Pat O'Patch and Billy OUI

OUI=Oracle Universal Installer


http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/em.102/b16227/toc.htm

I am catching up with the OPatch utility - we old fat obsolete BEA guys are still dreaming of the old bsu days, but reality steps forward and either you evolve or you die.

What we learn is that:

- there is a opatch utility, actually many:
C:\Oracle2\Middleware\oracle_common\OPatch\opatch.bat
C:\Oracle2\Middleware\Oracle_OSB1\OPatch\opatch.bat
C:\Oracle2\Middleware\Oracle_SOA1\OPatch\opatch.bat

- pick the one you like, I have tried C:\Oracle2\Middleware\Oracle_OSB1\.
You can try running it with
opatch

and you get a great help screen.
You might have to do
set ORACLE_HOME=C:\Oracle2\Middleware\oracle_common

or some other directory which contains a "oui" folder, otherwise you get a message

"The Oracle Home C:\Oracle2\MIDDLE~1 is not OUI based home. Please give proper Oracle Home.
OPatch returns with error code = 1

OPatch succeeded.
"

which is a weird way to succeed.


- if you manage to make "opatch lsinventory" work on Windows 64 please call me, because I keep getting

"java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Can't load library: C:/Oracle2/Middleware/Oracle_OSB1/oui/lib/win32/oraInstaller.dll
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1702)"

I am sure I have messed up my installation.


- anyway there is a C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\ContentsXML\inventory.xml which contains a list of all Oracle product Homes, mines are actually duplicated

- Big Brother is watching you: C:\Oracle2\Middleware\Oracle_OSB1\cfgtoollogs\ contains a history of every command you issued for opatch (opatch_history.txt) and oui

- What is your ARU_ID?
Each platform is identified by a platform id: you can see it in inventory.xml and in oraclehomeproperties.xml