21c

CPU, CSPU, MRP, RU – some clarifications

Posted on June 9, 2026 by Oracle AI Database 26ai Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 24

I just returned from a 2 week vacation in Asia this weekend. And I was following from a distance. On May 28, the first CSPUs got released, some MOS notes got published. There are a lot of patching options now. CPU, CSPU, MRP, RU – some clarifications may be needed.

CPU, CSPU, MRP, RU - some clarifications

Photo by Daniel Salcius on Unsplash

The Prelude

On May 4, 2026, I published this blog post Patch your database against AI cybersecurity threads following these two announcements:

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Does AutoUpgrade support the MOVE option?

Posted on March 17, 2026 by AutoUpgrade Single-/Multitenant 4

Sometimes you have different plans for the day. Or, in my case, the day just needs a few extra hours. Today, I received a very interesting question on the blog at first by a customer I know very well. Then we exchanged mails – and I was caught forgetting what I wrote on the blog a longer while ago. The core question is: Does AutoUpgrade support the MOVE option? But there was much more to discuss and figure out as you can read below.

Does AutoUpgrade support the MOVE option?

Photo by Arron Choi on Unsplash

 

Which options does AutoUpgrade offer?

The case here is …

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Sign up for the next Virtual Classroom Seminar: Patch Smarter, Not Harder

Posted on March 9, 2026 by Workshop 2

Some of you may have realized: We moved the Virtual Classroom Seminar #27 from its original date in February to March 12 this week. Usually we don’t do this – but we ended up with so much content. If you haven’t already, it is time for you to sign up for the next Virtual Classroom Seminar: Patch Smarter, Not Harder.

What are we going to talk about?

Database Patching – with or without RAC or Data Guard. With demos, as usual.

The idea is that you may learn a lot. And of course, …

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The October 2025 Release of AutoUpgrade (25.6) is available

Posted on October 23, 2025 by AutoUpgrade 9

It’s October – and while the leafs keep falling on the northern hemisphere, the October 2025 Release of AutoUpgrade (25.6) is available. Get it now – and find the list of features and fixes below.

How to download it?

As usual, that’s very simple. You either download it via the well-known

or you fetch it directly from oracle.com with curl, wget or by just clicking on the big button.

What’s new?

Again, a lot. 25.6 release has a significant and important number of enhancements. It includes the …

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Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Upgrade / Migration Workshop 0

Summer season is almost over. And in between Oracle AI World in Las Vegas in October and now, there is one chance to meet us for a Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025. There are still some seats open, so please find the details below.

Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025

Photo by Ryan Lum on Unsplash

When and why should you attend?

September 17, 2025 – 9:30h-16:30h.

This is a full package of marketing-free technical content – we share not only slides but also information from our projects, lots of customer experience, gotchas, tips and …

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The August 2025 version of AutoUpgrade (25.4) is available

Posted on August 5, 2025 by AutoUpgrade 10

This time the AutoUpgrade team did magic and included so many great new features and useful enhancements into the new version of AutoUpgrade. So, please note: The August 2025 version of AutoUpgrade (25.4) is available for download. You should refresh your current versions, especially when you use it for patching, and especially if you attempt to do in an RAC (Real Application Clusters) environment.  But read more below.

How to download it?

As usual, that’s very simple. You either download it via the well-known

or you fetch …

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People do super-cool stuff … AutoUpgrade Composer

Posted on June 5, 2025 by AutoUpgrade 2

I am jealous, and so happy. There are so happy about the fact that we have such skilled minds in the industry. One of them is Marcus Vinicius, an Oracle ACE Pro from Brazil who lives in Dallas, TX in the US. And besides being a real wizard he is also a super-nice guy. No idea where all these Brazilian Oracle experts “grow” but I am very proud to have two of the best in the world in our team. But back to Marcus. People do super-cool stuff … AutoUpgrade Composer is something Marcus put out in the wild.

… Continue reading...

The May 2025 version of AutoUpgrade (25.3) is available

Posted on May 22, 2025 by AutoUpgrade 11

Many of you know it and downloaded it already. But just in case you are not aware yet, let me give you a quick summary since the May 2025 version of AutoUpgrade (25.3) is available for download.

How to download it?

That’s very simple. You either download it via the well-known

or you fetch it directly from oracle.com with curl, wget or by just clicking on the big button.

 

What’s new?

Well, 25.3 is a one-fix-only release, the real change was in 25.2 released a week …

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How do find new features in Oracle Release Updates (RUs)?

Posted on March 24, 2025 by Behavior Change Oracle Database 19c Oracle Database 21c Oracle Database 23ai 4

I know, not everybody is a huge fan of new features in RUs. But how do find new features in Oracle Release Updates (RUs)? Are the listed anywhere? They are, no worries. At least since Oracle Database 19c.

New Features in RUs?

