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Oracle® Universal Installer and OPatch User's Guide
11g Release 1 (11.1) for Windows and UNIX

Part Number B31207-01
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A Frequently Asked Questions

This appendix is organized into the following sections:

A.1 Oracle Universal Installer

This section answers the frequently asked questions for Oracle Universal Installer:

On Windows, when I run Oracle Universal Installer setup.exe, it is not invoked.

This may occur because some system resources are being held by some services. If you stop these services, Oracle Universal Installer can be invoked.

To run Oracle Universal Installer again, execute the following command:

setup -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Dsun.awt.nopixfmt=true

When I start Oracle Universal Installer from any location, after setting the PATH environment variable, I receive an error that reads "Could not read any NLS message catalogue!". What do I do?

Oracle Universal Installer needs some files in the directory where the runInstaller (UNIX) or setup.exe (Windows) is running. So, when you invoke runInstaller (UNIX) or setup.exe (Windows), you should invoke it from the directory where this command is present, or you must specify the complete path.

I have lost my Central Inventory, but have a valid Oracle home(s). What do I do?

Oracle Universal Installer allows you to set up the Central Inventory or register an existing ORACLE_HOME with the Central Inventory in case of inventory corruption or loss. You need to execute the command with the -attachHome flag. For more information, see the section "Creating the Central Inventory" on page 2-7.

I want to deploy multiple Oracle home(s) from an existing Oracle home. How do I do this?

Oracle Universal Installer creates Oracle homes during Oracle software installation. To deploy multiple Oracle homes using an existing one, you need to clone the Oracle home. For more information on cloning and mass deployment, see Chapter 6, "Cloning Oracle Software".

I have lost my Oracle home inventory (comps.xml). What can I do?

Oracle recommends backing up the inventory when an Oracle home is installed or removed. Ensure that you back up the comps.xml that has the latest time-stamp. For more information on backing up the inventory, see "Backing up the Inventory" on page 2-9.

When your Oracle home inventory is corrupted or lost, you can restore from the backup or you can install the Oracle home from an identical installation.

When I run the configuration assistants, they fail. What do I do?

To recover from this problem, rename the configToolAllCommands and configToolFailedCommands files as follows:

ConfigToolAllCommands(.sh/.bat) is used when the installation was done with a -noConfig option and you want to run all the configuration assistants in standalone mode, outside the OUI context.

ConfigToolFailedCommands(.sh/.bat) is used when the install was done with failed configuration assistants and you want to run only the failed configuration assistants later in standalone mode, outside the OUI context.

When I apply a patchset or an interim patch, the installer tries to propagate to a node that I disconnected a long time ago. What do I do?

This may occur because the Oracle home is present in the Central Inventory.

Oracle Universal Installer allows you to remove the Oracle home from the Central Inventory in cases where the Oracle home is uninstalled. To remove the Oracle home, you need to execute runInstaller with the -detachHome flag. You can also completely remove the Central Inventory to remove traces of log files. For more information, see the section "Detaching Oracle Homes from the Central Inventory" on page 2-8.

When I apply a patchset or an interim patch, the patch is not propagated to some of my Real Application Clusters nodes. What do I do?

In a Real Application Clusters environment, the inventory contains a list of nodes associated with an Oracle home. It is important that during the application of a patchset or an interim patch, the inventory is correctly populated with the list of nodes. If the inventory is not correctly populated with values, the patch is propagated only to some of the nodes in the cluster.

Oracle Universal Installer allows you to update inventory.xml with the nodes available in the cluster using the -updateNodeList flag in Oracle Universal Installer. For more information, see the section "Updating the Nodes of a Cluster" on page 2-12.

What if I just want to update the inventory without reapplying a one-off patch?

The OPatch addpatch.pl tool enables you to update the inventory with a given one-off patch without actually reapplying it to the Oracle home. Use this tool if you are certain that the patch is present in the Oracle home but not in the inventory. You can download it from MetaLink at patch number 4321390 to just add the patch to the inventory. After using this option, opatch lsinventory shows the one-off patch information along with other installed one-offs.

On two separate occasions, I experienced a corrupt inventory and a failed installation. Does OUI provide a backup facility I could use before I try to install again?

OUI provides automated backups for the Central Inventory and Oracle home Inventory. For more information, see Section , "Automated Inventory Backups" in Appendix B, "Troubleshooting and Debugging Oracle Universal Installer".

A.2 OPatch

This section answers the frequently asked questions for OPatch.

When I apply a patch I receive an error that reads "Failed to load the patch object. Possible causes are: The specified path is not an interim patchshiphome. Metadata files are missing from the patch area ". What do I do?

