Checking Prerequisites Before Applying a Patch

Before you apply a patch, you can check its prerequisites to make sure that it can be successfully applied.

The prerequisites-checking operation:

Confirms that the patch is available for download.
Confirms connectivity to the required compute nodes.
Verifies that there is enough space to apply the patch.
Runs additional commands to validate that the specific patch requirements are met.

Checking Prerequisites Before Applying a Patch by Using the Oracle Database Cloud Service Console

Before You Begin

The patching processes use the cloud-specific tooling included in your Exadata Cloud Service environment, and specific patches may require functionality provided by a specific version of the tools. Therefore, it is recommended to update to the latest version of the cloud tools before performing any patching operations. See Updating the Cloud Tooling on Exadata Cloud Service.

Procedure

Go to the Patching page for the database deployment on which you want to check patching:
1. Open the Oracle Database Cloud Service console.
  
  For detailed instructions, see Accessing the My Services Dashboard and the Oracle Database Cloud Service Console.
2. Click the database deployment on which you want to check patching.
  
  The Oracle Database Cloud Service Overview page is displayed.
3. Click the Administration tile and then click the Patching tab.
  
  The Oracle Database Cloud Service Patching page is displayed. A list of patches you can apply appears in the Available Patches section.
  
  Note:
  The Oracle Database Cloud Service Patching page shows only the few most recent patches that are associated with the database deployment for each patching category; that is, database patches or grid infrastructure patches. If you wish to access older patches, then you must use the exadbcpatchmulti or dbaascli utility.
Click the action menu () that is associated with the patch whose prerequisites you want to check, and then select Precheck.

If further input is required, specify the required details in the Patch Precheck Service window and click Precheck to continue. The Patch Precheck Service window displays in the following circumstances:
- If you have previously checked prerequisites for the selected patch, the Patch Precheck Service window shows the results of the previous check and asks if you want to perform another set of prerequisite checks.
The Patching page redisplays, showing a status message indicating that prerequisite checks are in progress.
Refresh the Patching page occasionally to update the status message.

Note that prerequisite checking can take several minutes to complete.
When the prerequisite checks are completed, the Precheck results link is displayed.

Click Precheck results to display the results of the prerequisite checks.

Other Ways to Check Prerequisites Before Applying a Patch

For Oracle Database and Oracle Grid Infrastructure patches, you can use the exadbcpatchmulti or dbaascli utility. See:

Checking Prerequisites Before Applying a Patch by Using the exadbcpatchmulti Command

You can perform an Oracle Database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure patch prerequisites-checking (pre-check) operation by using the exadbcpatchmulti command as follows:

Connect to the compute node as the opc user and start a command shell as the root user.

For detailed instructions, see Connecting to a Compute Node Through Secure Shell (SSH).
Execute the exadbcpatchmulti command with the -precheck_async action:
- On specific instances:
```
# /var/opt/oracle/exapatch/exadbcpatchmulti -precheck_async patchid 
-instance1=hostname1:oracle_home 
[-instance2=hostname2:oracle_home ...] 
[-dbnames=dbname[,dbname2 ...]] [-sshkey=sshkey_file]
```
- By specifying only database names:
```
# /var/opt/oracle/exapatch/exadbcpatchmulti -precheck_async patchid 
-dbnames=dbname[,dbname2 ...] [-alldbs] [-sshkey=sshkey_file]
```
In the preceding command:
- patchid identifies the patch to be pre-checked.
  
  Note:
  For details about how to find the available patch identifiers, see Listing Available Patches.
- -instanceN specifies a compute node and Oracle Home directory that is subject to the pre-check operation. In this context, an Oracle Home directory may be an Oracle Database home directory or the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home directory.
- -dbnames specifies the database names for the databases that are the target of the pre-check operation.
- -alldbs specifies that you want to pre-check all of the databases that share the same Oracle Database binaries (Oracle Home) as the specified databases.
- -sshkey optionally specifies the location of the SSH private key of the opc user, which is used to connect to compute nodes in the cluster.
For example:
```
# /var/opt/oracle/exapatch/exadbcpatchmulti -precheck_async 12345678 
-instance1=hostname1:/u02/app/oracle/product/12.1.0.2/dbhome_1
-instance2=hostname2:/u02/app/oracle/product/12.1.0.2/dbhome_1
```

Checking Prerequisites Before Applying a Patch by Using the dbaascli Command

You can perform an Oracle Database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure patch prerequisites-checking (pre-check) operation by using the dbaascli command as follows:

Connect to a compute node as the opc user and start a command shell as the root user.

For detailed instructions, see Connecting to a Compute Node Through Secure Shell (SSH).
Execute the dbaascli patch db prereq command:
- On specific instances:
```
# dbaascli patch db prereq --patchid patchid 
--instance1 hostname:oracle_home [--dbnames dbname[,dbname2 ...]]
```
- By specifying only database names:
```
# dbaascli patch db prereq --patchid patchid 
--dbnames dbname[,dbname2 ...] [-alldbs]
```
In the preceding commands:
- patchid identifies the patch to be pre-checked.
  
  Note:
  For details about how to find the available patch identifiers, see Listing Available Patches.
- --instance1 specifies a compute node and Oracle Home directory that is subject to the pre-check operation. In this context, the Oracle Home directory may be an Oracle Database home directory or the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home directory.
- --dbnames specifies the database names for one or more databases that are the target of the pre-check operation.
- -alldbs specifies that you want to pre-check all of the databases that share the same Oracle Database binaries (Oracle Home) as the specified databases.
For example:
```
# dbaascli patch db prereq --patchid 12345678 
--instance1 hostname1:/u02/app/oracle/product/12.1.0.2/dbhome_1
```