From the Support’s Hot Topics email I learned the other day that MOS Note:742060.1 (Release Schedule of Current Database Releases) got updated with Oracle 18c information on January 18, 2018.
What got added to MOS Note:742060.1?
A column for Oracle 18c got added to the table of releases. You will find not information about potential release availability for Oracle 18c in the various options of the Oracle Cloud, and of course for on-premises as well.
Furthermore please find the updated graph as well.
The note below the graph is very important. See MOS Note:742060.1 for further details.
–Mike
Can’t believe they will name it that, 12c to 18c?
Hi Mike,
In the MOS Note:742060.1 the fields for the various Platforms are filled in the new column “18”.
Not with dates, but with expected periods.
So now we will find a little information about potential release availability for Oracle 18c in the various options of the Oracle Cloud and on-premises.
But before everybody logs in on MOS, I have to say that most of them will not get us out of our seats (yet). like:
– TBD : To be defined
– 2HCY2018 : Last day of 2018 or earlier (can be found in the on-premises section)
But the 1Q2018 (first quarter of 2018) for “Database Cloud Service”, “Exadata Cloud Service”, “Oracle Database Appliance” and “Exadata” shows me that Oracle intends to “not let us wait till the end of 2018”.
Since there is a disclaimer on these dates (and this post will be overtaken by reality), I have copied this disclaimer:
“The dates published in this document are for planning and discussion purposes only. It is intended solely to help you plan your I.T. projects. The dates are not a firm development plan. The release and timing of any platforms are subject to change at any time and at Oracle’s sole discretion.”
With regards, Robert
Hi Mike,
this means 18c for on premise will be released at the end of 2018 and the release roadmap shows it will be only supported till the end of 2020.
A timeframe of 2 years support is really annoying for a big company with lots of self developed software and enormous testing effort.
We are still on 11.2.0.4 and to skip paid extended support according to the current release schedule (assuming that 19c for on premise will be released in 2HCY2019 and that we should wait for at least one RU on new releases) we would have to upgrade to 12.2.0.1 in 2018, we would have to upgrade to 18c in 2019 and we would have to upgrade to 19c in 2020.
Is there any better solution than paying for extended support until 19c is released? Is it likely that the timeline of 12.2.0.1 and/or 18c will be altered? I hope you undestand our frustration with this situation.
Best regards
Sven
Sven,
first of all there are no dates published in MOS 742060.1. Therefore your statement “the release roadmap shows it will be only supported till the end of 2020.” may not be correct. Instead we will published the support dates for Oracle 18c once Oracle 18c becomes available.
Furthermore, as Oracle 18c is 12.2.0.2 the two years support (minimum) are exactly the same as we have given before for Oracle 11.2.0.2 or 11.2.0.3. No change here.
My clear recommendation for customers being now on Oracle 11.2.0.4:
(a) upgrade to Oracle 12.2.0.1 now or to Oracle 18c when it is available … OR …
(b) plan for Paid Extended Support and upgrade to Oracle 19c as soon as it becomes available but TEST with Oracle 18c already
As you decided to go with (b) there’s no issue with this strategy. Just make sure you start testing with 18c already at least in early 2019.
Your alternative would be (a) … upgrade to Oracle 12.2.0.1 now … and then move to Oracle 19c once it is available and past your tests.
Actually my understanding is a bit limited. Oracle 11.2.0.4 was supposed to leave Waived Extended Support way earlier. The extension of the Waived Extended Support was a generous move most likely because of customer demand. But initially you should have move forward much earlier. When you look at the support time frame for Oracle 11.2, it got released in 2009 (!!!). 11.2.0.4, the terminal patch set for Oracle 11.2. is available since August 2013 on most platforms. This was 4.5 years ago. The Waived Extended Support started on Feb 1, 2015 – and goes straight through Dec 31, 2018. All together almost 4 (!!!) years of Waived (non-extra-paid) Extended Support.
Therefore please forgive me but my understanding is not so uber-high ;-). When you browse through the blog you’ll see that we recommended upgrading to 12.1.0.2 or now to 12.2.0.1 for a long long time. The extension of the extension of the Waived Extended Support has given everybody a super-soft cushion. I was always honest with people and told them “please don’t sit it out as otherwise you’ll face the day when Extended Support becomes an extra cost thing. And then you’ll be disappointed.”. That’s what you are right now. All the customers I work with for many years are either completely on Oracle 12.1.0.2, a mix of 12.1 and 12.2 or already fully on 12.2 (as for instance our public reference Universal Investment in Frankfurt).
Cheers,
Mike
Cheers,
Mike
I’m disappointed but not at all shocked to see on-perm customers get shafted by having to wait until the 2nd half of the year.
Steve
Steve,
you shouldn’t – even though I understand this quite a bit. See it from a different perspective: you will get a 18.3.0 or 18.4.0 which has a good number of patches included already and therefore should be good to go right away once it becomes available.
Cheers,
Mike