1. AD Control
Manages parallel workers in AD Administration and AutoPatch.
The administrative tool used to manage patch workers is AD
Control, or adctrl. Frequently workers will fail or hang, which
will require the Oracle Applications DBA to interface with
adctrl.
AD Control menu options will vary depending upon the AD
patch version applied to the instance. When logged in as the
application owner on the Admin Node, execute adctrl to
display the menu options shown in
AD Controller Menu
To execute an adctrl menu option, simply type the menu
option and press Enter. If options 2–6 are chosen, either
specify the number of the worker that requires action, or
press Enter for the action to be executed for
all workers.
The “Skip Worker” menu option is a hidden adctrl menu
option. If a worker needs to be skipped, start adctrl, enter 8,
and then enter the worker number. Only use this option if
advised by Oracle Support.
Oracle Aplication DBA Portal Tip:With AD.I, adctrl may be
used in noninteractive mode. Using adctrl noninteractively
can expedite patch problem resolution.
Resolving AD Patch Worker Failure
If a worker has failed, the adpatch session will normally
display a failedworker

2. message. The status of the worker may also be determined
using adctrl. If a worker has failed, the worker error can be
obtained by viewing the worker log file. Once the worker
issue has been resolved, use adctrl to
restart the worker.
If a worker has failed, and it is determined that the step the
worker was
trying to execute may be skipped, the hidden option 8 of the
adctrl menu, “Skip Worker,” may be used to skip the
worker. It is only advisable to do this
if the step is not critical to the environment being patched.
Oracle Aplication DBA Portal Tip:It may be necessary to
research MetaLink or open an SR to resolve issues with
failed workers. For additional information on MetaLink and
the SR process, see
The following are common worker failures that will be seen
by the Applications DBA during patching. The error
messages will be displayed by the adpatch session or in the
worker log file:
Error message: ORA-01013: user requested cancel of
current operation Resolution to error: If this error occurs,
simply use adctrl to restart the worker on the current
machine.
Error message: Patch not applied successfully, adpatch did
not cleanup its restart files (*rf9).
Resolution to error: If this error occurs, execute the
following as the
instance owner:
$cd $APPL_TOP/admin/$CONTEXT_NAME
$mv restart restart_old
$mkdir restart
After cleaning up the restart files, you may then restart the
adpatch session using adpatch.

3. Then, use adctrl to restart the failed worker.
Error message: No error message is displayed; rather the
worker log file states that the worker is complete, yet adctrl
indicates that the worker is still running.
Resolution to error: This patching problem occurs when the
worker is complete, but did not update patching tables
correctly to notify the adpatch session that it has finished. In
this scenario, the adpatch session is still waiting for the
finish return code from the worker. When this occurs, use
adctrl to fail the worker, then restart the worker.
Oracle Aplication DBA Portal Tip:Any form, library, or
report that fails to generate during the patch process can be
regenerated manually after all patching and post-patching
steps have completed. If the object still fails to compile,
open an SR.

4. SOLUTION 1 : ADCTRL workers remain assigned
The error meant some AD patch was applied wrongly. The adpatch
code is not compatible with the adworker code. Hence the restart file
discrepancy in the worker log files. The solution as it worked out
through SR was:
1. Stop the adpatch session through ADCTRL and take copies of the
current versions of adpatch and adworker executables.
2. Relink AD executables:
A. Run %APPL_TOP%relinkenv.cmd
B. In the command window that results, change directory to %APPL_TOP% and run
apps.sh to set up all required environment variables.
. ./apps.sh
C. Run command
sh adrelink.sh force=y "ad all"
3. Recreate grants
$ cd $ORACLE_HOMEappsutilsql
$ sqlplus /nolog
SQL> connect / as sysdba
SQL> @adgrants_nt.sql APPLSYS
4. Run adpatch and resume the previous session.
SOLUTION 2 : ADCTRL workers remain assigned
You can also try to edit
"d:oracle<SID>appladmin<SID>restartadpinit.rf9" and replce 'Prompt
for mailto' with 'Apply mode Setting' in line 4. Try applying the patch
with restart=yes. if it still fails comment out line 4.
Note, Oracle Support does not support editing restart files.

5. Error: The FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES table does not exist.
I run adctrl to show the worker status I get the below error;
Is that a problem?How can solve this?What does that mean?
Enter your choice [1] : 1
Error: The FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES table does not exist.
This table is used for communication with the
worker processes, and if it does not exist, it
means that the workers are not running,because
the ad utility has not started them yet.
The FND_INSTALL_PROCESSES table is created at the beginning of an adpatch
run and dropped after the patch completes successfully. adctrl is a utility that
monitors and fixes patch issues. If no patch is currently running, then this is a
normal error that adctrl will return.
If the patch was applied successfully on the TEST instance (check the
patch log file and query AD_BUGS table to verify), then you can
proceed and apply it on your PROD instance. Again, if you still want
to monitor the workers status please do so while the patch is
running.

6. Regarding ICXDLTMP.sql, this program is used to clean out
ICX tables, and it should be regularly run to avoid huge
tables. If this program is run on a regular basis this job
should not run more than a few minutes.
Undocumented Option 8:
This will allow you to continue processing a job and kill the adworker that failed.
Back at the main adctrl menu choose option 8:
Enter your choice [1] : 8
Enter the worker number(s)/range(s) or 'all' for all workers,
or press [Return] to go back to the menu :
To select the "Skip worker" option, type the number 8 and
press Return.
This can be useful in testing a patch and you need to let the patch or job run to
completion.
ADWORKER LOGFILES for R12 EBS
How to find the log files for these workers? It is confusing to the newbie.
cd $APPL_TOP/admin/{ORACLE_SID}

7. adctrl interactive=n defaultsfile=$
TOP/admin/prod/ctrldefs.txt
menu_option=SHOW_STATUS
$ adctrl interactive=n defaults_file=$APPL_TOP/admin/prod/ctrldefs.txt
logfile=adctr.log menu_option=SHOW_STATUS
ACKNOWLEDGE_QUIT Tell manager that a worker acknowledges quit
INFORM_FAILURE Tell manager that a worker failed its job
RESTART_JOB Tell worker to restart a failed job
SHOW_STATUS Show worker status
SHUTDOWN_WORKER Tell worker to quit
START_WORKER Restart a worker on the current machine