Learning is not a spectator sport
Connor McDonald on SQL and the Oracle Database
From Database 18.3 to 18.5 (on Windows)
Contrary to wild rumours on the internet, it was not a fear of the number 13 that led to a numbering jump from version 12c to version 18c. The jump was part of our new, more flexible release mechanism so that we can get fixes and enhancements to customers on a more frequent and predictable schedule. In a nutshell, smaller bundles of features and fixes, more frequently.
I won’t dwell on that – if you’re unfamiliar with the new strategy, the best place to start is MOS Note 2285040.1, which has a description and a FAQ. But in terms of (as the saying goes) eating one’s own dog food, I downloaded the 18.5 release update which came out this week, and applied it to my 18.3 installation and I thought I’d share the process.
You might be wondering: “Why am I skipping 18.4?” Well that can be summarised simply as ignorance on my part – I missed the email a couple of few months back that told me 18.4 was available 
You might also be wondering: “I read that there were 4 release updates per year, how come there is an 18.5?” That is a common misinterpretation. We aim to provide a release update each quarter, but we never said that this means there would only ever be 4.
Now I stress – I’m just sharing my experiences here, not claiming that this is your go-to guide for applying the release update. I was just updating 18c on a Windows laptop, not a server. You should always follow the installation documents that come with the release update. For example, I had to reboot my Windows machine a couple of times, because it had transpired that some webcam software I’d installed had opted to use the Microsoft C++ shared libraries in my 18c Oracle Home! I think we can safely assume your servers probably don’t have webcams on them!
Step 1: Download a fresh OPatch
Seriously…just do this every time. As it turned out, my OPatch was already at a high enough level to apply the release update, but for me, years ago I adopted the mindset: “If I am going to apply a patch, then download a new OPatch“. It just makes it a no-brainer.
Step 2: Shut everything down.
I am running single instance, no “rolling” patching for me.
Step 3: Unzip the patch, set the environment, and patch
C:\>set ORACLE_HOME=C:\oracle\product\18
C:\>set PATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\OPatch;%ORACLE_HOME%\perl\bin;%PATH%
C:\>set PERL5LIB=
C:\>cd \oracle\stage\29124511
C:\oracle\stage\29124511>opatch apply
Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 12.2.0.1.14
Copyright (c) 2019, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Oracle Home : C:\oracle\product\18
Central Inventory : C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory
from :
OPatch version : 12.2.0.1.14
OUI version : 12.2.0.4.0
Log file location : C:\oracle\product\18\cfgtoollogs\opatch\opatch2019-01-18_09-36-46AM_1.log
Verifying environment and performing prerequisite checks...
Conflicts/Supersets for each patch are:
Patch : 29124511
Conflict with 28267731
Conflict details:
C:\oracle\product\18\javavm\admin\classes.bin
C:\oracle\product\18\javavm\admin\lfclasses.bin
C:\oracle\product\18\javavm\jdk\jdk8\admin\classes.bin
C:\oracle\product\18\javavm\jdk\jdk8\admin\lfclasses.bin
C:\oracle\product\18\rdbms\admin\oracle.sym
C:\oracle\product\18\bin\oracle.exe
Bug Superset of 27783303
Super set bugs are:
27748954, 27604293, 27747869, 27984028, 27550341, 27389352, 27433163, 27538461, 27341181,....
Well…that didn’t go so well Now the first thing confused me was: “How could there be any pre-existing patch to conflict with?”. After all, this was a complete 18c installation that I had downloaded from OTN when it first became available. But then I remembered, this is 18.3. So while it’s true that I download it as a standalone complete piece of software, it is still a patched release of the database. This is so much better than the old days where if you wanted (say) version 9.2.0.8, you had to download 9.2.0.1 and then apply the patch on top of it before using the software. A listing of the patch inventory showed that I already had some patches installed with my initial fresh download.
C:\oracle\stage\29124511>opatch lsinventory
Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 12.2.0.1.14
Copyright (c) 2019, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Oracle Home : C:\oracle\product\18
Central Inventory : C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory
from :
OPatch version : 12.2.0.1.14
OUI version : 12.2.0.4.0
Log file location : C:\oracle\product\18\cfgtoollogs\opatch\opatch2019-01-18_09-39-23AM_1.log
Lsinventory Output file location : C:\oracle\product\18\cfgtoollogs\opatch\lsinv\lsinventory2019-01-18_09-39-23AM.txt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Machine Information::
Hostname: gtx
ARU platform id: 233
ARU platform description:: Microsoft Windows (64-bit AMD)
Installed Top-level Products (1):
Oracle Database 18c 18.0.0.0.0
There are 1 products installed in this Oracle Home.
