Customers who want to improve storage and SPB patching performance should consider the following steps:

1. Choose the level of rollback capability needed.

   To keep the rollback level of SPB environment at N-1 (where N is the current patch level), update the RETAIN_INACTIVE_PATCHES parameter to value 1 (RETAIN_INACTIVE_PATCHES=1) in the <ORACLE_HOME>/OPatch/config/opatch.properties file.

2. Run the following command to delete the inactive patches:

   <ORACLE_HOME>/OPatch/opatch util deleteinactivepatches -oh <ORACLE_HOME>

   Known Issue :

   Currently the deleteinactivepatches option deletes only 1 PSU/BP/RU chain and its overlays. In Oracle Homes where there are more than 1 inactive PSU/BP/RU chain (for example, DBRU, GIRU applied/installed on ORACLE_HOME), the user needs to run opatch command with deleteinactivepatches option multiple times.

   As a verification point, after each run of opatch command with deleteinactivepatches option, run the following command:

   <ORACLE_HOME>/OPatch/opatch util listorderedinactivepatches -oh <ORACLE_HOME>

   When the output of this command looks like the following:

   Total: 1 inactive RU/CPU patch (es) and 1 inactive overlay patch (es).

   then there is no need to run again the opatch command with deleteinactivepatches option as the desired rollback level has been achieved.

3. Run the following command to perform cleanup:

   <ORACLE_HOME>/OPatch/opatch util cleanup -oh <ORACLE_HOME>

   This would cleanup any stale files.