annoyance with Oracle Patch Set Update PSU 8576156

I was just applying PSU 8576156 on a 10.2.0.4 installation under Solaris and I was surprised to learn that it requires you to provide your metalink username/email address and optionally password, under disguise of “to be informed of security issues“. Once you provide your email/password it immediately tries to validate the information by contacting oracle’s servers via HTTP — it doesn’t bother to check if you have a proxy it just goes out there and hangs for few minutes eventually failing to connect at which point you are asked if there’s an HTTP PROXY on your network. Only after failing to connect, you are finally given a chance to OPT-Out of this ridiculous practice of information gathering by specifying “NONE” in the “Proxy specification“:

box.SID-> /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/OPatch/opatch apply
Invoking OPatch 10.2.0.4.7

Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 10.2.0.4.7
Copyright (c) 2009, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Oracle Home       : /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1
Central Inventory : /u01/app/oracle/oraInventory
   from           : /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc
OPatch version    : 10.2.0.4.7
OUI version       : 10.2.0.4.0
OUI location      : /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oui
Log file location : /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch2009-09-21_17-12-50PM.log

Patch history file: /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch_history.txt

ApplySession applying interim patch '8576156' to OH '/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1'

Running prerequisite checks...
Provide your email address to be informed of security issues, install and
initiate Oracle Configuration Manager. Easier for you if you use your My
Oracle Support Email address/User Name.
Visit http://www.oracle.com/support/policies.html for details.
Email address/User Name: your.metalink-email@your-company.com
Password (optional):
Unable to establish a network connection to Oracle. If your systems require a
proxy server for outbound Internet connections, enter the proxy server details
in this format:
[@][:]
If you want to remain uninformed of critical security issues in your
configuration, enter NONE
Proxy specification: NONE

Enjoy the all new Patch Set Update!

3 Comments

  • I think you can silently configure OCM in disconnected mode prior to installing any one-off patches.

    unzip -q -o $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/ocm/ocm.zip
    $ORACLE_HOME/ccr/bin/setupCCR -d -s

    Once done, OPatch will not phone home.

September 21, 2009

Posted In: Operations

Tags: , ,