I can already sense that some of you will be tempted to comment and tell me that you don’t like any new features in Oracle Database Release Updates, in short: RUs. But on the other hand there is also something good with it. Rather than waiting for the next full database release …

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The 25.1 version of AutoUpgrade is available for download

Posted on February 20, 2025 by AutoUpgrade Patch Recommendation 53

It’s time for a new version of AutoUpgrade. The 25.1 version of AutoUpgrade is available for download. And you should refresh your existing versions quickly since we added plenty of new and long awaited features but we of course fixed also known bugs.

How to download AutoUpgrade 25.1

Not only can you download the newest AutoUpgrade and its previous versions from MOS Note:2485457.1 – Download AutoUpgrade. But for many of you it may be easier to just fetch it with wget or curl directly from:

You …

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Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle Database 23ai

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Data Pump Patch Recommendation 14

While I blogged in the past already several times about how important the Data Pump Bundle Patch for all kinds of migrations is, a question was in my inbox this morning: Is there a separate note for the Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle Database 23ai?

Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle Database 23ai

Photo by kazuend on Unsplash

Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle 23ai

We shared an intro about the Data Pump Bundle Patch in our Virtual Classroom Seminar #13 a long while ago. And talked about it in our Oracle Cloud World and User Group talks in more detail.

In brief, you …

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Important Update to Oracle Database 19c Support Timelines

Posted on November 20, 2024 by Release Schedule 22

Long silence doesn’t mean that I am hiding. It just means that it’s very busy right now. And hopefully with less travel I will have more time to blog and reply also to your comments. Still, let me tell you about a very Important Update to Oracle Database 19c Support Timelines.

What has been updated?

As of November 19, 2024, the Support timelines for Oracle Database 19c have been adjusted. When you look at MOS Note: 742060.1 – Release Schedule of Current Database Releases you will see the new dates:

  • Premier Support until
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Looking for support dates for Oracle Middleware, GoldenGate, JDK and more?

Posted on October 16, 2024 by GoldenGate Release Schedule 0

Well, after a few wild travel days, this morning I received an email from my ex-VP in my presales days, Günther Stürner, asking whether I have a matrix for Oracle GoldenGate support time frames as we share them about the database in all our slide decks. And I confess, I had no such overview.

Later the day, Günther updated me – he found it and shared it with me, too (thank you!!).

And since the blog acts as sort of my brain dump, and since I never would have guessed that the OGG dates are kept in …

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Premier Support for Oracle Database 21c extended

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Oracle Database 21c Release Schedule 3

You are reading correctly: Premier Support for Oracle Database 21c extended is the headline.

Premier Support for Oracle Database 21c extended

Photo by Tim Stief on Unsplash

Isn’t it an innovation release?

Yes, you are right. Oracle Database 21c is an innovation release only. And we boldly tell you for a longer while: Move your production estate and everything tied to it from Long Term to Long Term Support Release. This means: Bring everything to Oracle Database 19c, and then later move on to Oracle Database 23c.

An Innovation Release such as Oracle Database 21c should be fine for developments using new features but ideally not used …

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September 2023 version of AutoUpgrade is available

Posted on September 29, 2023 by AutoUpgrade 13

It’s time again – and the new September 2023 version of AutoUpgrade is available for download to you.

Where to download it?

As usual, the MOS Note: 2485457.1 offers you access to the new release, and to the previous versions of the tool as well. This new version will show the following version information:

java -jar autoupgrade.jar -version

build.version 23.4.230921
build.date 2023/09/21 14:43:05 -0400
build.hash 165be072
build.hash_date 2023/09/21 13:05:52 -0400
build.supported_target_versions 12.2,18,19,21
build.type production
build.label (HEAD, tag: v23.4, origin/stable_devel, stable_devel)

This version will be also included in the Jan 2024 RU, 19.22.0, but not …

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DBUA Deprecation and future Desupport in Oracle Database 23c

Posted on June 21, 2023 by AutoUpgrade DBUA Deprecated / Desupported 16

Daniel pointed me to Tim Hall’s blog post about deprecated and desupported features in Oracle Database 23c. And his first bullet point mentioned is the DBUA Deprecation and future Desupport in Oracle Database 23c. Since Daniel and I agree that this needs a bit more explanation, we would like to share more background information with you.

Deprecated vs Desupport?

At first, let me refresh an old topic. What does deprecated mean, and what is the difference to desupport? A long while ago I wrote this blog post about it, and nothing …

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Zero Downtime Upgrade of Timezone Data in Oracle 21c and 23c?

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Best Practice Oracle Database 21c Oracle Database 23ai Time Zone - DST 4

There is a feature in Oracle Database 21c I planned to write about for a very long time: Zero Downtime Upgrade of Timezone Data in Oracle 21c and 23c. This sounds very promising – but let us take a closer look together in this blog post.

Time Zone Upgrade?

