Applying the 10.2.0.4.1 Patch Set Update (PSU)

Oracle have now provided a Patch Set Update (PSU) policy in conjunction with the existing Critical Patch Updates. Both patches will be delivered quarterly (Jan,Apr,Jul,Oct) and the PSU will contain the CPU so it is a bit of no-brainer to move to PSU patching if you already perform CPU patching.

The core statement around PSU is mentioned in Note 854428.1 is

PSU patches are intended to be low-risk. This is accomplished by controlling content and thorough testing. Included in the criteria for the bug fixes in the Database PSU are:

• Critical technical issues with fixes that may affect a large number of customers and that are already proven in the field
• Critical Patch Update fixes

PSU patches do not include any of the following:

• Changes that require re-certification (for example, fixes that cause optimizer plan changes)
• Fixes that require configuration changes

Each PSU has limited new content, typically between 50 and 100 new bug fixes.

PSU patches are guaranteed to be rolling RAC installable.

Available on most platforms (which is nice for those of us not on Linux) except Windows. Patches will be available but as part of the CPU bundles.

The patches are also cumulative so PSU 10.2.0.4.1 is the current one and when 10.2.0.4.2 is available then that can be applied on top.

As I had a clean Oracle 10.2.0.4 with the latest CPU set applied I added the PSU and here are a few notes.

You need to get the latest Opatch installation which is version 10.2.0.4.07 and is patch 680880. Copy it to the OH folder and unzip it from there, updating the existing Opatch binaries.

After ensuring that the correct OH and OPatch folder are in your path then check the opatch version 

/home/oracle $opatch version
Invoking OPatch 10.2.0.4.7

OPatch Version: 10.2.0.4.7

OPatch succeeded.
Unzip the CPU patch 8576156 and run the opatch pre-requisite check
I have shown all my actions here and note that the pre-req command is different from that in the documentation where the -ph parameter is referred to as -phBaseDir
opatch prereq CheckConflictAgainstOHWithDetail -ph ./8576156_Jul2009PSU
It then gives a list of patches to be applied, patches that will be rolled back and no longer required patches (superceded by those in this PSU). Note that you may need to get patches that are required but not available in the PSU patch.  
cd /shared/oracle/rdbms_patches/PSU patches/10.2.0.4/

README.html  README.txt   custom       etc          files        patchmd.xml  psu_root.sh
opatch prereq CheckConflictAgainstOHWithDetail -ph ./8576156_Jul2009PSU
Invoking OPatch 10.2.0.4.7

Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 10.2.0.4.7
Copyright (c) 2009, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

PREREQ session

Oracle Home       : /app/oracle/product/10.2.0.4/db_1
Central Inventory : /app/oracle/oraInventory
   from           : /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc
OPatch version    : 10.2.0.4.7
OUI version       : 10.2.0.4.0
OUI location      : /app/oracle/product/10.2.0.4/db_1/oui
Log file location : /app/oracle/product/10.2.0.4/db_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch2009-07-28_19-05-21PM.log

Patch history file: /app/oracle/product/10.2.0.4/db_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch_history.txt

Invoking prereq "checkconflictagainstohwithdetail"

ZOP-40: The patch(es) has conflicts/supersets with other patches installed in the Oracle Home (or) among themselves.

Prereq "checkConflictAgainstOHWithDetail" failed.

Summary of Conflict Analysis:

Patches that can be applied now without any conflicts are :
8576156

Following patches are not required, as they are subset of the patches in Oracle Home or subset of the patches in the given list :
8309642, 8309639, 8309637, 8309632, 8309623, 8309592, 8309587, 8290506, 7609058, 7609057, 7375617, 7375613, 7375611, 7197583, 7155254, 7155253, 7155252, 7155251, 7155250, 7155249, 7155248

Following patches will be rolled back from Oracle Home on application of the patches in the given list :
8309642, 8309639, 8309637, 8309632, 8309623, 8309592, 8309587, 8290506, 7609058, 7609057, 7375617, 7375613, 7375611, 7197583, 7155254, 7155253, 7155252, 7155251, 7155250, 7155249, 7155248
Once all pre-reqs are met then run opatch apply from the PSU patch directory
Afterwards run the psu_root.sh script from the patch installation directory (as root).
If you do not run psu_root.sh script which changes the permissions on the binary extjob, executable jobs can fail with the following error:
ORA-27369: job of type EXECUTABLE failed with exit code: ...
Note that this step has no impact on the implementation of the PSU security fixes; it only affects the successful execution of the Job Scheduling system. That is, if you do not run psu_root.sh when you should, or if you run psu_root.sh but fail to run it as root, the PSU security fixes are still installed; however, the Job Scheduling system will fail. The psu_root.sh needs permission changes and does not work that well so it is easier  to get sys admins to just chmod the permissions detailed in the shell script. 
All in all pretty seamless. Note that I did not have a database to patch but if I did then the two post-installation steps are to run the catbundle scripts and recompile views
For each database instance running on the Oracle home being patched, connect to the database using SQL*Plus. Connect as SYSDBA and run the catbundle.sql script as follows:
cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
sqlplus /nolog
SQL> CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
SQL> STARTUP
SQL> @catbundle.sql psu apply
SQL> QUIT
The README.txt in the install directory details the recompilation of views but it is not  too difficult and only needs to be done once, no matter how many PSU sets are applied.



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