In version 19, the latest publicly downloadable version is 19.3. At the time of writing this article, version 19.23 is available as a patch, which can be obtained from support.oracle.com. These patches are called Release Updates or RUs for short.
There is a feature that allows you to apply the RU patch simultaneously while installing the database, saving installation time and avoiding potential errors and issues that might arise during patching. Interestingly, this process is very simple.
The first step is to unzip the patch after downloading it:
[oracle@oracle-db db19]$ lsp36223126_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip[oracle@oracle-db db19]$ unzip p36223126_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip[oracle@oracle-db db19]$ rm -rf OPatch[oracle@oracle-db db19]$ unzip p6880880_190000_Linux-x86-64Once the unzip operation is complete, navigate to the unzipped directory. We need the path to this location:
[oracle@oracle-db db19]$ ls36223126 p36223126_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip PatchSearch.xml
[oracle@oracle-db db19]$ cd 36223126/
[oracle@oracle-db 36223126]$ pwd
/home/oracle/oracle-files/db19/36223126
Now, let's go to the 19.3 version that we downloaded from the Oracle website. Note that from version 18 onwards, this zip file must be unzipped exactly where we have designated ORACLE_HOME.
[oracle@oracle-db 36223126]$ cd /u01/app/oracle/product/19c/dbhome_1/
[oracle@oracle-db dbhome_1]$ unzip LINUX.X64_193000_db_home.zip
In the final step, the only additional task compared to a normal installation is to use the applyRU option:
[oracle@oracle-db dbhome_1]$ ./runInstaller -applyRU /home/oracle/oracle-files/db19/36223126/Preparing the home to patch...Applying the patch /home/oracle/oracle-files/db19/36223126/...Successfully applied the patch.
The log can be found at: /u01/app/oraInventory/logs/InstallActions2024-04-10_07-17-40PM/installerPatchActions_2020-04-10_07-17-40PM.logLaunching Oracle Database Setup Wizard...
Now, proceed with the installation as usual.
The same conditions apply for installing Grid Infrastructure as well.