4 Troubleshooting OPatch

4.1 Error Messages

If there are problems with applying a patch, OPatch will return an error message. OPatch provides an integrated error analysis tool, operr, that lists both the cause and recommended action to resolve the issue. The tool can be found at the following location:

$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/operr

Syntax:

operr <error code>

The error information file used by the operr tool is the latest at the time of release. However, the information is constantly being updated. You can obtain the latest information file from MOS. See Section 4.1.1, "Obtaining the Latest OPERR" for more information.

If OPatch Fails to Run

If OPatch itself does not run, there are two possibilities:

• Oracle Home is not set

  Recommended Action: Set your Oracle Home environment variable.

• JRE/JDK cannot be found

  Recommended Action: Run opatch apply using the -jre option, which lets you specify the location of an installed JRE/JDK.

4.1.1 Obtaining the Latest OPERR

In this example, you are attempting to apply a patch and OPatch encounters an error condition. You find that the message file is not the latest and must obtain the latest message patch file using My Oracle Support (MOS).

In the following example, OPatch displays an error message with error code 115.

Example 4-1 OPatch Error Message

bash-4.1$ OPatch/opatch apply /scratch/my_admin/tmp/100100_rlib_patch_donot_modify/Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 13.1.0.0.0
Copyright (c) 2013, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Oracle Home       : /scratch/my_admin/oraclehome/fmw12/fmwhome_2
Central Inventory : /scratch/my_admin/oraInventory
   from           : /scratch/my_admin/oraclehome/fmw12/fmwhome_2//oraInst.loc
OPatch version    : 13.1.0.0.0
OUI version       : 13.1.0.0.0
Log file location : /scratch/my_admin/oraclehome/fmw12/fmwhome_2/cfgtoollogs/opatch/100100_May_09_2013_11_10_30/apply2013-05-09_11-10-21AM_1.log

OPatch detects the Middleware Home as "/scratch/my_admin/oraclehome/fmw12/fmwhome_2"

Applying interim patch '100100' to OH '/scratch/my_admin/oraclehome/fmw12/fmwhome_2'
Verifying environment and performing prerequisite checks...
All checks passed.
Backing up files...

Patching component oracle.fmwconfig.common.shared, 12.1.2.0.0...

There is an error with library regeneration, please refer to the log file for details. OPatch will continue applying the patch.

Verifying the update...
Log file location: /scratch/my_admin/oraclehome/fmw12/fmwhome_2/cfgtoollogs/opatch/100100_May_09_2013_11_10_30/apply2013-05-09_11-10-21AM_1.log

OPatch failed with error code 115

You now need to use the OPERR utility to determine a course of action.

4.1.1.1 Determining Whether OPERR Uses the Latest Message File

You run OPERR to obtain up-to-date troubleshooting information for error code 115, but find that the OPERR states that 115 is an undefined error code, thus indicating that the error message file used by OPERR is not the latest version.

bash-4.1$ OPatch/operr 115
Undefined error code.
You can get the latest messsage file from My Oracle Support using patch 16609471

4.1.1.2 Obtaining the Latest Message File from MOS

The next step is to retrieve the latest message file from patch 16609471 via MOS. To access MOS, go to support.us.oracle.com. The following sequence of graphics illustrate the steps to download the message file patch.

Step 1: Go to http://support.oracle.com

Step 2: Search for patch 16609471.

Step 3: Download the patch.

(Optional) Check the version of the downloaded patch.

bash-4.1$ OPatch/operr -version -f /scratch/my_admin/operr.txt 
operr version is 12.1.0.1.1
Message file version is 12.1.0.1.1, 05/09/13

4.1.1.3 Running OPERR with the Latest Message File

Using the -f option allows you to point OPERR to the message file you downloaded from MOS.

bash-4.1$ OPatch/operr 115 -f /scratch/my_admin/16609471/operr.txt 
Error code: 115
Error message:  OPatch failed to regenerate library.

4.2 Debugging: Enable Logging and Tracing

Logging and tracing is a common aid for debugging. OPatch maintains logs for all apply, rollback, and lsinventory operations. The log files are located at the following directory:

<ORACLE_HOME>/cfgtoollogs/opatch

Each log file is tagged with the timestamp of the operation. Log files are named as opatch_<date mm-dd-yyyy>_<time hh-mm-ss>.log.

For example, if a log file is created on May 17th, 2013 at 11.55 PM, it will be named as follows:

opatch_05-17-2013_23-55-00.log

OPatch also maintains an index of the commands executed with OPatch and the log files associated with it in the opatch_history.txt file located in the <ORACLE_HOME>/cfgtoollogs/opatch directory. A sample of the history.txt file is as follows:

Date & Time : Tue Apr 26 23:00:55 PDT 2012
Oracle Home : /private/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/
OPatch Ver. : 11.2.0.0.6
Current Dir : /scratch/oui/OPatch
Command     : lsinventory
Log File    : 
/private/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch-2013_Apr_26_23-00-55-PDT_Tue.log

4.3 References

This section to contain a list of other documentation that may provide support. The main link will point to the "Master Note for OPatch" (Doc ID 293369.1) in MOS.

Patch Set FAQ: See Patchset FAQ (Doc ID 552777.1) for a complete summary of patchset FAQs. This document is available in My Oracle Support.

Information Center: Patching and Maintaining Oracle Database Server/Client Installations (Doc ID 1351428.1 )

4.4 Products and Patch Types Not Supported by OPatch

Oracle now offers a wide range of products, including hardware and operating systems. However, patches required by some products are not currently supported by OPatch.

Typically, the types of Oracle products not supported by OPatch include:

• Hardware (for example, firmware updates for Sun servers).

• Operating system (for example, kernel patch updates for Oracle Linux or Oracle Solaris.)

• Java (for example, patch updates for JRE, JDK)

• Software products that do not create an Oracle home directory (for example, Oracle OpenOffice)