HFM Patch Set Update 11.1.2.4.209 (Patch 29343616)

In April 2020 CPU (Critical Patch Update) alert, Oracle had released HFM (Hyperion Financial Management) PSU 11.1.2.4.209 (Patch 29343616). You can find the patch details on this link: https://blogs.oracle.com/proactivesupportepm/psu_hfm_11124209

I thought let's upgrade my Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) application from the existing version 11.1.2.4.204 to this latest patch level to be up to date with HFM bug fixes. So let's see how it goes.

Note: The demonstrating Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) environment has the 'Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard' operating system. 

As usual, the first thing to check was the prerequisites. Going through the README document of the patch, we come to know that the following prerequisites patches need to be installed before installing HFM PSU 11.1.2.4.209 (Patch 29343616):

As I was already having HFM 11.1.2.4.204 version running in my Hyperion environment so I was fully confident that following 2 prerequisites patches must have been already installed on my HFM servers as part of HFM 11.1.2.4.204 (Patch 25192566) patching:

1. Fusion Middleware (FMW) - WebServices  Patch 13866584
2. Fusion Middleware (FMW) - WebLogic  Patch 16810628

Why is it so? because these two patches are required to be installed as prerequisite patches even for HFM 11.1.2.4.204 (Patch 25192566) patching. You can check the same on this link: https://blogs.oracle.com/proactivesupportepm/patch-set-update-for-oracle-hyperion-financial-management-11124204-is-available

Let's cross-check from the HFM server itself. 

As Fusion Middleware (FMW) - WebServices  Patch 13866584 is a file-replacement kind of patch, so it will not be registered under home E:\apps\OracleEPM\Middleware\oracle_common. But if you know your last HFM patching date, you can match it with the modification date of the file E:\apps\OracleEPM\Middleware\oracle_common\modules\oracle.webservices_11.1.1\oracle.webservices.standalone.client.jar to confirm the Patch 13866584 applied.

Fusion Middleware (FMW) - WebLogic  Patch 16810628 can be checked using a command as shown below:

Now coming to the third prerequisite patch Fusion Middleware (FMW) Patch 30378046, its README document suggests:

Ensure the patch for bug 16964825 has already been applied before you proceed with the current patch.

If you remember, Oracle JDeveloper ADF Patch 16964825 is already included in HFM 11.1.2.4.100 installation itself. When upgrading Hyperion environment from 11.1.2.4 to 11.1.2.4.100 one of the prerequisites is to “Install the ADF patch 21240419”. The prerequisite to 21240419 is “patch 16964825(mandatory)”. 

So it must be there on my HFM server. Let's verify with opatch lsinventory in E:\apps\OracleEPM\Middleware\oracle_common that patch 16964825 is already present.

Now its turn to install Fusion Middleware (FMW) Patch 30378046.

When I ran the OPatch command to install Fusion Middleware (FMW) Patch 30378046, it was throwing the following issue:

Actually, Patch 30378046 was conflicting with the patch 20326778.  

In such cases Oracle recommendation is:

Obtain a copy of each patch and compare the 'inventory' file or the 'readme' file. These files contain a list of bugs fixed by each patch. Compare the bugs listed. Make sure that the patch being applied has all the bugs mentioned that are fixed in the existing patch.

If all the patches listed in the existing patch are included in the patch being applied you can safely continue the patch.

In some cases, the patch being applied may not contain all the bug fixes that are included with the existing patch. If you do not require the missing patches you can safely continue the new patch installation.

If you do require the missing patches then you should stop the patch installation and log a service request with Oracle Support requesting a "Merge Label Request, MLR" of the existing patch and the patch being applied.

Following the recommendation, I compared the two patches and noticed that following three bugs fixed in EXISTING Patch 20326778, are not included in the NEW Patch 30378046:

• 17890124: BLR BACKPORT 17776065 TO 11.1.1.7.1: FF25, ALL RTL TEXT IS MISALIGNED FOR DVT HT
• 18601128: BLR BACKPORT OF BUG 18233049 ON TOP OF 11.1.1.7.1 (BLR #3572140)
• 18954287: BLR BACKPORT OF BUG 18820382 ON TOP OF 11.1.1.7.1 (BLR #3789756)

But, if you dig deep you will notice that these are BACKPORT Bugs and their sources (17776065, 18233049, 18820382) are included in the new Patch 30378046. So it's safe to move with installing over Patch 20326778. It was also making sense as Patch 30378046 is the latest patch available for JDeveloper ADF and the other Patch 20326778 was outdated by 5 years at least.

I did the same as shown below:

As you can see OPatch itself will first uninstall the Patch 20326778 and then install the new Patch 30378046. 

For the fourth prerequisite ADF Patch 25113405, it was self-explanatory:

If you are applying this HFM PSU 11.1.2.4.209 Patch 29343616 to version 11.1.2.4.203 or an earlier version, this Financial Management patch requires Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF)  Patch 25113405.

Finally, its time to install the main Hyperion Financial Management PSU 11.1.2.4.209 Patch 29343616.  As all the prerequisites were clear, It got installed successfully without any issue:

After applying the HFM Patch 29343616, don't forget to execute the sql commands as per your database type mentioned in the README document of HFM PSU 11.1.2.4.209 Patch 29343616. 

As I have HFM version 11.1.2.4.204 and Oracle Database 18c, so I ran the below commands by logging to HFM schema (Refer the README document of Patch 29343616 for more details):

1- Executed the following sql command to upgrade the schema against the Financial Management database:

<EPM_ORACLE_HOME>\products\FinancialManagement\Server\conf\Oracle_from_11.1.2.4.208_to_11.1.2.4.209_SchemaUpgrade.sql

2- For the 'Importing Applications' feature, executed the following sql commands:

<EPM_ORACLE_HOME>\products\FinancialManagement\Server\conf\Oracle_Create_ImportApp.sql

<EPM_ORACLE_HOME>\products\FinancialManagement\Server\conf\Oracle_Create_InsightDetails.sql

Make sure these sql commands are executed without any error message.

Post Hyperion services restart, all users should clear cached files from their browsers before login to Workspace.

That's all for this post.

I hope this article has helped you. 

Your suggestions/feedback are most welcome.

Keep learning and Have a great day!!!