{ Abhilash Kumar Bhattaram : Follow on LinkedIn }
Managing multiple Oracle patches
The purpose of this blog is to understand how patches are being managed even before patching.
- More ofthen tha not you have identified the environment you want to patch , but when you have atleast 50+ databases to deal with do you have a way to manage patches , espeically when some databases still need to work on a slightly older releases due to application dependencies
It is difficult to remeber with hunderds of other things one has to remember , A typical problems in understanding patching nomenclature is below
p6880880_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip --> This latest OPatch
p38906621_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip --> This is OJVM for 19.31
It's not possible to understand what the patch is for just by looking at the patch file name.
If you want to get started on autoupgrade , the below blog is a good read
Reference : Official Doc on autoupgrade
https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/19/upgrd/about-oracle-database-autoupgrade.html
Enter AUTOUPG_HOME
AUTOUPG_HOME is a logical folder structure I jave created for my own efficiency to manage multiple patches and environments.
I have a base Autoupgrade Home /u01/autoupg-home with the following sub folders
- autoupg-config - Contains all my config files for patching , upgrade , downloads and any config file I intend to use autoupgrade.jar for
- autoupg-keystore - Contains the keystore for using autoupgrade.jar , typically you set it up once and forget about it.
- autoupg-logs - Contains all log files generated by autoupgrade.jar
- autoupg-sw - The repository for downloading patches , typically I would have sub folders under this for each GI & RU ( feel free to customize it as needed )
[oracle@oel8-lab01 ~]$ export AUTOUPG_HOME=/u01/autoupg-home
[oracle@oel8-lab01 ~]$ env | grep AUTO
AUTOUPG_HOME=/u01/autoupg-home
[oracle@oel8-lab01 ~]$ cd $AUTOUPG_HOME
drwxr-xr-x. 2 oracle oinstall 56 Jun 19 01:49 autoupg-config
drwxr-xr-x. 2 oracle oinstall 90 Jun 19 01:34 autoupg-keystore
drwxr-xr-x. 3 oracle oinstall 42 Jun 19 01:28 autoupg-logs
drwxr-xr-x. 6 oracle oinstall 70 Jun 19 01:24 autoupg-sw
-rw-r--r--. 1 oracle oinstall 7016621 Jun 19 01:20 autoupgrade.jar
A simple tree structure of AUTOUPG_HOME
[oracle@oel8-lab01 autoupg-home]$ tree
.
├── autoupg-config
│ ├── 19.31-RU-download.cfg
│ └── key-store.cfg
├── autoupg-keystore
│ ├── cwallet.sso
│ ├── cwallet.sso.lck
│ ├── ewallet.p12
│ └── ewallet.p12.lck
├── autoupg-logs
│ └── cfgtoollogs
│ └── patch
│ └── auto
│ ├── autoupgrade_patching_err.log
│ ├── autoupgrade_patching.log
│ ├── autoupgrade_patching_user.log
│ ├── config_files
│ │ └── autoupg_patching.cfg
│ ├── examiner
│ │ └── examiner2026_06_19_01_32_49.json
│ ├── lock
│ └── sql
│ └── login.sql
├── autoupgrade.jar
├── autoupg-sw
│ ├── 19.28-RU
│ ├── 19.29-RU
│ ├── 19.30-RU
│ └── 19.31-RU
└── logs
Config Files & Download locations for Each GI/RU
I use in my lab Linux ARM64 so below is an example for downloading 19.91 RU for Linux ARM64
[oracle@oel8-lab01 autoupg-home]$ cat /u01/autoupg-home/autoupg-config/19.31-RU-download.cfg
global.global_log_dir=/u01/autoupg-home/autoupg-logs
global.keystore=/u01/autoupg-home/autoupg-keystore
install1.patch=OPATCH,OJVM,DPBP,AU,RU:19.31
install1.folder=/u01/autoupg-home/autoupg-sw/19.31-RU
install1.target_version=19
install1.platform=arm.x64
Downloading to desired folders
Now lets fire up the config file to get the dedicated patches downloaded to the desired locations.
[oracle@oel8-lab01 autoupg-home]$ java -jar ./autoupgrade.jar -config /u01/autoupg-home/autoupg-config/19.31-RU-download.cfg -patch -mode download
AutoUpgrade Patching 26.3.260401 launched with default internal options
Processing config file ...
