Opatchauto does not work without DB created. And Oracle support… well 1

Few months ago I hit an interesting case. After installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Database software on a server, the new Release Update come out and I wanted to use opatchauto to apply it automatically on both homes.

It doesn’t work.

sudo ${ORACLE_HOME}/OPatch/opatchauto apply -phBaseDir /tmp/RU_19c_JAN2021/32126842 -prepare-clone -silent /tmp/RU_19c_JAN2021/clone.properties
...
OPATCHAUTO-72128: Cannot execute out of place patching prepare session.
OPATCHAUTO-72128: Clone home properties /tmp/RU_19c_JAN2021/clone.properties specified has entry for non requested home(s) [/u00/app/oracle/product/19.8.0].
OPATCHAUTO-72128: Please correct properties file and re-run out of place patching prepare operation.
OPatchAuto failed.

The setup is all correct, opatchauto is the latest version (13.9.4.5.0, as of February 2021), the inventory has the two homes:

<HOME NAME="OraGI19Home1" LOC="/u00/app/grid/19.8.0" TYPE="O" IDX="1" CRS="true"/>
<HOME NAME="OraDB19Home1" LOC="/u00/app/oracle/product/19.8.0" TYPE="O" IDX="2"/>

The clone.properties file has the name of these homes:

/u00/app/grid/19.8.0=/u00/app/grid/19.10.0
/u00/app/oracle/product/19.8.0=/u00/app/oracle/product/19.10.0

The only “problem” is that no database is created. In fact, the workaround is just to register a fake DB on the CRS:

srvctl add database -db XX -oraclehome /u00/app/oracle/product/19.8.0

Then the opatchauto works.

I open a SR with Oracle. Inform about the OPatch bug and ask what is the meaning of the OPATCHAUTO-72128 error, because there is no documentation of Opatchauto.

The normal ping-pong with Oracle support starts, they ask me to run with maximum debug level before they can do something. I say that the complete use case is already described and they can try in-house and can/should open a bug.

No success. The support person says that if the customer doesn’t do more work, Oracle doesn’t care about the bug and problem will remain unfixed. I inform that I will blog about this bug, so that the community is aware.

Final answer from this SR:

“Knowledge content not created because the issue was resolved by the customer with no further information provided. Also no further ODM headings were used for the same reason.”