Interim patches (3) :
Patch 28267731 : applied on Sat Aug 18 17:34:22 AWST 2018
Unique Patch ID: 22301563
Patch description: "WINDOWS OJVM BUNDLE PATCH : 18.3.0.0.180717 (28267731)"
Created on 8 Jul 2018, 06:48:38 hrs PST8PDT
Bugs fixed:
27642235, 27952586, 27304131, 27461740, 27636900, 27539876
This patch overlays patches:
27783303
This patch needs patches:
27783303
as prerequisites
Patch 27908644 : applied on Sat Aug 18 17:31:26 AWST 2018
Unique Patch ID: 22299245
Patch description: "UPDATE 18.3 DATABASE CLIENT JDK IN ORACLE HOME TO JDK8U171"
Created on 29 Jun 2018, 02:51:19 hrs PST8PDT
Bugs fixed:
27908644
Patch 27783303 : applied on Sat Aug 18 17:25:42 AWST 2018
Unique Patch ID: 22238986
Patch description: "Windows Database Bundle Patch : 18.3.0.0.180717 (27783303)"
Created on 16 Aug 2018, 07:58:43 hrs PST8PDT
Bugs fixed:
27026401, 27994333, 27680509, 27314206, 27345231, 24925863, 27447452
26792891, 27236110, 27608669, 27670484, 27421101, 27240246, 27213140
27740844, 27616657, 18701017, 27177852, 27697092, 27379956, 26598422
27688099, 27580996, 27534509, 27602488, 27333978, 27098733, 27163313
27551855, 27012915, 27603841, 27224987, 28165545, 27259983, 27919283
28039953, 27357773, 27302730, 27263996, 27345498, 27517818, 27377219
26882126, 27396377, 27701279, 27285557, 27779886, 27739006, 27585755
27321834, 27748954, 27950708, 26646549, 26961415, 27061736, 27066519
27498477, 28174926, 21806121, 24489904, 27570318, 27365139, 27028251
27435537, 27869339, 27226913, 27192754, 27038986, 27537472, 27483974
27329812, 27356373, 27714373, 27422874, 27334648, 27339115, 25035594
27128580, 27952762, 27691717, 27534289, 27425622, 27434974, 27518227
27426363, 27352600, 26450454, 27631506, 27143882, 27346949, 27181521
27199245, 27252023, 27911160, 27365702, 27497950, 26586174, 12816839
27389352, 25287072, 27215007, 27345190, 27475272, 25634405, 27813267
27726269, 27463879, 27086406, 27283029, 27850736, 27338838, 27428790
27395404, 27924147, 27284286, 27430254, 27262945, 27250547, 27346329
27693713, 27347126, 27745220, 27341036, 27481765, 28174827, 27450355
27214085, 27503413, 27451182, 27359178, 27625274, 27587672, 28320117
27367194, 27782464, 27735534, 27396365, 27210872, 27501327, 27984028
27309182, 27520070, 27999597, 27381383, 27302415, 27378103, 27861909
27782339, 27254851, 27086821, 27101273, 27465480, 27232983, 27941514
27486253, 27489719, 27222626, 27560562, 27244785, 27458829, 27262650
27155549, 25743479, 27897639, 27615608, 27459909, 27267992, 27304936
27663370, 27602091, 27448162, 27434486, 26933599, 26928317, 27586810
27153755, 27348081, 27314390, 27786669, 27573408, 27532375, 26818960
25824236, 27563767, 27060859, 27126666, 27284499, 27210038, 25726981
9062315, 27301308, 27725967, 27452760, 28188330, 27834984, 27748321
26990202, 27811439, 27376871, 27654039, 27080748, 27333664, 28059199
27420715, 27315159, 27331374, 27398660, 27680162, 25035599, 27718914
27599689, 27595801, 26615291, 27040560, 26476244, 27801774, 27450783
27066451, 27935826, 28098865, 26226953, 27501465, 27558559, 27496806
27381656, 27299455, 27124867, 27496224, 27707544, 27163928, 27147979
27395416, 27532009, 21766220, 27727843, 27607805, 27271876, 26860285
27997875, 28204423, 27204133, 27627992, 27592466, 27395794, 27430802
27511196, 27302800, 27204476, 27941896, 27560702, 27053044, 24689376
27447687, 27451049, 27302695, 26843664, 27181537, 27744211, 27445462
26427905, 27106915, 27896388, 27812593, 27926113, 27487795, 27135647
27496308, 28239335, 27452897, 26986173, 27434050, 27513114, 27114112
27265816, 27274536, 27396624, 28090453, 27396666, 27573409, 27331069
27379846, 27270197, 27016503, 27934468, 27595973, 27410595, 27833369
27577758, 26966120, 27757979, 27434193, 27393421, 27032726, 27613080
27208953, 27538461, 27581484, 27321179, 27263677, 26898279, 27573154
