Oracle Critical Update Patches (CPU)

Oracle releases security patches, Critical Patch Updates (CPU), quarterly. To find out if you need to apply a patch to a server. First you need to find out the Oracle version and hardware platform of the database server.

1. ssh to the server 2. switch to oracle user

su - oracle

3. Lookup platform (Arch + 32 or 64bit) on Linux run the following.

uname -m

on Solaris

isainfo -kv

On windows You should know what to do.

4. Find your Oracle version. Here is an example.

$ export ORACLE_SID=orcla
$ sqlplus '/as sysdba'

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production on Fri Aug 1 23:19:20 2008 

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle.  All Rights Reserved.
 

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Release 10.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production

SQL> select * from v$version;

BANNER
----------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 10g Release 10.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production
PL/SQL Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production
CORE    10.2.0.3.0      Production
TNS for Linux: Version 10.2.0.3.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 10.2.0.3.0 - Production  

5. Go to the following URL to find the latest CPU for your version/platform.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/alerts.htm

Click on the latest Critical Patch Update, then click on the appropriate Database link per your version info.

6. The database link takes you to metalink/support. (You must have a support login for this)

7. Scroll down to 'Table 10 Critical Patch Update Availability for Oracle Database'

8. Using your platform and version information find the Patch Number.

9. Either open another browser tab and go to support.oracle.com or just scroll back up and click on 'Patches & Updates' tab.

10. Go to 'Simple Search'

11. Input your patch number and select your platform then click on 'Go'.

12. Click on Download to download the patch and then click on Readme for to view the Readme file.

13. Follow the Readme File step by step to apply the patch. Notes

You can cat /etc/oratab to find out the name and home folders of instances setup on a server. For example, if you look at /etc/oratab of rdl-db1, the last two lines are

orcla:/var/oracle/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1:Y
orclb:/var/oracle/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1:Y

This says that there are two instances, orcla and orclb, running of of the same Oracle home folder and they are setup to startup automatically at boot time.