Apply Release Update (RU) to Oracle GI and DB (Linux x86-64)

This post shows how to apply Release Update 19.25 (October 2024) to a Oracle Restart 19.3 installation (Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Database). The installation of the OS and the Oracle software (19.3) is described here.

Preparation

To patch the system we need to download Patch 36916690: GI RELEASE UPDATE 19.25.0.0.0 from My Oracle Support to a path accessible from the VM (e.g. /sw/oracle/db/oracle_patches/ora19c_lin_x64/ora_gi_19RUs/19.25). A up to date version of the OPatch utility (Patch 6880880) should be available at (/sw/oracle/db/oracle_patches/opatch)

Apply the Patches

First we will update the patch utility OPatch of the Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Home. The RU patch will be unpacked. This can be done while the databases are running:

### Grid Infrastructure Home ###
# check current version
su - grid -c "opatch version|grep Version"
# update OPatch
su - grid -c "cd \$ORACLE_HOME && tar cfp ~/opatch_orig.tar OPatch/* && gzip ~/opatch_orig.tar && rm -rf OPatch/* && unzip -q /sw/oracle/db/oracle_patches/opatch/p6880880_230000_LINUX.zip"
# check new version
su - grid -c "opatch version|grep Version"
### Database Home ###
# check current version
su - oracle -c "opatch version|grep Version"
# update OPatch
su - oracle -c "cd \$ORACLE_HOME && mv OPatch OPatch_old && unzip -q /sw/oracle/db/oracle_patches/opatch/p6880880_230000_LINUX.zip"
# check new version
su - oracle -c "opatch version|grep Version"

Now the RU patch will be unpacked and applied. This takes around 45 minutes.

# unpack RU patch
su - grid -c "mkdir /var/tmp/RU1925 && unzip -q /sw/oracle/db/oracle_patches/ora19c_lin_x64/ora_gi_19RUs/19.25/p36916690_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip -d /var/tmp/RU1925"
# apply RU patch (this will stop and start the databases and services)
cd /var/tmp/RU1925 && /u01/app/19.0.0/grid/OPatch/opatchauto apply /var/tmp/RU1925/36916690 && rm -rf /var/tmp/RU1925
# check if the databases and services are started again
sleep 20 && su - grid -c "crsctl stat res -t"
# check the new Release Version
su - grid -c "crsctl query has releasepatch" # Grid Infrastructure
su - oracle -c "echo 'select version_full from product_component_version;'|sqlplus -S / as sysdba" # Database