There was sort of a rumor already as some customers sent mail to me last week whether we may extend the support period for Oracle 12.2.0.1. And thanks to my friend, Robert Pastijn, who alerted me minutes ago, you can find this information now as well in the single source of truth, MOS Note:742060.1.
Photo by Francisco Gonzalez on Unsplash
Limited Error Correction announced for 12.2.0.1 Database
There are three important bullet points in the Patching End Dates table for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1:
- Error Correction / Patching is available until Nov 30, 2020
- Limited Error Correction (Sev 1 and Security Updates only) is available from Dec 1, 2020 – March 31, 2022
See Note 161818.1 for details.
- 12.2.0.1 is not eligible for Extended Support (ES)
Initially there were 10 missing days in November 2020 but this was a synch issue with MOS. This has been fixed. Originally the date said “until Nov 20, 2020”. And it is important to repeat that this is Oracle 12.2.0.1 – and neither Oracle 18c (12.2.0.2) nor Oracle 19c (12.2.0.3).
Why is MOS Note: 742060.1 pointing to MOS Note: 161818.1 – Oracle Database (RDBMS) Releases Support Status Summary)?
In MOS Note: 161818.1 you will find a precise explanation – which I will quote here as the table format is a bit odd to look at. And it clarifies the 10 missing days as it adds it to Premier Support period:
- Premier Support Error Correction end date for Oracle Database 12.2.0.11 is November 30, 2020. There is no Extended Support available for 12.2.0.1.However, as a one-time exception, Oracle will provide Limited Error Correction at no additional charge, for a period of 16 months after Premier Support Error Correction ends. Limited Error Correction will be in place from December 1, 2020 until March 31, 2022 for those customers needing additional time to complete their 19c upgrades. During Limited Error Correction, Oracle will use commercially reasonable efforts2 to provide:
- Severity 1 code fixes, including Backports and/or workarounds for newly discovered Severity 1 Production incidents
- Security fixes via our Quarterly Release Update (RU) process
.
Limitations and Exclusions:
- No P2 or P3 patches will be provided
- All currently supported platforms are included, except Fujitsu BS2000.
Included platforms are: Linux x86-64, Solaris x86-64, Solaris SPARC, IBM AIX on Power Systems, IBM Linux on System Z (ZLinux), HP-UX Itanium, and Microsoft Windows x64. - No Functional Upgrades, Issues associated with Third-Party Software, and Certifications with new versions of the OS will be provided.
- Embedded components in the Oracle Database that rely upon de-supported releases of Java products, Updates to any cryptography related functionality, including, but not limited to, Transport Layer Security (TLS), network encryption, and other forms of secured communications are not included.
- Integrated Oracle Products with their own Lifetime Support Policies are not included.
1 Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 includes both on-premises, Database/Exadata Cloud Services, and Exadata Cloud at Customer (both Gen1 and Gen2)
2 Commercially Reasonable Efforts means Oracle will provide fixes that can be completed and provided with a reasonable number of resources and time.
These are exciting and very positive news.
Personally after having dozens of discussions with customers about the support periods for Oracle 12.2 including 12.2.0.1, 18c and 19c in the past months, I think these are great news. And in these special times, this may relief also the pressure in one or the other upgrade project.
Release Graph updated
MOS Note: 742060.1 has updated also the release graph – I copy/paste mine here:
Now I will browse through my blog and add and change references 😉
More Information and Links
- MOS Note: 742060.1 – Release Schedule of Current Database Releases
- MOS Note: 161818.1 – Oracle Database (RDBMS) Releases Support Status Summary)
- How long will Oracle 12.2 be supported?
–Mike
We’re on 12.1.0.2.
I cannot upgrade to 19c because of SE2 RAC unavailable, and I’m running SE2 RAC all over the place.
I cannot upgrade to 18c because support ends even before support for 12.1.0.2 does.
I cannot upgrade to 12.2.0.1 because nonsense.
