Policy on Oracle Versions and Patches

From: <ca111026_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:29:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <3bb75ae1-2407-4b03-b7f9-8c2b622ad092@1g2000prd.googlegroups.com>

What would be your policy on Oracle versions and patches in an environment
with 500 - 1000 databases and 20 - 50 databases per DBA?

Let me clarify the question. Oracle states that Patch Sets include only
bug fixes and no new functionality. However reality is a bit different.
For example:

9.2.0.1 contains new functionality, fixes for 9.0.1 bugs, and new bugs
9.2.0.2 contain some new functionality that didn't make it into
9.2.0.1 (for example related to Streams),

new "behaviour", more bug fixes, and a few new bugs ...
9.2.0.8 (terminal patch set) mostly has bug fixes, although some bugs are fixed only in 10g

So the questions are:
1. What version/patch level should be used for implementing brand-new application assuming that:
- Is it critical

• Application vendor didn't provide any recommendation regarding version
• Schema is simple, it does not use any advanced features
• Main priority is stability and absence of unplanned outages

It seems to me that the safest option would be to use version that has a terminal
patch set which is 9.2.0.8. Yes I know that it is "unsupported" but does it really matter?
When you have "supported" hardware HP/Sun/IBM/EMC will replace broken part typically withing 24h. For "supported" version Oracle may produce patch in a month or two.

2. Let's say you implemented new application using 10.2.0.3 as per vendor recommendations.
During implementation the application functionality has been extensively tested.
Would you automatically apply 10.2.0.4 even if nothing seems broken? Extensive
application testing isn't possible.

3. Let's say you are running 10.2.0.3 and your database is hitting specific bug causing instance crash. Oracle Support tells you that there is one-off patch for this bug
and it is included in 10.2.0.4 Patch Set. You are not able to conduct extensive application testing.
Your ORACLE_HOME does not have any other one-off patches. Would you apply one-off patch or Patch Set? Received on Fri Oct 10 2008 - 02:29:28 CDT