How to Download WebLogic Upgrade Installer?

In our old Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation, we have a 10.3.5.0 WebLogic Server. See [1] for how to find the version of WebLogic Server.  Because we are testing a new feature in HotSpot VM which requires 10.3.6.0 WebLogic Server to work with, we need to upgrade WebLogic Server from 10.3.5.0 to 10.3.6.0.

After some research, we have found [2] which provides the upgrade instructions and decided to give it a try.  In this article, we report the steps that we have used to download the WebLogic Upgrade Installer.

Types of Installers

In total, there are four types of WebLogic Server installers available:

• OS-specific Package installer
• Generic Package installer
• Upgrade installer
• Development-only and supplemental installers

You can read [4] for the detailed descriptions of these various types of installers.  For our purpose, what we need is an Upgrade installer.

Upgrade installers, as their names suggest, allow you to upgrade an existing WebLogic Server installation to a later patch release.  Note that if you have an existing WebLogic Server 10.3.0, 10.3.1, 10.3.2, or 10.3.3 installation that includes Workshop for WebLogic, and you want to use an Upgrade installer to upgrade that installation to WebLogic Server 10.3.6, you must uninstall Workshop for WebLogic before running the Upgrade installer.  See [5] for more information.

How to Download?

Our steps have followed the instructions in [3], however, with minor modifications.  To download an Upgrade installer:

1. Enter the My Oracle Support URL (https://support.oracle.com/) in a Web browser.
2. Click Sign In and enter your My Oracle Support username and password.
3. Select the Patches and Updates tab.
4. In the Patch Search pane, click Product or Family (Advanced Search).
5. From the Product Is: drop-down list, select Oracle WebLogic Server.
6. From the Release Is: drop-down list, click the arrow next to the Oracle WebLogic Server folder, select the release you want to download, and click Close. (To upgrade to WebLogic Server 10.3.6, select WLS 10.3.6.0 from the list.)
7. From the Platform drop-down list, select your platform and click Close. You can select multiple platforms. Selected platforms are indicated by a check mark.
8. Click + next to Platform drop-down list. A new filter row appears and + changes to -.
9. From the left operand drop-down list, select Description.  From the operator drop-down list, select contains.  In the right operand field, specify INSTALLER.
10. Click Search. The search results list displays all available Upgrade installers for the selected release for all of the selected platforms.
11. Click the Download button on the right to begin the download.
12. Click Save.
13. Browse to the directory where you want to save the installer, and click Save again to start the file download. A compressed file downloads for the selected platform.
14. After the download completes, extract the compressed file, which contains only the appropriate installer executable for the selected platform.

Note that the typical description for an upgrade installer patch includes the following text:

• WEBLOGIC SERVER 11GR1(10.3.4) UPGRADE INSTALLER

For example, here is the description of the patch that we have found:

• PLACEHOLDER BUG FOR WEBLOGIC SERVER 11GR1 (10.3.6) UPGRADE INSTALLER (Patch)

Finally, if you run into download issue (for example, the download sits at 99% and never completes), try using different browser (for example, Chrome instead of IE).

References

1. How to find Oracle WebLogic Server Version?
2. Oracle® Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Release 1 (10.3.6)
3. Downloading an Upgrade Installer From My Oracle Support
4. Types of Installers
5. Uninstalling the Software
6. Professional Oracle WebLogic Server by Robert Patrick, Gregory Nyberg, and Philip Aston
7. Oracle® Fusion Middleware Patching Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.7.0)
• Patching involves copying a small collection of files over an existing installation.
• Upgrade involves moving from a previous major version to a new major version. For example, an upgrade would be required to move from Oracle Application Server 10g to Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g.
8. Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c —Install, Patch, and Upgrade
9. Oracle Products: What Patching, Migration, and Upgrade Mean? (Xml and More)