Restricted Upgrade Support added for several releases of Oracle Database

You may have read my blog post from yesterday about the additional second year of Waived Extended Support for Oracle Database 19c. But there are more news such as Restricted Upgrade Support added for several releases of Oracle Database.

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What has been announced?

When you consult our single-source-of-truth MOS Note: 742060.1 – Release Schedule of Current Database Releases you may see also this message:

Restricted Upgrade Support has been added for 2024 through Customer Success Services (aka ACS)

But you have to look a bit closer and either go through the long table in the MOS note or check the graphic. Then you will see that Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 and 12.1.0.2 have both gotten an additional year of Restricted Upgrade Support. And in addition, you will see that Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 has received also such an offer.

So, in summary Restricted Upgrade Support is available until end of calendar year 2024 for:

• Oracle Database 11.2.0.4
• Oracle Database 12.1.0.2
• Oracle Database 12.2.0.1

What is Restricted Upgrade Support?

If you have never heard of this term, no worries. This was known before as Market Driven Support. So the basis and the agreement is the same. The bad news: this extra agreement has a price tag, it is not available as part of the standard support agreement but is an offer on top in case you need to stay longer on a very outdated Oracle database release.

Now, please don’t trust anybody offering you Virtual Patching or whatever magic promise as long as you need to stay on the outdated release. This is nonsense and wishful thinking sounding far to good to be true.

Since the documents haven’t been updated yet to reflect the new naming, I rather link MOS Note 2870402.1 – Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 Market Driven Support (MDS) and MOS Note: 2728619.1 – Oracle Database 11.2 Market Driven Support (MDS) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) since they both explain the offering, and especially how you can apply for this support offer. I guess it will take a bit until the support documents will be updated, too.

Further Links and Information

• 2 years of Waived Extended Support for Oracle Database 19c
• Virtual Patching – the biggest nonsense I have ever heard about
• MOS Note 2870402.1 – Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 Market Driven Support (MDS)
• MOS Note: 2728619.1 – Oracle Database 11.2 Market Driven Support (MDS) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

–Mike