Stat 6.3 - User Guide

Patch Impact Analysis Process Requests

Before applying a patch to an environment, you can have the Oracle Agent perform an impact analysis to determine which objects in the target environment will be affected. After the Agent has processed your request, you can view the list of impacted objects in the Environment History tab as well as the Process Request tab of the CSR window.


	CAUTION: For Oracle Apps users on a version earlier than 11.5.5, performing a patch impact analysis in Stat may modify the target environment. This is a known bug in Oracle Apps. Customers are advised to upgrade to AD.E. For more information see MetaLink bug 1763615.

If you want to view the AutoPatch log files and any error or warning messages generated by the Agent during processing, you can do so in the Process Request tab of the Oracle Applications Management Console or the CSR window.

If some reason the Agent fails to process your impact analysis request (as indicated on the Process Request tab), you can reschedule your request and try performing an impact analysis a second time. However, it is important to remember that Stat interacts with Oracle tools and these tools may fail for various reasons unrelated to Stat. Stat will report the failure, but you will need to refer to Oracle Support or Metalink to resolve the errors.

To schedule an impact analysis:

In the Process Type field select Patch Impact.

In the Environment field select the target environment of the patch.

In the Run Time field select either Immediate if you want the Agent to process the request right away or select Select Datetime if you want to schedule the request at some future date.

If you selected Select Datetime, browse for the date you want. You can also specify the time you want the request processed in terms of hour and minute.

(Optional) Deselect Ignore Restart File.

If this option is deselected, Stat will fail the request if the AutoPatch utility identifies restart files for a different patch. Unless you deselect this option, Stat will always continue processing a patch if restart files exist for it.

Click Save.

The request is submitted to the Stat Central Agent and is assigned a New Event and Apply IDs. The results of the Impact Analysis request are displayed in the Process Request tab. See the section, Viewing Process Request Results for more information.

Patch Application Process Requests

To submit a patch application request, you must specify:

•

The target environment of the patch

•

When you want the request processed

•

How you want the Agent to handle any approval requirements

•

Whether to specify a dependent event

•

If necessary, whether the service partitions defined for the server of the target environment need to be stopped prior to applying the patch and then restarted.

After the Agent has processed your request, you can view the list of objects affected by the patch in the Environment History tab as well as the Process Request tab of the CSR window.

If you want to view the AutoPatch log files and any error or warning messages generated by the Agent during processing, you can do so in the CSR Process Request tab in the Oracle Applications Management Console.

You can re-apply a patch to an Oracle Applications environment regardless if that patch was successfully applied the first time or not (as indicated on the Process Request tab). If unsuccessful, you can reschedule your request and try applying it a second time. If successful, Oracle's AutoPatch utility identifies the patch as having already been applied and asks Stat if it should continue processing. Stat always responds “Yes” to this prompt to allow the patch to be re-applied.

To schedule a patch application:

In the Environment field select the target environment of the patch.

The list of available environments is filtered depending on the migration path of the CSR, workflow rules, and the user’s environment access restrictions, if any.

In the Process Type field and select Apply Patch.

(Optional) If you are on Oracle Applications version AD.I, click in the Maintenance Mode field and select Normal. (This option does not apply to R12.2 environments.)

Starting with version AD.I, Oracle requires that environments be put into Maintenance Mode before changes (e.g., AutoPatch) can be performed. The Maintenance Mode dropdown list is enabled if your target environment is release AD.I or later. For most cases, the default value Maint should be used, in which case Stat automatically puts the environment in maintenance mode when applying the patch. If you select Normal for hot patches, the Patch Options column must include “options=hotpatch”. Otherwise, AutoPatch will fail since Stat does not put the environment in maintenance mode. For more information on Maintenance Mode, see your Oracle Applications documentation.

In the Run Time field select either Immediate if you want the Agent to process the request right away or select Select Datetime if you want to the request to be processed at some future date.

If you selected Select Datetime, browse for the date you want. You can also specify the time you want the request processed in terms of hour and minute.


	NOTE: If you specify a date and time earlier than the current date and time, Stat processes the patch apply request immediately if no approvals are required. If approvals are required, the request is processed immediately after all the approvals have been made. Also, if the associated CSR is set to a closed-type status before the patch has been applied, the patch application request is cancelled along with any pending patch application approvals.

(Optional) Deselect Ignore Restart File.

(Optional) Select Disable Patch Backout.

If this option is selected, Stat does not execute a patch impact analysis when applying the patch, which means it cannot be backed out later. Because applying patches can take time, this option is available for users who do not want to commit the system resources necessary to enable the backout option for a particular patch.

If patch application approvals are required for the target environment, in the Approval Option field select the action you want the Agent to take regarding these approval requirements.

The options include:

•

Cancel if approvals are not met - The Agent cancels the patch application if it does not receive all the required approvals

•

Apply once approvals are met - The Agent applies the patch once all the required approvals are received

•

Apply regardless of approval status - The Agent applies the patch regardless of approval. This option is enabled only if you have the security rights to override patch approval requirements.


	NOTE: The Approval Option field is disabled if you selected Immediate in the Run Time field.

(Optional) If any server of the target environment has Start and Stop commands defined for any of the four service partitions, select the options that configure the Agent to stop those services before the patch is applied to the environment and then to start the services after the patch is applied.

These options are disabled if a command has not been defined in any server.


	CAUTION: If you do not configure the Stat Central Agent to stop any services defined on the server of the target environment, this could result in errors during the patch application process.

(Optional) Modify any default AutoPatch options or specify new ones.

