How to apply patch in weblogic

Patch: A patch is a piece of software designed to fix problems with, or update a computer program or its supporting data. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, and improving the usability or performance. Though meant to fix problems, poorly designed patches can sometimes introduce new problems  In some special cases updates may knowingly break the functionality, for instance, by removing components for which the update provider is no longer licensed or disabling a device.
Patch management is the process of using a strategy and plan of what patches should be applied to which systems at a specified time

Oracle Smart Update(BSU) /online mode of applying patch

Applying patches on WebLogic Server using Oracle Smart Update(BSU):  Oracle provides the Smart Update utility to apply patches and upgrade the WebLogic Server installations. Oracle’s WebLogic Server is now a critical component  of Fusion Middleware and every other component of Fusion Middleware requires WebLogic Server to be installed as  a pre-requisite. Applying patches and upgrading WebLogic Server is quite straight forward using the Oracle’s Smart Update utility.

Before applying patch ensure that all the Weblogic process are down .otherwise it will create a problem in applying patch.

The location of the bsu utility is
C:\Oracle\Middleware\utils\bsu

You can apply patch in 2 modes
1 .Online mode
2.Offline mode

---

For Online mode:
Get the Patch Jars from Oracle Support and Put them in some Location like
C:\Oracle\Middleware\utils\bsu\cache_dir(If the cache_dir folder is not available then create the same)

Place the jar file and the patch-catalog_21394 file .

Then double click on the bsu.cmd

---

It will validate the patch information and it will take the information from the cache_dir folder all the patch present and will display in the Downloaded Patches .

Click on Apply 

---

It will first perform validation of the patch and the conflicts between the patches .

Once no conflict is detected
Press Ok 

---

The patch will be applied on the Weblogic .

Note:
To Remove the patch click on the Remove and the patch will be removed from the Weblogic.

---

to verify that the patch is correctly applied or not

You can verify in the console by going to
Environment==>Admin Server ==>Monitoring ==>General

WebLogic Version:
WebLogic Server Temporary Patch for BUG14758635 Wed Jul 24 11:22:18 MDT 2013 WebLogic Server 10.3.6.0 Tue Nov 15 08:52:36 PST 2011 1441050


It will display the patch applied for the Bug 

---

Second way to verify that the patch is picked or not is to look into the out file or the cmd prompt.

It will display the following Information
WebLogic Version:
WebLogic Server Temporary Patch for BUG14758635 Wed Jul 24 11:22:18 MDT 2013 WebLogic Server 10.3.6.0 Tue Nov 15 08:52:36 PST 2011 1441050

Thus we can be sure that the patch has been applied and is being picked up by Weblogic.

---

offline mode of applying patch

Online mode:
Get the Patch Jars from Oracle Support and Put them in some Location like
C:\Oracle\Middleware\utils\bsu\cache_dir(If the cache_dir folder is not available then create the same)

Place the jar file and the patch-catalog_21394 file .

---

Then run the following command

C:\Oracle\Middleware\utils\bsu>bsu.cmd -prod_dir=C:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver_1
0.3 -patchlist=HH1Y -verbose -install


Change the patch list name based on the patch you are applying.

It will check for the conflicts and then if no conflicts are found it will apply the patch.

---

To remove the patch run the following command



C:\Oracle\Middleware\utils\bsu>bsu.cmd -remove -patchlist=HH1Y -prod_dir=C:\Orac
le\Middleware\wlserver_10.3 -verbose

Change the patch list name based on the patch you are removing.

---

To view the patch applied on weblogic
Run:
C:\Oracle\Middleware\utils\bsu>bsu -report


You will get a detailed report of the applied patch.

---