Post date: Dec 17, 2010 7:47:35 PM
Checked for relevance on 07-May-2007
This issue affects installation of a Patch Set to any Oracle Release on AIX platforms only.
It is most likely to affect installation of the 9.2.0.2 Patch Set.
The patch set instructions for the 9.2 (and 9.0) Patch Sets on AIX platforms do not include instructions to run "slibclean" before installing the Patch Set. This can lead to write errors and / or strange other errors during the application of the Patch Set or during upgrade / operation of a database after the Patch Set has been applied.
The recommended steps before applying any Patch Set on AIX are:
Shutdown all instances which use the target ORACLE_HOME (being sure to exit the SQLPLUS session used to shut down each instance ).
Stop all listeners started from the target ORACLE_HOME
Stop all client application code / daemons which use the target ORACLE_HOME
Run the AIX command "/usr/sbin/slibclean" as "root" to clean all unreferenced libraries from memory.
Follow the install steps for the Patch Set
Write Errors during Patch Set installation
Note:466004.1 describes some of the "write" errors which can occur during application of the Patch Set if slibclean is not run.
Database Upgrade Errors
If "slibclean" has not been run there may be errors during upgrade of the database.
For example, after applying the 9.2.0.2 Patch Set the database may still show the JServer version as "9.2.0.1".
eg:
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.2.0 - Production on Mon Nov 11 04:20:01 2002
Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation.P All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production
Running of "?/rdbms/admin/catpatch" may then fail with an ORA-7445 in "joxcmjn_match_java_name"
When AIX loads a shared library into memory the image of that library is kept in memory even if no process is using the library. If the on-disk copy of the library is altered then applications using that library still use the in-memory copy and not the updated disk copy. This is normal expected behaviour on AIX.
In the case of applying an Oracle Patch Set then shutting down all the instances , listeners and applications still leaves shared libraries in memory (eg: libjox9.a stays in memory). Application of the Patch Set updates the disk copy, but subsequent startup of an instance uses the in-memory library images (if they are still present). Hence the version banner can show the old release, and upgrade steps may fail as the instance is running an unsupported combination of libraries.
Running "slibclean" before starting the upgrade flushes libraries which are not currently in use from memory.
Note:466004.1 Why WRITE errors can occur when applying a Patch Set on AIX
Related
Products
Oracle Database Products > Oracle Database > Oracle Database > Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition