RE: new Patch Set Updates released
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:45:40 -0600
Message-ID: <7ED53A68952D3B4C9540B4EFA5C76E36072F4BBF_at_CWYMSX04.Corp.Acxiom.net>
It sounds like those drug commercials. You take drug "A" to resolve heart problems, but now you get spontaneous eye bleeding and have to take drug "B". But drug "B" causes ... :-)
Maybe Oracle should be forced to list all potential side-effects like the drug companies do. "Users of this patch may experience application performance discharge or runny xplans. Do not apply patch for software that operates heavy equipment."
Must be a Friday!
Dave Herring | DBA, Acxiom Database Services
630-944-4762 office | 630-430-5988 cell | 630-944-4989 fax 1501 Opus Pl | Downers Grove, IL, 60515 | U.S.A. | www.acxiom.com Service Desk: 888-243-4566
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Kellyn Pedersen Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 2:12 PM To: Martin Bach; ORACLE-L; Brandon.Allen_at_OneNeck.com Subject: RE: new Patch Set Updates released
Honestly? This is the first PSU I've ever released and I've never released a CSU patch set. I've worked for companies where I had less influence and/or experience where they had you implement every quarterly patch as part of SOX compliance, etc. but it was before they even referred to them as PSU/CSU's and it's been literally years since I've applied anything outside of a one-off patch for a bug that I couldn't find a work around for.
I simply find that the cure is worse than the disease for most of my patching. I patch for a bug then I have a new bug to contend with from the newly applied patch. Not my idea of a fun way to work, (yes, I'm now putting in the work around for bug 6367692 that resulted from me patching the PSU this last week.. and no, I don't know who's bright idea it was to alter sessions in packages and go back to a manual workarea_size_policy for hashing and sorting because they can't tune their SQL! :))
Kellyn Pedersen
Multi-Platform DBA
I-Behavior Inc.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellynpedersen
www.dbakevlar.blogspot.com
"Go away before I replace you with a very small and efficient shell script..."
- On Thu, 1/14/10, Allen, Brandon <Brandon.Allen_at_OneNeck.com> wrote:
From: Allen, Brandon <Brandon.Allen_at_OneNeck.com>
Subject: RE: new Patch Set Updates released
To: "Martin Bach" <development_at_the-playground.de>, "ORACLE-L" <oracle-l_at_freelists.org>
Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010, 11:12 AM
Thanks Martin. I've had the same position as you on patching for years, especially since all our databases are on secured networks, we've never had a (known) security breach, and we're running ERP systems where testing requires a major coordinated effort. But, I'm starting to worry that my luck must be wearing thin and most malicious attacks are internal, plus I've seen a few articles about worms and hacker programs for Oracle in the past few years so I figured I should try changing my ways and get a bit more proactive before it's too late. I figure as long as I'm applying security updates (CPUs), I might as well take the full plunge and apply the "low risk, high value" bug fixes in the PSU too, but I'm just as skeptical as anyone about that "low risk" claim. So far, I haven't heard too many horror stories to scare me away, other than some problems getting the one-off overlay patches if required, but my databases don't have a lot of one-off patches so I'm hoping I won't h
ave trouble there. I'm just waiting for the green light from my developers to take some downtime and patch their database, and then I'll post my results - hopefully in a couple days.
From: Martin Bach [mailto:development_at_the-playground.de]
For what it's worth I'd never install any Oracle patch regardless . . .
Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message or attachments hereto. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of this company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.
The information contained in this communication is confidential, is intended only for the use of the recipient named above, and may be legally privileged.
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this communication in error, please resend this communication to the sender and delete the original message or any copy of it from your computer system.
Thank You.
-- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Fri Jan 15 2010 - 07:45:40 CST