Now as Apps DBA or Sysadmin you know how to apply apps patch in oracle E-Business Suite 11i (If not read my notes below )
What if you encounter any problem while applying patches ? Where to look for any error messages ? How to control patch workers and how to restart a failed patch ?
First place to look for failed patch is log file for patch . Log file for adpatch or apps patch will exist in location which you mentioned by running adpatch . If you have not mentioned any log file location then it will be default go to APPL_TOP/admin/TWO_TASK or SID /log with name adpatch.log ( If you don't know what is APPL_TOP follow link at http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2006/08/whats-different-tops-in-application.html
Once you find out where is error & if you see error message then try to fix problem ( Look for specific message in metalink ) you will get 90% hits for problem .
While applying d or g driver ( to know what are drivers or driver follow my previous link at http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com/2006/08/oracle-apps-patch-basics-ii.html ) adpatch apply these patches via workers and these workers are controlled by utility called as adctrl (ad control ) . open another session & login as application O.S. user (like applmgr ) and run adctrl , you will see option 1 to see status of worker . Check which worker is showing as failed state and then go to that worker log file in same location i.e. APPL_TOP/admin/TWO_TASK or SID /log you will see log file like a dwork001.log adwork002.log ....adwork021.log so if your worker 12 failed open log file adwork012.log & fix the problem then again in adctrl select option restart failed worked & then give worker number you want to restart .
If you want to skip a worker , this option is not visible & do it at your own risk there is option 8 ( depending on your AD version , it might vary so if adctrl is displaying 7 options skip worker will be option 8 & if adctrl is showing 6 options skip worker will be option 7) You can select individual worker or a group of worker separated by - like 2-5 will select worker from 2 to 5.
If still you can't fix or you don't find any related error message in metalink raise a Service Request with Oracle .
From tomorrow I will pick topic on cloning , if you want to know more about patching put your comments or mail me at atul_iiit@yahoo.com.
If you wish to know about Oracle Apps Web Server , applications 11i Apache also called as OHS then visit my site http://www.teachmeoracle.com/apc.html