Patch Tracking Utilities

It is important to keep track of the patching status of your system. This chapter describes how to identify patches that have not been applied to your system, and how to maintain any customized files.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Patch Wizard

With Patch Wizard, you can determine patches that have not been applied to your system. It does not report on all available patches. It compares the patches you have already applied against a list of all recommended Oracle E-Business Suite patches. Recommended patches can include high-priority patches or patches that update to a new codelevel, such as release update packs (RUPs), product family RUPs, and pre-upgrade patches.

How Patch Wizard Works

Patch Wizard supplies you with an interface from which you can:

Before running any of the Patch Wizard tasks, set up your My Oracle Support (Metalink) credentials on the OAM Update Metalink Credentials page. To access this page, go to the Patch Wizard main page, click Setup in the title bar. Alternatively, click the Setup link at the top right of any page of the OAM interface.

The Dashboard Setup page appears. Click the Metalink Credentials link on the left side. The Update Metalink Credentials page appears.

OAM Update Metalink Credentials Page

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Update your My Oracle Support credentials by providing your user ID, password, email address, proxy server host name, proxy server port, proxy bypass domains, proxy user name, and proxy password. The recommend, analyze, and download patches features typically require that your My Oracle Support user ID and password are set on the OAM Update Metalink Credentials page. However, the recommend and analyze features can also be used when Patch Wizard does not have access to a direct Internet connection. If this is the case, you can leave the Metalink user ID and password empty.

The Patch Information Bundle

The Patch Information Bundle file contains the zip files of recommended patches, the list of recommended patches (Recommended.xml), the latest codelevel patches (Codelevels.xml), and information on products and product families (ProductInfo.xml). Each patch zip file contains a readme file, a patch LDT file, and a patch metadata file (patch_metadata.xml).

The Patch Information Bundle file is updated daily. When you submit a patch analysis request, this file is automatically downloaded (if it is not specified otherwise in your Metalink credentials.)

Patch Wizard loads the Patch Information Bundle data, including LDT files and readme files, into the Oracle E-Business Suite database. It uses the metadata to provide patch recommendations.

Concurrent Programs

When you submit a request for patch analysis, Patch Wizard performs the following tasks using a set of concurrent programs:

Running Patch Wizard Without Access to an Internet Connection

You can run Patch Wizard without access to an Internet connection, if necessary, by downloading the Patch Information Bundle to a system which has Internet access. Once the download is complete, copy the Patch Information Bundle file to the Patch Wizard's staging directory. Then run Patch Wizard as you normally would, to recommend and analyze patches, based on the files you copied to the staging directory.

The Patch Wizard Interface

Patch Wizard is a Web-based utility in Oracle Applications Manager (OAM). The OAM interface gives Patch Wizard pages a uniform look and feel. See: OAM Interface, Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Utilities.

Main Page

From this page, you have access to task icons used to set up the Patch Wizard staging directory, manage patch filters, submit concurrent requests, and view recommended patches. In addition, the Recommended Results section of this page displays a list of patches based on submitted requests.

Task Icons

From the main page, access the other Patch Wizard pages by clicking on Task icons. The icons provide links to the following pages: Patch Wizard Preferences, Define Patch Filters, Recommended/Analyze Patches, Download Patches, and Aggregate Patch Impact.

Details Icons

On many Patch Wizard pages, you can drill down to see more detail. For example, from the Recommended Patches Results section of the main page, click the Details icon for a specific recommended patch request to view the recommended patch results

Accessing Patch Wizard

To access Patch Wizard, log in to Oracle Applications Manager (OAM) and choose Patch Wizard from the Navigator pane.

  1. Enter the following URL in your browser:

    http://<HTTP hostname>.<domain>:<HTTP port>/OA_HTML/AppsLogin
    

    The Welcome page appears.

    Oracle E-Business Suite Welcome Page

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    Enter your user name and password, and click Login. The Oracle E-Business Suite Home page appears. Click the System Administration link in the Navigator pane. Another Navigator pane appears to the right.

