Execute the below steps to delete the inactive patches and then proceed with patching if any performance issue in oracle Database patching
+ List the inactive patches
$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch util listorderedinactivepatches
+ Check the space and size of .patch_storage
du -hs $ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage
Deleting the inactive patch :-
1. Execute deleteinactivepatches without setting opatch.properties to retain=2 (default is retain=1)
opatch util deleteinactivepatches -silent
export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch
nohup opatch util deleteinactivepatches -silent > opatch_output.log 2>&1 &
2 Display inactive patches
opatch lsinventory -inactive
3 Repeat steps 1 and 2 until only 1 inactive patch (for each product) is left
+ Check the space and size of .patch_storage
du -hs $ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage
For more information on the deleting inactive patches please go through the below MOS document
OPatch 12.2.0.1.37+ Introduces a New Feature to Delete Inactive Patches in the ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage Directory ( Doc ID 2942102.1 )