[Note: This article was updated on January 10, 2024]

This article applies to Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) customers running Oracle Database releases 12.1.0.2 or 11.2.0.4 on Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure, Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer, or Base Database Service.

The Oracle Database team recently announced desupport of these legacy Oracle Database releases from the Cloud Console and API, which will affect you if you are running these Oracle Database releases on any of the impacted database cloud services. For more information, see “Announcements” in your Cloud account and refer to My Oracle Support Knowledge Document Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1).

Most EBS customers have by now completed upgrades to Oracle Database 19c, with extended support for releases 12.1.0.2 and 11.2.0.4 having ended in prior years. If you are still running any of these older releases in Oracle Cloud, including those managed by the Cloud Manager, you should make plans to upgrade to 19c as soon as possible, and in the meantime take the appropriate action (as described below) before January 15th, 2024.

Specific Impact

Beginning January 15th, 2024, the Oracle Database releases affected will no longer be available for new provisioning or lifecycle management unless you have subscribed to the Upgrade Support program. The discontinuation affects activities such as Oracle Data Guard association, backup and restore, Database Software Image creation, and interim software updates. This means that routine operations like creating test instances will not be possible for those customers who have not taken action.

Action Needed

As an EBS customer, the action (or actions) you need to take will depend on your situation.

If you do not have Upgrade Support and will not have completed your upgrade to Oracle Database 19c by January 15th, 2024, but still need to use your 11.2.0.4 or 12.1.0.2 databases, we recommend that you contact your Oracle account team and enroll in the Upgrade Support program. This will allow you to access the images required for provisioning a new database or creating a database from backup at the 12.1.0.2 or 11.2.0.4 database levels, so that you can continue normal operations such as creation of test systems. In addition, Upgrade Support entitles you to receive any new database patches that may be produced.

If you do not have Upgrade Support in place by January 15th, you can work with your account team to request a Cloud Automation 6-Month Extension in order to gain access to 12.1.0.2 and 11.2.0.4 images. (Note that the Cloud Automation 6-Month Extension does not entitle you to receive new database patches.) The extension is valid until July 15th, 2024. If you still plan to use your 11.2.0.4 or 12.1.0.2 databases after July 15, 2024, you must have Upgrade Support in order to continue to conduct critical operations.

The information in this blog article is also available in Alert: Oracle E-Business Suite Cloud Customers and January 15, 2024 Database Services Desupport for Oracle Database Releases 12.1.0.2 and 11.2.0.4 (Doc ID 2996689.1).