27492916, 27961746, 27591842, 27868727, 27047831, 27783289, 27405242
27970265, 27333693, 27506774, 27112686, 27379233, 27471876, 27425507
28205874, 27544030, 27401637, 27740854, 27993298, 27193810, 27212208
27184253, 27288230, 27399499, 27786772, 27978668, 26423085, 27873643
27481406, 27182006, 27547732, 27889841, 27169796, 27501413, 27679488
27518310, 27545630, 27346644, 27625010, 27360126, 27378959, 27772815
27525909, 27945870, 27275136, 27321575, 28182503, 26336101, 27216224
27375260, 27249544, 27174948, 27294480, 27957892, 27774539, 27664702
27839732, 27166715, 27432355, 27257509, 27657920, 27190851, 27773602
27774320, 27508936, 27457666, 27330161, 27339396, 27092991, 27101652
27803665, 27396672, 27472969, 27579969, 27610269, 27302594, 27778433
27339495, 25724089, 27739957, 28023410, 27433163, 27222121, 27851757
28109698, 27732323, 27691809, 27503208, 26822620, 28264172, 26846077
27189611, 27222423, 28132287, 27121566, 27282707, 27133637, 27451531
27613247, 27560735, 27702244, 27341181, 28240153, 27479358, 27370933
27396357, 27153641, 26827699, 27238258, 27364916, 27307868, 27791223
27041253, 27090765, 27892488, 27034318, 27349393, 27412805, 27399762
27302960, 27679664, 27815347, 27399985, 27241247, 26654411, 27077948
26987877, 27354783, 27701795, 27304410, 27882176, 27119621, 26956033
27300007, 27339165, 28106402, 27451187, 27058530, 21547051, 28025398
27682288, 27398080, 27586895, 27679806, 27164122, 27243810, 13554903
27993289, 27504190, 26587652, 27212837, 27274143, 27768034, 27550341
27558861, 27060167, 27600706, 28022847, 27241221, 27131377, 26992964
27690578, 27747407, 27305318, 27230645, 27818871, 27346709, 28057267
27405696, 27523368, 27574335, 27526362, 27174938, 27931506, 27392187
27221900, 27797290, 28184554, 27401618, 27410300, 26313403, 27864737
27362190, 27439835, 24737581, 27368850, 27593587, 27751006, 23840305
26996813, 27625050, 27657467, 27073066, 27302711, 27453225, 27984314
27274456, 27522245, 27417186, 27469329, 27338946, 27396813, 27786699
27285244, 27692215, 27519708, 23003564, 27339483, 27783059, 26882316
27757567, 26527054, 27862636, 27563629, 27635508, 27508985, 26785169
27472898, 27971575, 28413955, 27302681, 27609819, 27345450, 27788520
27018734, 27766679, 27101527, 27906509, 27593389, 27625620, 27036408
27358232, 27335682, 23698980, 27144533, 27585800, 27458164, 22734786
27523800, 28169711, 27384222, 27723002, 27473800, 27310092, 27604293
27731346, 27365993, 27005278, 27320985, 27445330, 27649707, 27709046
27313687, 27249215, 25348956, 27065091, 26433972, 27339654, 27318988
27333658, 27533819, 27403244, 27520900, 27534651, 27030974, 27427805
27359368, 23310101, 27644757, 27314512, 27044575, 27223171, 27240570
27156355, 27528204, 27989849, 27143756, 27679961, 27110878, 25943740
27747869, 27734470, 27283960, 27682151, 27719187, 26894737, 27869283
27652302, 27182064, 27467543, 27334353, 26843558, 27840386, 27457891
27334316, 27372756, 27705761, 27484556, 27708711, 27753336, 27364891
27964051, 27503318, 27423251, 27865439, 27780562, 26731697, 27358241
27634676, 27726780, 27444727, 27441326, 27326204, 27812560, 27432338
27577122, 27177551, 27275776, 27558557, 27375542, 26299684, 27301568
27593263, 27258578, 27222938, 27703242, 27512439, 27508984, 27398223
27330158, 27807441, 27079545, 27404599, 27259386, 27688692, 28039471
27292213, 27392256, 27307934, 27617522, 27505603, 27450400, 27348707
27460675, 27238077, 27346984, 27364947, 26943660, 27236052, 27338912
27244337, 28021205, 28032758, 28033429, 27263276, 27579353, 27233563
27220610, 28099592, 27433870, 27426277, 26647619, 27847259, 25929650
27738679, 27502420, 25709124, 28045209, 27668379, 27318869, 27832643
27302777, 28072130, 27442041, 27430219, 27614272, 27930478
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPatch succeeded.
The conflict was with 28267731, which is the OJVM patch. I remembered from older 12c versions that the remedy to this was to rollback the older JVM patch before applying the new one. So I ran
C:\oracle\stage\29124511>opatch rollback -id 28267731
and then downloaded the 18.5 OJVM patch (28790647) as well in readiness.
After that, everything went as planned. I applied the DB patch and then applied the 18.5 OJVM patch. The final step was to open my database (and all of the pluggable database) and run in the database-level patch changes using datapatch
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.523]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\>set ORACLE_HOME=C:\oracle\product\18
C:\>set PATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\OPatch;%ORACLE_HOME%\perl\bin;%PATH%
C:\>set PERL5LIB=
C:\>cd C:\oracle\product\18\bin
C:\oracle\product\18\bin>sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL*Plus: Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production on Fri Jan 18 12:33:19 2019
Version 18.5.0.0.0
Copyright (c) 1982, 2018, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 18c Enterprise Edition Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production
Version 18.5.0.0.0
SQL> alter pluggable database all open;
Pluggable database altered.
SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 18c Enterprise Edition Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production
Version 18.5.0.0.0
C:\oracle\product\18\bin>cd %ORACLE_HOME%/OPatch
C:\oracle\product\18\OPatch>datapatch -verbose
SQL Patching tool version 18.0.0.0.0 Production on Fri Jan 18 12:33:32 2019
Copyright (c) 2012, 2019, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Log file for this invocation: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\sqlpatch_16792_2019_01_18_12_33_32\sqlpatch_invocation.log
Connecting to database...OK
Gathering database info...done
Note: Datapatch will only apply or rollback SQL fixes for PDBs
that are in an open state, no patches will be applied to closed PDBs.
Please refer to Note: Datapatch: Database 12c Post Patch SQL Automation
(Doc ID 1585822.1)
Bootstrapping registry and package to current versions...done
Determining current state...done
Current state of interim SQL patches:
Interim patch 28267731 (WINDOWS OJVM BUNDLE PATCH : 18.3.0.0.180717 (28267731)):
Binary registry: Not installed
PDB CDB$ROOT: Applied successfully on 23-AUG-18 10.31.18.372000 AM
PDB PDB$SEED: Applied successfully on 23-AUG-18 10.36.41.858000 AM
PDB PDB1: Applied successfully on 23-AUG-18 10.36.41.858000 AM
Interim patch 28790647 (OJVM RELEASE UPDATE: 18.5.0.0.190115 (28790647)):
Binary registry: Installed
PDB CDB$ROOT: Not installed
PDB PDB$SEED: Not installed
PDB PDB1: Not installed
Current state of release update SQL patches:
Binary registry:
18.5.0.0.0 Release_Update 1812202039: Installed
PDB CDB$ROOT:
Applied 18.3.0.0.0 Release_Update 1808132056 successfully on 23-AUG-18 10.31.18.366000 AM
PDB PDB$SEED:
Applied 18.3.0.0.0 Release_Update 1808132056 successfully on 23-AUG-18 10.36.41.852000 AM
PDB PDB1:
Applied 18.3.0.0.0 Release_Update 1808132056 successfully on 23-AUG-18 10.36.41.852000 AM
Adding patches to installation queue and performing prereq checks...done
Installation queue:
For the following PDBs: CDB$ROOT PDB$SEED PDB1
The following interim patches will be rolled back:
28267731 (WINDOWS OJVM BUNDLE PATCH : 18.3.0.0.180717 (28267731))
Patch 29124511 (Windows Database Bundle Patch : 18.5.0.0.190115 (29124511)):
Apply from 18.3.0.0.0 Release_Update 1808132056 to 18.5.0.0.0 Release_Update 1812202039
The following interim patches will be applied:
28790647 (OJVM RELEASE UPDATE: 18.5.0.0.190115 (28790647))
Installing patches...
