Datapatch: Database 12c or later Post Patch SQL Automation (Doc ID 1585822.1)

Last updated on SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Standard Edition - Version 12.1.0.1 and later
Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 12.1.0.1 and later
Oracle Database - Personal Edition - Version 12.1.0.1 and later
Oracle Database Cloud Schema Service - Version N/A and later
Oracle Database Exadata Express Cloud Service - Version N/A and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Purpose

Explain Database 12c or later Post Patch SQL Automation

Scope

Database release 12c or later extends patch install automation for patches that contain post-patch SQL instructions.
Prior to Oracle 12c such patches required manual intervention to complete the post-patch SQL instructions after restarting the database.
Datapatch is the new tool that enables automation of post-patch SQL actions for RDBMS patches.
Datapatch resides in the opatch directory i.e $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch folder (On Windows platforms : %ORACLE_HOME%\OPatch).

Datapatch can be executed to complete post-patch SQL actions after the database is restarted following patch application.
For patches that do not have post-patch SQL actions to be performed, calling datapatch is a no-op.
For patches that do have post-patch SQL instructions to be invoked on the database instance, datapatch will automatically detect ALL pending actions (from one installed patch or multiple installed patches) and complete the actions as appropriate.

Further details on datapatch are provided towards the end of this document.
Enterprise Manager and OPatchAuto provide further automation of database patches by calling datapatch automatically after applying the binary patch.

Following section describes how various patching tools implement this automation flow.