  2. Go to the Patch Wizard main page.

    Scroll down to the Oracle Applications Manager section of the right-hand Navigator pane, and click Patch Wizard to go to the main page.

Patch Wizard Main Page

Use the main page to access all features of Patch Wizard and to view the results of your requests for recommended patches. The Select Feature drop-down list at the top of the page provides access to the Applied Patches, File History, Timing Reports, and Register Flagged Files features.

Patch Wizard Main Page

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Patch Wizard Tasks Table

The Patch Wizard Tasks table lists the tasks available in Patch Wizard. The table contains the following columns of information for each task:

From the Patch Wizard Tasks table, choose the Tasks icons to view:

Recommended Patches Results

The Recommended Patches Results section of the Patch Wizard main page lists all in-progress and completed requests for patch recommendations, based on the information you entered in the Filter Criteria section of the main page. For example, you can view only the results that contain a certain text string in the filter name, or only the results of requests completed on a certain date.

Patch Wizard Main Page - Recommended Patches Results

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Clicking the icon in the Details column of a specific recommended patch request accesses the Recommended Patches Results page. After setting up and submitting a request, view the details of the recommended patches on this page.

Patch Wizard Preferences

The site-specific information you set on the Patch Wizard Preferences page applies to other functions of Patch Wizard, such as Recommend/Analyze, Download Patches, and Codelevels Summary. From the Patch Wizard main page, click the Tasks icon for Patch Wizard Preferences.

The top portion of the page contains these sections: Staging Directory, Merge Option Defaults, and Language and Platform Details.

Patch Wizard Preferences Page - Top

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The bottom portion of the page contains the In Use Products Defaults and the Display Option Defaults sections.

Patch Wizard Preferences Page - Bottom

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Staging Directory

Depending on the product type (AD or non-AD), Patch Wizard downloads patches to a subdirectory under the staging directory. If the patch that ADOAM is trying to download is an AD product patch, it will be downloaded to the "ad" subdirectory under the stage directory. Non-AD Patches will be downloaded to “nonad" subdirectory.

The staging directory is also used by Patch Wizard to create temporary files and subdirectories for patch recommendation requests. These temporary files and directories are deleted after processing.

Note: Oracle recommends you use the same staging directory each time you run Patch Wizard.

Merge Option Defaults

Merging patches reduces patch application time by eliminating redundant tasks (such as responding to prompts and linking executables) for each individual patch.

Note: AD product patches cannot be merged with other product patches.

Patch Wizard screens allow you to merge AD and non-AD patches by specifying the appropriate options as discussed below. You can choose to automatically merge patches that you download.

The following merge options can be set:

Language and Platform Details

You can select the languages (one or more) of patches that Patch Wizard will recommend and download. You can also select the platform of the patches you want recommended and downloaded.

In Use Products Defaults

Selecting the Patch Recommendation for In Use Products Only check box directs Patch Wizard to display on the Recommended Patch Results page only patches for the products marked as in use (active) in your system.

Both Patch Wizard and AutoPatch look at the In Use flag to determine what products you are using. To review the products currently marked as being in use in your system, click the Codelevels Summary Page link. See: Codelevels Introduced by the Patch.

Display Option Defaults

Hidden patches are patches that you choose not to see in your reports. For example, if Patch Wizard recommends patches for products you do not need for your system, you can choose to hide these patches.

However, checking the Show Hidden Patches box in the Patch Wizard Preferences page overrides the hidden patch setting, and all patches, even hidden patches, are reported.

After you have made all your selections on the Patch Wizard Preferences page, click OK to save them or click Cancel to discard.

Define Patch Filters

The Patch Information Bundle file contains information for all recommended patches for all products. If Patch Wizard were to compare patches in the patch information database against all metadata in the Patch Information Bundle file, the number of recommended patches in the report might be too large to be useful for an individual system. Patch Wizards provides filters so that only those patch types and products in the metadata that apply to your system are included in the comparison.

