Cloning to apply patches (Cloned Servers = PROD)??

[akumar.oracle]

Version R12/11i? = 11.5.10.2
Instance PROD/TEST/VIS? = PROD
Module? = HRMS
OS? = Unix HP-UX


Hi,
I have a scenario where i want to reduce patch downtime...

My application and database servers are running on HP Blade servers.

Application Server 1 : CMS, REPORTS, ADMIN
Application Server 2 : APACHE, FORMS
Database Server : Oracle 10g R2

I need to apply family pack patch that is 200MB and takes 4 hours to cut down downtime to 1 hour.

I need to clone the above production system.

My question is:

Do i need the same number of machines (2 application servers and 1 database server for target env too) to apply the ("Copy" and "Generate" part of the patch? or can i use only 1 Application server where i can clone the 2 Nodes into 1 Node and then apply "Copy" and "Generate" part of the patch to cloned machine then after 4 hours copy the APPL_TOP, JAVA_TOP, OA_HTML back from cloned machine to PROD and then apply "Database" part of patch directly to PROD database.


ta
Arvind