Patch installation complete. Total patches installed: 9
Validating logfiles...done
Patch 28267731 rollback (pdb CDB$ROOT): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\28267731\22301563/28267731_rollback_DB18_CDBROOT_2019Jan18_12_34_14.log (no errors)
Patch 29124511 apply (pdb CDB$ROOT): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\29124511\22646084/29124511_apply_DB18_CDBROOT_2019Jan18_12_34_47.log (no errors)
Patch 28790647 apply (pdb CDB$ROOT): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\28790647\22646085/28790647_apply_DB18_CDBROOT_2019Jan18_12_35_21.log (no errors)
Patch 28267731 rollback (pdb PDB$SEED): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\28267731\22301563/28267731_rollback_DB18_PDBSEED_2019Jan18_12_35_23.log (no errors)
Patch 29124511 apply (pdb PDB$SEED): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\29124511\22646084/29124511_apply_DB18_PDBSEED_2019Jan18_12_35_37.log (no errors)
Patch 28790647 apply (pdb PDB$SEED): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\28790647\22646085/28790647_apply_DB18_PDBSEED_2019Jan18_12_36_07.log (no errors)
Patch 28267731 rollback (pdb PDB1): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\28267731\22301563/28267731_rollback_DB18_PDB1_2019Jan18_12_35_24.log (no errors)
Patch 29124511 apply (pdb PDB1): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\29124511\22646084/29124511_apply_DB18_PDB1_2019Jan18_12_35_41.log (no errors)
Patch 28790647 apply (pdb PDB1): SUCCESS
logfile: C:\oracle\cfgtoollogs\sqlpatch\28790647\22646085/28790647_apply_DB18_PDB1_2019Jan18_12_36_12.log (no errors)
SQL Patching tool complete on Fri Jan 18 12:36:17 2019
C:\oracle\product\18\OPatch>
C:\oracle\product\18\OPatch>
C:\oracle\product\18\OPatch>sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL*Plus: Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production on Fri Jan 18 12:36:28 2019
Version 18.5.0.0.0
Copyright (c) 1982, 2018, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 18c Enterprise Edition Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production
Version 18.5.0.0.0
SQL> shutdown
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 2936010432 bytes
Fixed Size 9033408 bytes
Variable Size 1023410176 bytes
Database Buffers 1895825408 bytes
Redo Buffers 7741440 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> alter pluggable database all open;
Pluggable database altered.
SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql
Session altered.
TIMESTAMP
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMP_TIMESTAMP UTLRP_BGN 2019-01-18 12:37:58
DOC> The following PL/SQL block invokes UTL_RECOMP to recompile invalid
DOC> objects in the database. Recompilation time is proportional to the
DOC> number of invalid objects in the database, so this command may take
DOC> a long time to execute on a database with a large number of invalid
DOC> objects.
DOC>
DOC> Use the following queries to track recompilation progress:
DOC>
DOC> 1. Query returning the number of invalid objects remaining. This
DOC> number should decrease with time.
DOC> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM obj$ WHERE status IN (4, 5, 6);
DOC>
DOC> 2. Query returning the number of objects compiled so far. This number
DOC> should increase with time.
DOC> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM UTL_RECOMP_COMPILED;
DOC>
DOC> This script automatically chooses serial or parallel recompilation
DOC> based on the number of CPUs available (parameter cpu_count) multiplied
DOC> by the number of threads per CPU (parameter parallel_threads_per_cpu).
DOC> On RAC, this number is added across all RAC nodes.
DOC>
DOC> UTL_RECOMP uses DBMS_SCHEDULER to create jobs for parallel
DOC> recompilation. Jobs are created without instance affinity so that they
DOC> can migrate across RAC nodes. Use the following queries to verify
DOC> whether UTL_RECOMP jobs are being created and run correctly:
DOC>
DOC> 1. Query showing jobs created by UTL_RECOMP
DOC> SELECT job_name FROM dba_scheduler_jobs
DOC> WHERE job_name like 'UTL_RECOMP_SLAVE_%';
DOC>
DOC> 2. Query showing UTL_RECOMP jobs that are running
DOC> SELECT job_name FROM dba_scheduler_running_jobs
DOC> WHERE job_name like 'UTL_RECOMP_SLAVE_%';
DOC>#
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
TIMESTAMP
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMP_TIMESTAMP UTLRP_END 2019-01-18 12:38:01
DOC> The following query reports the number of invalid objects.
DOC>
DOC> If the number is higher than expected, please examine the error
DOC> messages reported with each object (using SHOW ERRORS) to see if they
DOC> point to system misconfiguration or resource constraints that must be
DOC> fixed before attempting to recompile these objects.
DOC>#
OBJECTS WITH ERRORS
-------------------
0
DOC> The following query reports the number of exceptions caught during
DOC> recompilation. If this number is non-zero, please query the error
DOC> messages in the table UTL_RECOMP_ERRORS to see if any of these errors
DOC> are due to misconfiguration or resource constraints that must be
DOC> fixed before objects can compile successfully.
