OPatch failure issue while patching RAC (11.2.0.3)

While patching the RAC/DB you may face different issues on Windows because of the .dll files being used. Here is the process how I got rid of such failure.
While performing the acfsroot install, it failed as below.

%ORACLE_HOME%\bin\acfsroot install

D:\Sources\11.2.0.3\Patches\p13965211_112030_MSWIN-x86-64\13965211>%ORACLE_HOME%\bin\acfsroot install ACFS-9300: ADVM/ACFS distribution files found. ACFS-9312: Existing ADVM/ACFS installation detected. ACFS-9314: Removing previous ADVM/ACFS installation. ACFS-9315: Previous ADVM/ACFS components successfully removed. ACFS-9307: Installing requested ADVM/ACFS software. acfsinstall: ACFS-09420: The driver is not currently installed on this node. acfsinstall: CLSU-00100: Operating System function: CopyFile failed with error data: 32 acfsinstall: CLSU-00101: Operating System error message: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. acfsinstall: CLSU-00103: error location: CopyFile_0 acfsinstall: ACFS-09455: Unable to copy driver file D:\app\11.2.0.3\grid\install\usm\2008R2\x86_64\bin\oracleoks.sys to the path C:\Windows\system32\drivers\oracleoks.sys. ACFS-9340: failed to install OKS driver. acfsinstall: ACFS-09420: The driver is not currently installed on this node. acfsinstall: CLSU-00100: Operating System function: CopyFile failed with error data: 32 acfsinstall: CLSU-00101: Operating System error message: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. acfsinstall: CLSU-00103: error location: CopyFile_0 acfsinstall: ACFS-09455: Unable to copy driver file D:\app\11.2.0.3\grid\install\usm\2008R2\x86_64\bin\oracleadvm.sys to the path C:\Windows\system32\drivers\oracleadvm.sys. ACFS-9340: failed to install ADVM driver. acfsinstall: ACFS-09420: The driver is not currently installed on this node. acfsinstall: CLSU-00100: Operating System function: CopyFile failed with error data: 32 acfsinstall: CLSU-00101: Operating System error message: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. acfsinstall: CLSU-00103: error location: CopyFile_0 acfsinstall: ACFS-09455: Unable to copy driver file D:\app\11.2.0.3\grid\install\usm\2008R2\x86_64\bin\oracleacfs.sys to the path C:\Windows\system32\drivers\oracleacfs.sys. ACFS-9340: failed to install ACFS driver. ACFS-9310: ADVM/ACFS installation failed.

By process explorer I found which process is the cause of it and I killed it and started the acfsroot install again

%ORACLE_HOME%\bin\acfsroot install
ACFS-9300: ADVM/ACFS distribution files found.
ACFS-9307: Installing requested ADVM/ACFS software.
ACFS-9308: Loading installed ADVM/ACFS drivers.
ACFS-9327: Verifying ADVM/ACFS devices.
ACFS-9157: Detecting driver 'oracle oks'.
ACFS-9157: Detecting driver 'oracle advm'.
ACFS-9157: Detecting driver 'oracle acfs'.
ACFS-9309: ADVM/ACFS installation correctness verified.

The same happened while patching the RDBMS Home, many files were active although all the services stopped but still some dlls were being used by OS.
> opatch apply
D:\Sources\11.2.0.3\Patches\p13965211_112030_MSWIN-x86-64\13965211>D:\Sources\11.2.0.3\Patches\p6880880_112000_MSWIN-x86 -64_optach\OPatch\opatch apply Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 11.2.0.3.0 Copyright (c) 2012, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. Oracle Home : D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1 Central Inventory : C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory from : n/a OPatch version : 11.2.0.3.0 OUI version : 11.2.0.3.0 Log file location : D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\cfgtoollogs\opatch\13965211_May_26_2012_14_25_45\apply2012-05- 26_14-25-45PM_1.log Applying interim patch '13965211' to OH 'D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1' Verifying environment and performing prerequisite checks... Patch 13965211: Optional component(s) missing : [ oracle.precomp.lang, 11.2.0.3.0 ] , [ oracle.rdbms.tg4msql, 11.2.0.3.0 ] , [ oracle.rdbms.ic, 11.2.0.3.0 ] , [ oracle.has.cvu, 11.2.0.3.0 ] , [ oracle.has.crs, 11.2.0.3.0 ] , [ oracle.usm, 1 1.2.0.3.0 ] Prerequisite check "CheckActiveFilesAndExecutables" failed. The details are: Following files are active : D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\oracommon11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\oraclient11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\orageneric11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\orapls11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\rdbms\mesg\oraus.msb D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\oran11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\rman.exe D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\rman.exe D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\oraxml11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\oci.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\orahasgen11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\orahasgen11.dll D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\lsnrctl.exe D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\bin\orannzsbb11.dll Log file location: D:\app\Inam\product\11.2.0.3\dbhome_1\cfgtoollogs\opatch\13965211_May_26_2012_14_25_45\apply2012-05-2 6_14-25-45PM_1.log Recommended actions: OPatch needs to modify files which are being used by some processes. OPatch failed with error code = 41

Just kill the associated processes by process explorer.

You could also see wmiprvse.exe process locking the drivers. wmiprvse.exe is the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service and should not be allowed to manage the GI drivers. To avoid such failures either reconfigure WMI to prevent this or disable and stop the WMI service on all nodes.  This should release the lock on the drivers and allow the patch/upgrade to proceed.


Note: sometimes the process that you kill will keep starting automatically and patching will be continuously failed. In this case just kill the process and immediately try to rename the Oracle Home being patched (eg; RDBMS home in my case) and then check if there is any process using dll file if existing kill that. After this rename the Oracle home to original and try patching (it worked for me). In worse case you may need to restart the machine being patched.

Ref:1348111.1