There is of course an ongoing discussion whether and when you should upgrade the DST version of your database to a current value. Since we all live in a more and more globalized world, this topic becomes more and more important. Even more important …

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Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Patch Recommendation 30

Mid-of January. It’s patching time again. So let me show you the quarterly exercise of Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches. Let’s see this time if I will have to remove my Data Pump Bundle Patch and the 19.17.0 MRP2 at first when I patch in-place.

Patching my environments with the January 2023 Bundle Patches

Photo by karokrasinska on Unsplash

As usual, an important annotation upfront: I patch in-place due to space issues. But in reality, you please patch always out-of-place with a separate home. Please see this blog post about how to apply the RU directly when you provision a new home with OUI…

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Why you simply can’t upgrade from Oracle 11g or 12c to Oracle 23c

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Release Schedule 5

It’s time for a Monday morning rant. I receive more and more questions which all start similar. “My customer is on Oracle 11g and/or 12c, and want to know whether the next long term support release …“. Now let me clarify Why you simply can’t upgrade from Oracle 11g or 12c to Oracle 23c. And why you MUST upgrade to Oracle Database 19c.

Why you simply can't upgrade from Oracle 11g or 12c to Oracle 23c

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

What is the intention?

After a lot of discussions across many regions, especially in JAPAC during the past weeks I realized that there is a reason for all …

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Virtual Classroom Seminar #14: AutoUpgrade 2.0 on May 5, 2022

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Workshop 4

If you finally want to see all the cool new features of AutoUpgrade 2.0 (the 2.0 is just a marker we use to say: We improved it significantly!), the please sign up to Virtual Classroom Seminar #14: AutoUpgrade 2.0 on May 5, 2022.

Virtual Classroom Seminar #14: AutoUpgrade 2.0 on May 5, 2022

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash

What are we going to talk about?

The development team invested a lot of resources to implement some of the most wanted features in AutoUpgrade. Spoiler: One feature is still missing but will be released very soon. In this Thursday’s Virtual Classroom Seminar we will talk about:

  • PDB and non-CDB
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Migrating Flashback Data Archive (FDA) tables

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Export - Import 17

This morning I received an email question from a customer asking whether there is support for the Migrating Flashback Data Archive (FDA) tables in Oracle 19c. And since this is not the first time I received this question, I thought it may be good to have a blog post about it.

What is Flashback Data Archive (FDA)?

Well, google it. Actually I was looking for a link in our documentation but to my surprise I found the usual suspects such as Tim Hall’s excellent oracle-base page – but not much in our own doc …

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Why you can’t stay on Oracle Database 11g forever

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Release Schedule 24

Oracle Database 11g? In 2022? Yes, I know – and you know too – there are Oracle 11g databases out there in production. And blindly I’d say: Too many. Of course, we are the “upgrade guys” trying to convince you to move to Oracle Database 19c. And I bet, for each of your 11g databases there’s a valid and legit reason why they haven’t upgraded yet. But there is one often neglected technical reason Why you can’t stay on Oracle Database 11g forever. So let me explain this below.

 

Oracle Database 11g?

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Oracle Fail Safe is desupported in Oracle Database 21c

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Fail Safe 2

You may wonder about this message out of the blue. I wrote a blog post about Oracle Fail Safe being deprecated in Oracle 19c a while ago. But a customer recently pointed me to the fact that I didn’t blog about the fact that Oracle Fail Safe is desupported in Oracle Database 21c.

Oracle Fail Safe is desupported in Oracle Database 21c

Photo by Thanos Pal on Unsplash

Deprecated? Desupported?

A very quick recap about what deprecated and desupported mean. In short, deprecated means “we don’t develop something further but it is still fully supported”. Whereas desupported means “it may still work or may be gone, and you …

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AutoUpgrade 2.0 has been released – and got reuploaded

Posted on March 25, 2022 by AutoUpgrade 42

Many of you have used AutoUpgrade for your database upgrades already. Just a few days ago I received some almost enthusiastic comments which made me very very happy. And if you thought it can’t get any better, no worries: AutoUpgrade 2.0 has been released – and got reuploaded.

Why AutoUpgrade 2.0?

As you know, we don’t do marketing but just talk tech. But you may have also recognized that we slowed down in our agile release cycle for AutoUpgrade. The simple reason for this long period of silence was that we’ve had a …

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What does datapatch do when you have different components in PDBs?

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Patch Recommendation 10

The last weeks, literally weeks, I have spent a lot of time with several patching topics. And in order to clean up my inbox a bit I will dump the learning into several blog posts. This one today will be about an interesting case I came across when a customer ran into problems with the runtime of datapatch in an ExaCC environment. Hence, today’s topic will be: What does datapatch do when you have different components in PDBs?

Annotation

If you are on 19.16.0 or higher, than you can safely ignore this blog post …

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Mike Dietrich
Oracle Vice President of Product Management and Development for Database Upgrade, Cloud Migrations and Patching writing just another blog.

Opinions certainly are my own as is this page.

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