This simply means the directory OPatch is using to find the patch doesn't match the template it is checking for. For more information on this error, see "Not a valid patch area" on page 7-46.

When I apply a patch, I receive an error that reads "Syntax error.....Patch location not valid." What do I do?

This simply means that the patch location that you specified is invalid. Provide the correct patch location and apply the patch again.

When I apply a patch, I receive an error that reads "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: <Class Name>". What do I do?

This may occur because OPatch cannot find the particular class listed in the error, which is supposed to be located inside the $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/jlib/opatch.jar file. Check if you have the particular class file there. To check this, execute the following command; the missing class file will be printed out:

cd $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/jlib
jar tf opatch.jar <Class File Name>.class

It is recommended that you contact Oracle support when you encounter this error.

Another reason might be having done a file transfer of OPatch in non-binary mode.

When I apply a patch, I receive an error that reads "OPatch cannot find the required command 'ar' from Property file and your PATH". What do I do?

'ar' is a command OPatch uses. This message may appear if OPatch cannot locate this command.

For more details and a workaround for this problem, see "OPatch cannot find system commands like fuser, make" on page 7-46.

When I apply a patch, I receive an error that reads "OPatch cannot find the required command 'fuser' from Property file and your PATH". What do I do?

'fuser' is a command OPatch uses. This message may appear if OPatch cannot locate this command.

For more details and a workaround for this problem, see "OPatch cannot find system commands like fuser, make" on page 7-46.

How do I receive the information about a patch that I applied a long time ago?

You can look at the folder $ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage/<patch-id_timestamp>. It has detailed information about the patch. You can also use opatch lsinventory -detail to see the files that the patch has modified.

Where do I get the OPatch 11.1 log files?

You can look at the folder $ORACLE_HOME/cfgtoollogs/opatch for OPatch 11.1 log files.

How do I find out a list of Oracle home(s) for a host?

To find out the list of Oracle home(s) in a host, use the command lsinventory -all.

How can I minimize the downtime when applying a patch to a Real Application Clusters setup?

You can minimize the downtime when applying a patch to a Real Application Clusters setup by doing Minimum Downtime Patching. For more information, see "Minimum Downtime Patching" on page 7-35.

Can I stop applying a patch after applying it to a few nodes? What are the possible issues?

Yes, it is possible to stop applying a patch after applying it to a few nodes. However, Oracle recommends that you do not do this. There is a prompt that allows you to stop applying the patch. This means you cannot apply another patch until the process is restarted and all the nodes are patched or the partially applied patch is rolled back.

Can I run patching in scripted mode?

Yes, it is possible by using the command opatch <option> -silent. For more information, see "OPatch Utility for OUI-based Oracle Homes" on page 7-8.

Before applying a patch, I want to know the impact of the patch.

You can use the command opatch <option> -report. For more information, see "OPatch Utility for OUI-based Oracle Homes" on page 7-8.

What versions of OPatch can I use with Oracle Universal Installer 11.1?

Oracle recommends using OPatch version 11.1 from the Oracle home with Oracle Universal Installer 11.1. Also note that OPatch is compatible only with the version of Oracle Universal Installer that is installed in the Oracle home.

Is Opatch 11.1 backward compatible? Can I use OPatch 11.1 to apply 9.2, 10.1, and 10.2 patches?

No, OPatch 11.1 is not backward compatible. You can use Opatch 11.1 only to apply 11.1 patches.

When I apply a patch, I receive an error that reads as follows:

"OPatchSession cannot load inventory for the given Oracle home <Home_Location>. Possible causes are:No read or write permission to ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storageCentral Inventory is locked by another OUI instanceNo read permission to Central InventoryThe lock file exists in ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storageThe Oracle home does not exist in Central Inventory"

What do I do?

This error may occur because of any one or more of the following reasons:

I am trying to install a patch on Windows, but OPatch is not reading the complete patch location. The patch location is c:\My Patches\300100.

OPatch does not support paths with spaces. The solution is to move the patch to a path that does not have spaces and then provide that location to OPatch. OPatch does not work if there are spaces in paths of the Oracle home, the patch location, and JRE/JDK locations.

What if I want to just update the inventory without reapplying a one-off patch?

The OPatch addpatch.pl tool enables you to update the inventory with a given one-off patch without actually reapplying it to the Oracle home. Use this tool if you are certain that the patch is present in the Oracle home, but not in the inventory. You can download it from MetaLink at patch number 4321390 to just add the patch to the inventory. After using this option, opatch lsinventory shows the one-off patch information along with other installed one-offs.