Contents

Title and Copyright Information

Preface

• Documentation Accessibility
• Conventions

1 Introduction

• 1.1 What is New in Smart Update Version 3.2
• 1.2 Products Supported by Smart Update Version 3.2
• 1.3 Quick Reference Information
• 1.4 How Smart Update Simplifies Patch and Maintenance Pack Management
  • 1.4.1 Features for Downloading and Applying Patches
    • 1.4.1.1 Direct Connection to My Oracle Support
    • 1.4.1.2 Patch Validation and Conflict Checking
    • 1.4.1.3 Command-Line Interface
    • 1.4.1.4 Support for Distributed Patching
    • 1.4.1.5 Support for Patching Machines That Cannot Connect to My Oracle Support
    • 1.4.1.6 Simplified Maintenance Rollback
    • 1.4.1.7 Scoping a Patch to a Specific Applications, Domains, or Servers
  • 1.4.2 Features for Installing Maintenance Pack Updates
    • 1.4.2.1 Easy-to-Use Graphical Interface
    • 1.4.2.2 Listing of Available Maintenance Packs
    • 1.4.2.3 Downgrade Capability
• 1.5 Register for Security Updates
• 1.6 Resources Available from My Oracle Support
• 1.7 Overview of Applying Maintenance Patches
  • 1.7.1 Providing Maintenance to Distributed Machines
  • 1.7.2 Maintaining Machines that are not Connected to My Oracle Support
    • 1.7.2.1 Patching New Versions of Smart Update Manually
• 1.8 Overview of Installing Maintenance Pack Updates

2 Starting Smart Update

• 2.1 Before You Start
  • 2.1.1 Designating the Patch Download Directory
  • 2.1.2 Obtaining Required Access
• 2.2 How to Start Smart Update
• 2.3 Logging In to Smart Update
  • 2.3.1 Related Topics
  • 2.3.2 Obtaining My Oracle Support Account
  • 2.3.3 Working Offline
• 2.4 Setting Preferences
  • 2.4.1 Choosing a Patch Download Directory
  • 2.4.2 Displaying Patch Sets in the Downloaded Patches Panel
  • 2.4.3 Setting HTTP Proxy Information
    • 2.4.3.1 Related Topics

3 Downloading and Applying Patches

• 3.1 Choosing a Target Installation
  • 3.1.1 Specifying Other Middleware Home Directories
• 3.2 Downloading Private Patches
• 3.3 Downloading Publicly Available Patches
  • 3.3.1 Validating Patches Before Downloading
    • 3.3.1.1 When Validation Before Downloading is Recommended
    • 3.3.1.2 Validation Process
    • 3.3.1.3 Using the Patch Download Validation Dialog Box
  • 3.3.2 Refreshing the View of Patches and Patch Sets
• 3.4 Viewing Patch Information
  • 3.4.1 How to Display Patches
    • 3.4.1.1 Displaying a List of Publicly Available Patches
    • 3.4.1.2 Displaying the Contents of the Patch Download Directory
  • 3.4.2 About Patches Displayed in the Get Patches Tab
  • 3.4.3 Viewing Patch and Patch Set Details
    • 3.4.3.1 Viewing Details about Patches
    • 3.4.3.2 Viewing Details About Patch Sets
  • 3.4.4 Viewing Currently Downloaded Patches
• 3.5 Applying and Managing Patches
  • 3.5.1 About the Manage Patches Tab
  • 3.5.2 About Patch Profiles
  • 3.5.3 Applying a Patch to the Target Installation
  • 3.5.4 Removing a Patch or Patch Set from the Target Installation
• 3.6 Resolving Patch Conflicts
  • 3.6.1 Validation When Downloading Patches
  • 3.6.2 Validation When Applying Patches
  • 3.6.3 Validation When Removing Patches
• 3.7 Creating and Using Maintenance Snapshots
• 3.8 Applying a Patch to the Client
  • 3.8.1 To apply the patch to the client in addition to the server:
  • 3.8.2 To apply the patch to the client only:

4 Downloading and Installing Maintenance Packs

• 4.1 Overview
  • 4.1.1 Using the Node Manager in a Clustered Environment
  • 4.1.2 Removing Pointers to Custom Patch Profiles
• 4.2 Viewing Available Maintenance Packs
• 4.3 Applying the Selected Maintenance Pack
• 4.4 Upgrading Web Server Plug-Ins

5 Activating Applied Patches in Your Installations and Applications

• 5.1 Overview
  • 5.1.1 Patches That Must Be Referenced By Start Scripts
  • 5.1.2 Patches That Replace Resources For All Applications, Domains, and Servers
  • 5.1.3 Patches That Must Be Deployed and Referenced By Applications
  • 5.1.4 How Patch Files Are Stored on Your System By Smart Update
  • 5.1.5 Structure of the Installation-Level Patch Directories
    • 5.1.5.1 Patch Manifest JAR Files
    • 5.1.5.2 Native Library Files
    • 5.1.5.3 Module Patch Files
• 5.2 Classpath, Extended Classpath, and Native Library Patches
  • 5.2.1 About Pointing Start Scripts at Patches
    • 5.2.1.1 Default Script that Defines Class and Library Paths for All Domains and Servers
    • 5.2.1.2 Default Patch Path Environment Variables
    • 5.2.1.3 How Patch Path Variables Are Inserted into Class and Library Paths
    • 5.2.1.4 About Setting a Patch Path Variable in a Server Start Script
• 5.3 Modifying a Start Script
• 5.4 Using the Start Script Editor
  • 5.4.1 Script Snippet for Windows
  • 5.4.2 Script Snippet for UNIX
  • 5.4.3 Opening a Start Script
    • 5.4.3.1 Modifying the Domain Start Script
    • 5.4.3.2 Modifying the Start Script for All Managed Servers or Cluster
    • 5.4.3.3 Modifying the Start Script for a Specific Server
• 5.5 Pointing All Domains and Servers at Patches Through Custom Scripts
  • 5.5.1 Pointing Domains and Servers at Patch JARs in the Default Patch Profile for the WebLogic System Classpath
  • 5.5.2 Pointing Domains and Servers at Library Patches in the Default Patch Profile
    • 5.5.2.1 For UNIX Systems
    • 5.5.2.2 For Windows Systems
• 5.6 Module Patching
  • 5.6.1 Module Patching in WebLogic Server
  • 5.6.2 Module Patching in OSGi-Based Products
• 5.7 Native Binaries and Other Artifacts Patches
• 5.8 Shared Archive Patches
  • 5.8.1 Overview
    • 5.8.1.1 Archive Replacement Compared with Insertion
    • 5.8.1.2 Patch Removal
    • 5.8.1.3 For More Information
  • 5.8.2 Default Application of Shared Archive Patches
  • 5.8.3 Activating Shared Archive Patches in Custom Profiles with Application Scope
    • 5.8.3.1 Updating Application Descriptors

