Patch Definitions:
Images - Released quarterly by Oracle, contains updated functionality, and core business process regulatory updates. These updates are driven by state and federal regulations.
Regulation Patches - Released along with Images, contain critical functionality and regulations. These updates include only the required regulation upgrades such as Financial Aid and Student Financials information.
Security patches - Released quarterly by Oracle, contains security upgrades and fixes for underlying system software.
One-off patches - These patches contain workarounds for issues in between images and are received as part of an Oracle service request.
Application Upgrade:
Images and regulation upgrades are performed using the Peoplesoft Change Assistant software. This software is part of the Peoplesoft Update Manager (PUM). This is a grouping of software that performs the various upgrade tasks and validation of the objects in the Peoplesoft database and on the Application servers. A list of bug fixes are included with each image.
Security Patching:
These patches are applied via various means such as OPatch for Web Logic, updating configs to point to the new Java version. Patches are released by Oracle and the PeopleSoft Admin/s review the Oracle patch risk chart to determine what level of access is required to use the exploit. If the security risk is within custom code created by UW-Platteville, then the UWP Peoplesoft Development Team reviews the risk and makes changes as soon as possible.
One-Off Patches:
These patches are applied as Application Designer projects, SQR/SQC files, and Cobol source files. The Application Designer projects and SQR/SQC files are migrated via our normal change management processes with Phire and Cobol source files are copied and compiled manually via a Peoplesoft Admin.
Need help?
If you have questions, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 608.342.1400 or helpdesk@uwplatt.edu. You may also visit the Help Desk on the first floor of the Karrmann Library.