DOC> Note: Typical compilation errors (due to coding errors) are not
DOC> logged into this table: they go into DBA_ERRORS instead.
DOC>#
ERRORS DURING RECOMPILATION
---------------------------
0
Function created.
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Function dropped.
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>
================================
And that was all there was to it. I’ve now picked up over a 1000 fixes and improvements to the software. If you are one of those people who likes to patch rarely, I strongly recommend you have a re-think and take a closer look at the release update cycle. We want to get you better software, faster.
Enjoy your 18.5 release!
EXPORT not GATHER with DBMS_STATS
Just a short post today on something that came in as a question for the upcoming Office Hours session which I thought could be covered quickly in a blog post without needing a lot of additional discussion for which Office Hours is more suited to.
The question was:
“When I gather statistics using DBMS_STATS, can I just create a statistic table and pass that as a parameter to get the results of the gather”
And the answer simply is “No” 
but let me clear up the confusion.
Many DBMS_STATS routines allow you to pass the name of the “statistics table” into which statistical information for the table, schema, database etc will be stored. For example, you can see the STAT-prefixed parameter to GATHER_TABLE_STATS
PROCEDURE GATHER_TABLE_STATS
Argument Name Type In/Out Default?
------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
OWNNAME VARCHAR2 IN
TABNAME VARCHAR2 IN
PARTNAME VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
ESTIMATE_PERCENT NUMBER IN DEFAULT
BLOCK_SAMPLE BOOLEAN IN DEFAULT
METHOD_OPT VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
DEGREE NUMBER IN DEFAULT
GRANULARITY VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
CASCADE BOOLEAN IN DEFAULT
STATTAB VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
STATID VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
STATOWN VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
NO_INVALIDATE BOOLEAN IN DEFAULT
STATTYPE VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
FORCE BOOLEAN IN DEFAULT
CONTEXT CCONTEXT IN DEFAULT
OPTIONS VARCHAR2 IN DEFAULT
The statistics table must be of a certain structure, which is managed via the API as well using the CREATE_STAT_TABLE routine.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.create_stat_table('','st')
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> desc ST
Name Null? Type
----------------------------- -------- --------------------
STATID VARCHAR2(128)
TYPE CHAR(1)
VERSION NUMBER
FLAGS NUMBER
C1 VARCHAR2(128)
C2 VARCHAR2(128)
C3 VARCHAR2(128)
C4 VARCHAR2(128)
C5 VARCHAR2(128)
C6 VARCHAR2(128)
N1 NUMBER
N2 NUMBER
N3 NUMBER
N4 NUMBER
N5 NUMBER
N6 NUMBER
N7 NUMBER
N8 NUMBER
N9 NUMBER
N10 NUMBER
N11 NUMBER
N12 NUMBER
N13 NUMBER
D1 DATE
T1 TIMESTAMP(6) WITH TI
ME ZONE
R1 RAW(1000)
R2 RAW(1000)
R3 RAW(1000)
CH1 VARCHAR2(1000)
CL1 CLOB
BL1 BLOB
But when calling the GATHER_xxx routines, if you pass the name of the statistic table, please note that this is for getting a copy of the relevant statistics before the fresh gathering of statistics is done. We can see this with a simple demo.
SQL> create table t1 as select * from dba_objects;
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> select num_rows
2 from user_tables
3 where table_name = 'T1';
NUM_ROWS
----------
83608
1 row selected.
So we can see that the table T1 has ~83,000 rows in it. Since I’m running this on 12c, there was no need to gather statistics after this initial load, because they were collected automatically as part of the loading process. (Very nifty!).
I now add another ~250,000 rows and perform a new GATHER_TABLE_STATS call, this time passing in the name of the statistics table (ST) that I just created.
SQL>
SQL> insert into t1
2 select * from t1;
83608 rows created.
SQL>
SQL> insert into t1
2 select * from t1;
167216 rows created.
SQL>
SQL> begin
2 dbms_stats.gather_table_stats
3 ( ownname=>'MCDONAC',
4 tabname=>'T1',
5 stattab=>'ST',
6 statid=>'STATS'
7 );
8 end;
9 /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Digging into the statistic table data, you can see that the number of rows recorded for T1 is 83597, which is the before image of the optimizer stat, not the after image.
