Exadata-- Applying bundle patches for PSU upgrades

Recently had to upgrade an Exadata X3 enviroınment to supply the requirements of ODA X5, which was positioned as the Disaster recovery environment. ODA X5 was requiring at least an 11.2.0.3.15 (PSU 15) RDBMS, because of its ACFS mount points. So, we had to upgrade the Oracle Home of the source environment, which was this Exadata, from 11.2.0.3.1 to 11.2.0.3.15. So basically, we had to apply PSU 15 to Exadata's RDBMS home , and maybe Grid Home as well.
If it was not an Exadata, the patching route The patching route should be via CPU/PSUs.

What we did was applying the bundle patch actually.
As ,Bundle patches are cumulative. Bundle patches contain a recently released Patch Set Update (PSU), which, in turn, contain a recently released Critical Patch Update (CPU).

So, in order to apply have our Grid and DB version upgraded 11.2.0.3.15 we applied QUARTERLY DATABASE PATCH FOR EXADATA (JULY2015 - 11.2.0.3.28) - Patch 21166803, as the PSU 15 was included there
Included Content - The following patch bundles were included in 11.2.0.3 BP28 for Exadata

Patch 20760997 - DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.15 (INCLUDES CPUJUL2015)
Patch 18906063 - CRS PATCH FOR EXADATA (JUL 2014 - 11.2.0.3.24)
Patch 17592127 - GRID INFRASTRUCTURE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.9 (GI COMPONENTS)
Patch 17380185 - Database 11.2.0.2 Bundle Patch 22 for Exadata
Patch 16824987 - Database 11.2.0.2 Bundle Patch 21 for Exadata
Patch 20621256 - QUARTERLY DATABASE PATCH FOR EXADATA (APR 2014 - 11.2.0.3.27)


Confirming PSU 15, after applying the bundle patch:

[oracle@osrvdb01 ~]$ $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch lsinventory -bugs_fixed | grep -i -E 'DATABASE PSU|DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE'

13343438   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.1

13696216   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.2 (INCLUDES 

13923374   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.3 (INCLUDES 

14275605   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.4 (INCLUDES SPU

14727310   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.5 (INCLUDES CPU

16056266   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.6 (INCLUDES CPU

16619892   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.7 (INCLUDES CPU

16902043   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.8 (INCLUDES CPU

17540582   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.9 (INCLUDES CPU

18031683   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.10 (INCLUDES CP

18522512   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.11 (INCLUDES CP

19121548   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.12 (INCLUDES CP

19769496   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.13 (INCLUDES CP

20299017   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.14 (INCLUDES CP

"20760997   21025813  Sun Mar 27 12:10:03 EEST 2016  DATABASE PATCH SET UPDATE 11.2.0.3.15 (INCLUDES CP" --> Targeted patch level for DB.

So, what we recommend here? We recommend following the release specific Exa patch boundle document, find the bundle patch that includes your desired target patch level and apply that bundle patch to increase the PSU or CPU levels if you are using an Exadata.

Ofcourse this does not mean , applying bundles for Exa is a must, as Patches in addition to bundle patches may be recommended or required (according to the Oracle Support note: Exadata Patching Overview and Patch Testing Guidelines (Doc ID 1262380.1) )
Here are some useful documents for 11gR2,

Bug Fix List: the 11.2.0.4 Patch Bundles for Oracle Exadata Database Machine(Doc ID 1601749.1)

For the list of fixes included in the 11.2.0.3 Bundle Patches for Exadata, please refer to Document 1393410.1.

For the list of fixes included in the 11.2.0.2 Bundle Patches for Exadata, please refer to Document 1314319.1.

For the list of fixes included in the 11.2.0.1 Bundle Patches for Exadata, please refer to Document 1316026.1.