Yesterday night the most important MOS Note:742060.1 got updated with the planned release date for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 on-premises.
In addition, the dates for Waived Extended Support for Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 and 12.1.0.2 got extended as well.
Please see:
In summary:
- Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 for Exadata and SuperCluster is supposed to be released soon.
- Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 for Intel Linux x86 and Solaris platforms (SPARC and Intel) is supposed to be released soon after the Exadata/SuperCluster releaseFOR EXACT DATES PLEASE SEEย MOS Note: 742060.1.
- The Free (Waived) Extended Support for Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 will be extended until end of December 2018 (was end of May 2017 before)
- The first year of Extended Support for Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 will be waived (free) as well until end of July 2019
.
For further details please see the MOS Note:742060.1.
–Mike
My conclusion: Don’t upgrade to 12.1 anymore if you’re still on 11.2.0.4.
Correct?
No, not correct. It depends.
If you haven’t do anything yet regarding upgrade/migration of your 11.2.0.4 systems, then yes, most people would prefer to wait for 12.2.0.2 or 12.2.0.3 and then shift. But those patch sets are not there yet. We propose a potential planning date in the above MOS note – not more and not less than that.
Speaking for 12.1.0.2 we know exactly what we get. It is there. We know how to tweak it, the optimizer fixes I blogged recently about are very important.
That’s why I personally would either move to 12.1.0.2 right now or run with a mixed strategy, bringing systems to 12.1.0.2 and once 12.2 proofs the same stability and my tests are completed shift systems to whatever patch level of 12.2..
And unfortunately a lot of database I see today when visiting customers are not even on 11.2.0.4 yet. I see customers with hundreds of databases on 11.2.0.3, I see customers with a ton of systems on releases below.
And I can only emphasize that you shouldn’t just sit there and stare out of the window. But approach your upgrades now and not sometime in the future.
Cheers
Mike
In Oracle 12c environment, Reports were not getting generated from Form level. Ticket was raised with Oracle. Oracle was giving various solutions for the issue for the past one month. But issue is not yet resolved.
Now, Oracle has confirmed that this is a bug in their software and they need time to find the fix for the same.
Team, Can I have an update on when this bug will be fixed as our ERP Migration to Oracle 12c is on and it is impacting our project timelines.
Smrithi,
while I fully understand your frustration please understand as well that I’m not the right person to answer your question.
Please do the following:
– if you have already an open SR please insist in the SR that you’d like to discuss this further
– if the SR has been closed, reopen it
– if the SR can’t be reopened, open a new one referencing to the previous one
– if that doesn’t satisfy you ask for an escalation and a callback by a manager
– make sure the SR has Sev.2 but not Sev.3 or 4.
– check when you have escalated if the SR’s escalated flag reflects your escalation status
Sorry for the inconvenience – but often Support’s engineers hands are tied as well when the bug is opened but no progress. And sometimes it’s not a matter of two lines of code to fix something broken.
It’s always good as well to explain why you need this fix, how it is impacting your business not to have it, what your deadlines and commitments are. But at the end of the day the support engineer can only escalate the bug but won’t be able to fix it for you.
Thanks
Mike
Thank you for posting this, but can you tell us the date from that mysterious MOS document? I can’t access that document, presumably I need to be paying for Oracle support at some level to do so. So, what is the actual release date for being able to download 12.2 from the Oracle web site, for Windows/Linux/etc.?
Thanks!
Always helpful, thank you, Mike.
Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 – Extended Support fees waived until Dec 31, 2018. An ES service contract is required starting 1-Jan-2019.
Hello,
Current graph in the 742060.1 is showing free ES for 11.2 only until end of 2017.
So is the text invalid, or the picture? ๐
Matej,
good catch – I will let the owner know and I’m sure he’ll change the graph (incorrectly showing end of 2017 as the end of free extended support) immediately.
Cheers ๐
Mike
Matej,
thanks again – the owners corrected it yesterday ๐
Cheers
Mike
Hm … just wondering a bit as the doc is an official Oracle Support doc. But anyways, currently it is marked as March 15, 2017. But there’s a huge disclaimer in the MOS note saying that you can’t rely on the date.
Cheers
Mike
Hey Mike,
Will Roy and yourself be doing another Upgrade HOL for 12.2? That VM was really nice to play around with. Appreciate all the hard work that went into it.
Thanks,
Alan
Alan,
yes of course – it is already READY TO FLY and we used it for internal training. As soon as 12.2.0.1 on-premises is live and downloadable for the public we’ll make the 12.2 HOL available as soon as possible.
Cheers
Mike
Hi…does the extended support include version 11.2.0.2
Regarding 11.2.0.2:
Have you checked the MOS Note I linked above?
