[Aug 14, 2008 Update: Added an observation from one of our readers who pointed out that the more of the latest patches you’ve applied on top of your existing 11.5.9 environment, the faster the upgrade to 11.5.10 will be.]
A frequently asked question popped up again in my inbox this morning. Its recurrence is particularly timely with the end of Premier Support for E-Business Suite Release
11.5.9 in June 2008. The question is:
If an EBS 11.5.9 environment has some or all of the EBS 11.5.10 Family Packs installed, is it considered to be an 11.5.10 environment?
Break It To Them Gently
From a support perspective, an EBS 11.5.9 environment will always be regarded as an 11.5.9 environment regardless of the number of later patchsets, rollup patches, mini packs, or family pack updates that may have been applied.
The good thing is that the more patchsets, rollup patches, mini packs, or family pack updates that have been applied, the quicker the 11.5.10 upgrade will go, since the upgrade will not need to copy or process existing 11.5.10 files. In addition to which, although you will only have applied family packs to modules that you utilize and the 11.5.10 upgrade will contain and copy files for all modules, it will only process generation of files and reports etc for modules that are in use. Plus any upgrade of functional modules to 11.5.10 will normally mean that all the system modules AD, FND, etc have also been upgraded already.
The only recognized way to upgrade your E-Business Suite 11.5.9 to 11.5.10 is to apply either of the following: 11.5.10 Consolidated Update 2 (Patchset
3460000) or 11.5.10.2 Maintenance Pack (Patchset 3480000).
Oracle recommends that you apply the later 11.5.10.2 Maintenance Pack, since it supercedes Patch 3460000.
In other words, an Apps 11.5.9 environment will always be considered to be an 11.5.9 environment even if you were ambitious enough to reverse-engineer either of the two 11.5.10 patchsets above and apply all of the constituent 11.5.10 minipacks and product
family packs individually.
Now, realistically, nobody would bother to embark upon this lonely and rocky road. After all, the reason most sysadmins choose to stay on 11.5.9 and apply individual product family packs instead of the 11.5.10.2 Maintenance Pack is to apply the smallest
number of patches possible. Ergo, a patched 11.5.9 environment will contain only the minimum number of patches that the sysadmin deems necessary, and will never have everything contained in the much-larger 11.5.10.2 Maintenance Pack.
What If You Want To Stay on 11.5.9?
If you do not apply either of the two 11.5.10 patchsets shown above, you will be considered to be running EBS 11.5.9. That’s your choice, naturally. However, you should be aware of the support implications of that decision.
Remember that Premier Support for 11.5.9 officially ended on June 30, 2008. With the new support changes announced by Chuck Phillips earlier this year at OAUG Collaborate 2008, the first year of Sustaining Support for 11.5.9 includes resolution of Priority
One technical assistance requests. 11.5.9 users in the U.S. will also receive 1099 support for the first year of Sustaining Support. Each support category covers different things. Here’s the latest published summary table:
A Final Word of Advice
The clock is on for 11.5.9 users. If you’re still on that release, I’d strongly recommend that you start planning your upgrade strategy as soon as possible.
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