1. Middleware Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide
  2. Patching Software Deployments
  3. Patch Management Overview
  4. Overview of Patch Plans
  5. About Patch Plans

About Patch Plans

Patch plans help you create a consolidated list of patches you want to apply as a group to one or more targets. Patch plans have states (or status) that map to key steps in the configuration change management process. Any administrator or role that has view privileges can access a patch plan.

Patch plan supports the following types of patches:

  • Patches (One-Off)
    • Interim Patches that contain a single bug fix or a collection of bug fixes provided as required. It can also include customer specific security bug fixes.
    • Diagnostic Patches, intended to help diagnose or verify a fix or a collection of bug fixes.
    • Patch Set Updates (PSU), contain a collection of high impact, low risk, and proven fixes for a specific product or component.
    • Critical Patch Updates (CPU), contain a collection of security bug fixes.
  • Patch Sets

    Note:

    • Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control to apply Patch Sets to any Oracle Fusion Middleware software (including Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle SOA Infrastructure, and Oracle Service Bus) and Oracle Fusion Application software is not supported. Similarly, using Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control to apply Bundle Patches to Oracle Identity Management software is not supported.
    • You cannot add both patch sets and patches to a patch plan. Instead, you can have one patch plan for patch sets, and another patch plan for patches.

A patch can be added to a target in a plan only if the patch has the same release and platform as the target to which it is being added. You will receive a warning if the product for the patch being added is different from the product associated with the target to which the patch is being added. The warning does not prevent you from adding the patch to the plan.

You can patch any target by using a patch plan. The plan also validates Fusion Middleware and Cloud Control patches against your environment to check for conflicts with installed patches. For more information on supported middle ware targets, see: Introduction to Middleware Provisioning.

The patch plan, depending on the patches you added to it, automatically selects an appropriate deployment procedure to be used for applying the patches. For information on the patching deployment procedures used for various target types, see Supported Targets, Releases, and Deployment Procedures for Patching.

Note:

  • Patch plans are currently not available for hardware or operating system patching.
  • Any administrator or role that has view privileges can access a patch plan. For information on roles and privileges required for patch plans and patch templates, see Create Administrators with the Required Roles.