Oracle Database 11g and 12c Support: what’s next and how does Upgrade Support help?
Update 14 August 2023; clarification on Upgrade Support, upgrade path, clarified diagram.
Update 11 August 2023; Oracle have now made public their updated support document here and so information about Restricted Upgrade Support is no longer restricted to those with an My Oracle Support login / associated support contract.
TL;DR
Oracle 19c enters Extended Support in April 2024.
Oracle 23c is expected to be released imminently; if you have 11g / 12c databases, you will be able to continue some form of consulting-based ‘support’ service until the end of 2024 in the form of Restricted Upgrade Support: this will be a limited version of Market Driven Support. It goes without saying, your goal should be to move from these long Premier Support versions and move to an LTS release: either 19c or a stable release of 23c. You can only upgrade to 23c from 19c.
Background
With the imminent release of Oracle Database 23c (the next Long-Term Support (LTS) release), many organisations are considering their strategy for upgrades and their older database systems. Many customers are realising that repeating ‘mega’-upgrade projects to jump from one LTS to the next LTS is expensive, fraught with issues and has many non-database challenges to overcome: just as one project finishes, the next one needs to start the next LTS upgrade.
It’s worth restating something here: there is no cost for customers wanting to move to the 23c database (or any other version) on the assumption that annual support and maintenance are in place— you do not have to pay an upgrade fee, the licenses you have are not version-specific (they are, of course, edition (Standard Edition 2 or Enterprise Edition) specific). On that basis, it seems like a ‘no-brainer’ to upgrade –however, this is non-trivial based on your applications.
Where are we now?
Before we discuss on-going support for 11g and 12c, it’s worth recapping where we are with the recent and future (expected) releases and the level of support available for Oracle Database. The timeline below is derived from a number of public sources and is subject to change/revision. It also simplifies the exact dates and gaps involved in historical offerings. I have included some speculative dates, noted with a * and the prefix ‘possible’: these should therefore be treated with caution: I will update this as dates are confirmed.
Take note of the ‘today’ line; 11g and 12c (12.1 Enterprise Edition) are well beyond Premier / Extended support and have, at most, Market Driven Support (MDS) (blog here) — though only a low percentage of organisations have MDS for 11g/12c in place still (this is not a standard offering).
Unlike Premier and Extended Support, which are charged on the basis of a ‘support uplift’ and therefore directly related to the annual support cost of the software, MDS is provided by Oracle Consulting directly: i.e. you are purchasing effort/resource based on another metric (e.g. database instances requiring support, an effort to create patches for your older database version). Therefore, you transact these offerings on a consulting contract, rather than through the support organisation at Oracle. It also means there is more flexibility in cost.
What’s Upgrade Support?
A ‘quiet’ renaming of MDS, Upgrade Support is a ‘life-support’ offering for those on 11g and 12c, interestingly both versions have the same ‘public’ end date of the end of 2024. This is actually a consulting service offered by the re-branded ACS — now known as Customer Success Services (CCS) — as was MDS.
Oracle’s Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (742060.1), public version here) shows that Restricted Upgrade Support is going to be provided for 11g and 12c until the end of 2024. Access to the Upgrade Support program will require organisations to apply/qualify for the program and therefore it is considered restricted availability.
With the rebranding of MDS as (Restricted) Upgrade Support for 11g and 12c, the clue as to the reason for this change is in the name: the focus is on upgrading rather than dragging out support for a longer period. This is not a support ‘level’; in reality, this consulting service will probably comprise of workshops, upgrade templates and consulting services urging customers to upgrade. The restrictions are unclear (compared to MDS) but it is unlikely to offer the same amount of patches as MDS did (which in itself was already limited).
Oracle are stating that Restricted Upgrade Support for 11g and 12c will be provided until the end of 2024. Customers need to apply for and qualify to get this service
What’s Next For Enterprise Estates?
A reprieve for 11g/12c support will be welcome by many, however it goes without saying that you really need a strategy for upgrading (or not!) your database estate in place ASAP; the imminent release of 23c should be a reminder that you need to keep apace of Oracle’s releases — we review thousands of databases from global estates and can say that 19c, although the only fully supported LTS version, is still a minority version across enterprise estates. As a reminder 19c will have waived extended support until early 2026 and then paid-for Extended Support until early 2027.
If upgrading from 11g/12c, a stable update of 23c should be considered — however, it is worth remembering that upgrading to 23c can ONLY be performed from 19c (unless you were on the innovation release of 21c): if you are running an earlier version of the database, you will need to migrate it to 19c and then to 23c.
About the Author
Paul Bullen is a Principal License Consultant at Version 1, having over 22 years of experience in Oracle technology and Oracle licensing.
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