Oracle Software Install on Many Servers (SAP R/3 Instances)

I manage an SAP R/3 landscape with 30 large Oracle instances that run with almost no scheduled downtime.

Each SAP R/3 Oracle instance runs its own local install of the software, even if multiple instances run on the same physical server. This is the SAP method, what can I say.

Each Oracle instance has its own unique Unix logon (ora<sid>)that "owns" the installed software.

I am looking for a workable alternative to separately installing and maintaining 30 Oracle instances.

For instance, I want to apply 6 Interim Patches to all the SAP Oracle Instances, so I am faced with running OPatch 30 times.

Is anyone using a single common Oracle Install, and then copying it to multiple instances in an SAP environment?

I would like to have a valid oraInventory for each of the 30 instances, in case I want/need to apply any Interim Patches on a selected instance, but I do not want to run OUI 30 times to, say, apply patchset 9205.

Any thoughts on this, or any successful methodology you might be following would be greatly appreciated.

Any contact from other SAP DBAs would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Charles Received on Tue May 11 2004 - 09:26:14 CDT