关注一下Oracle的CPU (Critical Patch Updates)

最近在帮助客户规划新的数据库环境，自然就想到了Oracle的CPU-Critical Patch Updates，CPU是Oracle非常重要的产品更新策略，对于已经发布的产品Release，Oracle每个季度会发布一个重要的补丁更新，用于修正一些经过确认的安全性问题。
基于安全性考虑，Oracle并不会在文档中描述修正的具体问题；同时基于可用性考虑，CPU会被精心选择设计以减少维护和停机时间。

这些更新在新环境规划时应该被考虑到，Oracle CPU的官方发布地址为：
http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/alerts.htm

最近的更新是2009年4月发布的，下一个更细将在7月份发布：

Critical Patch Updates are the primary means of
releasing security fixes for Oracle products to customers with valid
support contracts.
They are released on the Tuesday closest to the 15th day of January,
April, July and October. The next four dates are:

• 14 July 2009
• 13 October 2009
• 12 January 2010
• 13 April 2010

A pre-release announcement will be published on the Thursday preceding each CPU
release.

The Critical Patch Updates released to date are listed in the following table. Please note that
starting with the January 2008 CPU, the Critical Patch Update Advisory will only be posted on OTN and will no longer
be posted on MetaLink or Customer Connection.

Critical Patch Update	MetaLink Note ID	Latest Version/Date
Critical Patch Update - April 2009	No MetaLink copy	Rev 3, 22 April 2009
Critical Patch Update - January 2009	No MetaLink copy	Rev 4, 23 March 2009
Critical Patch Update - October 2008	No MetaLink copy	Rev 3, 05 March 2009

应用这些Patch，一般需要使用OPatch工具进行。