A few weeks ago, you read the announcement of the availability of Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle Database 12.2.0.1. But many of you had some questions right away. I could answer most of them easily. But it was clear to us that there was more information needed. Hence, we published more information for Oracle 12.2.0.1 – Clarification for Limited Error Correction Support.
Photo by Alfred Aloushy on Unsplash
What has been announced in April 2020?
Just a few weeks ago we announced the availability of Limited Error Correction Support for Oracle 12.2.0.1 after November 2020. You could find more information and details in MOS Note: 742060.1 pointing to MOS Note: 161818.1 – Oracle Database (RDBMS) Releases Support Status Summary). Limited Error Correction Support has some limitations (sic!) in contrast to Premier Support.
What were the typical questions?
And soon after I blogged about this, I received also several questions such as:
- Do you plan to release RUs after November 2020 for 12.2.0.1?
- Will I still get my merge patch on top of future RUs, e.g. in April 2021?
- Will there be RURs available as well?
And the answer is …
To answer all your questions, and keep track of them, a new MOS Note has been published:
- MOS Note: 2665835.1
Frequently Asked Questions for Database 12.2.0.1 Limited Error Correction
Here you’ll find all topics covered and (hopefully) all potential questions answered.
Screenshot from: Frequently Asked Questions for Database 12.2.0.1 Limited Error Correction (Doc ID 2665835.1)
To which release should you upgrade finally now??
There is a very simply and straight answer: Oracle Database 19c. Without any doubt. Read more here please:
You need to upgrade to Oracle Database 19c. It is the Long-Term Support release.
More Information and Links
- Oracle 12.2.0.1 Limited Error Correction Support available
- MOS Note: 2665835.1 Frequently Asked Questions for Database 12.2.0.1 Limited Error Correction
- MOS Note: 161818.1 – Oracle Database (RDBMS) Releases Support Status Summary
- MOS Note: 742060.1 – Release Schedule – Single Source of Truth
- To which release should upgrade to? Revisited …
–Mike
Hi Mike,
Thanks for sharing this important information.
A lot of Oracle customers started upgrading their infrastructure to 18c (before the release of 19c) because they wanted to be in compliance with product life-cycle support —at that time….to move forward from 12cR1 & 12cR2.
Oracle are not extending 18c premier support which is really a big problem in my opinion….its overhead for companies & organizations with big landscape footprints who spent time to upgrade to 18c to go upgrade again to 19c….June 2021 is too short to be honest especially with COVID-19 global crisis.
I understand that the ultimate objective is to upgrade to 19c !
releasing a new database release every 1 year is a bad idea …..again my opinion…..the following are the timeline i was able to gather for multiple releases over the time:
12cR1 (12.1.0.2) released in July 2014
12cR2 (12.2.0.1) released in March 2017 (on-prem)
18c released July 2018 (on-prem)
19c released August 2019 (on-prem)
Regards,
Emad
Hi Emad,
good to hear from you – and I hope all is well!
Please watch out for the announcement – I will blog about it next week on June 17.
It should clarify things a bit, and makes future decisions easier.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike
Thanks for the hint. Always a pleasure to read your blog.
I absolutely agree with Emad. Also we upgraded all our 12.1.0.2 DBs (few hundreds) to 18c (which was actually 12.2.0.2 and still the better choice then upgrading to 12.2.0.1).
It would be great from Oracle if the end-of-support date for 18c would be also extended to an limited correction support at least for a year.
kind regards
Suli
Hi Suli,
while I see this, there is nothing I can do. You, as customers, need to raise your voices.
Thanks,
Mike