OPatch 13.9 in EM13c – Say Goodbye to Unzip, Copy & Paste

Yesterday I wanted to apply a brand new patch to customer’s Enterprise Manager 13cR2 OMS running on Linux. First I updated the OMSPatcher as described here: How to upgrade the 13.1 Cloud Control OMSPatcher to latest version of OMSPatcher (Doc ID 2135028.1). This update was easy. Download, transfer, unzip and copy the OMSPatcher files to the Enterprise Manager ORACLE_HOME directory.

Then the patch apply results in an error. OMSPatcher is based on OPatch, he needs an update too.

We need a new OPatch Version

This was error message for patch apply with omspatcher when I executed the apply command.

[Dec 1, 2016 10:17:38 AM]    Prerequisite check "CheckMinimumOPatchVersion" failed.
                             The details are:

                             The OPatch being used has version 13.8.0.0.0 while the following patch(es) require higher versions:
                             Patch 24914115 requires OPatch version 13.9.1.0.0.
                             Please download latest OPatch from My Oracle Support.

My actual EM13cR2 OPatch version was 13.8.0.0.0.

oracle@kestenholz:/u00/app/oracle/product/em13cr2/OPatch/ [oms13cr2] ./opatch version
OPatch Version: 13.8.0.0.0

OPatch succeeded.

Get the new Version

In My Oracle Support I found the newest version of OPatch, Download.

opatch_01

Transfer and extract

The next step was to extract and to transfer the package to the target server.And then I was wondering that not like in versions before an OPatch directory was created, now there is a JAR file inside the package. Copy & Paste of an OPatch directory is no more possible anymore.

oracle@kestenholz:/u00/app/oracle/stage/OPatch/ [oms13cr2] unzip p6880880_139000_Generic.zip
Archive:  p6880880_139000_Generic.zip
   creating: 6880880/
  inflating: 6880880/README.txt
  inflating: 6880880/opatch_generic.jar
  inflating: 6880880/version.txt

Installation Routine – README.txt

Let’s take a look in the README.txt – there is an installation manual.

oracle@kestenholz:/u00/app/oracle/stage/OPatch/6880880/ [oms13cr2] cat README.txt
Installation
----------------------------------
- Backup your <ORACLE_HOME>

- Unzip this patch into your staging directory PATCH_HOME

- Install the software via:
    java -jar <PATCH_HOME>/6880880/opatch_generic.jar -silent oracle_home=ORACLE_HOME

- To validate the installation:
    cd <ORACLE_HOME>/OPatch
    opatch version
    opatch lspatches

Installation – 1st run – where is my JDK ?

oracle@kestenholz:~/ [oms13cr2] java -jar /u00/app/oracle/stage/6880880/opatch_generic.jar -silent oracle_home=/u00/app/oracle/roduct/em13cr2
Launcher log file is /tmp/OraInstall2016-12-02_10-00-10AM/launcher2016-12-02_10-00-10AM.log.
Extracting the installer . . . . Done
This installer must be executed using a Java Development Kit (JDK)
but /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.65-3.b17.el7.x86_64/jre is not a valid JDK Java Home.
The log is located here: /tmp/OraInstall2016-12-02_10-00-10AM/launcher2016-12-02_10-00-10AM.log.

Installation – 2nd run – JRE is not good enough

I tried to use the existing JDK from my Oracle 12.1 installation

oracle@kestenholz:/u00/app/oracle/stage/6880880/ [oms13cr2] export JAVA_HOME=/u00/app/oracle/product/12.1.0.2/dbhome_1/jdk/bin
oracle@kestenholz:/u00/app/oracle/stage/6880880/ [oms13cr2] $JAVA_HOME/java -jar /u00/app/oracle/stage/6880880/opatch_generic.jar -silent oracle_home=/u00/app/oracle/product/em13cr2
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/oracle/cie/nextgen/launcher/Launcher : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:637)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:621)
        at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
Could not find the main class: com.oracle.cie.nextgen.launcher.Launcher. Program will exit.

Installation – 3rd run – JDK 1.7 rocks

Now I have downloaded and configured JDK 1.7. Another try, and now it works. Here is a short summary of the output. In the background now the Oracle Universal Installer is started.

Thanks to Gokhan Atil – http://www.gokhanatil.com – for the second possibility, you can use the JDK from the OMS too.

oracle@kestenholz:~/ [oms13cr2] export JAVA_HOME=/u00/app/oracle/product/jdk1.7.0_79/bin
oracle@kestenholz:~/ [oms13cr2] $JAVA_HOME/java -jar /u00/app/oracle/stage/6880880/opatch_generic.jar -silent oracle_home=/u00/app/oracle/product/em13cr2
Launcher log file is /tmp/OraInstall2016-12-02_10-05-14AM/launcher2016-12-02_10-05-14AM.log.
Extracting the installer . . . . Done
Checking if CPU speed is above 300 MHz.   Actual 2793.546 MHz    Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 512 MB.   Actual 2047 MB    Passed
Checking if this platform requires a 64-bit JVM.   Actual 64    Passed (64-bit not required)
Checking temp space: must be greater than 300 MB.   Actual 37290 MB    Passed


Preparing to launch the Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2016-12-02_10-05-14AM
Installation Summary


Disk Space : Required 6 MB, Available 37,253 MB
Feature Sets to Install:
        Next Generation Install Core 13.9.1.0.0
        OPatch 13.9.1.0.0
        OPatch Auto OPlan 13.9.1.0.0
Session log file is /tmp/OraInstall2016-12-02_10-05-14AM/install2016-12-02_10-05-14AM.log

Loading products list. Please wait.
 1%
 40%

Loading products. Please wait.
 43%
 46%
 ...
 99%
Updating Libraries
Starting Installations
 1%
 2%
 3%
 ...
 91%
 92%

Install pending
Installation in progress
 Component : oracle.swd.opatch 13.9.1.0.0
Copying files for 'oracle.swd.opatch 13.9.1.0.0 '
 Component : oracle.glcm.osys.core 13.9.1.0.0
...
 Feature Set : oracle.glcm.opatchauto.core.actions.classpath
Post Feature installing 'oracle.glcm.opatchauto.core.actions.classpath'
Post feature install complete
String substitutions pending
...
Setting up 'oracle.glcm.opatchauto.core 13.9.1.0.0 '
Setup successful
Save inventory pending
Saving inventory
 93%
Saving inventory complete
 94%
Configuration complete
Logs successfully copied to /u00/app/oraInventory/logs.

Job done

Now the version was ok, the patch could be applied.

oracle@kestenholz:/u00/app/oracle/product/em13cr2/OPatch/ [oms13cr2] ./opatch version
OPatch Version: 13.9.1.0.0

OPatch succeeded.

Additional Information: If the installer does not find your inventory location (was happened to me on an AIX system), just execute the install command with the parameter -invPtrLoc.

java -jar /u00/app/oracle/stage/6880880/opatch_generic.jar -silent oracle_home=/u00/app/oracle/product/oms13cr2 -invPtrLoc /etc/oraInst.loc

The OMSPatcher can be updated like before, but the other important component in the patch process OPatch has has to be installed. From my point of view this is a step back, I don’t know what was the idea behind to change it. Now you have to be sure, that there is an existing JDK 1.7 available on your system. This means that applying a patch on the express way is not possible anymore, you have to fulfill the prerequisite before you have an actual OPatch. And at the moment, there is no other documentation than the README.txt available, the hint with the inventory parameter came from My Oracle Support after I opened a SR.

Say good-bye to Unzip, Copy & Paste.