End-of-Support (End-of-Life) of your Database software

Oracle charges support and updates in addition to usage licenses. This support is necessary to maintain the software (patches), keep it safe (security fixes) and to get advice from Oracle in the event of malfunctions. Oracle support is a comprehensive whole. In addition to support and updates, it also includes the right to upgrade to new versions of the product.

Oracle Support

With Oracle support it is known in advance how long a certain release is in support. This is defined in the Lifetime Support Policy. It states that in a product release, for example 12cR1/12cR2/18c/19c, there are three levels of support:

• Premier: Default, during a version’s active support phase, 5 years from release.
• Extended: Only for an additional fee, a few years longer (maximum 3 years) of support for products that are no longer current.
• Sustaining: After a product is out of premier support (also called End-of-Support) and as long as support is paid for it.

At the moment the support levels are as follows.

To take maximum advantage of support, it is recommended to use the most current database version, which is included in Premier support. During this period, a product is still actively being developed. Once a product falls into Extended support, it becomes more difficult to resolve unusual failures while the support costs are higher than in Premier support. Once a database version has ended up in Sustaining support, fixes are over; there is then only access to old patches and old help requests to Oracle.

Note that if no Extended support has been taken out, a product will immediately fall into Sustaining support from the moment the Premier expires. When a product is in Sustaining support, this is often referred to as End-of-Life, but in fact it is End-of-Premier-Support.

Below is a detailed overview of what each support level entails:

Prime support
– Upgrade to new database versions
– Technical support in case of incidents
– Bug fixes, security patches and database functional improvements
– Update functions to comply with changing laws and regulations
– Making the database software suitable for new platforms (hardware and/or software)
– Access to the Oracle knowledge base.

Extended support:
– Identical to Premier except for platform updates. For example, the database software is no longer tested or made suitable for new Linux/Windows versions.

sustaining support:
– Upgrade to new versions of your database software is allowed but it is no longer guaranteed that an in-place upgrade to the latest database version can be done easily using standard procedures.
– Access to the Oracle knowledge base
– Technical support for issues already known during the Premier phase
– Access to patches/updates already published during the premier support phase.

The added value of DBA.nl

Oracle support is necessary for every professional environment, but what is the added value of DBA.nl? In short, we take care of the long-term healthy maintenance of your Oracle environment and your database software. In addition, we offer assistance with questions you may have in the daily use of your Oracle environment and, where appropriate, we work directly with your application supplier to solve any problems as quickly and as effectively as possible.

Only an Oracle support contract is of limited use. There remains a need to track, prepare and apply available updates, interpretation and resolution of incidents, data ex/import/migration, upgrades and “looking ahead” (capacity planning) to name a few. In our experience, the amount of work that must be done to monitor and maintain a database environment is an undesirable burden for most customers. DBA.nl takes care of this and you can focus on your business operations. We hope the above has cleared up any questions you may have about your database software . If you have any questions, you can always contact us.