OSB 11g: Patching OSB on Windows 7 with OPatch

There are a few hoops that need to be jumped through to patch Oracle Service Bus on Windows 7 with the OPatch utility. Note that the paths given in this post are accurate for the system on which this post was based but may be different on other systems and are dependant on where the Oracle software has been installed.

1. Start a Command window with Administrator priviledges

Administrator priviledges are required in order for the OPatch utility to get the appropriate locks on the files that are used by the OPatch utility. To initiate the Command window with Administrative priviledges right-click the icon that you use to start the Command window and select "Run as administrator" from the resulting context menu. This should launch the Command window.


2. Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable

The ORACLE_HOME environment variable needs to be set within the context of the new Command window. This should be set to the OSB_HOME, typically this

SET ORACLE_HOME=c:\oracle\middleware\Oracle_OSB1

3. Navigate to the directory in which you have unzipped the patch to be applied.

cd PATH_TO_PATCH_DIR


4. Run the OPatch utility to apply the patch.

The OPatch utility can be used to apply the patch with the command:

opatch apply -jdk JDK_HOME -jre JRE_HOME

The OPatch utility is available from the OSB_HOME. As we have already set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to this location we can use this variable to launch the OPatch script. You need to provide the JDK and JRE location. The exact value for JDK and JRE locations will vary depending on the system and installation locations.

%ORACLE_HOME%\OPatch\opatch apply -jdk c:\oracle\middleware\jdk160_24 -jre c:\oracle\middleware\jdk160_24\jre

5. Confirm that the patch has been applied

The OPatch utility can be used to list any patches that have been applied with the following command:

opatch lsinventory

Again, we can use the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to launch the OPatch utility

%ORACLE_HOME%\OPatch\opatch lsinventory

Possible Errors and Solutions

If you have followed the process above then you should not see these errors. They are included here for completeness.

Unable to lock Central Inventory

OiiolLogger.addFileHandler:Error while adding file handler - C:\Program Files (x
86)\Oracle\Inventory/logs\OPatch2012-04-23_11-11-28-AM.log
java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Program Files (x86)\Oracle\Inventory\logs\OPat
ch2012-04-23_11-11-28-AM.log (Access is denied)
Unable to lock Central Inventory.  OPatch will attempt to re-lock.
Do you want to proceed? [y|n]
n
User Responded with: N
Unable to lock Central Inventory.  Stop trying per user-request?
OPatchSession cannot load inventory for the given Oracle Home C:\oracle\middlewa
re\Oracle_OSB1. Possible causes are:
   No read or write permission to ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage
   Central Inventory is locked by another OUI instance
   No read permission to Central Inventory
   The lock file exists in ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage
   The Oracle Home does not exist in Central Inventory

ApplySession failed: ApplySession failed to prepare the system. Unable to lock C
entral Inventory.  Stop trying per user-request?
System intact, OPatch will not attempt to restore the system

OPatch failed with error code = 73

Solution: Run the command window with Administrator priviledges.

The Oracle Home is not OUI based home

If the ORACLE_HOME environment variable is not set then attempting to run the OPatch utility will result in the error message:

The Oracle Home is not OUI based home. Please give proper Oracle Home.

Solution: Set the ORACLE_HOME to be the OSB_HOME (Oracle_OSB1)