6 Patching Individual Applications, Domains, or Servers

• 6.1 About Patching Domains or Servers
• 6.2 About Patching Applications, Domains, or Servers
  • 6.2.1 How Custom Profiles Can Patch Individual Domains, Servers, and Applications
  • 6.2.2 How a Domain or Server Can Point to a Patch in a Custom Profile
    • 6.2.2.1 Example Use of PATCH_CLASSPATH to Point a Server at Patch Classes
    • 6.2.2.2 Pointing to Custom Patch Profiles in OSGi-based Products
  • 6.2.3 Best Practices for Using Custom Patch Profiles
    • 6.2.3.1 Avoiding Proliferation of Custom Profiles
    • 6.2.3.2 Modifying Domain and Server Start Scripts
    • 6.2.3.3 Removing Patches That Affect Installation-Wide Resources
• 6.3 Creating a Custom Patch Profile
  • 6.3.1 Related Topics
  • 6.3.2 Initial Contents of a Custom Patch Profile
  • 6.3.3 Cloning a Patch Profile
  • 6.3.4 Adding Patches to a Custom Patch Profile
  • 6.3.5 Deleting a Custom Patch Profile
• 6.4 Pointing Domains and Servers at a Custom Patch Profile
  • 6.4.1 Important Note if You Use Custom Scripts
    • 6.4.1.1 Related Topics
• 6.5 Managing Custom Patch Profiles in a Node Manager Environment

7 Uninstalling Maintenance Packs and Patches

• 7.1 Important Note about Uninstalling Products
• 7.2 Removing a Patch or Patch Set
  • 7.2.1 To remove a patch or patch set, complete the following steps:
• 7.3 Uninstalling a Maintenance Pack

8 Using the Command-Line Interface

• 8.1 About the bsu Command
• 8.2 bsu Command Reference
• 8.3 Command-Line Interface Examples
  • 8.3.1 Installation Example
  • 8.3.2 View Patches Example
  • 8.3.3 Another View Patches Example
  • 8.3.4 Display Maintenance Snapshot
  • 8.3.5 Report of Applied Patches

9 Best Practices for Distributing Maintenance Updates

• 9.1 Distributing Maintenance Patches to a Production Environment
  • 9.1.1 Using Smart Update Scripts to Promote a Standard Maintenance Level to a Production Environment
  • 9.1.2 Creating and Distributing an Archive of the Product Installation
• 9.2 Providing Patches to Systems that Cannot Connect to My Oracle Support
  • 9.2.1 Patching an Offline System Through a Shared Patch Download Directory
    • 9.2.1.1 Requirements
    • 9.2.1.2 Steps
  • 9.2.2 Patching an Offline System Through Removable Media
    • 9.2.2.1 Requirements
    • 9.2.2.2 Steps
  • 9.2.3 Additional Means for Patching an Offline System

10 Known Limitations in Smart Update

• 10.1 General Issues and Workarounds
  • 10.1.1 Smart Update 3.1 Exits with an Error if Version Strings of Products that are Not Supported by Smart Update are Present in the Registry
  • 10.1.2 Smart Update Does Not Run on Apple Macintosh Machine
  • 10.1.3 Exceptions are Thrown When You Use Smart Update with Node Manager Running
  • 10.1.4 Patch Application Does Not Enforce Product Check in Command-line Mode
  • 10.1.5 Invalidated Patches List Other Invalidated Patches as Their Replacement
  • 10.1.6 The Patch Profile Maintenance Snapshot Is Poorly Formatted When Viewed in Notepad
  • 10.1.7 Smart Update Graphical User Interface Displays an Exception in Rare Cases
  • 10.1.8 Uninstall Component Does Not Remove Component Patches Automatically
  • 10.1.9 Gui Cannot Refresh Patches Installed from Command Line Without Restart

11 Frequently Asked Questions

• 11.1 How do I get a Support ID?
• 11.2 What is a Bug or CR?
• 11.3 How can I get a fix to a bug? Can I get a patch for a bug?
• 11.4 How do I obtain security advisory notifications?
• 11.5 What is a private patch?
• 11.6 How do I get the ID for a private patch?
• 11.7 How do I download just a maintenance pack?
• 11.8 What products can I patch using the Smart Update tool?
• 11.9 Do I need a support contract to download patches from My Oracle Support?

A Smart Update Quick Reference

• A.1 How to Download and Apply a Private Patch
• A.2 How to Generate a Maintenance Snapshot
• A.3 How to Create a Custom Patch Profile
• A.4 Smart Update GUI Glossary

Glossary