Oracle Support Document 742060.1 (Release Schedule of Current Database Releases) can be found at: https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?id=742060.1
Then you would see that 11.2.0.2 ran out of Extended Support on Oct 31, 2013 – meaning you haven’t applied any security fixes to your database for almost 3.5 years ๐
You should upgrade as soon as possible to Oracle 12.1.0.2 as the effort will be exactly the same as upgrading to 11.2.0.4 as both are full releases with a bunch of new features. But 12.1.0.2 will be longer in Waived Extended Support than 11.2.0.4.
Cheers
Mike
Hi Mike,
I wouldn’t agree that "upgrading" from 11.2.0.2 to 11.2.0.4 is the same effort. This may be true regarding only the sole upgrade process of the database and not the applications.
Our upgrade from 11.2.0.2 to 11.2.0.4 some years ago went completely smooth and we had to change nothing in our applications.
In contrast the upgrade from 11.2.0.4 to 12.1.0.2 in combination with the migration to the recommended SingleTenant-Architecture was really hard work. We had lots of performance issues, that forced us to change our applications in more than one statement.
It was very difficult to keep plans stable, because they got changed surprisingly by the adaptive features of the optimizer, and in most cases not to better performance.
We had to learn that not every parameter gets into force, if only set and changed in the PDB. This made tuning work not easier. Details can be read in Chris Antogninis blog.
We have still a SR in state "development working".
So out of my experience I would strongly recommend to install the patchset 11.2.0.4 for security reasons, but to think twice before upgrading to 12.1.0.2. The waived extended support for 12.1 lasts only half a year longer.
Regarding the changes in the parameters of the optimizer in 12.2 I’m expecting another intensive testing and tuning session again, when we have to upgrade to 12.2 some day.
This work has to be done only once if you upgrade directly from 11.2.0.4 to a stable version of 12.2.
I would only upgrade a running application to 12.1 if I really need one of the undoubtedly nice new features.
Bye
Thomas
Thomas,
I see all your points – but I disagree in some of them.
(1) Changing from non-CDB to single tenant is a major change. I have a full slide deck in the Slides Download Center named "How Single Tenant will change a DBA’s life" for a reason. But that’s a very different piece of cake. It is an architectural change and very different from a patch upgrade.
(2) The adaptive issues are very well known – and there’s an excellent cure available for it in Oracle 12.1.0.2:
https://blogs.oracle.com/UPGRADE/entry/enabling_adaptive_features_of_oracle
Especially the 2nd patch is very important.
(3) If you take out the migration to single tenant I still insist from what I see on a daily basis that there is ZERO difference in testing, work effort and costs if you upgrade to 11.2.0.4 or 12.1.0.2. There are a ton of changes in 11.2.0.4 which are not in 11.2.0.3. And of course there are a ton of changes in 12.1.0.2. But it applies to both that:
(a) a patch set is a full release which contains thousands of fixes and new features
(b) there’s no difference between a patch set called 11.2.0.4 and a patch set called 12.1.0.2 as long as you keep the architecture (which means non-CDB) in terms of testing
(4) Having 12.1.0.2 exactly 7 months longer in Free/Waived Extended Support than 11.2.0.4 makes a huge difference. 7 months mean a lot. And this may give you potentially (no dates fixed yet thus THIS IS PURE GUESSING) the chance to jump directly to 12.2.0.3. We’ll see how far you can jump from 11.2.0.4.
(5) I’m fine if one stays on 11.2.0.4 but has the latest PSU (or BP for Engineered Systems). No offense and no pressure. This is (my guess) why Support management has extended the waived extended support period for 11.2.0.4 again – take pressure away from customers. But I would like to make the point that I’m a total fan of 12.1.0.2 with the right treatments on top – and with some very cool and tiny features which make my life dealing with databases much easier ๐
๐
Cheers
Mike
I am eagerly awaiting the licensing document to catch up with the on premise release.
http://docs.oracle.com/database/122/DBLIC/Licensing-Information.htm#DBLIC-GUID-AB354617-6614-487E-A022-7FC9A5A08472
Table 1-1 Oracle Database Offerings needs update and also some new columns need to be added to Table 1-2 Feature Availability by Oracle Database Offering.
License Documentation should be available by end of the week.
Cheers
Mike
Hi,
When the 12.2 database will be certified with ebs 12.1.3 ?
Regards
Abdelillah,
this is not in our hands – but maybe Steven Chan’s EBS blog can answer this question.
Cheers
Mike
Hi Mike, The graphic shows Free ES for 11.2 ending in Dec 2019 but the table shows Dec 2018?
Neil, please see MOS Note 742060.1 – it has an updated version of the graph.
The screenshot in my post was faulty and got updated later on by the owner of the MOS note
Cheers,
Mike