Minor Upgrade? Going from 11.2.0.1 to 11.2.0.4?

My Belgium friend Phillipe Fierens raised a great question on Twitter last week and dropped me an email again after having a discussion with his client:

For Phillipe and myself the answer is pretty clear and straight forward:

There is no minor upgrade anymore since every (patch set) release is a full release and since new parameters, parameter values, features and whatever appears even in patch sets.

But the following discussion on Twitter with comments from all sides made me think about why people would honestly declare going for instance from 11.2.0.1 to 11.2.0.3 as a minor upgrade whereas going to 12.1.0.2 is seen as a major upgrade?

Let me summarize why I completely disagree – and actually Dom Giles nailed it:

  • Since Oracle Database 11.2.0.1 we deliver patch sets as a full release
  • A patch set can contain not only new parameters or parameter values but may occasionally also contain new features (typical examples in Oracle 11.2.0.4 are the new value for optimizer_dynamic_sampling=11 or the DBMS_REDACT package)
  • Therefore you will have to do exactly the same amount of testing, regardless of going to Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 vs Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 – it is ZERO difference in the tests, the time, the effort, the manpower …
    .

You don’t believe me? Then please check MOS Note:1962125.1 (Oracle Database – Overview of Database Patch Delivery Methods). Scroll down a bit to Testing Recommendations By Patch Type and see the rightmost column of this table headlined “Patch Set Release”:

I hope this clarifies it all.

There is no “minor” patch set upgrade anymore. Even though I would love to tell you that going from 11.2.0.3 to 11.2.0.4 is just a minor hop it will require exactly the same testing and evaluation work then going to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2.

But going to Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 will mean that you are under Premier Support until end of June 2018 – whereas Free Extended Support for Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 will end in May 2017.

–Mike

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