Oracle Database 11 g - Online Public Access Catalog

54 CHAPTER 1 ■ INSTALLING, UPGRADING, AND MANAGING CHANGEEnterprise Manager now searches proactively for patches that are relevant to a specificcustomer’s environment. Your installation and your database feature usage determine thesearch for patches. A daily patch job will run to correlate with the patch metadata on MetaLink.When the patch job finds relevant patches for your environment, it sends you an alert andenables you to apply that patch. As soon as a new one-off patch becomes available, you will bealerted by the proactive MetaLink patch advisory if the patch is relevant to your database environment.Thus, you can count on reliable deployment with this automation of patching.The Provisioning Pack lets you automatically deploy software, patches, and applications.You can do the following things with the Provisioning Pack:• Bare-metal provisioning of operating systems and software images• Cloning installations and software images, for example, RAC or CRS• Patching• Using the Deployment Procedure ManagerOEM Database Control simplifies the staging and application of new patches and patchsets. Database Control can automatically stage a new patch set by proactively searching for itand downloading it from Oracle MetaLink to your server directories. Database Control supportsall types of patches, including critical patch updates (CPUs), interim patches, and patch sets.Here are some of the key features concerning patching in Oracle Database 11g:• Live update of MetaLink best practices• Support for sudo• Support for Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)–based authenticationIn Oracle Database 10g, Database Control had a limited amount of patch managementcapabilities. In the Oracle Database 10g release, you could do only two patch-related activitiesthrough Database Control:• Applying a patch• Viewing a patch cacheIn Oracle Database 11g, you still have the two links that are similar to the patching links inOracle Database 11g. The Stage Patch link corresponds to the Apply Patch link. The View PatchCache link is the same as in the previous release. However, the Database Software Patchingpage in Oracle Database 11g is much more detailed and offers more tools. On the DatabaseControl home page, click Software and Support to reach the Database Software Patching page.You can go to the following pages from that page.• Patch Advisor page: The Patch Advisor page shows you the currently applicable patchesto your installation. The page contains patch advisories in two sections.■Note You can’t use feature-based patch application in Database Control 11g, since you won’t get anyfeature usage–based patch advisories.