of resolving the issue. Consequently, the debug patch may not resolve the issue, and additional patches may be required.
Because debug patches address a singular issue, Services Gatekeeper numbers them as v1, v2, v3, and so on. Each subsequent version replaces the prior version of the debug patch.
Temporary fixes are tailored to solve an issue in your Services Gatekeeper system. They are sent to you as urgent, time-sensitive or critical corrections that solve an issue you are experiencing instead of waiting to set up the fix as part of a scheduled Services Gatekeeper Patch Set.
You may have to install additional patches to make the temporary fix work.
Because each temporary fix addresses a single issue, Services Gatekeeper numbers the fixes as v1, v2, v3, and so on. Each subsequent version replaces the prior version of the temporary fix.
See ”Finding the Current Patch Level of Your Services Gatekeeper System” in Services Gatekeeper Administrator's Guide to find your current patch level.
By default, every patch contains the following items:
A README file
The README file for a patch release describes how to install the patch. Additionally, in case you encounter problems while applying the patch, the README describes how you can revert to your current setup by rolling back the patch.
Updates to Services Gatekeeper
These consist of fixes or debug changes.
At times, the patch may contain a subdirectory named custom. Services Gatekeeper places the following items in this directory:
Additional documentation resources
For example, the patch may contain the description of a specific fix detailing what additional configuration settings may be required to utilize the fix.
Manual patching steps
The patch may target a resource you may have modified, such as startup scripts. Services Gatekeeper provides manual patching steps to assert that your modifications are not lost.
If your Services Gatekeeper system operates in a clustered environment, review the README file that accompanies the patch. Ensure that you apply the patch to all of the servers. Then perform a rolling restart unless otherwise stated in the README file.
OPatch is an Oracle-supplied Java-based utility that supports the following tasks:
Applying a patch
Rolling back a patch to a previous version
Listing the installed patches
Detecting a conflict when applying a patch after previous patches have been applied. It also suggests the best options to resolve a conflict
OPatch requires installation of the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI). It is platform-independent and runs on all supported operating systems.
For more information, see "Patching Oracle Fusion Middleware with Oracle OPatch" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Patching Guide.
Before you run OPatch, perform the prerequisite checks for OPatch as described in Oracle Fusion Middleware Patching with OPatch. For example, the ORACLE_HOME environment variable must point to a valid Middleware_home directory and match the value used during Services Gatekeeper installation.
For the latest information about the OPatch utility, the JRE versions, or the Java commands for Windows, Solaris, and Linux, or to check for updates and get the latest versions, go to My Oracle Support at:
Managing a patch release installation consists of the following tasks:
If you encounter any issues in any of these steps, see "Troubleshooting".
Complete the following tasks before you install the patch:
To apply patches successfully, OPatch needs access to a valid OUI. Validate the OUI inventory with the following command:
opatch lsinventory
For more information, see "OPatch Utility Reference".
Caution:
If the lsinventory command errors out, do not proceed further with the patch attempt.Contact Oracle Technical Support to validate and verify the inventory setup.
Before you start any patch operation, back up the contents of the Middleware_home directory. You can back up the contents of Middleware_home by using your preferred method. Use any of the following methods to compress the Middleware_home contents:
zip
cp -r
tar
cpio
The patch installation process uses the OPatch and Zip software. Ensure that your system can find and use the software by setting the following environment variables:
Set your PATH environment variable to include the path to your Middleware_home/OPatch directory and to your Zip software.
Set your ORACLE_HOME environment variable to your Middleware_home directory.
To confirm that your system can find the OPatch and Zip software, enter the following at a command prompt:
which opatch which unzip
Note:
If your system cannot find the path to the software, double-check that your environment variables are set correctly.Create a location for storing the unzipped patch. This chapter refers to the location as Patch_top.
At this point, you should have completed the necessary checks, backed up your current Services Gatekeeper system, and created a location for the patch files.
Check the README file to determine whether you must stop all servers in your Services Gatekeeper system. The README file will state whether the patch requires you to stop your servers prior to installing the patch.
To install the patch:
Log in to the target system.
Download the patch from the My Oracle Support website to a temporary directory:
Change to the directory where you downloaded the patch.
Unzip the patch archive (PatchName.zip) into the Patch_top directory.
The PatchName subdirectory is created.
Note:
Ensure that the PatchName.zip file is not located inside the Patch_top directory.Go to the Patch_top/PatchName directory.