I’ve been struggling with SE2 limitations for years.
My hands are tied.
Rodolfo,
the HA team is releasing some relief for SE customers.
https://blogs.oracle.com/maa/standard-edition-2-announcing-standard-edition-high-availability
Hope this helps – thanks
Mike
Sure it might help, but the days of 11.2.0.4 SE RAC without CPU limitations and with rolling PSUs are long gone.
Any way you slice it, you lose.
Hi Rodolfo,
I see your points, believe me. But honestly, I’ve had not a single customer who had ran into real issues with the CPU limitation as this was done by parallel threads – and there was a lot of misunderstanding around this (which I tried to clarify on the blog a long while ago).
The rolling patching is an important topic, I fully agree with you. But still then you have a service relocation happening from node 1 to node 2 when node 1 gets patched. When you act with a second home, you can limit the downtime to just shutdown and startup – when datapatch runs, the database has to be up anyways. I know, this is not exactly the same, and I’m not a listener expert (the SCAN functionality we included already for the PDB relocate into the normal listener may be very helpful here without using PDBs of course) – but maybe there are some fancy ways to keep the services quiesced.
Thanks and kind regards,
Mike
Hi,
What does this mean in respect to security patches?
Are these still provided? And if so, is this for all vulnerabilities (back ported) or only for very high impacting ones
Regards,
ok, forget my question
it appears that the lockdown has affected my ability to read
Hello Mike,
Thank you very much for sharing this fantastic news immediately through your blog.
However I have the impression that an error has now slipped into the Release Graph in MOS Note: 742060.1 regarding the “Error Correction with Paid Market Driven Support” period for 11.2.0.4. This support ends in December 2022 but in the Release Graph this support now seems to end in December 2021 (although all documents state it ends in December 2022). Can you contact the owner of MOS Note: 742060.1 to verify this ?
By the way, in MOS Note: 742060.1 I find the “New” eye-catcher, which has been added to highlight the “Limited Error Correction” period for 12.2.0.1, looking rather childish in comparison with the global lay-out of the Release Graph ;-).
Greetings,
Chris
Hi Chris,
you made me laugh and cry when I read your message this morning.
And you are right – the Market Driven Support bar is too short in the official MOS Note:742060.1.
Well, I posted mine on the blog 🙂
And be sure that there were some discussions already – but we don’t own the note … 😉
Cheers,
Mike
Anyone know what “No P2 or P3 patches will be provided” means? What is a a Pn patch?
Hi David,
glad you mention this. Today I discussed the extension with a colleague and shared my screen and read over the post. And the colleague had the same question. I think it should mean “Priority 2 and Priority 3” (which translates to Sev.2 and Sev.3) fixes. P3 typically would be something like a very minor issue. And if something is Sev.1 or Sev.2 is often in the eye of the beholder.
Hope this helps – cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
“Security fixes via our Quarterly Release Update (RU) process” In response to the line here, can you confirm that we will keep getting the OJVM RU’s also or maybe a COMBO of (DBRU and OJVM RU).
Like the latest “Patch 27726453: COMBO OF OJVM RU COMPONENT 12.2.0.1.180417 + DBRU 12.2.0.1.180417”
Amit,
I never take the combos – I always download the bundles I want.
But there will be RUs, and there will be security content in them of course. If they get packaged as COMBOs is something I can’t tell you.
But there will be certainly OJVM RUs, too. Just given the fact that the average risk score of OJVM incidents since Jan 2015 per quarter is 7.9, I’d expect them to be released, too.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
great news. Do you know, how One Off Patches will be handled which will have conflicts with new RU’s and maybe will not be rated Sev1? There are some candidates, which have to be backported every time a new RU has been released. Do we have to throw them away after Nov 2020?
Cheers,
Björn
Hi Björn,
this question is coming up almost daily – and while I have a guess, I will check and blog about it once I have a final confirmation.
In between, please feel free to log an SR so Support learns about these questions as well 🙂
Cheers,
Mike