From the main page, click the Tasks icon for Define Patch Filters to see all filters created for the current system. Patch Wizard provides three pre-seeded filters. In addition, you can create your own custom filters.

Define Patch Filters Page

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Note that the pre-seeded filters are marked "Oracle" in the Type column, and filters you create are marked "Custom." You cannot edit or delete the pre-seeded filters, but you can use any of them as a template to create a new filter.

The pre-seeded filters are:

Creating a New Custom Patch Filter

From the Define Patch Filters page, click Create New to create a new custom filter.

Create Patch Filters Page

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On the Create Patch Filters page, enter a unique name and a description for each new custom filter. All licensed product families are listed in the Licensed Product Families section. Non-licensed product families are listed at the bottom of the page. There are two columns for each product family: Recommended Patches and New Codelevel. Select a box for each product family you want to include in the new filter.

By choosing the Create Like button on the Define Patch Filters page, you indicate you want to use an existing filter as a template to create a new filter. The system supplies the filter criteria from the existing filter for the new filter. Edit the criteria by checking or clearing the boxes. Click Continue to create the new filter.

Recommend/Analyze Patches

After setting up the Patch Wizard staging area (and optionally creating custom filters) on the main page, you can submit requests for processing. Click the Tasks icon for Recommend/Analyze Patches.

Recommend Patches Page - Top

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The Options section of the Recommend Patches page contains the following actions:

You can enter a date and time in the Schedule section of this page to run the request at a later time. The default setting is to run the job immediately. You can also schedule automatic recurring requests by entering the information in the Recurrence section.

Recommend Patches Page - Bottom

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Click OK to submit the request.

When the request is submitted, Patch Wizard looks in the specific directories under the stage directory for the patches. If the patches are not present, or if there are newer versions available, Patch Wizard downloads them from My Oracle Support before creating recommendations or analyzing patches.

Note: If you want to create recommendations or analyze specific patches without using an Internet connection, refer to Creating Patch Recommendations Without an Internet Connection or Analyzing Patches Without an Internet Connection.

Each time you submit a request to analyze specific patches or to recommend patches, Patch Wizard creates a Request Set ID. The Request Set ID is shown in the Results section of the Patch Wizard main page. To check the status of your request, click on the Request Set ID corresponding to your request in the Recommended Patches Results section.

Download Patches

You use the Download Patches page to request a download of specific patches from My Oracle Support. From the main page, click the Download Patches tasks icon. From the Download Patches page, enter the patch numbers in the input field, separated with commas. Enter either bug numbers (for example, 1234567) or full patch names (for example, 1234567_R12.AD.A). You can also choose to analyze the patches while downloading, or analyze and compute aggregate patch impact while downloading.

Download Patches Page - Top

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The Merge Options section is where you define how patches should be merged after downloading. The defaults for merging are set on the Patch Wizard Preferences page. If you choose to automatically merge patches while downloading, you can modify the merged patch name and specify the merging strategy in this section. The default merged patch name is "merged_YYYYMMDDhhmmss", where "hh" is in 24-hour format.

The Languages and Platform section allows you to select the languages and platform of the downloaded patches. The defaults for languages and platform are set on the Patch Wizard Preferences page. However, you can modify the information on this page. When you provide information in this section, Patch Wizard downloads only patches that match the languages and platform you select.

Download Patches Page - Bottom

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You can also provide information in the Schedule section about downloads you want to perform at a later date.

Recommended Patches Results

From the main page, click the Details icon associated with a patch request in the Results section to access the Recommended Patches Results page. This page presents a set of recommended patches based on the results of the selected Recommend Patches request that you submitted.

The first section lists the recommended patches.

Recommended Patches Results Page

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The second section lists patches that introduce new codelevels.

Recommended Patches Results - Patches that Introduce New Codelevels

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Both sections display the following columns:

Click the Download button to transfer the selected patch number(s) to the Download Patches page for submission.

Codelevels Introduced by the Patch

If new codelevels are introduced by the patch, the Yes indicator in the Codelevel Introduced column of the Recommended Patches Results page is a link that takes you to the Codelevels Introduced by the Patch page.