Run the OPatch utility by entering the following at a command prompt:
opatch apply Patch_top/PatchName
OPatch validates the patch and makes sure there are no conflicts with the software already installed in Middleware_home before applying the patch to your Services Gatekeeper system.
For more information, see "OPatch Utility Reference" and "Dealing with Conflicts When You Run the Apply Command".
Verify that the patch installed successfully by running the following command:
opatch lsinventory
For more information, see "OPatch Utility Reference".
At this point, you have installed the patch successfully and verified the contents of the Middleware_home directory.
Check the README file to determine if you must restart all servers in your Services Gatekeeper system. The README file will state whether the patch requires you to restart your servers or to redeploy a specific module or application.
OPatch is reliable and protects Middleware_home and the inventory. It can bring back the contents of the Middleware_home directory to a stable state from patch application failures. It can also easily detect patch conflicts.
OPatch logs information to a .log file. Here is an example entry:
Log file location : /home/oracle_ TEST/product/11.1.0/db1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch-yyyy_month_dd_HH-MM-SS-IST_Wed.log
If you encountered errors while installing a patch and you need assistance from Oracle Technical Support, be sure to provide the associated log file together with the patch command you used to install the patch.
If you experience any problems after installing a patch, remove the patch.
To uninstall the patch:
Follow the same prerequisites or pre-install steps you took when you completed the following:
Roll back the patch with the following command:
opatch rollback -id PatchNumber
where PatchNumber is the patch number. For more information, see "OPatch Utility Reference".
If you need further assistance, contact Oracle Technical Support with the required information.
By default, the OPatch utility is located in the Middleware_home/OPatch directory. The syntax for running the OPatch utility from the valid directory is shown below:
opatch [-help] [-report] [command]
where:
help lists the commands and options supported by the utility.
Use the -help parameter together with a command to view detailed information for the OPatch command. For example:
opatch apply -help
report prints the actions without executing the command.
command is one of these OPatch commands:
apply [Patch_top/PatchName]
This command applies the patch to the software located in Middleware_home, where Patch_top/PatchName is the directory that contains the patch contents. (When you unzip the patch archive to Patch_top, it creates a PatchName subdirectory that includes all of the patch contents.)
For the command to work properly, the ORACLE_HOME environment variable must be set to Middleware_home. See "Dealing with Conflicts When You Run the Apply Command".
lsinventory
This command displays your system's OPatch and OUI versions and directories, and lists the patches currently installed in Middleware_home. The following shows sample output for the lsinventory command:
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 13.2.0.0.0 Copyright (c) 2014, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. Oracle Home : Middleware_home Central Inventory : /export/oraInventory from : Middleware_home/oraInst.loc OPatch version : 13.2.0.0.0 OUI Version : 13.2.0.0.0 Log file location : Middleware_home/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch2014-12-16_11-16-55AM_1.log OPatch detects the Middleware Home as "Middleware_home" ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Interim patches (1): Patch 19836145 : applied on Tue Dec 16 10:51:13 CST 2014 Unique Patch ID : 1418034883552 Patch description : "[Patch Set v6.0.0.0.1] - Patch set zero" Created on 8 Dec 2014, 02:34:45 hrs PST8PDT Bugs fixed: 123412 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
rollback -id PatchNumber
This command removes the specified patch from the Middleware_home directory, where PatchNumber is the patch number. You can find the patch number by using the lsinventory command. For example, you would use the command rollback -id 19836145 to roll back the patch shown in the following sample lsinventory output:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Interim patches (1) :
Patch 19836145 : applied on Tue Dec 16 10:51:13 CST 2014
Unique Patch ID: 1418034883552
Patch description: "[Patch Set v6.0.0.0.1] - Patch set zero"
Created on 8 Dec 2014, 02:34:45 hrs PST8PDT
Bugs fixed:
123412
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For a full list of the OPatch commands and their descriptions, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Patching with OPatch.
When you run the OPatch apply command, you may encounter the following conflicts:
Conflict with a patch already applied to the contents of the Middleware_home directory.
In this case, stop the patch installation and contact Oracle Technical Support.
Conflicts with a subset patch already applied to the contents of the Middleware_home directory.
In this case, continue the installation, as the new patch contains all the fixes from the existing patch. The subset patch will automatically be rolled back prior to the installation of the new patch.