Online Patching

One of the hot topic during Collaborate 12 at Las Vegas along with Fusion was what is going to come in R12.2 and this post is subsequent to my earlier post…where we have reviewed what new release will bring to us, lots of new features, usability improvements and new technology stack components (Oracle Database 11g R2 and Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g R1 as the application server) and the most important feature will be online patching so finally what we are going to get as ……planned for R.12.2 – all patching operations will be online, Oracle E-Business Suite will remain available to business users during patching processes.

The online patching will be changing the game completely. We all know that E-Business Suite environments requires downtime for patching. Although based on our experience it can be reduced with various techniques (e.g. staged APPL_TOP), some downtime is still required to apply a number of patches. Online patching will not eliminate downtime completely, but will reduce it significantly by using “Edition Based Redefinition” feature of 11g.

So what we will be getting just to summarize:

• Business Operations Downtime will be measured in minutes not hours or days
• Business Operations Downtime windows will be very predictable
• Patches will be applied while the Oracle Production Application remains online

11gR2 Edition-Based Redefinition will enable us following:

• Allows an application to efficiently store multiple editions of its Application Definition in the same database
• Provides an isolation mechanism (The Edition) that allows pre-upgrade and post-upgrade schemas to co-exist
• Client code chooses the particular “Edition” that it wants to connect to

Dual File System for R.12.2

End Notes:

http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/glimpses_of_e_business_suite