Loading AutoUpgrade Patching keystore
AutoUpgrade Patching keystore is loaded
Connected to MOS - Searching for specified patches
----------------------------------------------------------
Downloading files to /u01/autoupg-home/autoupg-sw/19.31-RU
----------------------------------------------------------
DATABASE RELEASE UPDATE 19.31.0.0.0 (REL-APR2026)
File: p39034528_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip - VALIDATED
OPatch 12.2.0.1.51 for DB 19.0.0.0.0 (Apr 2026)
File: p6880880_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip - VALIDATED
OJVM RELEASE UPDATE 19.31.0.0.0
File: p38906621_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip - VALIDATED
DATAPUMP BUNDLE PATCH 19.31.0.0.0
File: p39196236_1931000DBRU_Generic.zip - VALIDATED
autoupgrade.jar 26.3 (April 2026)
File: autoupgrade.jar - VALIDATED
----------------------------------------------------------
Now Lets have a look at the AUTOUPG_HOME tree structure , you can see organized patches , this is pretty useful when dealing with large number of databases to have the patches available prior to downtime windows.
[oracle@oel8-lab01 autoupg-home]$ tree
.
├── autoupg-config
│ ├── 19.31-RU-download.cfg
│ └── key-store.cfg
├── autoupg-keystore
│ ├── apikey
│ ├── cwallet.sso
│ ├── cwallet.sso.lck
│ ├── ewallet.p12
│ └── ewallet.p12.lck
├── autoupg-logs
│ └── cfgtoollogs
│ └── patch
│ └── auto
│ ├── aru
│ │ ├── aru.log
│ │ ├── aru_releases.xml
│ │ ├── aru_user.log
│ │ └── ous.log
│ ├── autoupgrade_patching_err.log
│ ├── autoupgrade_patching.log
│ ├── autoupgrade_patching_user.log
│ ├── config_files
│ │ ├── autoupg_patching.cfg
│ │ └── autoupgrade.json
│ ├── examiner
│ │ ├── examiner2026_06_19_01_32_49.json
│ │ ├── examiner2026_06_19_01_57_59.json
│ │ ├── examiner2026_06_19_01_58_40.json
│ │ └── examiner2026_06_19_01_59_31.json
│ ├── lock
│ └── sql
│ └── login.sql
├── autoupgrade.jar
├── autoupg-sw
│ ├── 19.28-RU
│ ├── 19.29-RU
│ ├── 19.30-RU
│ └── 19.31-RU
│ ├── autoupgrade.jar
│ ├── p38906621_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip
│ ├── p39034528_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip
│ ├── p39196236_1931000DBRU_Generic.zip
│ ├── p6880880_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip
│ └── patches_info.json
└── logs
17 directories, 28 files
[oracle@oel8-lab01 autoupg-home]$
Patch Info
Note that each patch download has a file called patches_info.json, this a super useful feature to find description about the patches being downloaded
Use the below jq script
jq -r '
["TYPE","DESCRIPTION","PLATFORM","FILE","SHA1","SHA256"],
(.patches[] |
[
(if .description|test("RELEASE UPDATE") then "RU"
elif .description|test("OPatch") then "OPATCH"
elif .description|test("OJVM") then "OJVM"
elif .description|test("DATAPUMP") then "DPBP"
else "PATCH" end),
.description,
(.platform // "Generic"),
.files[0].name,
.files[0].checksum,
.files[0]["checksum-256"]
]) | @tsv
' patches_info.json | column -t -s $'\t'
The tabular details of each patch that was downloaded in the corresponding folder is shown as below
TYPE DESCRIPTION PLATFORM FILE SHA1 SHA256
RU DATABASE RELEASE UPDATE 19.31.0.0.0 (REL-APR2026) Linux ARM 64-bit p39034528_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip 35FCD029A7814A0960F1A0C700122D80CC1FA8EE 8B40287BA8B83746C527E285E039EE444F8E8E9A8391986EBF40588BBE46A92A
OPATCH OPatch 12.2.0.1.51 for DB 19.0.0.0.0 (Apr 2026) Linux ARM 64-bit p6880880_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip 4E6CB6C6F3FE33A092B2D570026596F4895E8605 D5D4692F89BE451C021F931125768BC68E5BEAF711FED7842361D65936EC19C2
RU OJVM RELEASE UPDATE 19.31.0.0.0 Linux ARM 64-bit p38906621_190000_Linux-ARM-64.zip A87F6A4B14D5851767CB5B1C7D089C1601E2F038 A4A8E7EFB5EB4BFE91C4A97C74A6702762A5AF2D8A5DEFEDB1042DD2F3E7BFB3
DPBP DATAPUMP BUNDLE PATCH 19.31.0.0.0 Generic p39196236_1931000DBRU_Generic.zip E711E3024AA6C4C336D7291CE1E7D0419C311C52 F39745219BCC9D8BC8FD1262EF787FF742F7F84F6C59A817B1F014ADA49B778F
So.. essentially organize all your patches before even you begin patching, that is what AUTOUPG_HOME helps to do.