SQL> select * from st where c1 = 'T1' and type = 'T'
2 @pr
==============================
STATID : STATS
TYPE : T
VERSION : 8
FLAGS : 2
C1 : T1
C2 :
C3 :
C4 :
C5 : MCDONAC
C6 :
N1 : 83597
N2 : 1607
N3 : 129
N4 : 83597
N5 :
N6 :
N7 :
N8 :
N9 : 0
N10 :
N11 :
N12 :
N13 :
D1 : 16-JAN-19
T1 :
R1 :
R2 :
R3 :
CH1 :
CL1 :
BL1 :
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
So just remember that if you want to get the DBMS_STATS information that is the result of a GATHER_xxx call, then you can follow it up with the appropriate EXPORT_xxx call to dump the data.
My APEX was fine and then it wasn’t
I got a nasty shock this morning when I fired up my local Application Expression installation.
It had been working fine and all of a sudden…just dead. I sounded like all of those family members that as I.T practitioners we have to deal with (and that we’re so sceptical of) when they say: “I didn’t change anything…it just stopped!” 
In keeping with the treatment of family members, I then adopted the advice that I normally give them first.
and upon restart, I saw the following during the startup
C:\oracle\ords181>java -jar ords.war standalone
2019-01-11 11:47:36.071:INFO::main: Logging initialized @1378ms to org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.StdErrLog
Jan 11, 2019 11:47:36 AM
INFO: HTTP and HTTP/2 cleartext listening on port: 8080
Jan 11, 2019 11:47:36 AM
INFO: The document root is serving static resources located in: C:\oracle\ords181\conf\ords\standalone\doc_root
2019-01-11 11:47:36.409:INFO:oejs.Server:main: jetty-9.4.z-SNAPSHOT, build timestamp: 2017-11-22T05:27:37+08:00, git hash: 82b8fb23f757335bb3329d540ce37a2a2615f0a8
2019-01-11 11:47:36.422:INFO:oejs.session:main: DefaultSessionIdManager workerName=node0
2019-01-11 11:47:36.423:INFO:oejs.session:main: No SessionScavenger set, using defaults
2019-01-11 11:47:36.423:INFO:oejs.session:main: Scavenging every 600000ms
Jan 11, 2019 11:47:37 AM
WARNING: The pool named: |apex|| is invalid and will be ignored: The connection pool named: apex is not correctly configured, due to the following error(s): ORA-28001: the password has expired
Jan 11, 2019 11:47:37 AM
WARNING: The pool named: |apex|al| is invalid and will be ignored: The connection pool named: apex_al is not correctly configured, due to the following error(s): ORA-28001: the password has expired
Since security is our #1 thing for 2019 and probably should be the #1 item on your agenda for 2019, this was caused by some improvements to the Oracle defaults when you perform a database installation. Rather than the default being an “flexible” (aka loose ) policy we used to have when it comes to password management, we’ve gone for some more sensible options out of the box.
SQL> select * from dba_profiles order by 1,2
PROFILE RESOURCE_NAME RESOURCE LIMIT
---------------- -------------------------------- -------- -----------
DEFAULT COMPOSITE_LIMIT KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT CONNECT_TIME KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT CPU_PER_CALL KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT CPU_PER_SESSION KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS PASSWORD 10
DEFAULT IDLE_TIME KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT INACTIVE_ACCOUNT_TIME PASSWORD UNLIMITED
DEFAULT LOGICAL_READS_PER_CALL KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT LOGICAL_READS_PER_SESSION KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT PASSWORD_GRACE_TIME PASSWORD 7
DEFAULT PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME PASSWORD 180
DEFAULT PASSWORD_LOCK_TIME PASSWORD 1
DEFAULT PASSWORD_REUSE_MAX PASSWORD UNLIMITED
DEFAULT PASSWORD_REUSE_TIME PASSWORD UNLIMITED
DEFAULT PASSWORD_VERIFY_FUNCTION PASSWORD NULL
DEFAULT PRIVATE_SGA KERNEL UNLIMITED
DEFAULT SESSIONS_PER_USER KERNEL UNLIMITED
So if you want your APEX public accounts (and I stress, no others!) to have a non-expiring password, then you should create a custom profile for those accounts and assign them accordingly.
create profile no_expire
limit password_life_time unlimited;
alter user apex_public_user profile no_expire ;
alter user apex_rest_public_user profile no_expire ;
alter user apex_listener profile no_expire ;
alter user ords_public_user profile no_expire ;
This will ensure you don’t get an unexpected drama next time you want to fire up Application Express.
2018-what grabbed your attention
Here are the blog posts that you hit on most this year, with the most viewed entry on top. Unsurprisingly it is about the release of 18c, but interestingly the ORA-14758 and the Active Sessions post have come up again from last years list, so it appears they are still common issues for the modern Oracle professional. And of course, it is nice to see that my Openworld Mega-download is helping the community.
