How to apply patchset to upgrade an existing APEX installation

Don't have an Oracle Linux Developer-Day VM up and running yet? Check this post first...

What you need in order to be able to upgrade

If you have access to My Oracle Support or when you otherwise have a - trustworthy! - patch set for a new APEX version at your disposal via something or someone, you can upgrade a current APEX installation instead of adding or replacing it by a new one.

This example will demonstrate an upgrade of the version that's bundled with the Pre-Build Developer VM for Virtualbox version 4.2.0.00.27 to 4.2.2.00.11 using Patch# 16277995. Place the zip file in the shared folder on the host.

Open a terminal window. First stop the APEX listener:

To avoid any conversion issues between the Windows host and the Linux guest, extract the file on the Linux guest. Create a new subdirectory in /home/oracle called "INSTALL" and copy the file from ./HOST into it. Then you can unpack it there:

This should result in:

Set the current directory in the terminal screen to the patch directory:



And start the patch via sqlplus:



When the update is finished, you will end up at the SQL prompt. Enter the exit command to exit sqlplus:

Seperate the APEX images directory

First time? Then first get the APEX images directory from the APEX listener configuration directory by creating a new directory /home/oracle/apeximages. You can use a file manager/browser for this.

Then copy the contents of the images directory from the patch into the apeximages directory:

Reconfigure the APEX Listener

Finally, the APEX listener must be reconfigured. So, first remove the current configuration:



And then start the configuration using succesively :

Start APEX listener running in background

The listener is now running in standalone mode in the terminal screen. Once that window closes, the listener will no longer be running. So it must start up in a different way.

Stop it first with Ctrl-C in the terminal window and start it with the existing startup script in /home/oracle:

When you're back at the prompt, you can close the terminal screen. Navigate your browser to the APEX installation and check the new version via the browser: