R12.2 ONLINE PATCHING (ADOP) QUESTIONS

Q1

WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF ADOP?

A1
Online patching is the most important new feature in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2. It is the ability to patch a running system without having to take the system down for a significant period of time while the patches are applied.

‘adop’ is the utility you use to apply patches in R12.2

Q2
WHAT IS PATCH TOP DIRECTORY IN R12.2?

A2
In R12.2 there is a new directory location environment variable called $PATCH_TOP which points to $NE_BASE/EBSapps/patch
$NE_BASE points to <Non-Editioned-filesystem-directory>

Download the patch into the patch top directory and unzip it. This is the default location where the adop will look for patch files.
If you are planning to put patches in non-defualt location then you need to use adop parameter ‘patchtop=<patch_path>’ to explicitly define this location.

Q3
HOW IS PATCH MERGING DONE IN ADOP? IS ADMRGPCH COMMAND USED IN EARLIER EBS RELEASES STILL VALID IN R12.2?

A3
In earlier EBS releases, the AD Merge Patch tool was used to merge multiple patches into a single patch, so that the common tasks only needed to be performed once.
In Oracle EBS 12.2, all the functionality of AD Merge Patch has been included in the adop patching tool itself.

By default, adop will automatically merge all patches specified with the ‘patches’ parameter.

You can still use earlier AD Merge Patch tool but you should disable adop’s merging of patches, by adding to the adop command line > ‘merge=no’

Q4
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ADOP COMMAND IS RUN?

A4
adop will perform all the tasks required to apply the patch:

> Reads patch metadata to determine patch dependencies and requirements
> Attempt to recover previously failed patching session (if any)
> Reads and validate the patch/product driver files
> Compares version numbers of existing files against the patch files and Backs up all existing files that will be changed by the patch
> Copies files
> Archive files in libraries
> Relinks executables, Generates forms, reports, messages, graphics, and Java archive (JAR) files
> Compiles JSP files and invalid database objects. Updates database objects
> Runs AutoConfig if required
> Saves patch information to the database

All tasks are similar to what adpatch utility used to do earlier.

Q5
FROM WHICH FILESYSTEM ADOP COMMAND SHOULD BE RUN?

A5
We always run adop utility from the run edition file system. The adop process automatically sets its environment correctly, regardless of the edition it is run from.

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Brijesh Gogia

I’m an experienced Cloud/Oracle Applications/DBA Architect with more than 15 years of full-time DBA/Architect experience. I have gained wide knowledge on Oracle and Non-Oracle software stack running on-prem and on Cloud and have worked on several big projects for multi-national companies. I enjoy working with leading-edge technology and have a passion for Cloud architecture, automation, database performance, and stability. Thankfully my work allows me time for researching new technologies (and to write about them).

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