Thanks for supporting the blog, and as always, there will be more content next year !
Your New Years Resolution
Aligning roughly with the calendar year, based on the Chinese zodiak we’re about to go from the year of the dog to the year of the pig. But for me, in the “Information Technology Zodiak” 
, 2018 was the year of the hack, just as it was in 2017 and just as it will be for 2019.
I’ve not dedicated much time to keeping a record of all of the high profile breaches this year, but just off the top of my head I can think of:
- The Elasticsearch breach,
- The Starwood breach which, as a frequent traveller, probably guarantees I’ve been impacted in some as yet unknown way,
- The Quora breach, a site that is very popular amongst I.T professionals.
- The Google+ breach, which peeved me more about the fact that it was hush hushed by Google in order to preserve reputational damage. Um…what happened to looking after customers?
Adding to that list, whilst we were discussing security this year at Sangam 18, indian friends reminded me of the enormous Aadhaar breach at the start of the year, which is perhaps one of the largest of all time in terms of numbers of people impact.
And to be honest, I lost track of how many, which, where etc the amount of dramas that Facebook had.
I’m a realist so I’m not saying that hacks can always be avoided, or that anyone who gets hacked is being negligent. Sometimes even the best efforts are not good enough, because the hacks get more and more sophisticated all the time. But at the very least, I think we should set a goal for 2019 that all of our data at rest should be encrypted. If we can at least start with that small step, then at least if our data at rest is somehow nefariously obtained, it will still have a veil of protection.
So what’s your I.T resolution for next year? I hope it’s security related.
Another day…another "use the right datatype" post
Here’s an interesting little oddity (aka bug) with scalar queries.
We’ll start with a simple working example
SQL> create table t1 ( c1 number );
Table created.
SQL> insert into t1 values (1);
1 row created.
SQL> create table t2 ( c1 int, c2 varchar2(10));
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> insert into t2 values(1,'t1');
1 row created.
SQL> insert into t2 values(1,'t01');
1 row created.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('','T1')
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('','T2')
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> select a.c1,
2 ( select max(b.c2) from t2 b where a.c1 = b.c1 )
3 from t1 a;
C1 (SELECTMAX
---------- ----------
1 t1
1 row selected.
That all seems straightforward:
- We got the value 1 from T1.C1,
- used that as an input to the query into T2
- got the maximum of the 2 matching rows from table T2
- return the result as a column outer query
Let us now repeat the example, but we’ll now make column C1 in table T2 a VARCHAR2. The query will remain unchanged, so now we are comparing a numeric “1” with a varchar2 value of “1”.
SQL> create table t1 ( c1 number );
Table created.
SQL> insert into t1 values (1);
1 row created.
SQL> create table t2 ( c1 varchar2(10), c2 varchar2(10));
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> insert into t2 values('1','t1');
1 row created.
SQL> insert into t2 values('01','t01');
1 row created.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('','T1')
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats('','T2')
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> select a.c1,
2 ( select max(b.c2) from t2 b where a.c1 = b.c1 )
3 from t1 a;
C1 (SELECTMAX
---------- ----------
1 t1
1 t01
2 rows selected.
Whoops…that doesn’t look right.
Don’t get me wrong, that is an error in the way that we are processing the query, because we should not be getting 2 rows back from it. But it is another example of where you can encounter boundary cases (and hence bugs) when you stray from the well-trodden route. Something is obviously going awry during the implicit conversion, because if we explicitly take care of it, then things are fine.
SQL> select a.c1,
2 ( select max(b.c2) from t2 b where a.c1 = to_number(b.c1) )
3 from t1 a;
C1 (SELECTMAX
---------- ----------
1 t1
1 row selected.
I’d love it if there was an init.ora parameter that could be used in (say) development environments that would error out any SQL statement with an implicit data type conversion, but until that day comes (and it may be never!) then please make sure you take care with your data types!
Happy New Year everyone!
A Christmas Carol
You better watch out,
Let me tell you a fact.
If your SQL has literals,
You’re gonna be hacked.
SQL Injection is comin’ to town
We’ve got a library cache,
It’s memory all linked twice.
But it only works well,
When you’re binding all nice.
SQL Injection is comin’ to town
We know when you’ve been lazy,
And concatenated simple strings.
So just make sure you bind your stuff,
And don’t let the bad guys in.
So… you better watch out,
Let me tell you a fact.
If your SQL has literals,
You’re gonna be hacked.
SQL Injection is comin’ to town
Merry Christmas everyone! 