The Patch Options and adop Options columns displays any AutoPatch or adop options that have been defined on the General tab of the New Oracle App Patch window. You can modify the default parameters before applying the patch or you can specify new ones. The syntax for the Autopatch and adop options are name=value pairs separated by spaces. Refer to your Oracle documentation for a list of valid AutoPatch and adop command line options.

Next, if you want to configure the Oracle Agent to execute a scheduled maintenance step before the patch is applied, you can designate that maintenance step as a dependent event. This way, the maintenance step cannot be executed until after the Oracle Agent has first processed the patch application request. The scheduled maintenance step you want to designate as a dependent event must have a status of “Received by Agent,” “Pending/New,” “In Process,” or “Send to Agent.” Maintenance step requests that have already been executed by the Agent cannot be selected as dependent events.


	TIP: You can configure the Oracle Agent to execute a maintenance step after a patch application is applied by designating the patch application request as a dependent event when scheduling a maintenance step. For more information, see the section, Scheduling Maintenance Steps .

Do the following to specify a dependent event:

Open the drop-down list in the Event ID field and select the scheduled maintenance step you want to designate as the dependent event for the patch application request.

The list of events includes all the currently scheduled patch application requests and maintenance steps that have not yet been processed.

Click the Apply Option field and specify if you want the Oracle Agent to process the patch application request only if the maintenance step executes successfully (or with warnings), or if you want the Agent to process the request regardless of the dependent event’s status.


	NOTE: To clear the values for a dependent event, click the “Undo” button.

(Optional) Change the processing order of multiple patch application requests.

When processing a multiple patch application request in which one or more of the patches are pre-requites of another patch included in the request (as defined on the Prerequisites tab of the New/Edit Oracle Patch window), the Agent automatically applies those patches first. However, you can override this default processing order by specifying a different number in the Order column. To do this, click in the Order column of a selected patch and change the order in which the Stat Central Agent is configured to apply the patch. When you submit an Apply Request that violates dependency requirements, Stat displays a warning message.

If you are scheduling multiple patch application requests, in the Apply Option column of each patch that is scheduled to be processed after the first patch, specify how you want the Agent to process the patch if the Agent fails to apply the patch directly preceding it in the process order.

If you want the Agent to apply the patch only if the preceding patch was applied successfully, select Prior patch completes successfully. If you want the Agent to apply the patch even if the preceding patch failed, select Regardless of prior patches status. This option does not apply to the first patch in the processing order.

Click Save.

The request is submitted to the Stat Central Agent and is assigned a New Event and Apply IDs. The results of the Patch Apply request are displayed in the Process Request tab. See the next section, Viewing Process Request Results for more information.

Viewing Process Request Results

You can view the results of a process request in one of two ways:

•

In the Process Request tab of the CSR window. In addition to archiving and migrating processes, this tab displays information concerning all the patch apply or impact analysis process requests that are either pending or have been completed for patches associated with a particular CSR.

•

In the Environment History tab of the Oracle Applications Management Console, which displays a record for all the process requests that are either pending or have been completed for patches in each active Oracle Applications environment.

Process Request Tab

The Process Request tab displays information regarding all the object management requests submitted to the Oracle Agent, including:

•

•

•

•

•

Fetch Version for Lock

•

•

•

•

•

•

The Process Request tab in the CSR window displays the same information as the Process Request tab in the Management Console except for the following differences:

•

The Process Request tab in the CSR window is CSR-specific, meaning that it only displays information concerning process requests for patches and objects associated with the current CSR

•

The Process Request tab in the CSR window features an Impact Obj. button that lets you view the list of objects returned by an impact analysis or patch apply process request.

Access to this tab is controlled by a user class right.


	NOTE: In the Process Request tab, the Create Date field displays when the process request was originally created and the Created By field displays the ID of the user who made the request. Once the request is processed by the agent, the Update Date and Update By fields display the time it was processed and the default value, “SYSTEM”.

Impact Analysis and Patch Apply Process Results

To view the results of an Impact Analysis or Patch Apply request:

Select the process request record you want.

When you select a process request, the bottom portion of the window displays the parameters for the request, including Apply ID, Environment, Object (Patch ID), and for patch application requests, Approval Option.

Click Impact Obj.

Stat opens the Impacted Objects window for the selected patch and environment.

The Impacted Objects window lists all the objects that were either returned during an impact analysis request or were modified by a patch application request. The information includes the class, type, name, product and language of each object, its pre- and post-patch version number, application name, modification date for the record, and the name of the requestor. The Custom Object column indicates if the object has been customized, and the Indirect Impact column indicates if the object was used as the source of a new object.


	NOTE: Unknown object types display their location in the Product column. For an unknown object, Stat cannot determine the product or language. Also, an unknown object type cannot be added to a CSR. You need to define the object before it can be archived.

If applicable, you can view the navigation paths that access an object (for example, the responsibilities and menus that access a form) by selecting the object and clicking Nav Path. Stat displays the navigation paths in the View Navigation Path window. Only active navigation paths associated with one or more active users are included.

Log Files and Agent Messages

In the Process Request tab, you can view the log files and messages generated by the Stat Oracle Agent while processing object management requests (including patch applications, backouts, and impact analysis as well as archiving and migrating objects). These log files include detailed information that pinpoint the source of warnings and errors generated during processing. For more information, see Viewing Log Files and Agent Messages .

Please select your product:

To serve you better, please complete the Purpose of your Chat:

Recommended Solutions for Your Problem

Stat 6.3 - User Guide

Patch Impact Analysis Process Requests

Patch Application Process Requests

Viewing Process Request Results

Process Request Tab