Codelevels Introduced by the Patch Page

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This page contains the following information.

Patch Information

This section includes the following information:

Codelevels Information

This section includes the following information:

To view the codelevels of all the products and product families available and in use in your system, click the Codelevels Summary link in the Patch Information section.

Codelevels Summary Page

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This page summarizes available products. For each product, it indicates the current Codeline and Codelevel and whether it is in use (active) in your system. Patch Wizard and AutoPatch look at the In Use flag to determine active products.

Caution: If you use this page to update your In Use products list, be sure you do not uncheck any products that are active in your system, or are required for system operation.

Patch Impact Analysis

From the Recommended Patches Results page, click an icon in the Impact column to view the Patch Impact Analysis page for that patch.

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This page displays a list of summary information about which files are new, which files are changed, and which files are ignored when you apply the patch. Prerequisite patches and the readme file for this patch are also shown. Each of the summary items is a link to more complete information.

The key information on this page is separated into these sections.

General Patch Information

General patch information includes:

Summary Information

There are two types of summary information: Direct Impact and Indirect Impact. Each summary item is a link to a page that lists the details for the summary count. For example, if you the number of Existing Files Changed, the details might look similar to this:

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Direct patch impact includes:

Indirect summary information includes:

Register Flagged Files

With the Register Flagged Files tool, you can record any files in which you have made customizations. In previous releases of Oracle E-Business Suite, the applcust.txt file contained the records for all customized files. You had to maintain your custom files records in this file. In this release, information about customized files is still written to the applcust.txt file. However, with the Register Flagged Files tool you can download the files and maintain them in a web-based interface.

The Register Flagged Files tool displays the following information about customized files:

The Register Flagged Files Interface

The Register Flagged Files tool is a Web-based utility in Oracle Applications Manager. From the Register Flagged Files home page, you can import, export, add, delete, and view records of customized files.

Accessing Register Flagged Files

To access the Register Flagged Files tool, log in to Oracle Applications Manager (OAM) and choose Register Flagged Files from the Site Map.

Step 1: Log in to Oracle Applications Manager

Follow the instructions in Accessing Patch Wizard to access OAM. From the Applications Dashboard, click the Site Map tab.

Step 2: Go the Register Flagged Files home page

On the Site Map page, Register Flagged Files is included on the Maintenance tab under the Patching and Utilities heading. Click the Register Flagged Files link to go to the home page.

Step 3: Select filter criteria

From the Register Flagged Files home page, you can search the records of customized files by product abbreviation, directory, file name, or a combination of product abbreviation, and directory or file name.

Register Flagged Files Home Page

This section describes the Register Flagged Files home page.

Register Flagged Files Home Page

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Use the following buttons to:

You can filter results either by product abbreviation, by directory/file name, or by a combination of product abbreviation, and directory or file name.

List of Customized Files

The list of customized files appears at the bottom of the Register Flagged Files home page. Each line item represents a customized file.

The details provided for each line item are:

Adding a Flagged File

Click the Add button on the Register Flagged Files main page to access the Add Flagged Files page. From this page, you can add customized files. Use the Filter Criteria section to search for files you want to add.

Add Flagged Files Page

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You can filter results either by product abbreviation, by directory/file name, or by a combination of product abbreviation, and directory or file name.

From the Search Results section, select a file, then click the Add button. The files you select appear in the Selected Data section. Use this section to add any comments you have for each file. Then click the Apply button to confirm your selection.

Importing a Flagged File

Click the Import button on the Register Flagged Files main page to access the Import Flagged File page. From the this page, you can import one file or a list of customized files in csv format.

You can import an existing applcust.txt file or a file from another system to the current one. This features saves you the time of using the Add button to add flagged files individually.

Import Flagged File Page

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In the Select File field, enter the name of the file you want to import or click the Browse button to navigate to the file. Then click Import. Click Cancel to return to the Register Flagged Files main page.